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NEW CASTLE Officials to weigh no-kill shelter
By jeanne starmack
new castle, pa.
The city’s planning commission will consider a plan for a no-kill animal shelter at its meeting Wednesday.
The commission, which will meet at 7 p.m., will hear a presentation by Susan Papa, president of Promises for Pets. That organization takes care of homeless animals through a series of foster homes. It is trying for the third time to build a shelter in or near the city, where it believes the stray population presents the greatest need.
Papa said Friday the organization is buying 13.8 acres — a large parcel on one side of 508 Harbor St. and a smaller parcel on the other side — for $65,000. The closing on the property is Tuesday, she said. The land used to be the site of a gravel and sand company, and there are few houses along the street, she said.
“There is going to be some opposition, but we’ll take it as it comes,” she said.
Papa said the organization is planning a 6,000-square-foot building, a dog park and a veterinarian’s office.
“Our vision is the entirety of services,” she said, adding that those services will include education in schools and spay-neuter projects.
The veterinarian’s office, she said, would be open to the public for emergency services in Lawrence County — no more driving an hour to Pittsburgh or Girard, Ohio, she said.
The Lawrence County Animal Relief Fund, which raises money to help homeless and abused animals, is supporting the shelter proposal, said LC-ARF Vice President John Altman.
“Right now we’re in a crisis situation,” Altman said.
“We’ve got a humane officer, and he’s been seizing animals,” he said, but pointed out the only place to take them is the Lawrence County Humane Society.
“And to make room, they’re having to put other animals down,” he said.
“We desperately need someplace like this — a no-kill shelter,” he added.
Promises for Pets tried over the past two years to build its shelter at two other locations.
The first was 20 acres next to Lockley Elementary School. But a revelation that the New Castle Area School District might expand Lockley caused the group to reconsider, Papa said. It was afraid the school district could use eminent domain to take part or all of the 20 acres for that expansion.
The second site was in Hickory Township, she said, but an environmental study revealed contaminants, including arsenic, in the soil from an old landfill on the property. The group exercised an option to back out of buying the property five months ago, she said.