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Mahoning County cuts ribbon on $4 million dog shelter
By Justin Wier
AUSTINTOWN
New Dog Pound
Video
Dogs in the custody of the Mahoning County Dog Warden will begin moving to a new home on Monday. Mahoning County commissioners cut the ribbon on a new $4 million dog shelter at 1230 N. Meridian Road Monday. Dog Warden Dianne Fry became tearful as she thanked the community for the effort that went into constructing the 14,000-square-foot building.
Dogs in the custody of the Mahoning County Dog Warden will begin moving to a new home Monday.
Mahoning County commissioners cut the ribbon on a new $4 million dog shelter at 1230 N. Meridian Road on Friday. The facility was open for tours until 3 p.m. Friday and will be again from 11 a.m. until 3 p.m. today.
Dog Warden Dianne Fry became tearful as she thanked the community for the effort that went into constructing the 14,000-square-foot building.
“This has been nothing but a work of love,” Fry said.
The county’s need had outgrown the 9,000-square-foot shelter on Industrial Road, which Fry said was designed in 1978 to hold 22 dogs for three days until they could be euthanized.
Advocates have changed the way communities treat animals, and the new shelter can accommodate between 80 and 90 dogs with separate areas to move them from intake to adoption.
The previous shelter did not have a place to safely keep puppies and small dogs away from larger dogs, but the new shelter does. It also features an outdoor exercise area so dogs can run around free from a leash.
“We’ve moved into the 21st century with a modern-day dog shelter,” Commissioner Anthony Traficanti said.
Diane Less, co-founder of Angels for Animals, said the new shelter will allow the county to do direct adoptions.
“It’s wonderful,” she said. “We can get dogs adopted into permanent, loving homes.”
Epoxy flooring, plumbing that provides drains for each kennel and ventilation designed to stop diseases such as kennel cough from spreading were among the biggest expenditures, Fry said.
“Everything is a direct result of a lesson we learned in the old building,” she said.
Her agency is self-funded, Fry added.
It raises money through dog licensing fees, fines for dog-law violations and donations. It generated $722,222 in revenue in 2016 along with $12,600 in donations.
While the county holds about $3.5 million in debt used to fund the construction of the pound, Fry said that money will be reimbursed.
Donations, including $100,000 from the Lariccia family, also have helped fund the shelter.
Construction costs totaled about $3.3 million with the bulk of the remaining $700,000 going toward architectural fees and site acquisition costs.
The commissioners planned to renovate the old dog shelter to provide room for the sheriff’s office, which lost space when Youngstown State University purchased the county’s former misdemeanor jail in June.
The costs to renovate the shelter would have exceeded the $525,000 received from the sale of the jail, so Commissioner David Ditzler said the county will use those funds to add room to the county’s Emergency Management Agency offices at Industrial Road for the sheriff and demolish the old dog shelter.
The sanitary engineering office will take over the property occupied by the shelter, Ditzler added.