Highland County Commissioner Dave Daniels (right) is videotaped while he talks about the new county dog pound that was unveiled Friday.
Jacob Clary | The Times-Gazette
The new Highland County Dog Pound located at 9480 North Shore Dr. in Hillsboro is shown.
Jacob Clary | The Times-Gazette
A formal ribbon-cutting was held Friday at the new Highland County Dog Pound at 9480 N. Shore Dr. in Hillsboro.
Nicole Oberrecht, Highland County’s American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA) funding coordinator, said that “in the coming weeks” the process of getting dogs into the new facility will start.
“The facility that we were in was in extremely bad shape and we knew that we needed to do something,” Dave Daniels, vice president of the Highland County Board of Commissioners, said. “It wasn’t a matter of we wanted to do it, it was a matter of we needed to do it. But, we wanted to make sure that the systems we put in were gonna be something that’s gonna last a long, long, long time and that’s what I think we’ve done.”
Daniels also gave a tour of the facility and detailed some of the amenities there, which included a kennel area with 40 kennel-runs that allow the dogs to go inside and outside. He said the cages are stainless steel and that the flooring is heated. The heated floor allows for quicker drying and less spread of disease.
Daniels also said that in one of the dog pound’s other rooms they have a pressure washing machine that automatically dispenses detergent and disinfectant, allowing the kennel operators and technicians to more easily clean the facility as they go.
He also said that at the back of the facility there is a chain-link fence area where dogs are able to be let out into a grassed-in section.
“You know, this has been a, kind of a, long journey to get this dog pound from the old one to the new one,” Terry Britton, the president of the board of commissioners, said. “We started working on this what, two-and-a-half years ago and it’s been a process but it’s been great, the people that we’ve had to work with, you know, to get this facility where it is today. I think we’ve got a great facility. It’s going to be a great thing for Highland County and the citizens of Highland County.”
A news release from Jamie Wheeler, executive director of the Highland County Chamber of Commerce, said that the facility will be open from 8 a.m. to 4 p.m. on Monday to Friday and 8 a.m. to 12 p.m. on Saturdays.
Reach Jacob Clary at 937-402-2570.
