The location of the new dog pound as well as multiple other details of the building that will house it were discussed Wednesday by Adam Raines, a project manager at DS2 Architects, and the Highland County Board of Commissioners.
Commission President Jeff Duncan said the property they are looking at is one the county owns just off North Shore Drive on the right going toward the Highland County Airport.
Raines said that the front part of the building will have an office, an adoption area, a machinery room and an examination room. He said the next part of the building will have 40 kennels that all have doggy doors leading to covered outside access rooms. He said these outside rooms will also have translucent paneling so the dogs will get the feeling of being outside, but will also be covered by the weather.
Raines said there will be trench drains on the inside and the outside that will dispose of animal waste. He said the heating would be with an in-floor radiant system.
The back part of the building originally had a puppy room and two office rooms. However, those two office rooms were decided to be moved into the front part of the building and replaced with the cat room that was originally in the front.
Currently, Raines said, the plan had 12 different parking spots and two handicap parking spots. Commissioner Dave Daniels, in response to a question from Raines about parking, said he wouldn’t mind if there was some overflow parking. He said he doesn’t anticipate there to be 100 cars at the pound at any given time, but that “you never know.”
Raines inquired about the kind of interior covering that should be placed in the kennel. He said he knew they discussed metal or FRP paneling. Daniels said the material that would be the most maintenance-free should be the best option and Duncan said that metal might cause corrosion problems.
Daniels said the building would be able to be kept cleaner than previous facilities in the county and that hopefully dogs marking their territory would be cleaned up and not become corrosive.
Raines said there might be a worry with the FRP paneling that a dog could sit and scratch at enough that they could break through and rip parts of it off.
Following comments about when the bid for the construction will happen, Daniels said, “I really don’t care who does it as long as we get heavy-duty stuff and as long as it’s competitively priced. I mean, again, we’re replacing a couple kennels that are well over 50 to 60 years old. It is our hope that we never ever have to do this again, so we want stuff in there that is going to last forever.”
In other news, Daniels said that people at Rocky Fork Lake should start to see a new billing system put in place for monthly bills for sewer use and that bills would be sent out monthly. Britton said since the sewer was put in, everything was “basically” put on people’s taxes, but that it would not be a utility like the electric or gas company.
Commissioner Terry Britton announced the new county budget for 2022. He said the general fund for 2022 would be $12.4 million and that the non-general funds would total $46,786,707.
Duncan said that the next meeting for the board of commissioners will be an organizational meeting at 9 a.m. Monday, Jan. 10. He said the first regular meeting of the new year would be on Wednesday, Jan 12.
Duncan also said that the commissioners officially hired Ashleigh Willey as a new clerk in the office.
Reach Jacob Clary at 937-402-2570.
