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TOM BERRY/Ledger & Times
Calloway County Jail inmates volunteer to help with construction and renovation efforts at Calloway County Animal Shelter on Sycamore Street Friday afternoon. The facility is getting an upgrade inside and out with fresh paint and new animal kennels that will expand the building’s holding capacity along with some interior renovation and additional gravel in the driveway. |
Animal shelter gets needed facelift
By TOM BERRY
Staff Writer
There's been a lot of noise and activity at the Murray-Calloway Animal Shelter the last few days, but it's not from barking dogs or yowling cats.
Superintendent Darla Jackson said Monday that the Sycamore Street facility is getting a much-needed facelift and expansion that will help the shelter deal with an ever-growing demand to assist abandoned and neglected pets.
Calloway County Jail inmates worked hard on the project Friday by constructing new animal kennels on the east side of the building.
“They're doing some painting and some renovation work, inside and out, that we've really needed for a long time,” Jackson said. “We're also getting some new animal kennels and they're going to be putting some more gravel on top of what we have out front.”
Jackson said the shelter has seen its usual spike in animal population.
“It's that time of year and we're getting a lot of puppies and kittens in,” she said. “But we operate at capacity almost all the time.”
Calloway County Judge-Executive Larry Elkins said about $2,500 of the shelter's budget is being used to pay for materials on the project.
“Ever so often you have to do things to improve their facilities,” Elkins said. “It's not an easy expense, but we've got inmate labor doing most of it and our road department, during downtime, is going to do some of the welding, so the direct cash outlay is not all that great.”
The animal shelter is funded through private donations as well as support from Calloway County Humane Society, the Murray City Council and Calloway County Fiscal Court. It also gets much medical and animal home placement assistance from Murray State University's Animal Health Technology program.
Story created Sep 09, 2008 - 11:49:28 EDT.
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