KINGWOOD — The Preston County Commission approved a $23,714.14 payment for improvements at the Preston County Animal Shelter.
The motion was made by Commission Samantha Stone to allow County Administrator Kathy Mace to write a check for the work, $14,000 for concrete work and $9,714.14 to connect the shelter to the Kingwood sanitary sewer system. Stone, Commission President Don Smith and Commissioner David Price all voted yes.
“The concrete work that we’re doing is, that’s been a project for a long time, we had some internal work, where when we did the new siding and roof project, we actually extended the building out to make it some storage. So, that needed to have a concrete floor,” Mace told The Dominion Post.
Supervisor Kelley Reel said the recent additions increased the size of the shelter’s cattery and enlarged an area for the cats to go outside from about 3-by-3 feet to 12-by-12 feet.
“We’re really excited about it,” Reel said. The shelter has been adopting out about 30 animals a month through COVID by appointment only, but when it does reopen to the public — which she hopes is soon — there will be more space for them.
With school reopening, there will be room for more students to come read to the cats — an afterschool program the shelter runs.
When the siding was put on, it created a new threshold that uses double doors instead of a garage door, Mace said. Part of the concrete work is making it so delivery vehicles can unload right into the facility instead of having to use a dolly and go over a hump.
The project is also putting concrete down to improve water issues with the air conditioning and replacing the concrete pad for the Dumpsters, Mace said.
Hooking into Kingwood’s sewer system is really going to help the shelter, Mace added. The septic system has been failing for some time.
“And we’ve worked with the health department in trying to design a system, but when you are running an animal care facility like that, you use tons of water, and we really couldn’t come up with a system that would accommodate all that water.”
Mace thanked the City of Kingwood for its help and cooperation.
The original bid for the project was $7,714, Mace told the commission. However, because of delays in getting piping and supplies, the roadwork costs went up $4,000.
Kingwood agreed to split that cost with the county bringing the total costs to $9,714.14.
There are plans to turn the area where the septic system is into additional parking for the public, Reel said.
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