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ZEBULON - Pike County broke ground on its new animal shelter today.The county has a small facility that can handle dangerous and vicious dogs, but this will be a regular facility that will grow into a shelter where the Pike County community can adopt animals. This facility was made possible by a grant from the CLC Foundation.

The CLC Foundation was established by was established by Dr. C.L. Chandler, Jr. of Atlanta during his lifetime and is presently controlled by a Board of Directors consisting of his living children and step-children. Annual donations have supported animal-care organizations like Zoo Atlanta in the past.

In 2019 when it was Walker Chandler’s turn to choose an organization, he chose to help Pike County achieve the dream of building an animal shelter. Read more about the donation from the CLC Foundation by clicking here.

Ruth Chandler Speaks for the CLC Foundation

Mrs. Ruth Chandler from the CLC Foundation spoke before the groundbreaking ceremony today. She talked about the dream to build an animal shelter in Pike County. “There are so many good people in this county who have wanted a really positive solution for stray and unwanted animals,” she said.

She talked about dogs who have shared their lives with her and Walker over the years and said that they have only shared their lives with dogs that they have rescued. She told how her family was able to keep their younger son Alex’s dog for seven years after he passed away. They were able to put their arms around her and remember memories of their son. She was a “very sensitive and fine animal.”

“Those of you who are here know how important an animal companion can be,” she said. She would like to work with everyone in the community as a volunteer and help animals come back out of the shelter into new homes.

She thanked the county commissioners and especially Chairman Briar Johnson for all of the time he spent in research on this project. This was in the works for more than a year before it came to the commissioners. She said that the commissioners were diligent to ask what is absolutely essential, what can we afford to do, and they were so kind and positive.

“I do not misunderstand that building the building is the only thing. The citizens of Pike County have to help pay to keep this going and I hope that we can help.” She said that she believes that citizens in Pike County will be united is working together to make this turn out for the best. She closed by saying, “I still look forward to being in the building WITH the dogs.”

To view her presentation in its entirety, click here.

County Manager Brandon Rogers Tell How the Animal Shelter Came to Be

County Manager Brandon Rogers was a part of Building and Grounds when he started with this project. The commissioners, Animal Control Officer Tanya Perkins, and the county manager from that time all went out to view facilities in other areas including neighboring counties and got copies of their facility layouts.

“The next step for us,” he said as the Building and Grounds Director, “was to figure out what works best for us.” They looked at what didn’t work for neighboring counties and what we didn’t need here in Pike County. He said that he and Tanya went into different rooms to draw up their idea of what the county needed, and that it was pretty interesting that they came out with similar layouts.

The new animal shelter will be around 2,950 square feet and should cost around $300,000 by the time it is completed. “We could not have done this without the CLC Foundation,” he said. “It would have been too much of a burden on the county.”

There will be 10 separate kennel runs inside the facility as well as two isolation runs and two quarantine runs that will allow the staff to separate dogs if needed. There will an office up front, breakroom, and seating area as well as a vet area to check out the dogs when they come in and when they go back out to new homes. The rear of the facility will have a drive through that can be completely closed so there is no threat of an animal escaping when it is brought into the facility.

There will also be a fence around the entire exterior of the building. The runs will be made of concrete and masonry so there will be durability for the entire project. It will be easy to clean and easy to keep sanitary.

The facility will be gray with a red roof because those are Pike County’s colors. The entire facility is designed around expansion so it can grow with the county in the future. He said that everyone is excited to get this project started and thanked Ruth Chandler and the CLC Foundation for this donation.

Click here to watch his presentation.

Chairman Johnson Says Thank You

Chairman Briar Johnson said, “We would not be where we are without the CLC Foundation.” He thanked them as well as Economic Development Director Ginny Blakeney, the commissioners, Former Planning and Development Director David Allen, and the Animal Control Board for their help in this endeavor. “David (Allen) was the first one who did animal control without extra pay.”

He also thanked current Animal Control Department Director Tanya Perkins and advised that she now does this job with the help of Dewey Yarbrough and said that there will soon be another part-time employee to help with animal control.

Closing

Commissioners have been clear from the beginning that animal control was going to move in steps here in Pike County. There is a plan to move toward a full-time animal shelter, and this donation from the CLC Foundation has enabled the building to become a reality.

It will still be awhile before the facility moves online and becomes full-time, but Pike County is finally getting an animal shelter. This has been a long time coming!

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