MANSFIELD — Patricia A. Wilson wanted to make dog adoptions easier in Richland County.
The $35,929 donation she left from her estate to the Richland County Dog Warden’s Office will do just that.
Richland County commissioners on Thursday approved using the donation to help defray dog adoption costs and to also upgrade the shelter to improve life for the animals being temporarily housed there.
Half of the money will be used to cover the required spay and neuter costs assessed to those adopting dogs. Richland County became a mandatory spay-and-neuter shelter in August 2019, adding about $60 to the cost of an adoption.
Dog Warden Dane Howard and his staff will have the option of using the funds to cover the entire $60 per adoption, or pay for half. With the county adopting out about 300 dogs per year, the funds would last for a year or two, depending on the manner chosen.
It currently costs $199 to adopt a dog, including the spay-and-neuter program. That adoption fee includes micro-chipping the animal, all vaccinations and a one-year license.
The other half of the donation will pay for an exercise area for larger breed dogs, which will be known as the Patricia A. Wilson Dog Run, and to install sound baffles in the cage areas, which will reduce barking.
Howard said the dogs “feed on each other” when the barking begins and that the constant barking prevents them being able to calm down. Dogs constantly excited due to barking are less adoptable, the warden said.
“I think this use of the money is a great idea,” Howard said.
Also on Tuesday, commissioners:
— approved a request from Richland County Prosecutor Gary Bishop to utilize additional space in their South Park Street offices no longer needed by a local private attorney.
“My office would immediately become handicap accessible; something never before claimed by the prosecuting attorney’s office,” Bishop wrote in his request. “Given our contact and interaction with victim-survivors, witnesses, law enforcement and citizens, it makes sense to correct this long-standing deficiency in local government.”
The space would also expand the prosecutor’s storage space issues and also allow additional parking, Bishop said.
— agreed to suspend the monthly loan payment being paid by the Richland County Fair Board for the remainder of 2020. The $500,000 loan was made in 2007 for building construction and improvements at the fairgrounds and the fair board has made monthly payments on it since it was initiated.
Fair Board President Gary Blum told commissioners that the COVID-19 pandemic has closed the fairgrounds since it began and has cost them $30,000 in lost rental fees to date.
Blum said the fair board has laid off its staff, “winterized” the buildings to reduce energy costs and that board members are handling mowing and light maintenance duties.
