By Dean Wright
GALLIPOLIS — The Gallia County K-9 Shelter is going through ceiling renovation after the institution experienced lower numbers in animal population, which gave workers a chance to go about repairing old ceiling damage.
According to Gallia County Dog Warden Laurie Cardillo, county maintenance workers started the project last Monday and they anticipate working through the current week and potentially into the next before completion.
Work on the ceiling was delayed until dog numbers had been lower than usual in order to give workers the chance to move around the animals and to prevent putting undue stress on multiple dogs. The majority of the work is being done in the main kennel holding area. The main holding area can potentially hold up to 18 animals.
The damage being repaired is from a water leak that occurred in 2013. According to Cardillo, no one was present in the shelter one evening when water lines froze and ruptured. When workers came in, they discovered animals standing in water. The damage happened long before Cardillo’s tenure as the new dog warden.
“We’ve been wanting to do this for a while now,” Cardillo said. “We wanted to do it last winter. Our (dog) numbers are low enough to where we can get (the maintenance crew) to start fixing things.”
Cardillo noted that the maintenance crew was also available to help fix the ceiling as they are often booked attending to various affairs throughout the region.
Dogs in the shelter last week numbered 13 in the main kennel area, and the number bounced back up again on Monday to 24, with various adults and puppies as the warden had to retrieve animals from calls. The warden said animal numbers can sometimes quickly fluctuate given case calls and the willingness of the public to adopt animals.
“While repairing the ceilings, they (county workers) discovered the ceiling heaters were not installed correctly and were scorching the insulation so much that the foil side (of the insulation installation) was charred,” said Gallia County Administrator Karen Sprague. “We are lucky we didn’t have a fire that burned the place down. Maintenance took those heaters out completely and they are running duct work from the furnace so there is no chance of a fire in the future from those ceiling heaters.”
“I’m just glad we found out about the heaters before anything bad happened,” Cardillo said. “We have to be prepared for winter for the strays coming in.”
Reach Dean Wright at 740-446-2342, ext. 2103.
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