The most important part of any good animal shelter is having a safe and clean space for cats, dogs and pets of all shapes and sizes.

Jackson County’s animal shelter has been looking at possible remodeling of their site to help update the building to better handle the animals they take in.

Over the past few months though, as fundraisers have been held and money has been raised, the better option might be to build a completely new building.

The current facility has serviced its volunteers well, but with a number of sanitary, sound and space issues, the better option seems to now be to start from scratch.

Some of the initial problems with this proposal was finding a place to go, moving outside of Black River Falls means the city would no longer pay for the utilities of the building.

Its proximity to the high school also allowed a lot of Tiger students take mini field trips to the animal shelter, so leaving Black River Falls meant leaving the help as well.

There is hope for a new site though as the Executive and Finance board discussed in their last meeting a possible new location.

“After some discussion we’ve come up with utilizing a small portion of land, maybe an acre and a half, behind the Veterans Memorial Park and across from the DHHS,” county chairman Ray Ransom said at the meeting.

That new location keeps the animal shelter right in the sweet spot of being able to have volunteers and students from the BRF school district and keeps it within city limits.

It’s an ideal move for both the county and the animal shelter as the county isn’t really having to sell or transfer the land to anyone and the shelter is moving almost laterally from its current position.

No construction has started yet as the funds for a new building still need to be raised, but it’s one step forward for the Jackson County Animal Shelter.

Jackson County Chronicle / August 16, 2017 / By: Stephen Knoll stephen.knoll@lee.net