Road and bridge projects and solutions to deal with the large population of dogs at the county dog shelter were the main items of business during the Richland County Commissioners meeting on Thursday.

Commissioners authorized county Engineer Adam Gove to enter into contracts with the Ohio Department of Transportation for funding for bridge replacement projects on Champion and Coursen Roads and a pavement widening project on Lexington-Springmill Road. 

They also authorized spending up to $49,999 in county capital reinvestment funds for new cages for large dogs and agreed to reduce some fees to encourage the adoption of the large number of dogs being held at the shelter.

The board accepted a recommendation from Dog Warden Missy Houghton to cut impound fees in half and reduce adoption fees for the month of August.

"We have asked what the biggest deterrent was to adoption and why we are so high in numbers and the biggest thing that we heard was ‘It’s too expensive to come and get my dog out right now,’” Houghton said. 

Impound fees that are at $30 for the first day and $10 for every day after will be reduced to $15 the first day and $5 per day after that.  Adoption fees will be dropped from $199 per dog to $150 — $125 for senior citizens and veterans. Both changes will be in effect Aug. 1-31.

“Right now people are struggling with adoption fees and we’re struggling with dogs.  This is a good way to meet in the middle.” Houghton said.  “Our biggest hope is if we reduce the impound fees people will come and get their dogs.”

The adoption fee includes a spaying or neutering, the first round of vaccines, de-worming, micro chipping and one year license fees.

Houghton said the shelter has 78 dogs despite a summer adoption event last weekend and has averaged between 68 and 80 dogs for the past four or five months.  She told the board that 40 to 50 dogs is a “comfortable” number for the staff to properly clean and do behavior tests.

Houghton said that while the “bulk” of dogs at the shelter are “pit bull type,” officials do not adopt out dogs that are individually designated as vicious with a history of unprovoked fights. 

“They’re good dogs but you have to know the type of dog you want and the activity level,” she said. “I tell people don’t look at the breed.  There are some specific things with breeds but, overall, look at the characteristics of that dog, the behavior of that dog, as opposed to the breed of that dog.”

Houghton also will be holding after-hours events every Tuesday in August. The event will be from 4:30 p.m. to 7:30 p.m. on the first Tuesday and until 6:30 p.m. on the remaining Tuesdays in August.

Ongoing efforts to reduce the dog population, Houghton said, include joining the Best Friends Network to help send dogs out and looking into joining Pets for Patriots to cover the adoption fee for veterans. She also is going to seek a spay and neuter grant through revenue from Ohio license plate sales.

Commissioners also approved a contract with Shor-Line Kennels of Kansas City to replace the kennels on the north side of the building with 10 larger units. The $48,074 estimated cost will be about $6,000 more than the original estimate discussed in late June because the project now includes a recommendation by the company to replace existing galvanized drain pipes with stainless steel pipes.

Lead time for delivery of the new cages is expected to be four-to-six weeks.

Regarding the Engineer’s requests, Commissioners gave the OK to go forward on an estimated $660,000 project to replace a bridge on Champion Road north of London West Road in Plymouth Township and a bridge replacement on Coursen Road over Steel Run in Perry Township at an estimated cost of $870,000.

The largest project in terms of scope and cost will be to add six feet of paved berm and two feet of unpaved berm to both sides of Lexington-Springmill between Home Road and Marion Avenue at an estimated cost of $1.6 million. The project matches one done a number of years earlier south of that area.

Federal and/or state funds will cover about 90% for all three projects.

Gove said the Champion Road project is expected to be done in early 2024 under a design-build, quick turnaround track while the Coursen Road bridge will be done in late 2024 or early 2025.  The Lexington-Springmill Road improvement, which includes some right-of-way purchase, is expected to be done in calendar 2025.

Commissioners’ chairman Tony Vero suggested that some of the $240,000 local match for the projects could be covered using some of the $900,000 in American Rescue Plan Act funds that were set aside as revenue replacement for the Engineer’s office.  Gove said he and county business manager Andrew Keller are looking at ways to use that money.