Dog Pound Due By Fall

By Kendra Bobowick

In Public Works Director Fred Hurley’s hands Wednesday were slightly revised plans for a new dog pound. Stepping out of a meeting in his office to take a waiting phone call in another room, he offered quick explanations of a revised document dated February 17.

Kennels located around the 3,500-square-foot building’s perimeter also included units on an end wall.

“We moved those so the building could expand,” he said. “Otherwise, we would have to rip those out to make expansions.”

Two oversized kennels are now among the 14 other kennel rooms, with two set aside for quarantine. In addition to those 18 spaces is “a cattery,” Mr Hurley said. Space to house cats is something that the current pound located below the transfer station does not have.

He pointed to progress drawings completed by Jacunski and Humes Architects LLC out of Berlin, Conn., as he fed them into the copier to reproduce images also showing a central play area, medical room, training room, storage, and reception areas.

Based on the drawing, the new pound appeared as a small block settled on Old Farm Road at an open location near the “old water treatment site,” said Mr Hurley.  “I hope it’s finished by the fall. I want to go to bid this summer,” he said.

A past Capital Improvement Plan allocated $750,000 for a new pound, which came after local nonprofit Canine Advocates of Newtown raised nearly $250,000, he said.

Features of the new pound include air-conditioning, five-foot by eight-foot kennels with individual outdoor runs, heated floors, some removable walls between kennels, and a roof over the outdoor runs. Cat accommodations include cat cages with water bottles mounted in each, window seats, sturdy screens, a separate ventilation system, and litter storage hideaway areas. There is a grooming and laundry room and a kitchen. The office and greeting area features a private phone area and interview space, desks with phones, filing cabinets, computer area, and staff bathrooms.