Mercer County Humane Society to move into new building

A Mercer County building that's been vacant for over a decade will soon welcome some new guests: animals from the Mercer County Humane Society.

The property was first a transfer elementary school and then a culinary school before becoming vacant.

The nonprofit acquired the building last week at a pretty reasonable asking price.

"It was donated to us for a dollar," Courtney Ivan, a Mercer County humane police officer, said.

And, for only a dollar, the Humane Society is able to upgrade from it's old facility, which only housed four, to this new one, which has space to hold over 50 animals.

"It's a huge difference because not only now are we going to be able to house all of our animals, we'll also be able to do overflow for any of the local rescues," Ivan said. "We also plan on housing equine and farm animals also, because we have ten acres here."

But, before any of that can happen, a long list of renovations will need to be tackled.

"It's going to take a lot of work. We need a new roof, the electrical needs done, also the pluming. We have to redo all the carpeting, remove all the flooring," she said.

To accomplish that, Ivan says the nonprofit needs help from the community. 

"The money is going to have to come from the community. The Humane Society [of Mercer County] functions on donations only," Ivan said. "There's this huge misconception that we receive funding from governments or the national Humane Society, and we don't. Everything comes from our communities."

If everything goes according to plan, the nonprofit hopes to hold a ribbon cutting ceremony in August and officially open its doors in December. 

"It's going to take some time but once it's up an running, it'll be a huge benefit to the community," she said.