Hermitage animal shelter receives $425K grant to help with costs of new shelter
HERMITAGE A no-kill animal shelter located in Hermitage, Pennsylvania, is getting a financial boost on its journey to building a new shelter.
The Shenango Valley Animal Shelter, located at 2599 Broadway Road in Hermitage, aims to care for and find homes for stray animals.
Now, due to a $425,000 grant, the shelter may be one step closer to getting a new building.
Chairman of the Board for the Shenango Valley Animal Shelter, Tom Hubert, spoke to 21 News about the issues that the building is currently experiencing, including overcrowding.
"We have twenty-two kennels for the dogs, and we have a smaller cat room. And we, right now, because we're over capacity, have thirty-two dogs," said Hubert.
Hubert says that the shelter has had to find space in offices, large storage rooms and closets to accommodate all of their animals.
A goal of the Shenango Valley Animal Shelter is to move operations to a different building.
The new space will be moved to Lynnwood Drive and would be nearly three times the size of the shelter located on Broadway Road.
"We're doing the shelter in phases. We already have the site prepped and ready for a building," said Hubert.
Hubert told 21 News that prepping the site was at a cost of around $187,000.
$130,000 of that monetary need was fulfilled through a grant through Pennsylvania, and the remainder came from community members.
There are still phases that remain, including putting a pre-engineered building shell on the property.
The City of Hermitage, according to Hubert, helped the Shenango Valley Animal Shelter obtain a $425,000 grant from the state to help with these costs.
The next step, once the building shell is on the property, is to get the shelter ready to house animals.
This includes putting heating, air conditioning and other facilities on the inside.
"We don't have any money collected for that right now because we're going to use all of our donations up, so we really need donations for that. I'm estimating that would probably be another $500,000," said Hubert.
Anyone looking to adopt, volunteer or donate to the Shenango Valley Animal Shelter can do so by visiting their website.
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