Home demolition makes way for animal shelter
Post-Tribune
May 09, 2016
With a loud crunch, a piece of heavy machinery took a bite out of a house Monday that will soon be the site of the new Porter County Animal Shelter.
Windows shattered and fell piece by piece into a growing pile of rubble, which also came to include insulation, drywall, a gold and orange rug and myriad other bits of the building on Indiana 49.
The Porter County Board of Commissioners and other county officials watched as the old house, on county-owned land between the sheriff's department and the Expo Center, came down, a sign that after several years, plans for a new shelter are moving forward.
'This is definitely happening and it's a huge step in the right direction for the animals of Porter County. I'm very excited," said shelter director Toni Bianchi. "We've been waiting for this for a while."
County officials have long said that the current shelter, at 2056 Heavilin Road off of Indiana 2, was outdated and too small to handle the number of animals that come through its doors. The shelter currently has 45 cats and 31 dogs but that number will increase as spring progresses, Bianchi said.
At their meeting Tuesday, commissioners are expected to open and reveal bids from the three teams involved in the design/build process for the shelter, with the hope of awarding a bid to one of them at their May 17 meeting, said Commissioner Laura Blaney, D-South, adding the house tear-down makes a new shelter "finally very tangible."
"It's just going to be a much better experience for the animals and the people when you walk in the door," she said, adding a new shelter will have more natural light, better ventilation, and sound and noise control. "I'm hoping it will attract more volunteers because this will be a better work environment."
Commissioner Jeff Good, R-North, expects the bids to come in around $2.5 million to $3 million for the new shelter.
He expects a June groundbreaking.
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