Article Preview

Animal Shelter Board updated on building project

By Ashley Rader

The Elizabethton Carter County Animal Shelter Advisory Board received an update on the status of the shelter construction project as well as with the current shelter operations at a meeting earlier this week.

Board Chairman Mike Barnett and Carter County Mayor Leon Humphrey informed the board that the project is now being looked at by a different contractor to see if it can be put out to bid for a “turnkey job” rather than have it completed by the inmate work crews.

Humphrey said the animal shelter building committee has never had the current plans put out for a cost estimate since they were revised. The building committee had to drastically scale back the plans after the first bids came in at double the budget available for construction. After a revision of the plans, the committee decided to use inmate labor as a way to save money on the project but the plans were never put out for a cost estimate by a contractor.