Hopatcong Pound Moves Closer to Renovation

Hopatcong Pound Project leaders are a step closer to getting started.

The planning board gave Ed Van Orden and Wendy Ciardi permission to seek a building permit at Tuesday night's meeting at borough hall. The pair reviewed the plan with the board and even received support from several in attendance.

"Our concept was to make [the pound] a better place for animals, a more comfortable place," Van Orden said. "A place where people can come and want to adopt pets."

"It's a home before a home for [animals]," Ciardi said.

The pair plan to expand the current outdated pound into a 55-foot long, 20-foot wide center. A pole building would be constructed about 6 feet behind the current pound's dog runs, and is expected to contain room for cats, a surgical area, an isolation room for new or sick pets, an office, and an adoption room where people can spend time with the pets—which Ciardi and Van Orden jokingly dubbed the "sucker room."

In July, Ciardi and Van Orden said the project would initially cost around $11,000. It would be funded through donations and fundraising, and Van Orden said he would immediately donate at least $5,000. Each called the project "a passion."

Animal Control Officer Dale Sloat, his wife, Jan, and pound employee Mary Koegler attended the meeting. Dale Sloat said the current pound can hold five dogs and about 30 cats. The new structure would enable the current building to house only dogs, which would double the number it now holds, Sloat said.

Jan Sloat, a veterinary technician, said "the health conditions of the current pound are iffy."

"The law says that there should be an isolation area for new animals that come in," she said. "If you bring in a sick cat, right now all the other cats get sick. The current pound has been grandfathered in … we really would like to be able to conform to the new laws."