During Tuesday’s Lawrence County Commissioners meeting, they announced some changes at the Lawrence County Dog Pound, the first of which was a resolution changing the name to Lawrence County Animal Shelter.

Commissioner DeAnna Holliday said that the commissioners are trying to improve all walks of life including animals and they had recently met with the Columbus Humane Society at the Lawrence County Animal Shelter last week.

“And they are willing to do some phenomenal partnering with Lawrence County and some improvements to our dog pound,” she said, adding that their request to change the name from dog pound to animal shelter.

All three commissioners voted yes on a resolution to change the name.

“I would like to say that we are completely giving that place a new facelift, as far as I’m concerned,” Commissioner Freddie Hayes said. “We are going to clean it up.”

Holliday said that is another entity that people can get involved with.

“There are going to be a lot of activities with that entity and we are really excited by that,” she said.

Commissioner Colton Copley said there will be a Lawrence County Facebook page up that will give the hours and when animals are up for adoption.

“A lot of times, we have people who want to be involved and do things, but getting the word out to people has been a barrier,” he said.

Holliday added that the humane society is working with the animal shelter and will have an office in it.

Holliday said that Project First Impression, a collaborative effort to bring all available resources to an effort to clean up the landscape in southern Ohio, is going very well.

“Project First Impression is really on fire right now and it gets more exciting every day,” she said.  “People are really coming on board, taking responsibility and joining with our initiative.”

She said that on Monday she spoke to sixth graders at South Point Middle School right before they went out and participated in a cleanup.

“So, we just have a lot of people coming on board and I’m hoping that people find it a very shameful thing to litter or dump in Lawrence County because so many people are working so hard to change the landscape here,” Holliday said.

She added she talks to as many students as she can because they are the future and “we need a culture shift here in our community.”

Holliday said there is a professional group involved and there are going to be some competition between school districts and residents.

She also mentioned that they hope to enter a float in the Ironton-Lawrence County Memorial Day Parade.

“We’re looking forward to that. I believe the STEM school has committed to a project with that,” Holliday said.

She also mentioned that Collins Career and Technical Center is going to have a geocaching app, which will tie into Project First Impression.

“There will be a really nice prize package at the end,” Holliday said.

She mentioned that Caught Green Handed has started again. The Lawrence-Scioto Solid Waste Management Districts program rewards people that properly use the district’s numerous recycling bins.

“So, continue to recycle. You never know when your commissioners are going to jump out from behind a dumpster with some good things,” she said.

Those good things include a goodie bag with a T-shirt with the logo, “I got caught green handed,” a litter bag, pens, mouse pad, water bottle, coaster for beverage, band aids, hand sanitizer, flower seeds, jar opener and scratch pads, a magnetic clip and a gift card. The winner will also get their picture published in The Tribune.

Copley mentioned that Senior Day was coming up on Monday and he was excited for the event, which will run from 9 a.m.-2 p.m. at the Lawrence County Fairgrounds.

“It’s a good thing for the seniors in our county to be able to get out and have a place to go,” he said.

Hayes added there would be a petting zoo, over 100 vendors and that he was hoping for a couple thousand people to attend.

“Last year, we had roughly 1,500 and we hope to have 2,000 this year,” he said. “Hopefully, the weather will be good. We want everybody to come out, we’re going to have a lot of good things.”
He mentioned that the Lawrence County Fair is coming soon and that the fair board has agreed to let veterans in for half price and veterans over 65 in for free on the Wednesday of fair week.

In agenda items, the commissioners took the following actions.

•  Approved a 2019 service agreement contract with the Ironton-Lawrence County Community Action Organization for $65,000.

• Approved the use of the Medicaid Sales Tax Transition Fund to remodel the Emergency Operations building and to fund a pilot court monitoring program.

•  Authorized the president of the commission board to enter into a contract for water pollution control loan funds to repair or replace the Union Rome water plant.

• Voted to purchase new voting equipment for the board of elections.