SALISBURY – After a long fundraising effort, nonprofit Shelter Guardians is ready to move forward with construction of a dog wing at the Rowan County Animal Shelter.

The Rowan County commissioners on Monday directed county staff to draft a memorandum of understanding among the county manager, county attorney and Shelter Guardians to construct the dog center. No specific date was set for construction, estimated to cost $1.8 million, to begin.

Shelter Guardians is chaired by Nina Dix and aims to bring the community together to help homeless animals at the Animal Shelter. The nonprofit group was started in June 2014 with a mission to make the shelter a healthier and less stressful place for homeless animals while they wait to be adopted.

“We appreciate all of the hard work that Shelter Guardians has put into fundraising and the benefactors that have stepped forward to bring the funds to the project,” said Bob Pendergrass, Animal Services director for Rowan County. “We’re going to be looking at a facility that is well designed for our daily care and also provides a better presentation of these wonderful animals available.”

The facility will offer a spay/neuter room, surgery prep room, large and small dog recovery wards, suites to adopt dogs in and rooms in which possible owners can visit with pets. It will also offer a food prep kitchen, a laundry room, and a professional bathing and grooming room.

“It’s a new facility that we are building will have spay/neuter capabilities. It’s just a better, less stressful environment for the public and the health of the animals,” Dix said.

County Commissioner Craig Pierce, who has been involved in animal shelter issues during his time on the board, said he’s committed to doing everything necessary to make the dog wing a reality.

“It’s a wonderful thing. It’s a tremendous asset for the community to have a state-of-the-art facility for them to be treated as well as adopted to make sure that this does happen and we do all that we can to make sure,” Pierce said.

The county will supply the property for the adoption center and, according to Dix, the new shelter will be located within close proximity to the current site.

“There will (even) be walking areas where volunteers can take dogs out to walk them located at the new site. We’re standing on the edge of breaking ground,” Dix said. “We are a community nonprofit that formed to help the animals at the shelter through supplying their needs. We choose to work with shelter staff and the people of the community to do just that, we’re just a group of citizens that care about the animals.”

The facility will be the third piece of the animal shelter that has been donated by third parties. Philanthropist Christine Morykwas paid for construction of the cat wing, which wrapped up in 2016. Shelter Guardians paid for an intake room to be built.

For more information about Shelter Guardians, contact Nina Dix at ndix@shelterguardians.org.