Lending a paw
JOEL MARTIN | Hagadone News Network | UPDATED 3 years, 2 months AGO
The crew from Pour Boys Excavation and Concrete puts in the concrete pad for the new kennels at Grant County Animal Outreach.
Courtesy Photo/CAD Homes
A dog at Grant County Animal Outreach watches the progress on the new kennels.
The 10 new kennels at Grant County Animal Outreach. CAD Homes and six other businesses teamed up to make the kennels possible.
Joel Martin has been with the Columbia Basin Herald for more than 25 years in a variety of roles and is the most-tenured employee in the building. Martin is a married father of eight and enjoys spending time with his children and his wife, Christina. He is passionate about the paper’s mission of informing the people of the Columbia Basin because he knows it is important to record the history of the communities the publication serves. | June 13, 2023 1:20 AM
MOSES LAKE — Grant County Animal Outreach recently got some much-needed upgrades.
Moses Lake developer CAD Homes teamed up with several other businesses this spring to build new kennels at the county animal shelter, along with some other much-needed improvements.
“It was a little bit of a happy accident,” said Rachel Scott, office manager for CAD Homes. “We had heard through Blake Rollins, our real estate broker, about a volunteer day that Grant County Animal Outreach was doing. And we had some employees that wanted some overtime, so we said, ‘Hey, what a great opportunity. Let's go out there. We'll all volunteer for the day.’”
There was plenty to be done, Scott said.
“There's so many animals, it's just crazy,” she said. “The staff, of course, is wonderful, and so very helpful and kind. But you know, it's a pretty impossible task, when we have a building that's built in like the 1950s and made to house 30 dogs, and you have close to 90 out there. That was our first time seeing the conditions and hearing what needed to be done.”
“So we ended up spending most of the day out there,” she continued, “using our employees and getting some sunshades up for them, taking some loads to the dump, fixing doorknobs, things like that. And then we realized, you know, we're sitting on a goldmine of resources in terms of our construction connections.”
“They had asked what we needed,” said Kar Vanerstrom, the vice president of Grant County Animal Outreach. “And of course the building is so dilapidated, we were like, well, where do we start?… Rachel and I just were talking like, this needs to be done and this repair and that repair, and she just started calling people to help.”
“We started reaching out,” Scott said, “and we said, I bet we could get some dog kennels … out there, so there's no dogs that need to be in travel crates just because it's crowded.”
Scott’s phone calls paid off. Several businesses donated materials, and a few donated cash toward the expenses. CAD Homes workers did the bulk of the labor, along with some specialized work contributed by Basin Refrigeration, Heating, Plumbing & Electric on fans and lights.
“We put some new lights in and fixed some exhaust fans,” said Eric Clark, a manager with Basin Refrigeration. “The fan (in one room) was in pretty bad shape; it needed an exhaust fan for sure. Because (I’m) not sure what was going on there, but they had a bunch of humidity and, you know, the smell. And then the inside dog kennels, there was lighting in there that wasn't working. So we replaced some LED fixtures in there to light it up.”
Doing electrical work is no picnic on the GCAO building, Vanerstrom said.
“The building was built so long ago that a lot of the wiring is in the concrete,” she said. “It's really hard for electricians to fix stuff when it's so old and the wires are in the walls.”
The shelter’s benefactors are working on finding ways to update the air conditioning, Vanerstrom added.
By the time the work was finished, GCAO had 10 brand-new kennels with concrete pads. Royal Premix Concrete donated materials and Pour Boys Excavation and Concrete donated labor to make the kennel slabs, Scott said. Lowe’s Home Improvement kicked in with dog houses and stainless steel water buckets for the kennels, and then CAD Homes and Lowe’s staff got together, built the kennels and put them up at the back of the shelter, she said.
“We are just so blessed by everything that they did,” Vanerstrom said. “It was just like Christmas for GCAO. It was fabulous. All of us had goosebumps.”
Joel Martin can be reached via email at [email protected].
INFO BOX:
These businesses pitched in to make the improvements at Grant County Animal Outreach:
Frenchman Hills Quarry – donated money towards kennel purchase
Royal Premix Concrete – donated concrete materials for the kennel slabs
Pour Boys Excavation and Concrete – donated labor for kennel slab prep and kennel pour
Lowe’s Home Improvement – donated dog houses and stainless steel water buckets, gave a substantial discount on the kennels and contributed labor for kennel assembly
Lauren and Peter Anderson, K'ntucky Turf – donated money toward the kennel purchase
Basin Refrigeration, Heating, Plumbing & Electric – donated labor for fan and light repairs
CAD Homes – donated labor and paid remaining balance on kennel purchase
ARTICLES BY JOEL MARTIN
Quincy National Night Out scales down
QUINCY — Quincy’s National Night Out was more compact this year, which worked out well, said QPD Sgt. Joe Westby, who’s in charge of event planning for the Quincy Police Department. “National Night Out is a big event, and the fact that we’re able to shrink it up is like a breath of fresh air,” Westby said. “If you're always doing the same thing, it's kind of nice to switch things up and see how it works.” National Night Out took place Thursday on the block of C Street next to the police station, a shift from previous years when it was held at Lauzier Park. The smaller space meant fewer emergency vehicles for children to explore, but it also meant less walking for attendees. Grant County Fire District 5 brought a fire truck, and the Grant County Sheriff’s Office had a patrol boat. Renew, the Grant County behavioral health agency, had a booth and so did Quincy Partnership for Youth. Veterans Operation Creation sang the national anthem, and the Quincy Animal Shelter brought kittens that piled over each other making friends with passersby. As before, the QPD served grilled hot dogs.
Quincy Police retirements leave big shoes to fill
QUINCY — There are some big shoes to fill at the Quincy Police Department. “We’re losing 48 years of experience between them,” Quincy Police Chief Ryan Green said at the retirement party for Capt. Jorge Trujillo and Det. Damon Powell Thursday. Trujillo, who grew up in Sunnyside, has been with QPD for 19 years, he said, coming on as a patrol officer fresh out of the military. From there he served as a field training officer, a detective and finally captain. “I consider him my left-hand man,” Green said. “He runs the operations side of the house … He knows the agency very well, and he knows the community.” Trujillo has some projects around the house to tackle now that he’s retired, he said.
Big fun on a small scale
Wheat Land Communities’ Fair opens Thursday
RITZVILLE — The Wheat Land Communities’ Fair isn’t as big or as flashy as some of the county fairs around central Washington, but the folks who keep it going like it just the way it is. “It’s somewhere you can go and get an old-time traditional feeling, and you’re comfortable letting your kids roam the grounds and experience all that it has to offer,” said Board Member Lori Williams. “It’s more of a feeling than (one) specific thing,” The fair starts Thursday in Ritzville and runs through Sunday. Starting Friday, the 56th Ritzville Rodeo will take place alongside the fair at the rodeo grounds. This year the entertainment budget was expanded, Williams said, to be able to offer more fun that’s covered by the cost of admission. For the kids, there’s face painting, balloon art, Lego crafts, races, contests and games. Children can also ride on a little train towed around the fairgrounds behind a tractor.