Members of the Faribault County 4-H Ambassadors group were busy painting the inside walls at the New Chances Humane Society’s building, located at the West Industrial Park, on Sunday, March 3.

“We basically want the community to know that we are making progress,” Ava Tvedten says. “I know there is concern out there because the animal shelter is still not open.”

Tvedten is the interim president of the New Chances Humane Society, which was formerly the Faribault County Humane Society.

The FCHS shut down this past December, after a series of incidences. It has remained closed since that time.

“We have totally changed the operation and all the procedures, and we are working hard on doing a total remodel of the building,” Tvedten said. “Things are really progressing.”

The building, located in the West Industrial Park in Blue Earth, is seeing many changes. Walls are being built inside, which will create separate areas for cats and dogs.

“There will be a room with four cat condo spaces,” Tvedten explains. “Each condo area can house four cats, for a total of 16.”

There will be another room that will house small dogs on one side and medium sized dogs on the other side. The dogs will not be able to see one another, to help keep them calm.

Another larger area will be for the bigger dogs.

“We are also going to have a large indoor space as an exercise area, in case of bad weather,” Tvedten explained. “Plus, of course, the large outside fenced-in area.”

The front of the building has a nice office area and waiting area. In the back of the building is a space that the humane society hopes to have available for dog groomers and veterinarians to use.

“We plan on having the facility open and operating by the end of March, and we want to hold a big open house on Saturday, April 6,” Tvedten says. “We are planning quite a few events to go on during our open house.”

The new humane society is getting a lot of help with their work to get the new space back open and operating.

This past Sunday, March 3, the Faribault County 4-H Ambassadors were there in full force and painting all the new, and the old, walls.

Earlier, the Sentence to Serve crew from Faribault and Martin counties was on site helping with cleaning up all the outside fenced-in areas.

“We have some excellent volunteers helping us,” Tvedten says. “Just helping move everything out of the way while we remodel, and put back in place when it is done, is really great.”

The group is looking for more volunteers to help out once they are back open. There is a new training program, created by Tvedten, for the volunteers to take.

Funding is another concern. Since they have not been open, the number of and amount of donations is way down.

“We did get a nice grant, but we have gone through all that funding already,” Tvedten says. “We have had a lot of construction done, all by local contractors.”

That included the construction of walls and the installation of an all-new air exchange system. There are separate runs to each of the rooms in the new animal shelter, to create a better environment for the animals and the humans working there.

“It was really bad before,” Tvedten says. “The ammonia smell was rather overwhelming. This will make things much, much better.”

Tvedten, who owns and operates Paws for Cause, an animal kenneling facility in Blue Earth, is currently housing stray animals for the city of Blue Earth. That contract, and hopefully ones from other cities, will be transferred to the New Chances Humane Society facility once it is open.

Anyone wishing to make a financial donation to the NCHS, or be a volunteer, can contact them at their new phone number, 507-526-5160.