Activity at the Elizabethton/Carter County Public Library will be slowing down next week.
Shelter officials announced the facility would be closed for one week – May 15-20 – and reopen on Monday, May 22 to the public.
“We’re going to be closed next week due to summer cleaning,” shelter director Shannon Posada said Friday. “We’re also going to be getting ready for our grand reopening.”
The shelter has seen a bevy of work be completed over the months with a cat room expansion that was funded by an estate donation by the late Glenda Taylor DeLawder.
While an official grand reopening hasn’t been announced yet, a reported date is expected near the end of May.
Carter County Mayor Leon Humphrey also officially announced in his regular column that appears in the Elizabethton Star and on the county’s website that Lincoln Memorial University will be partnering with the County later this month to use the animal shelter as a teaching facility to help train Doctor of Shelter Veterinary Medicine students.
“LMU faculty will start bringing students to the Shelter on a regular basis to let them work in the Shelter for a few hours at a time in that they can examine some of the animals and get the first-hand experience at the Shelter,” the mayor stated.
Humphrey went on to add that LMU is looking to establish a Shelter Veterinary Telemedicine Program. If successful, the mayor added LMY would launch the program in the shelter to provide additional support.
“LMU is a committed as a partner to Carter County, our animals, citizens and the people of the Appalachian region.”