With an uptake in the number of kittens and puppies turning up at the Elizabethton/Carter County Animal Shelter, the shelter is at capacity and may have to stop accepting new animals.

Shelter Director Shannon Posada provided members of the Animal Shelter Board with an update on shelter operations during the group’s meeting Tuesday evening, including crowding issues created by the growing number of animals.

“At this time, we are really, really close to saying we can’t take any more,” Posada said. “We got a call today from a lady who has 19 kittens and another cat pregnant and ready to pop.”

Currently, Posada said the shelter has around 110 cats — including about 75 kittens — and approximately 50 dogs and puppies.

“It’s more than we can take care of, but we have people telling us they will put them out going down the road,” Posada said. “They point blank tell us they are going to leave them. Some have been dropped off on the property.”

Posada said influxes of kittens and puppies come in “seasons” with the animals reproductive cycles. The overcrowding problem is not unique to Carter County, according to Posada.

“A lot of the surrounding shelters have stopped taking them in as well, it’s not just us,” Posada told the Board.

To help ease the crowding as much as they can, Posada said the shelter had lowered the adoption fees for certain animals at the shelter.

“We have put all of our spayed and neutered animals down to $10 to try to get some of the adults out,” she said.

The Board also discussed the HVAC issues still occurring at the shelter trying to get the heating and air systems functioning properly and efficiently. Posada said the companies she has spoken with would not give a cost estimate or even begin to look at the system until the shelter can provide them with the blueprints for the HVAC system so they can locate where switches and other critical pieces of the system are located.

Posada said Board Chairman Mike Barnett and County Attorney Josh Hardin have been attempting to retrieve the county’s copy of the blueprints so the HVAC project can move forward. However, she added, Carter County Mayor Leon Humphrey has not responded to requests made by either Barnett or Hardin.

Barnett told the Board he consulted with an outside attorney, as authorized by the Board during their May meeting, and that attorney is working to retrieve the blueprints and the hard drive.

“This is not a cost to anyone in this room at this time, including the Friends Group,” Barnett informed the Board regarding the consultation.

The expense, Barnett said, is in the increased energy costs while the shelter waits for the blueprints so repairs can begin.

“These people can’t do anything until they see those designs,” Barnett said of the company contacted to repair the HVAC issues.

The original company that handled the designs can produce another copy of the blueprints, but the estimated cost to get a second set of blueprints will be between $2,000 and $2,500.

“It’s expensive, and we don’t want to go that route if we don’t have to,” Barnett said. “The blueprint is in the possession of somebody, but it’s not the animal shelter. While (Humphrey) is over buildings and grounds for the rest of the county, he is not over the animal shelter.”

An expansion project to install dog runs at the shelter through a donation by the DeLawder Estate is currently at a standstill as the shelter waits to hear back from the company who designed the project regarding changes made to reduce the project from 12 dog runs to six, according to Posada.

The Board also discussed the need for something to help break the rain and evening heat from the current outside dog runs and kennel area behind the shelter.

Screening material had been previously used, but it was only lasting about two years. The shelter is going to look into other options such as extending the roof, installing a lattice, planting trees, and other possibilities.