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Guilford County prepares to open new replacement animal shelter

Jorge Ortega, Director of Guilford County Animal Services, inspects equipment at the new replacement animal care facility located at 980 Guilford College Road in Greensboro. The agency will permanently close the W. Wendover Avenue location on Oct. 25, 2021. KERI BROWN/WFDD

Guilford County officials are getting ready to open a new animal shelter. The moving process begins this month.

The replacement shelter has x-ray equipment, a grooming room, natural light and plenty of indoor and outdoor space for animals to play. Director of Guilford County Animal Services Jorge Ortega says it's nearly double the size of the old one. 

“This new facility is going to give us that opportunity for the dogs and the cats and any other critters that we might have here the opportunity to find homes a whole lot faster than our current facility," he says.

There's also a new name. It's called The Guilford County Animal Resource Center.  Ortega says they want to be a boon to community members who may need some extra support to help keep their pet.

“That's why we wanted to call this a resource center and not just another animal shelter," says Ortega.

The new site comes after years of personnel shakeups, alleged financial misappropriation and investigations into animal cruelty at the previous shelter. But Ortega says a lot has happened since he took the reigns in late 2017, and he hopes the new building is another step forward.

A ribbon-cutting for the new facility located on Guilford College Road will take place on October 29. It will open to the public on November 1.

Follow WFDD's Keri Brown on Twitter @kerib_news

Keri Brown is a multi-award winning reporter and host at 88.5 WFDD. She has been honored with two regional Edward R. Murrow awards for her stories about coal ash, and was named the 2015 radio reporter of the year by the Radio Television Digital News Association of the Carolinas (RTDNAC).Although she covers a variety of topics, her beats are environmental and education reporting.Keri comes to the Triad from West Virginia Public Broadcasting, where she served as the Chief Bureau Reporter for the Northern Panhandle. She produced stories for the state's Public Television and Radio programs and was honored by the West Virginia Associated Press Broadcasters Association for her feature and enterprise reporting.She also served as an adjunct instructor at Wheeling Jesuit University and Bethany College in West Virginia. She worked with the Center for Educational Technologies in Wheeling, WV, and other NASA centers across the country to develop several stories about the use of science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) concepts in the classroom.Keri's journalism career began at WTRF-TV 7 in Wheeling. She worked in several roles at the station, including the head assignment editor. She also was a field producer and assignment manager at WPGH-TV Fox 53 in Pittsburgh.Keri is a graduate of Ohio University. When she's not in the studio or working on a story, she enjoys watching college football with her family, cooking, and traveling.Keri is always looking for another great story idea, so please share them with her. You can follow her on Twitter @kerib_news.

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