SICSA Board President Will Bach expects it will take two weeks to fully move and have the new building ready to receive guests.
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He said the plan is to have a period of soft opening time, starting most services back up the week of Jan. 20 to allow staff and volunteers to work out any kinks, and then a grand opening on Saturday, Feb. 8.
“The Board of Directors, staff, and volunteers have been looking forward to this move since 2015,” Bach said.
Trustees approved the plans for the new facility in 2017 after the adoption center raised nearly 50 percent of the $5 million needed for the development.
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In early 2015, SICSA hired a third party to complete a feasibility study that included testing whether the community would support a fundraising campaign aimed at expansion, as well as if moving from the Kettering community after 45 years would be accepted.
“We explored options with Kettering first,” explained SICSA CEO Nora Vondrell. “We could not find the amount of land we needed to include all our services in Kettering. After several months, we started exploring options outside of Kettering, eventually identifying land in Washington Twp.”
The new building will have increased space for animal housing, a full service veterinary clinic, a dedicated Help Center, humane education classrooms, two adoption cafes, plus administrative and volunteer office space.
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“We own the current building, which sits on two acres of land,” Vondrell said. “As much as we would like to keep some kind of services in Kettering, the Washington Twp. location was built to accommodate all our current and expanding program needs.”
She said with the new location ready to open, it doesn’t make sense to have staff at two different locations and maintaining two operating budgets.
“While moving is bittersweet given how much we have loved being in Kettering, we are hopeful the Dayton community is as excited as we are about our new building and all it will mean to animal welfare,” Vondrell said.
Township Administrator Jesse Lightle said SICSA is a welcome addition to the business community.
“Washington Twp. is very pleased that SISCA has chosen our community for their new location,” Lightle said. “We look forward to continued partnerships in the future with them.”
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