By MICHAEL CRIMMINS
Glasgow News 1
The Barren River Animal Welfare Association, which was founded in 1991 by a group of animal-loving volunteers who built the original building in July of 1996, serves the community by “accepting Barren County animals in need, regardless of their temperament, health, age or breed.”
Located at one of the lowest points on Trojan Trail, the shelter is accustomed to water-related issues — for example, in June the shelter flooded and had to close for several days to clean up the damage. Rhonda Trautman, president of the board of directors, said they are taking steps to solve this issue by constructing a berm system.
“A berm system is designed for two main things: it’s designed to keep the high water events away from our facility and it also creates a system where the rainwater that collects around the facility can be pumped out,” Trautman said.
A berm system consists of “compacted vegetation, gravel, rocks and/or stones” and has been used for a variety of reasons from mitigating noise pollution and preventing soil erosion to containment and even military use.
In BRAWA’s case the berm will encompass the shelter “like a bowl” to keep the water from reaching the shelter and to pump the water already within the berm structure — like rainwater — away.
“We are trying to protect our facility from another flood event and provide a safe environment not only for our animals that are in our care but also the people who come into BRAWA and the employees,” Trautman said.
According to Trautman — despite outward appearances that nothing was being done — the plan to create something to solve the water issues came about roughly five years ago.
“We initially looked into getting something done to the property itself in 2018,” Trautman said. “At the time we were able to put in a request through FEMA for some financial assistance to help make some adjustments to the property in cooperation with the city [however] that application was not supported.”
While the shelter’s initial request for funding was not approved, it did allow them to develop a relationship with American Engineers Inc., who designed the berm system. Over the five years, Trautman said, they have worked on the original design, taking in current land modifications, to develop the plan as it stands today.
“Starting almost a year and a half ago we started working with American Engineers to submit an application to the Kentucky Division of Water to get a permit to actually make some changes ourselves,” Trautman said.
Now that the permit has been approved, she said the construction, which will be done by CRS Construction, a Glasgow-based company, will take about three months, barring any unforeseen or external delays. It will begin Monday.
According to Trautman, the construction will be approximately $185,000, which, she said, may seem like a lot but is “worthwhile” when considering the cost “to relocate and modify an existing building or build a new building is estimated to cost” between $3.5 and $4 million.
A portion of the cost comes from “generous contributions from supporters” and from the shelter’s operational funds.
“We were the beneficiary of some unexpected bequests from supporters of BRAWA and that money is going to fund part of this,” Trautman said. “We’re trying our best to take care of this project with our own money because we haven’t been able to secure any grants for construction.”
“We’re very grateful to those who’ve given money to support the project and without that we wouldn’t be able to do this on our own,” she added.
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