Changes are coming to the Carbon County K-9 Shelter.

During the county commissioners' meeting on Thursday, the board voted to hire Rebecca Bailey and Howard Cotton as part-time K-9 officers, effective July 11. That action made a total of four employees one full-time and three part-time at the shelter.The commissioners agreed that additional workers will help make a series of changes that will be implemented beginning July 11, easier on all parties.Commissioner William O'Gurek, chairman, said, "We are aspiring to make the K-9 operations better and more people friendly in terms of having it open different hours, making it more attractive, and hopefully making the adoption process easier and better."Other changes that will be occurring include the way the dogs are handled.O'Gurek said they will be put grooming policies in place and will have people in there to handle the dogs to make sure they are more adoptable."We think it's a step in the right direction," he said. "The public can expect in the future that the K-9 shelter will be open for adoption services when people are not at work during the day."He noted that this means that the hours of operations will be changing to make it easier for people who want to adopt a dog, to do so."This has been a problem in the past because if people work, they couldn't get up there to see the dogs and we want them to be able to see the dogs."Commissioner Charles Getz, who has been advocating for changes at the shelter for the last few months, said "This is long overdue."On Friday though, it was confirmed by O'Gurek, that one employee hired yesterday, Howard Cotton, has since declined the position.In other matters, O'Gurek weighed in on a recent court of common pleas verdict between the county and area resident Robert Dages, who filed a grievance against the county after he was denied information on a case law that determined the constitutionality of the Packerton Business Park project. The case law in question was obtained by the county through its solicitor and deemed a product of attorney/client privilege, which is exempt from the Right to Know law."We are happy the court has upheld the position that the county has taken all along, in that work done by the county solicitor at our request regarding the situation is the product of attorney/client privilege," O'Gurek said. "We've been saying that all along and we're pleased Judge Serfass has agreed with that."