Carbon County’s newly formed animal shelter advisory committee met for its first public meeting on Tuesday, setting up a plan to help the shelter move forward with support and improvements.

During the meeting, the five-person panel elected Frank Migneco as chair of the committee. Terrilynn Maher will serve as vice chair and Peggy Dart was elected secretary.

They heard from Tom Connors, shelter director, who said that there are currently only two part-time staff at the shelter besides him and the shelter is currently looking to hire a second full-time employee as well as another part-time employee.

He said that there are currently 10 dogs under his care and the shelter had seven adoptions during the Love A Dog For Life campaign last month.

Connors was happy with the seven adoptions since the pandemic slowed the number of adoptions over the last two years.

He also highlighted that there were some prepayment for adoptions from residents and businesses for people interested in adopting a dog.

The group also discussed the facility needs, including a commercial washer and dryer and turning the garage entrance into the main entrance for the facility.

“There is a lot of room for improvement,” Maher said.

The group plans to work on building a volunteer program, as well as an enrichment program to help improve the dogs’ adoptability.

Advisory board meetings will take place at 6 p.m. on the first Tuesday of every month in the 44 Susquehanna St. building in Jim Thorpe.

The commission idea came about last year following a report that was completed by the Lehigh County Humane Society, in conjunction with the county’s insurance provider, on the daily operations of the shelter.

The assessment found several items that should be addressed, from cosmetic repairs to better serve the visitors, as well as the dogs; to staff training and hiring enough staff or creating a volunteer program to provide services for the animals while under the county’s care.

The county also hired companies to complete concrete and paving work at the shelter, as well as purchase other necessary items to complete cosmetic upgrades to the building to better serve the dogs under the county’s care.