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HAMILTON — The steel skeleton of Butler County's new animal shelter rising over a small field on the edge of Hamilton is a welcome sight for animal lovers like Nancy Bender.

Bender, from Fairfield Twp., is a volunteer at the Animal Friends Humane Society. She walks dogs, picks up their waste and scrubs water bowls. But she calls the current shelter in Trenton "a dilapidated little building that's falling apart on a daily basis."

"I'm praying they will rip this up as quickly as they can," she said of the new shelter. "We can't get it done fast enough for the animals ... and the staff." Good news for Bender and her furry friends: The project, funded with a $3.8 in levy funds, is on budget. And, after delays dogged the project for more than a year, it's on its revised schedule.

"It appears that it should be completed by the second week of April," said Butler County commission President Charles Furmon.

"We spent a long time getting here and we're very frustrated, but we're very happy to see it moving."

Furmon's frustration was largely with architectural designs that were repeatedly too expensive to build.

After reducing the building's scope, it will now house roughly 139 dogs and 70 cats, according to officials with Animal Friends Humane Society, which will run the shelter. The Trenton shelter has room for about 96 dogs and 30 cats.

At about 22,000 square feet, it also will be more than three times larger than the Trenton shelter. The size of the surgical area will double, allowing more animals to be spayed and neutered. There will be new areas for people to get acquainted with the animals and a room for grooming.

Currently, the dogs and cats are in steel cages. The rooms are cramped. The dogs only get outside when a volunteer walks them. Most of the runs at the new shelter will have access to the outside.

"These animals have already been through a lot, most of them have been living outside," said Meg Stephenson, director of Animal Friends. "It's just going to make the care of these animals so (much) greater and so much better."

Bender hopes they get it done even faster: "I'm kind of like the Pope with Michelangelo — 'Git 'er done.' "