MANSFIELD — Richland County Dog Warden Missy Houghton is looking for a baffling answer to a loud drawback.
Houghton obtained approval from county commissioners on Thursday to have baffle-type panels put in within the ceiling of the principle kennel and west wing to cut back the collective noise of barking dogs on the Home Road adoption shelter.
Aided by a grant from the Ohio Bureau of Workers’ Compensation, Acoustical Solutionsprimarily based in Henrico, Va.,. will set up the panels in areas the place indoor decibel ranges within the 80s and 90s have been recorded.
According to the National Council on Aging, 90 decibels is analogous in quantity to a garden mower — and it might be operating in an enclosed area.
The whole cost for the challenge can be $29,207. A BWC grant would cowl 75 p.c ($21,905). Commissioners on Thursday agreed to pay the remaining 25 p.c from county capital funds.
The baffles work to soak up the sounds created by the barking canines.
Houghton mentioned the barking impacts employees, volunteers and guests.
It additionally impacts the dogs, themselves.
“It impacts their behavior and their overall demeanor. The longer they’re exposed to it, the longer it takes for them to decompress from a shelter environment. So overall, it has a pretty negative effect on the dogs,” Houghton mentioned.
As of Thursday morning, the shelter was housing 99 dogs.
“The sound problems exponentially increase (with more dogs),” she mentioned. “We are lower (dog population) than we have been, but it’s still significantly higher than our comfort level.”
The sound quantity may also negatively affect residents visiting the shelter to maybe undertake a canine.
Jenny Phelps, the Richland County danger administration loss management program coordinator, mentioned she took her elementary school-age kids to the shelter just a few years in the past to buy tags for his or her dogs.
“My kids were afraid of the kennels (due to the noise). I thought it would be nice to walk them through and just let them see the dogs. They just checked out. They said no,” Phelps mentioned.
In a letter to commissioners Tuesday, Phelps offered a historical past of the noisy problem.
“In 2019, when the shelter had a fraction of the variety of dogs which might be at the moment being housed, an industrial hygienist from the Bureau of Workers’ Compensation carried out an evaluation of the noise ranges within the kennel areas.
“That study showed that the noise levels were still over the OSHA action level and were approaching the OSHA permissible exposure limit. Kennel attendants were given hearing protection and we started looking into ways to change the environment to reduce the
noise,” Phelps wrote.
“In 2020, BWC discontinued the protection grants and as soon as the pandemic hit, the kennel noticed a
dramatic lower within the variety of dogs they housed.
“BWC introduced again the protection grants in November of 2023. We requested them to do one other evaluation of the noise ranges at within the kennel areas. The industrial hygienist placed dosimeters on a number of kennel attendants to get an correct measurement of the general noise publicity in a typical work shift.
Phelps mentioned the hygienist additionally placed dosimeters in every of the kennel areas.
“Of the seven samples taken, five exceeded OSHA’s permissible exposure limit and all seven exceeded the OSHA action level. Based on these results, the dog shelter must draft and follow a hearing conservation program,” Phelps wrote.
“While we can hope that the number of dogs in the shelter will decrease, we need to look back at 2019 and see that even if the numbers normalize again, we will still be exposing shelter employees and volunteers to high noise levels in the kennel areas,” she wrote.
“Our hope is that the acoustical products will provide enough relief that we no longer have to participate in a hearing conservation program,” Phelps wrote.
(Below are PDFs associated to noise issues within the kennels on the Richland County Dog Warden & Adoption Center.)
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