By this time next year, stray dogs in Greensboro and Hale County might not mind being picked up and carted away to the county’s pound.

That’s because one of the Auburn University Rural Studios’ 2005-2006 projects will be the construction of a dog pound for Hale County. Although many details of the project have yet to be finalized–such as the pound’s future location–Rural Studios official Ann Langford says the pound would be scheduled for completion by the end of the 2005-2006 school year.

Design on the pound will begin shortly after student team’s arrival in Newbern in August, with construction to begin once designs are approved.

“The beauty of the Rural Studios being able to do this is that there is a need that we can fill for the public,” Langford said. “The labor and design will be free, though the county will help provide the materials.”

Even if the Hale Commission does cover the cost for construction materials, by not paying an architect to design the building or a general contractor to cover the building’s construction, the county should save thousands of dollars on the project.

“They’ll help us build it. They’ll design it and put a little money to it, and we’ll put money into it,” said Commission chair Leland Avery.

“We’re working together on it.”

Also coming free of charge will be the Rural Studios’ trademark ingenuity and style, which Langford says will be sure to make the Hale County pound one-of-a-kind.

“It’s a great project,” Avery said. “It’ll be good for Hale County.”

The project got its start recently when Rural Studios co-director professor Andrew Freear spoke with the Commission about the possibility of building the pound. Freear was out-of-town following the Studios’ end-of-year open house and was unavailable for comment.

That start may have come a little late in the minds of some in Greensboro, however. Following the previous Greensboro City Council meeting, at which several Council members expressed a need for greater animal control, Greensboro City Attorney Vangeline Rose appeared before the Hale Commission Tuesday morning to implore the Commission to provide a pound and an animal control officer.

“You know that the law requires that the county have a dog pound,” Rose told the Commission. “We feel that this very important. A lot of citizens are concerned. Not just in Greensboro, either-this is something they need in Akron, Newbern, and Moundville, too. We need to have a pound, which you are required by law to build.”

The Commission declined, however, to respond to Rose’s statement in any way, addressing neither the Rural Studios’ plan or the animal control officer issue.

It appears the pound will wait, then, until the Rural Studios team constructs it. Which, according to Langford, they will be more than happy to do.

“Our professor thinks it’s a great project,” she said. “Believe it or not, there is a lot of excitement with the students about building a dog pound.”