DeKalb County, Ga., is continuing its efforts to erect a new metal building to serve as the area SPCA's new animal shelter.

The SPCA will accept animals for at least six more months while the DeKalb County Commission continues to build the facility.

DeKalb County Commission President Sid Holcomb said recently that the SPCA had agreed to extending its contract until an architect could design and construct the metal building.

“We thought it might be ready by this time, but we ran into some problems with finding an architect and are a little behind schedule,” Holcomb said.

A big step toward building the shelter first came in June 30 as the county sold two parcels of land and netted about $260,000.

The project, according to Holcomb, is expected to cost around $250,000, but the money from the land gave them enough to pay for the project.

The county met with architects and reviewed two possible sites for the new shelter. The director said he has a prefabricated metal building in mind, with offices in the front and kennels in the back.

But since then Holcomb said plans were altered when they weren’t able to do the plans for the steel building within the allotted time.

However, the architect out of Birmingham has already had plans drawn up and is looking at having a place picked out and ready to go in six months.

The commission has been planning to build the newer metal building to use as a shelter after the DeKalb County SPCA announced it would no longer accept animals from around the county.