Community members and four legged friends alike came out to celebrate the ground breaking ceremony of what will be the Wenatchee Kennel Club's new home in East Wenatchee.

The project is estimated to cost roughly $900,000 with the hopes that it's doors will open to the public in the spring of 2019. Wenatchee Kennel Club Director John Njus said it's been a long, tough journey to get the project to where it is today.

"The process kicked off around 2014 when we started looking for property ... At that point we were in a three year lease ... and we knew the lease wouldn't be renewed."

"We searched throughout the valley in both East Wenatchee and Wenatchee, Douglas County, Chelan County. From a committee standpoint we researched probably 80 to 100 different properties." explained Njus as he spoke over the sounds of construction already underway, "We had a situation where we had an agreement with an owner and then the owner reneged on the agreement. We had issue with another piece of property which we purchased, couldn't get the conditional use permit, so then we turned around and sold that property. Then we came across this property."

As previously mentioned, the new Wenatchee Kennel Club will have an estimated price tag of $900,000. This includes $550,000 for the steel building, $100,000 in permits, hook-up fees and landscaping, and another quarter-million dollars for site preparation, which has already began.

"The rule in fundraising is usually somewhere along the way you have one third in small donations, one third are the medium donations, and one third become the large donations. And we're falling into that model." said Njus. Not all of the money for the project has been raised, however.

"We're still fundraising. We still have additional funds we do need to raise, and we're now working within the community to also see if we can expand our reach for donations."

To learn more or to find out how you can donate, go to wenatcheekennelclub.com

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