WARREN — The dog days of summer will not be quite as hot for dogs at the Trumbull County Dog Pound and the Healthy Hearts and Paws Project over the next several days as they are receiving blowers and 1,000 pounds of ice.

As outside temperatures reach near triple digits, the Trumbull County Commissioners unanimously voted at their meeting Wednesday to rent two 1.5-ton cooling units from Great Lakes Mechanical to be used at the Trumbull County Dog Pound.

The dog pound, at 7501 Anderson Ave., Warren, does not have air conditioning. It has been cooled by opening doors.

During Tuesday’s workshop meeting, Commissioner Denny Malloy noted he has been talking to residents who have been sharing with him their concerns about dogs being able to survive during this summer’s high temperatures.

“Even in our facility, with the door open, it is going to be 80 degrees in that building,” he said. “They are saying this is just as bad as winter, if not worse. These dogs are in situations where they are in deplorable conditions in our pound, and not to mention the ones that are in other areas.”

Commissioner Tony Bernard suggested renting some type of cooling system on Tuesday, and they were found prior to Wednesday’s meeting at a cost of $3,000 per month. Earlier this week, the pound placed a request on its Facebook page for residents to drop off bags of ice to be used to cool off the approximately 20 dogs they have sheltered there.

Malloy said he reached out to Home City Ice in Austintown to see how much it would cost to buy bags of ice.

The commissioner said he planned to challenge elected officials and others to donate any money they would need to purchase the ice. As it turned out, the challenge was not necessary.

“Its manager said he would donate a couple of pallets of ice if we could pick them up,” Malloy said. “I called our dog pound to see if they could use them. I called Healthy Hearts & Paws, and they could use them.”

Malloy described the donation as a nice gesture from the ice company.

Commissioner Rick Hernandez noted during Wednesday’s meeting that they will not need to rent these cooling machines once a new dog pound is built because it will have air conditioning as part of its design.

Malloy, during Tuesday’s meeting, suggested the county is not going to find a pot of money for a new dog pound.

“I honestly believe we are going to have to take a bond,” Malloy said. “Bite the bullet and take a $2.5 million loan and get this thing built. If we don’t do it now, that $2.5 million building will be $3.5 million by next year.”

Bernard emphasized they have to make sure they have the money to pay for it.

“The cost of everything keeps increasing,” he said.

Malloy said the county has some previous bonds coming off the county’s books.

“There are counties that carry anywhere between $10 million and $20 million in loans. We are very, very low in loans,” he said.

Hernandez noted the commissioners must do their due diligence before making any decision on the dog pound, similar to what is being done with the Trumbull County 911 Center.

Bernard suggested the commissioners are close to finding the information needed to locate and fund the county’s 911 center. Afterwards, they will focus their attention on solving the dog pound issue.

However, he added, county leaders have known there were issues with the dog pound for at least 50 years.