This property at the end of North Main Street was fenced in recently for use as a K9 training facility. (Uhrichsville Police Dept. K9 Unit)

Uhrichsville, Ohio - The police department’s K9 Unit leader is thanking council and the community for helping them establish a new training facility.

Sgt. Mike Hickman says they were able to fence in a donated lot in the 1200 block North Main Street for $10,000. He says the city covered half of the cost of the project, and the rest came out of the proceeds from their reverse raffle fundraiser back in November.

"I approached the city council and explained to them what the benefit made and what I had in my fund, and I asked them if they’d be willing to meet me at halfway to help me out so I don’t deplete my K9 fund, " he explains. "They were willing to help me out with paying half the cost for the fence so it was $5,000 on each side."

Hickman says that was a big help since the K9 Unit operates without any funding from the city. 

"The city doesn’t budget me any money for the K9 unit. The K9 unit’s based off of donations from the community. With that, again, we have fundraisers where we sell t-shirts and bracelets and stuff like that," he says. 

Hickman says this area will give Uhrichsville and other local police departments a safe place to train their dogs without having to travel outside of Tuscarawas County.

“We train every other Wednesday in the city of Canton. This facility is just to offset every other Wednesday’s training. If I want to come in on my day off, on a Tuesday or something, and train with a dog, I have a facility where I can do that," he says.

Hickman says he plans to start using the facility as soon as the weather breaks.

STACEY CARMANY, TUSCO TV