Brookhaven Animal Rescue League has received a partial facelift.

Thanks to the generous donation of former Brookhaven resident David Magee, some new dog kennels have been installed.

“He asked us about our wish list,” said BARL volunteer Rusty Adcock. “We said we wanted to upgrade.”

The shelter has gone through three sets of powder-coated fencing and kennels, but wanted to upgrade to galvanized and stainless steel panels. Though more expensive, they will lost a lot longer, Adcock said.

Phase I of the update was finished Saturday. When a break in the rain came, five volunteers — William Floyd, Waylan Floyd (son), Randy Smith, Daryl Abrams and Adcock — were able to replace the old, worn-out kennels on the west side of BARL’s facility with the new ones.

“We have several good volunteers that showed up Saturday and helped and we got (the kennels) up a lot quicker than we thought we would. We wanted to make sure it was going to set right, and be the same dimensions as the old ones,” Adcock said. “Now that we’ve got these in place, I want to work this week to get a duplicate order done for the other side.”

Magee spent his childhood in Brookhaven and considers it his original home, Adcock said, and has been a generous donor to the work of the shelter.

“We’re really fortunate to have that donor wanting to help,” he said. “We received enough to cover Phase I, and an equal amount for Phase II. If we have a third phase, I feel like we’ll have the funding there, as well.”

Now the dogs and cats housed at BARL can have better enclosures while they await their forever homes with new, loving owners.

“We’ve got some really good ones out there, (including) some special needs dogs,” Adcock said. “We’ve got some good dogs and cats that just need a chance.”

For now, the volunteers will continue to plan, upgrade facilities and care for the animals in the facilities. Knowing the new kennels look good and will last a long time is encouraging, Adcock said.

“We’re pretty psyched about it.”