NATCHEZ — The Natchez-Adams County Humane Society will bring in its new animal shelter with a little style and Christmas cheer.

A Santa Claus parade is planned to escort the main structure of the shelter to its new home on Liberty Road Monday, which will be followed up by a groundbreaking ceremony.

The shelter, which is being manufactured by Morton Buildings in Garden City, Ala., will be much healthier for shelter animals, employees and the public, said NACHS President Kathy Fitch.

“For the first time, we will be able to house animals in a building that meets minimal standards of humane care,” Fitch said. “We will be able to clean the building much better and take better care of the animals.”

Parade participants will gather at 2:15 p.m. at Southwest Distributors on 56 McNeil Road, off of U.S. 84. They will travel with a moving truck as it carries the building to 475 Liberty Road, past the current shelter building, and on the left before arriving to the St. Catherine Creek Bridge.

The official groundbreaking ceremony will take place at the new site following the arrival of the new facility, which is expected to arrive at 3 p.m.

Fitch hopes the new shelter can serve as a better asset to the community.

“Before, many people have avoided coming into the original building because of its conditions,” Fitch said. “Hopefully, this will open more opportunities to the volunteers because it’s safer for everyone.”

Fitch said the new shelter is more than 5,000 square feet, and the structure is already in place on Liberty Road, where the exterior part of the building will be sat.

“There has been a good deal of work over the last month, including getting the ground better for the shelter,” Fitch said. “We look to be in it within the next few months — I’m hoping March or April of 2015.”

Foundation and plumbing work for the site on Liberty Road are underway, and once the exterior part of the shelter is in tact, workers will be able to continue their labor during the winter.

Fitch said the cost of the new shelter is $1.38 million.

“We still have $500,000 to raise,” Fitch said. “Although we still have a ways to go to get everything we need, an effort by many local groups, for at least the last eight years, has worked through the building committee donating funds.”

The arrival of the new shelter has been a project many years in the making, and Fitch said the NACHS will host more fundraising opportunities soon.