A women’s shelter that has been several years in the making is one step closer to becoming a reality.

On Thursday, the Carbon County board of commissioners ratified the advertisement for the Peaceful Knights Women’s Shelter, using Community Development Block Grant-CV funds from 2020.

The county will accept bids until 3:30 p.m. on Aug. 14 in the controller’s office. The bids will then be publicly opened and read during the county commissioners’ meeting at 10:30 a.m. on Aug. 17.

The project includes general construction, electrical and plumbing work for renovating space for the shelter on North First Street in Lehighton.

Commissioner Chris Lukasevich said that it was great to see the project finally moving forward.

“That has been a long time coming,” he said, noting it was about four years in the making since work on creating a women’s shelter began. “We are moving toward the realization of the shelter in Carbon County. It’s long overdue.”

In February, the county commissioners shifted the $163,922.13 CDBG funds from Family Promise to Peaceful Knights to create the shelter.

Prior to that, Family Promise of Carbon County had been working to create the shelter at its site in Nesquehoning, the former St. Francis of Assisi church and rectory, but “intraorganizational challenges” delayed the project several times, causing the project to creep closer to the grant deadline without any progress. The grant deadline is Sept. 29.

Once the shelter is fully complete, it will include transitional housing, two apartments and an emergency shelter.