The Ansonville Town Council held its monthly meeting on Monday.

Robert Harrell with Art of Daily Living, Inc. approached the board to discuss an upcoming dollar store and homeless shelter. Harrell said that one initiative Art of Daily Living is working to establish is a homeless shelter for female veterans. He stressed that the establishment would be a transitional shelter, not a group home.

“I think of the horrors of these guys and ladies who go over and fight and come back blind, maimed, shot at and then we don’t have any place to put them,” Harrell said. “Either their spouses have gone and moved on or sometimes they’re not capable of living at home by themselves… I’ve never been in the Army, but I felt that if I had gone and fought for my country that my country would fight for me. The [VA] does. They put money aside, but they need people like us, the civilians, to help.”

The shelter will be located on Godfrey Street and house up to nine female veterans. Harrell said that a developer in Florence, S.C., is interested in building transitional homes at his own expense for the vets to transition from the shelter to their own home. Ansonville Manor Lyndell Ingram stressed that the community must be made aware of the shelter opening in the community.

Additionally, Harrell discussed a plan to bring for Art of Daily Living to sponsor either bringing a Dollar General or a Family Dollar into Ansonville. A developer and realtor have come to look for sites and are currently negotiating for locations, according to Harrell. After acquiring a property and establishing a building, the developer will approach Dollar General and Family Dollar about opening. “This place is the same size New York City was sometime,” Harrell said. “We’ve got to start somewhere.”

The board also discussed the upcoming closure of the Ansonville BB&T branch. The council hopes the bank will donate the building to the town.

The council went into closed session and will hold its next meeting March 4 at 7 p.m. at Town Hall.