Bradley County Commissioner Ed Elkins, chairman of the redistricting committee
Bradley County Commissioner Charlotte Peak-JonesCLEVELAND, Tenn. – The Bradley County Commission has taken exception to criticism that its initiative to seek animal shelter services through private means instead of contracting with the Cleveland Animal Shelter is forcing Cleveland taxpayers to actually fund two shelter operations.
On Monday, Commissioner Ed Elkins addressed bottom-line implications of the county’s private sector solution for animal shelter services with fellow commissioners, citing comments recently attributed to Councilman Richard Banks.
“By my analysis, it looks like … that by doing what we did, we saved city residents quite a bit of money,” said Elkins.
Although it is a “true statement” for city leaders to say that Cleveland residents pay for the municipal animal shelter through their city taxes and, through their county taxes, contribute half of the funding to the county’s private shelter, there is more to the situation, he said.
Under the county’s current two-year agreement with the Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals to provide animal sheltering services for an $80,000 annual donation, city residents will contribute $40,000 of that amount through their county taxes, Elkins said.