Bradley County Commission Chairman Louie Alford, left, and Bob Caylor, president of The Ark of Cleveland, discuss the nonprofit organization’s ability to assume animal control services for county.CLEVELAND, Tenn. – Bradley County officials want more information from two nonprofit animal welfare organizations seeking to provide long-term animal shelter services for the county.
County residents living outside the Cleveland city limits will have full animal pickup and drop-off services through the Cleveland Animal Shelter for the next six months under a temporary, $120,000 agreement between the county and city.
An ad hoc committee appointed this week to make a recommendation to the County Commission on the issue reviewed presentations Wednesday from The Ark of Cleveland and the Society for Prevention of Cruelty to Animals of Bradley County. Commissioner Charlotte Peak-Jones is chairwoman of the panel that includes Commissioners Bill Winters, Adam Lowe, Ed Elkins and Mark Hall.
“I think there’s promise in some of these organizations, but specifically, we need to see an operational plan,” Lowe said.
In the meantime, Lowe said neither organization communicated more than its hopes to accomplish its goals, which include sheltering at no charge all animals brought in by Bradley County residents during normal business hours and providing 24-hour emergency animal retrieval.