The Humane Educational Society, a nonprofit animal shelter that serves unincorporated Hamilton County, will not receive more than $211,000 in federal, pandemic-era funds that the organization’s leaders said it needs to keep its operations going through the end of June.
The Hamilton County Commission on Wednesday voted 7-4 during its last meeting of the year to table a resolution allocating the funds for the shelter.
Shelter board President Jim Kennedy said in meetings throughout December that operating costs have risen, government funding has stayed mostly level and fundraising efforts have stagnated in recent years. Those issues and $530,000 in tax bills — stemming from a failure to file for tax-exempt status at a new building — led the shelter’s leadership to plead for assistance with funding and avoiding a June 5 tax sale of the building.
Instead, commissioners voted unanimously on a subsequent resolution to put the funding — which must have a designated use by the end of 2024 — into parks and emergency management projects throughout the county.
Commissioners Chip Baker, R-Signal Mountain, Greg Beck, D-North Brainerd, Warren Mackey, D-Lake Vista and David Sharpe, D-Red Bank, voted against tabling the animal shelter resolution.