FAYETTEVILLE (KFSM)- The Washington County Quorum Court approved additional funds for the county animal shelter Thursday night (July 23) at a special meeting, but the amount given was only a third of what was requested.
George Butler, Chief of Staff to the Washington County judge, said the shelter director intially asked for $32,000 to cover expenses through the remainder of the year. Court members voted to give the shelter $10,500.
"It is definitely helpful and is appreciated but we expect it to run out before the end of the year," Butler said.
He said the extra funding, on top of their $615,000 budget, will run out in about eight weeks.
"She's going to have to come back unless there's just a huge dropoff in the number of animals that expect to come in," Butler said.
Justice of the Peace Butch Pond said that's why he doesn't understand why the court didn't give the shelter the full amount needed during the regular meeting on July 16, instead of paying to hold a special meeting Thursday.
"It's going to cost more tax dollars because when it was not what they're going to have to have to run it to the end of the year, we have a meeting and each JP is paid $200, that adds up," Pond said.
He said they spent over $2 million in 2012 to build and staff the shelter, so it's their responsibily to keep it running.
"It's going to always be a source of controversy I think because of the cost," Butler said.
Butler said they may have another county fund that can give the shelter the rest of the necessary money. He said they will know if they can access those funds sometime next month.