TCC, SCBC approve funding for Humane Shelter

The Toccoa City Commission and the Stephens County Board of Commissioners agreed to provide funding for the Stephens County Humane Shelter during their respective meetings this week.

The Toccoa City Commission met on Monday.

City Manager Billy Morse explained that both the City and County Commissioners on the Humane Shelter Board have recommended the funding for the Shelter be established at $160,850 for each government.

“The agreement for animal control services through the county will not change,” he said.

A motion was made by Vice Mayor Jeanette Jamieson approving the recommended funding amount with Commissioner David Austin seconding the motion.

The motion was approved 4-0 with Commissioner Terry Carter being absent.

The Stephens County Board of Commissioners met on Tuesday.

County Administrator Phyllis Ayers presented the topic before the commission.

Ayers explained that since the County and City made budget cuts to the Humane Shelter it’s been realized that the Humane Shelter is unable to operate without additional funds.

“When we made the change to bring a marshal in that is post certified, that person is more expensive than the prior employee that was handling animal control. So, the city and the county’s joint services committee met and tried to come to some figure to help the humane shelter financially. They are not able to survive financially with the large cut the city and the county both gave. So, we sat around the table and took last year’s adopted budget and subtracted the value of that employee, divided that by two. So, therefore, the city would give 160 thousand and some odd dollars and the county which is a little less than what we were doing in the prior years but that should help,” she said.

A motion was made by Vice Chair James Addison with Commissioner Dean Scarborough seconding the motion.

The motion was approved unanimously.

In total the Humane Shelter will receive $321,700, with both the County and the City contributing $160,850.