The county Health and Welfare Committee is trying to make sure it does not miss out on another opportunity to improve Warren County Animal Control and Adoption Center.

Commissioner Blaine Wilcher told committee members he is trying to figure out how to use some of the ARP money to benefit Animal Control.

“What I brought up last night was I asked the question if we could use any of that money toward either an expansion, buying something else, whatever, and we can but it has to be something that we have already planned. You can’t spend the relief money on something you just create,” said Wilcher. “In other words, you can spend it to buy an ambulance because you buy ambulances ever so often. I brought up that we have had two expansions that we already had laid out for whatever reason that we couldn’t do.”

‘It is not like we haven’t been asking for two years,” said Warren County Animal Control and Adoption Center director Sheri Bradley.

Wilcher said Finance Department director Justin Cotten seemed to agree they may be able to do something with the money. He also said a lot of people on the committee think there is a possibility of getting a new building in the future, but it could be a few years down the road. He says they do not need to wait years to do something and they have the opportunity to make some changes now to improve conditions. 

Wilcher encouraged Bradley to speak to Cotten about potential money for the shelter and said he will continue to bring up Animal Control during ARP discussions. 

Said Wilcher, “Unfortunately animals get forgotten. That is just the way it is. It is a real problem and a lot of people don’t see it because they don’t want to fool with it and that is the bottom line. I told them I would bring it back up again because I hope that we could get some kind of help with this.”