Isle of Wight County Supervisor Renee Rountree has floated the idea of turning over the operation of the county’s animal shelter to a nonprofit organization.

She said doing so could make it easier for the shelter to accept donations and apply for grants available exclusively to nonprofits.

Rountree brought the matter up at a Jan. 6 meeting of the county’s audit committee. Currently the shelter is operated by the Isle of Wight County Sheriff’s Office under its Animal Control division.

“In some cases, matching programs and other grants do not recognize governmental entities as matching appropriate or awardee eligible,” Rountree told The Smithfield Times. She said the idea originated last fall.

“The problem was when people make donations to the shelter, they’re just making donations to the county because there is no animal shelter as an organization,” County Administrator Randy Keaton said at the committee meeting.

Those donations are still eligible as a tax write-off, according to Keaton, and do get earmarked for the shelter, according to county Finance Director Stephanie Wells. Deputy 1st Class Alecia Paul, a spokeswoman for the sheriff’s office, said those donations go into a shelter fund rather than the county’s general fund.

Paul, however, said she wasn’t aware of any talks regarding turning the shelter over to a nonprofit.

“The tax implications are the same; it’s whether the only benefit of the 501(c)3 is that there are some grants that will only give to a 501(c)3,” Wells said.

Jones said the county can’t legally create its own 501(c)3 nonprofit organization, so one would have to organize on its own. Such an organization could potentially negotiate a lease with the county, he said.

The concept would be similar to the arrangement the town of Windsor has with Isle of Wight County Schools. The town leases the gymnasium wing of the former Windsor Middle School, which it saved from demolition when the new Georgie D. Tyler Middle School opened in 2014, for $1 per year. By 2018, the town had renovated and reopened the gym as an event venue known as the Windsor Town Center.

“You would still have Animal Control offers under the sheriff,” Jones said.

Rountree said that while she’d agreed to assist a small, like-minded group of citizens to file the paperwork to gain nonprofit status, she did not have an interest in managing the shelter herself.

The county could potentially contribute to the hypothetical nonprofit the same way it makes donations now to organizations such as the Isle of Wight Christian Outreach Program and the Western Tidewater Free Clinic, Jones said.

The Isle of Wight County Humane Society already has tax-exempt status but operates as a network of foster homes rather than out of a facility. Gimme Shelter, another 501(c)3 nonprofit, operated a thrift store for 12 years before relocating as Gimme Shelter’s Attic in 2022 to the Hamtown Mercantile at 223 Main St. Gimme Shelter closed its Hamtown Mercantile booth in early January.

Isle of Wight County upgraded a part-time kennel assistant position in its Animal Control division to a new full-time shelter manager position during the 2023-24 fiscal year. Isle of Wight’s adopted 2024-25 budget lists $765,835 budgeted for the entire Animal Control division, including shelter operations, this year.

It’s unclear what, if any, impact Rountree’s proposal to turn shelter operations over to a nonprofit would have on the facility’s current status as a “low-kill” shelter.

According to Paul, the length of time an animal stays at the shelter typically does not determine whether an animal will be euthanized. 

“Sickness, adoptability, court order, aggression and safety are some of the instances that we would be required to kill an animal,” Paul said. “Our shelter has kept animals for over a year. When we have an animal for an extended length of time, we do our best to place them with an animal rescue. We also rely on families who foster our shelter pets.  Fostering makes a huge difference in their odds of being adopted. They become acclimated to human companionship, as well as other animals and children. Donations, fosters, rescues, and adoptions are the lifeblood for the animals we shelter, and we encourage anyone who may be thinking about a pet to come talk to us.”