Revenue is $5,500 less than $18,000 in expenses
The Top of Ohio Pet Shelter has been operating on a $5,500-per-month deficit since a new board took over not quite a year ago, Barbara Faulkner, the executive director who was hired in December, reports.
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ABOVE: This mother cat and her litter of kittens are among the pets available for adoption at the Top of Ohio Pet Shelter, which has announced it will cease operations June 9 because of inadequate funding. HOME PAGE SLIDESHOW PHOTO: This is one of 54 dogs that are available for adoption. All adoption fees will be waived during the Paws N Claws Skate & Adoption Day fundraiser from 2 to 5 p.m. Sunday at Indian Lake Rollarena, Russells Point, after donations from the rink owner and Deb’s Dogs of Lima. (EXAMINER PHOTOS | REUBEN MEES) |
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Top of Ohio Pet Shelter finances AVERAGE MONTHLY EXPENSES • Personnel Wages $8,950 Payroll taxes $1,200 BWC $200 Subtotal $10,350 • Building costs Mortgage $1,702 Electric $1,150 Propane $1,016 Insurance $690 Waste $290 Phone and internet $255 Subtotal $5,103
• Miscellaneous Medical $2,000 Supplies $200 Transportation $150 Accounting $120 501(c)3 costs $50 Storage $38 Pharmaceutical license$13 Subtotal $571 • Total expenses $18,024
AVERAGE MONTHLY INCOME Logan County contract $7,000 Adoptions, donation, fundraising $5,500 • Total income $12,500
DEFICIT AND DEBT Monthly deficit $5,524 Mortgage debt $240,000 Other debt $50,000
Source: Top of Ohio Pet Shelter |
The shelter filed a letter with the Logan County Commissioners on Monday giving 30 days’ notice that it would terminate its contract to take in the county’s stray dogs, and Ms. Faulkner said Tuesday the Humane Society Serving Logan County, which has operated a local animal shelter since 1970, would cease all its operations.
“People ask why we can’t run the shelter on $7,000 a month, but most of these costs are beyond our control,” Ms. Faulkner said. “We just want people to know how the money is being spent. It’s an open book.”
On the revenue side, the county provides approximately $7,000 per month generated through the sale of dog tags. The shelter gets 90 percent of the total raised, while the remaining 10 percent funds the administration of the program and assists with dog warden costs, commissioners said Tuesday.
Other income can vary widely from month to month, but averaged about $5,500 over the past six months, Ms. Faulkner said. It comes from adoption fees, charitable contributions and fundraising.
On the expense side, wages for the shelter’s six employees — Ms. Faulkner, the shelter manager and four animal caretakers — come in at $8,950 per month with an additional $1,200 in payroll taxes and $200 for Bureau of Workers Compensation fees. That brings personnel costs to $10,350.
Mortgage payments on the shelter, which was built in 1999 at a cost of $500,000, are $1,702 a month, according to the report, and the organization still owes $240,000. An additional $690 pays for various insurance premiums, while electric costs an average of $1,150 a month; propane averages $1,016; waste disposal averages $290; and the telephone and Internet bill is $255 a month. The total for the mortgage and bills comes to $5,103.
Medical expenses for animals is the only other sizable expenditure at $2,000 a month, while licensing fees, accounting expenses, storage, supplies and transportation account for the remaining $571, according to the report.
Other than medical expenses for animals, which the organization attempts to recoup through adoption fees, the operating cost has little to do with the number of animals housed there, Ms. Faulkner said.
“It doesn’t matter if we have one dog or 100 dogs, a lot of these amounts don’t change,” the director said.
If the organization would entirely eliminate all paid personnel — including the director and shelter manager — and operate only on volunteer labor, the $7,000 a month county contract would still fall slightly short of the $7,674 a month required to operate the shelter.
“Even if we cut all our paid staff and were all volunteer, $7,000 a month still doesn’t cover it,” Ms. Faulkner said.
The four animal caretakers are paid little more than minimum wage and are doing an amount of work that should be spread among six paid staff, she said, and her own salary, which she did not divulge, was cut substantially when she increased the part-time schedule she was hired in December to work to a full-time workload without an increase in pay.
In addition to the mortgage, the document provided Wednesday lists $50,000 in bad debt. The debt is owed to the Internal Revenue Service, Ohio Department of Job and Family Services, Bureau of Unemployment Compensation, medical expenses, legal fees and repair bills.
While the board takes the debt seriously, Ms. Faulkner said the organization has not been able to make any headway in repaying the amount because of the continued deficit.
“We owe big money to some big players,” Ms. Faulkner said.
Liens on file at the Logan County Recorder’s Office show that the IRS filed a $17,103 lien in late April, which includes $1,889 from June 2014; $5,910 from June 2015; and $9,304 from September 2015.
Documents also indicate the humane society owes Job and Family Services $1,500 for unpaid unemployment insurance dating as far back as 2010.
Those bills are among priorities being paid now, Ms. Faulkner said.
“I assure you that we have not missed an IRS payment since I was hired,” she said.
The current IRS lien is not the first in the shelter’s history, however. In late 2014, the IRS filed liens totalling $34,478 that were resolved in August 2014.
Documents at the recorder’s office show the original mortgage executed with Union Banking Co. in 1998 was in the amount of $600,000. In November 2008, the local humane society refinanced the remaining $283,700 for 30 years with Union Banking Co.