Assembly debates nonprofit grant allocations as Humane Society urges continued spay/neuter funding

Public comments at the start of the July 30 work session focused on animal welfare and the borough’s nonprofit grant program. Karen Yashin, a longtime board member of the Humane Society of Kodiak, told the assembly the shelter has transitioned from a ‘kill’ shelter to a no-kill operation and “Each year, the humane society of Kodiak must raise approximately 75,000 in order to pay for the veterinary care of all animals surrendered to the shelter.” Laurie Murdoch, speaking for the Humane Society, said the nonprofit uses borough funding to provide reduced-cost spay/neuter vouchers for borough residents and reported that from FY2019 through FY2026 the organization assisted 265 borough residents—totaling about $51,700 in direct spay/neuter assistance.

Assembly members then reviewed the manager’s spreadsheet and several proposals for distributing the nonprofit pool. Member Smiley proposed treating larger ‘‘health and safety’’ requests uniformly (suggesting $16,000 each) and smaller requests at $3,500 each, which he said would total about $175,000. Member Whiteside reminded the public and the assembly that the packet shows $75,000 already allocated to the Humane Society through animal-control funding in the adopted budget, and he urged staff to reformat the spreadsheet so each funding source—general fund, opioid fund, tourism fund—has its own section. Members debated removing a $4,500 request for Kodiak Community Health Center and whether opioid-funded items should be shown separately on the table.

The assembly directed staff to provide an updated spreadsheet separating nonprofit asks by funding source and to return a refined table to support final amendments at the regular Aug. 6 meeting. No formal vote was taken at the work session.