T-L Photo/ ROBERT A. DEFRANK Belmont County Commissioner Jerry Echemann speaks with Jayne Long, clerk, during Wednesday’s meeting. Belmont County Commissioner J.P. Dutton also voiced his opposition Wednesday to the board’s decision to cease pursuing litigation against the Belmont County Humane Society on the belief that a $30,000 donation from AEP should have gone to benefit dogs rather than cats.

ST. CLAIRSVILLE — The Belmont County Commissioners have been in legal conflict with the Belmont County Humane Society about whether a donation to help the area’s animals should have benefited cats or dogs.

On Wednesday, the Belmont County Board of Commissioners directed the Belmont County prosecutor to dismiss litigation authorized Nov. 20 against the Belmont County Humane Society. The commissioners voted two to one to drop the litigation, with Josh Meyer and newly-elected Jerry Echemann in favor and J.P. Dutton as the dissenting vote.

The issue of contention was a donation of $30,000 from American Electric Power made in December of 2016.

Meyer had voted against pursuing litigation in November. Meyer and Echemann had no comment, but Dutton delivered a statement during the meeting.

“I wanted to voice my extreme displeasure and frustration,” Dutton said. “I think our board did everything we could to kind of impress upon the humane society our desire to see a donation of $30,000 that was made a couple of years ago, intended to be used at the time for kennels at the animal shelter. That didn’t come to fruition. The humane society decided not to take that project on.”

Dutton said the commissioners were informed by the humane society in late 2017 or early 2018 that the funds would be used for the care of cats, because the county was no longer caring for cats.

“That could not be further from the truth,” Dutton said, adding that about a year and a half ago the county closed the shelter to cats due to overcrowding. Dutton said the county had no other option at the time, pointing out that the shelter’s space for cats was fit for 32 of the animals.

“At the time, we had approaching 70 cats in the animal shelter. You can’t imagine the disease that can spread when you’re overpopulated like that, or even the stress on the animals.”

He added that many of the cats were not ready to be adopted at that point, needing vaccines and other treatment.

“We closed the doors until we could get things under control, which we did,” Dutton said.

Dutton added that the county has since begun working with a non-profit spay/neuter program and seeking to adopt out the cats, and that the cat space at the shelter is now at capacity with about 32 of the animals housed, and with new cats being accepted when space was available.

“Now we have a great program out there. That room is constantly full. The minute we have a few openings, those spaces are probably taken within the day.”

Afterward, Dutton said the commissioners dropped the litigation on the recommendation of Prosecutor Dan Fry.

“The check was written to the Belmont County Humane Society. It was never written to Belmont County,” he said, adding that shortly after his and Meyer’s terms began in 2017 they believed the donation would be used for dogs. “We were told about how those funds would be used for (dog) kennels…The humane society can use those funds the way they want to use it.”

He said at that point, Angela Hatfield served as director of the animal shelter and director of the Belmont County Humane Society. Hatfield was terminated as shelter director in July of 2017.

Hatfield could not be reached for comment.

In other matters, Raymond Canter of Barnes Road, Martins Ferry, commended the county for providing water and the crews for their work on repairing numerous waterline breaks a few weeks ago, which have resulted in loss of water pressure.

“They’ve been out there day and night, putting hours on top of hours and getting these things fixed as soon as they come across them,” he said.

“You guys really impressed me,” he said, adding that water has since been restored to more than 20 households on Barnes and Treadway Roads. “We all have water, but it’s not going to be up to the max until we get all these breaks fixed. Right now we all have water, but there’s a lot of houses that still have very, very low pressure.”

“It’s just part of what we’re supposed to do,” Meyer said. He credited Water and Sewer District Director Kelly Porter and his crews. Meyer has also thanked commended the Colerain, Sunset Heights, Yorkville and Tiltonsville Fire Departments for providing water supplies to residents.