The Alger County Humane Society, the non-profit organization that operates the Alger County Animal Shelter, held its first Pints for Paws fundraiser at Foggy’s Steakhouse in Christmas on Saturday, Sept. 30.
Over 250 people attended the event, full of bucket raffles, silent auction items and donations through the restaurant for pizzas purchased during the fundraiser. With live music and college football on televisions, many of the people stayed for the full three hours of the event to see if they won one of the over 65 prizes.
“We got all our donations from the community. They stepped up and really helped us out,” ACAS President Greg Beatty said.
The shelter is looking to finance a new building with the money raised throughout the rest of the year. The current building is owned by Alger County, which has served eviction papers to the non-profit after new lease negotiations failed. According to the county, the non-profit and the court system, finding a new place for the shelter to move into is the most amicable approach to the situation, but that would require a building that would meet all of the state and federal requirements to operate a shelter.
Beatty is optimistic that the new home of the animal shelter will be constructed this year on a plot of land just north of the Wetmore Post Office in Munising Township.
“We should have the building up sometime this year based on the weather and the permits. Got one to get a road in there, but can’t get any trees down or anything like that until we get the last permits,” he said.
The last available update on the shelter’s permitting status is that a new conditional use permit application has been filed with Munising Township, but the planning commission is unable to review that application until the parcel has been separated. The parcel separation is delayed due to another permit process with the state.
No additional fundraisers have been scheduled, but the non-profit advertised that every donation made to ACAS before the end of 2023 will be matched from private donors. More information is available on the Alger County Animal Shelter’s official Facebook page.