OTHELLO - Othello nearly doubled the funding for the Adams County Pet Rescue, which handles the city's animal shelter.

The city council approved increasing the funding from $6,000 a year to $10,000 a year following a presentation from Ken Simmons with the Adams County Pet Rescue.

Simmons told the council the majority of the $6,000 was used to pay the pound's $2,351 liability insurance and $1,262 electricity bill. The rescue handled 197 dogs from the city in 2011.

"That leaves us with $2,385 to perform these services, which equates to $6.54 a day," he said. "We've done this for three years, now we're going on our fourth year."

Once the dogs arrive in the pound, the rescue takes care of them, Simmons said. The rescue provides veterinary care, spays and neuters, food, cleaning materials dishes, blankets, ground covering, buckets, hoses, nozzles, collars, leashes and other repairs.

"We're hoping to get that whole $6,000 to perform the services for the city," he said. "(The present situation) is taking away from us doing the 104 county dogs. We have to put all of the effort into the city dogs, and at $6.54 a day, it just drains our personnel, our funds, everything."

Determining the actual cost of the services is hard, since a lot of the services are volunteered, Simmons said.

"Nobody gets paid any kind of wage for any of these services," he said. "We just want to be able to spend the majority of money on the animals rather than operating the service legally."

The increase allows the rescue to spend about $16 or $17 a day for the shelter, Simmons said.

Councilmember Genna Dorow said the amount of money is a good deal for the city.