Thirteen months is all it took for the Humane Society of Southwestern Michigan to pay off its mortgage loan on the new Yeager Family Pet Shelter. The organization says on June 9, 2018, the debt was over $740,000, and it’s all been paid off due to extensive fundraising efforts and donors. The state-of-the-art, no-kill shelter opened on that date last summer after several years of work that started with the forming of a building committee in 2012 and the purchase of the land at 5400 Niles Road in June 2013. Pearson Construction was hired in December of that year, with ground being broken in June 2017.
The Humane Society announced Monday that it made the final payment on July 8 of this year, and they will have a celebration to burn the mortgage papers at noon on Saturday, September 12. They add that just because the mortgage is paid, the expenses don’t stop, as the organization relies solely on private donors to pay its roughly $40,000 monthly operating expenses.
