Saratoga County accepts $500,000 state grant to help pay for animal shelter HVAC work

Saratoga County’s Buildings and Grounds Committee on an early June 2025 afternoon voted to accept a $500,000 Companion Animal Capital Fund grant from the New York State Department of Agriculture and Markets to help pay for an ongoing HVAC project at the county animal shelter.

The award was not anticipated in the county budget, and committee members authorized an amendment to recognize the new revenue and reduce the county appropriation for the project.

Chad, a Department of Public Works representative, told the committee that DPW helped prepare the application and that “we were successful with the tune of 500,000.” He said the county will use the grant “toward the HVAC project that we currently have going on” to help offset costs.

When asked whether the funding had been anticipated, Chad said it had not and confirmed that staff will amend the budget to record the grant revenue. The committee moved and voted to accept the resolution; the chair called the vote, “Aye,” and announced the motion carries.

The committee discussion was brief; no separate amendments to the resolution were recorded and no roll-call vote totals or individual votes were read into the record during the meeting transcript. The grant originates from the New York State Department of Agriculture and Markets’ Companion Animal Capital Fund program and is directed to capital improvements at animal shelters, per the county staff summary presented to the committee.

The committee then moved on to the next agenda item.