Horry Humane Society hires new executive director, president resigns

The Horry County Humane Society’s Board of Directors hired its new executive director Wednesday night, in a unanimous vote of the board’s six remaining members and also elected a new president.

The board hired Joseph Olsen, of Elmira, NY as the shelter’s new executive director.

Olsen, a former animal shelter director in Colorado and Hawaii, was one of nearly 300 applicants for the job, according to the HCHS.

The board hired Olsen at an annual salary of $52,500 with full benefits and two weeks of vacation; the same compensation paid to former director, Renee Macklen who the board fired in December after News13 broke the story of a deadly Canine Distemper Virus outbreak led to 36 animals being adopted out and later returned and euthanized.

“We’re lucky to get him at that price in this economy, HCHS board member Daren Watson told the board Wednesday.

Olsen will start work March 2, but the HCHS board will pay Olsen as a consultant to the board until his start date, the board voted Wednesday.

The shelter’s officials knew the virus was inside the shelter as early as Nov. 24; the shelter didn’t close until Dec. 8.

After the closing, shelter staff had to euthanize 117 dogs believed to have been infected with the disease.

Olsen said he plans to start work by addressing issues inside the shelter that might have led to the outbreak.

Members of Horry County Council have called for the HCHS board to step down, mainly president Kate Philips.

Philips announced that she would not seek re-election as the board’s president Wednesday, telling the board she wanted to spend more time with her family and on her business.

Philips’ term expired in late January, but Philips agreed to stay on the board through May to help the board transition through the new executive director and a possibly return to the county shelter.

HCHS board member Sandi Brown was elected president and will begin her term in March.

The Horry County council’s Public Safety Committee started an investigation into the HCHS’s finances in January; an audit that will go back to when the group was awarded the contract in June 2006.

The county contract paid the HCHS more than $535,613 in July 2008 to run the shelter through June 2009.

In a report to the HCHS Wednesday, the board showed a bank account balance of $290,340, but the board reported a $22,443 loss in revenues through Dec. 31, 2008.

Councilman Al Allen said he wanted the county to look for other options in running the shelter and wanted the bid process opened immediately for other groups who have showed interest in running the shelter.

The committee didn’t rule out terminating the contract with the HCHS at the January meeting and will vote on continuing the contract with the HCHS at its next meeting.

The committee will meet Monday Feb. 23 to discuss other options for the shelter and the committee could make a decision on terminating the contract with the HCHS at the meeting.

Philips and the board said constantly during the shelter’s closing that the HCHS needed $175,000 in county funds to implement new animal intake protocols and to make repairs at the shelter before reopening the shelter.

Horry County officials took control of the shelter on Jan.8 and reopened the shelter the next day.

Since then, the repairs the HCHS board said it needed performed are finished and animal adoptions restarted.

All kennel floors are sealed; walls painted, and cracks in the kennel walls repaired.

Since reopening, the shelter adopted the highest number of animals since the HCHS took over in June 2006, according to interim shelter director Horry County Police Sergeant Gary Gause.