That is so sad. I hope the community rallies for them and is able to
keep them in business. Maybe the newspaper coverage will cause the
local supporters to dig in their pockets.
RE: Their heating costs (which are an awful bite out of the budget). We
built our shelter totally with private donations/fundraisers in 1999.
We got the City to enter into an agreement that, if we ever went
belly-up, the property would revert ownership to them. In exchange,
they provide us with free water, electricity and a $1,000 annual dog
food allowance from their municipal shelter budget for the life of the
shelter. It sure does help our budget to NOT have to pay those things,
esp. now that heating costs are so high. If we ever DID go belly-up,
the building would be hard to sell anyway, and it's not exactly located
on prime real estate.  It does adjoin city-owned property , and someone
on the city council said we wouldn't last 6 months, so it was an
attractive deal for them.

Sherry