{"id":96704,"date":"2018-12-14T14:54:38","date_gmt":"2018-12-14T21:54:38","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/la-plata-county-humane-society-director-resigns-agency-waits-to-hire-replacement\/"},"modified":"2018-12-14T14:54:38","modified_gmt":"2018-12-14T21:54:38","slug":"la-plata-county-humane-society-director-resigns-agency-waits-to-hire-replacement","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/la-plata-county-humane-society-director-resigns-agency-waits-to-hire-replacement\/","title":{"rendered":"La Plata County Humane Society director resigns; agency waits to hire replacement"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

\"The
The La Plata County Humane Society will not actively search for a new executive director after Michelle Featheringill, who was hired to the position in 2015, resigned in November.<\/span>Durango Herald file<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

The La Plata County Humane Society will not actively look for a new executive director after its former head of operations resigned suddenly in November.<\/p>\n

\u201cRight now, we are just going to work with what we have,\u201d said board president Susan Riches, \u201cuntil we decide exactly what we want to do and what direction we want to take.\u201d<\/p>\n

Michelle Featheringill, who had served as executive director of the La Plata County Humane Society<\/a> for 2\u00bd years, abruptly resigned Nov. 16.<\/p>\n

Featheringill said this week that personnel on the Board of Directors changed so drastically from when she was first hired that she and the current board no longer shared the same vision for the animal shelter.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhile it was no longer a good fit between myself and the board, I certainly wish the organization nothing but success,\u201d Featheringill said. \u201cI think we all know the mission of the Humane Society is truly a good one.\u201d<\/p>\n

For years, the Humane Society operated without an executive director, letting its four departments \u2013 Animal Services, Animal Protection, the Thrift Store and the medical department \u2013 operate independently.<\/p>\n

Featheringill said she was able to take the Humane Society out of the red and into the black during her first full year on the job.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe did an awful lot of financial fine-tuning within the four departments,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

And, Featheringill said she made a concerted effort to have a larger presence in the community. Emergency events, like the 416 and Lightner Creek fires, where the Humane Society sheltered evacuated animals, further put the organization in the spotlight.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think that the community became a bit more aware of all the good things that the Humane Society does, not just for animals, but people in the community as well,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

Featheringill said when she was originally hired, the board at the time wanted her to seek new revenue sources. This was of particular importance as its main revenue driver, the thrift store, faced increasing competition, especially with the opening of Goodwill.<\/p>\n

\u201cNew revenue streams, I feel, are of paramount importance for the financial viability of the organization,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

Featheringill declined to get into the specifics, but she said she disagreed with the current board on how to move forward with the organization. She resigned Nov. 16, which took effect immediately.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was a very, very difficult decision,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

Riches also declined to talk about the specifics that led to Featheringill\u2019s resignation.<\/p>\n

Riches said the Humane Society must focus on its most pressing needs, most notably, repairs on an old building and the general cost of operation.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re financially comfortable,\u201d she said. \u201cWe just need to put our minds on what\u2019s going to be best for the society as a whole and the way it functions, and that\u2019s going to take a lot of thought.\u201d<\/p>\n

Riches said that in the meantime, it\u2019s business as usual at Durango\u2019s busiest animal shelter.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019ve got a very good staff, so we\u2019re not hurting in terms of having people fill in the various jobs that need to be done,\u201d she said. \u201cWe just need a little bit of time to figure out what we need. But we\u2019re up and running\u201d<\/p>\n

jromeo@durangoherald.com<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Michelle Featheringill says she and board didn\u2019t share same vision<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":96705,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[5736,5735],"tags":[382,950,475],"naviga_topic":[],"class_list":["post-96704","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-local-news","category-news","tag-animal","tag-durango","tag-la-plata-county-colorado"],"acf":[],"author_name":"dh_admin","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/96704","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=96704"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/96704\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/96705"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=96704"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=96704"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=96704"},{"taxonomy":"naviga_topic","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/naviga_topic?post=96704"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}