City of Fulton receives statewide honor for animal shelter

Innovation Award

From left, Fulton Mayor LeRoy Benton along with Sam Grabb, Animal Control officer Tina Barnes, and FRDC Warden Bill Harris accept the 2015 Municipal League Innovation Award.
From left, Fulton Mayor LeRoy Benton along with Sam Grabb, Animal Control officer Tina Barnes, and FRDC Warden Bill Harris accept the 2015 Municipal League Innovation Award.

The City of Fulton was presented the 2015 Municipal League Innovation Award Sept. 22 for its New Fulton Animal Shelter Initiative, which led to opening the Sam and Daisy Grabb Animal Shelter on May 15.

According to a Fulton news release, the city received the award for its approach to fund the project. Mayor LeRoy Benton announced the initiative for a new animal shelter on Feb. 2, 2012, and created a fundraising committee for the project. The committee reached out to donors in the community for help by selling commemorative bricks and T-shirts to raise public interest and awareness of the project.

"It was the community effort that everything they helped do to donate, is why we've got it," Animal Control Supervisor Tina Barnes said.

"It was very exciting."

Benton, Fulton resident Sam Grabb - the most significant donor for constructing the shelter - Barnes and Fulton Reception and Diagnostic Center Warden Bill Harris accepted the award.

Grabb's large donation gave him naming rights for the shelter, which he named after his mom and dad.

The Missouri Municipal League started giving the Innovation Award in 2006 to recognize municipal projects that adopt alternative approaches for solving municipal challenges.