IN SESSION — Hancock County Commissioners, from back, Paul Cowey, Eron Chek, and Tommy Ogden, met in regular session Thursday. -- Craig Howell

NEW CUMBERLAND — Hancock County Commissioners Thursday approved the resignation of several employees Thursday from the Hancock County Animal Shelter, but officials say residents shouldn’t be concerned about any potential loss of service.

As part of Thursday’s meeting, commissioners unanimously approved the resignations of Kathy Beagle, Alex Zeigler, Kaitlyn Lamp, Lydia DiBiagio and Ashlee Miller as animal shelter employees.

Commissioners offered no comment on the issue during the meeting — with the exception of Commissioner Paul Cowey thanking Beagle for her years of service at the shelter.

Following the meeting, though, Commission President Eron Chek explained the exodus of so many employees was related to the commission’s decision last month to hire a new animal shelter director from outside of the existing staff.

Chek said she didn’t want to discuss specifics over the issues, as they could fall under personnel matters, but said the shelter still has staffing on hand to care for the animals located there, claiming there typically are between four and seven individuals working each day.

“We’re not left without care,” Chek said.

Chek noted there have been efforts in recent months to hire new staff for the shelter.

“We’ve been receiving applications for a couple of months,” she said, pointing to hires in recent months, and ongoing interviews. “We have three other people who have passed the first interview.”

According to copies of commission agendas, outside of the hiring of Caylee Stewart as the new director, the most recent staffing hire took place in April, with Lamp brought on as an animal care technician.

Thursday’s meeting did see the hiring of Baily Cuteri as a temporary, part-time employee for summer help at the shelter.

The position of director at the animal shelter had been vacant since October 2023.

The resignations are the latest development at the shelter, where, in April, staff announced they would no longer be operating with an open-door admissions policy, citing what they claimed as new capacity limits, updated regulations and staffing constraints.