The Decatur County Board of Commissioners agreed to assist two community organizations during their Tuesday meeting.

Bainbridge-Decatur County Humane Society representative Carol Lewis updated the commission on plans to build a new shelter on five acres of  land on Highway 84 West donated by Dennie Nichols.

After Lewis’ presentation and later in the meeting, commission Jan Godwin made a motion to increase the county’s funding to the humane society by $10,000, for a total of $50,000, for the 2015 fiscal year.

The motion passed unanimously.

The commission also heard a presentation by Patricia Anderson of the Someone Cares Food and Clothing Bank. Anderson’s operation has been occupying a building, which had previously been vacant, at the county fairgrounds. Initially, she operated a soup kitchen that fed people in need at no charge. Issues with the facility and the health department caused Anderson to cease operations.

More recently, she has been collecting donated non-perishable food and donated clothing to provide at no charge to people in need. Anderson has been utilizing the same building to store the food and clothing.

Anderson asked the commission for permission to continue using the building to operate the food and clothing bank. She plans to open the donation center a few days per week to accept food and clothing donations and to operate a thrift store.

“Allowing Ms. Anderson to use the building will be essentially no cost to the county and significant benefit to the citizens,” said county administrator Gary Breedlove.

The commission voted unanimously to lease the building, beginning on July 1, to Anderson at a rate of $1 per year.