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Pet Aid Service Society In Need Of Rescuing

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By CARL ORTH, The Suncoast News

Published: October 3, 2007

NEW PORT RICHEY - Marj McConkey's legacy is again in doubt.

She created the Pasco Animal Welfare Society in 1998. After a conflict on that board, she formed the Pet Aid Service Society the next year.

PASS struggled with financial difficulties over the years but managed to keep going, even after McConkey died in June 2005 at age 66.

But the animal welfare group's Bass Lake Plaza thrift shop - its main fundraiser - closed Sunday.

The future of the nonprofit organization looks grim.

'We had almost a 10-year good run of helping animals but we can't do anything like that anymore,' McConkey's widower, Walter 'Norm' McConkey, said Tuesday.

PASS is about $15,000 in debt, and he has no idea where the money to settle that account will be found. Some local veterinarians have been trying to obtain grants on behalf of PASS, McConkey said, but so far there's no good news to report.

Lack of funding isn't the only problem. There aren't enough volunteers to keep the group's spay-neuter and other programs going. His wife's successor has moved on and McConkey can't devote the time needed because he works full time.

On Tuesday, McConkey and others were still bagging up what remained of the thrift shop's inventory. What isn't sold - people still have been coming by even though the store is closed - will be donated to the St. Vincent de Paul Society, he said.

PASS came within a whisker of folding in March, when state Department of Revenue officials gave notice that some sales tax proceeds from the thrift store had not been remitted, McConkey said.

State records also show an annual report for 2006 had not been filed.
McConkey hastily pulled together annual reports for 2006 and 2007. He said he paid some back taxes out of his own pocket.

State officials reinstated PASS on March 18, records show.
McConkey said he has been hard-pressed to keep PASS going since then. He had hoped to hang on long enough for the annual yuletide fundraiser of wrapping shoppers' gifts for donations.

'We've been squeaking by, just barely paying store bills since March. ... The summer has just been disastrous,' he said, referring to poor thrift store sales.

For information on how to help, send an e-mail to pass@tampabay.rr.com.

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