The Dukes County Commission this week unveiled a financial plan for the takeover of the Island’s only animal shelter, the Katharine M. Foote memorial shelter in Edgartown, after the Massachusetts Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals pulls up stakes and leaves the Island at the end of this week.

The plan would use a mix of contributions from the towns and fund-raisers to keep the facility, already renamed the Animal Shelter of Martha’s Vineyard, in business.

It already has been reviewed and approved by the Dukes County Advisory board, as well as selectmen in Chilmark, West Tisbury and Tisbury.

The plan is more financial prospectus than actual budget, and estimates the new shelter would generate $70,000 in revenues from adoption services, contributions and events. It projects that $44,700 would be needed for expenses ranging from animal care to heat and electricity, while another $49,920 would be needed to pay the salaries of three part-time employees.

County manager Russell Smith said a projected deficit of $24,620 will need to be made up through contributions from all six Island towns.

Under the plan, Edgartown would contribute the most at $6,251, followed by Tisbury at $6,064, Oak Bluffs at $6,001, West Tisbury at $4,217, Chilmark at $1,520 and Aquinnah at $564.

But Mr. Smith conceded the figures essentially amounted to a “guesstimate.”

“The MSPCA spent about $250,000 last year and were $130,000 in the red,” he said.

“We think we could run it for about $100,000, or thereabouts, at a somewhat scaled-back level. The selectmen support it but wanted to know how much it might cost them.”

Mr. Smith said, notwithstanding the apparently precise numbers in the budget, he had asked the selectmen from the down-Island towns for a commitment to put an article on their next town meeting warrant for up to $10,000.

“We’re going into uncharted waters here,” he said. “We’ll need about six months just to see what’s going on. We got the advisory board to agree to that.

“It’s the county’s intent to spend from its reserve fund to keep the place afloat, with the expectation the towns will replenish the fund,” he added.

Initially, part-time staff would be used to run the operation, but Mr. Smith said he foresaw the longer term staffing being full-time, with benefits.

“The vision here is that the place will be run by a board of directors versed in relevant areas. This will be a private and public collaborative,” he said, adding:

“The board would be involved in management and fund-raising. The county might wind up being the administrative arm in as much as keeping the books and paying people, taking out taxes and so on.

“But the management should be left to people who are versed in these issues. There’s a whole skill set involved here, that we just don’t have.”

Mr. Smith expressed gratitude for three things: that the MSPCA had given the county a one year lease on the facility, with all equipment; that many volunteers had come forward to offer help; and that people already had contributed some $7,000 to a tax-deductible fund set up to help support the operation.

West Tisbury selectmen on Wednesday approved the financial plan, and voted 3-0 to make an annual donation of $4,200 to help run the shelter. Selectman Jeffrey (Skipper) Manter said the county advisory board, of which he is a member, agreed to dip into its reserve fund for money needed to operate the animal shelter for the first six months.

Animal control officer Joan Jenkinson, a member of a task force charged with drafting a permanent plan to make the facility financially viable for the long-term, said her group has discussed a number of fund-raising ideas. One would have Island veterinarians ask people if they want to donate one dollar to the shelter when they bring in their pets for medical care.

“It’s such a good cause, I don’t know anyone who could say no to a dollar,” Mrs. Jenkinson said.

She also placed an ad in last week’s Gazette asking for contributions. “We really need this shelter, no question about it,” she said.

Selectman Dianne Powers, who was named chairman earlier in the meeting, encouraged the Island towns to vote to endorse the plan as quickly as possible. “We’re looking at eight or nine days here before the MSPCA closes it up and leaves . . . time is short,” she said.

Tisbury’s member of the county advisory board, Denys Wortman, briefed his fellow selectmen on Tuesday that the down-Island towns had been asked to commit to putting up a warrant article for up to $10,000 at the next meeting of the town.

No formal motion was put, but the selectmen reached verbal agreement to putting something on the warrant, as required.

“There’s a good chance we will have a special town meeting in the fall. And it will go on that,” Mr. Wortman said.