Butler’s only winter relief center likely will not have to limit its operations this winter.

The Grace Youth and Family Foundation’s Winter Relief Center, 100 Center Ave., was supposed to get about $35,000 from Butler County this year for operating costs.

However, foundation owner Bill Halle declined to sign a new contract with the county, saying the contract would have removed his organization’s right to faith-based hiring practices, signed over to the county exclusive ownership and copyrights to the program and provided “extensive” auditing access to the county.

Following the decision to not go through with the contract, Halle said he received donations totaling $20,000 — which is a third of the center’s annual budget.

“We’re really confident that we will be able to continue that,” Halle said.

He said the center’s budget is $60,000 per year, with the county providing about half and the center raising the rest.

Halle said most of the donations were local and amounted to $25 or $50, but it did receive several larger donations of up to a few thousand dollars. Halle declined to name larger donors.

He said the donations all came within a few days of announcing the center’s troubles with the county contract, and he said it all happened before the center began fundraising for the year. He said formal fundraising will start in about a week.

Halle thanked the community for support, and noted that the center still needs to raise $40,000 to cover the rest of the budget.

Before getting these donations, Halle was going to reduce the number of people the shelter served by focusing mainly on “priority populations,” such as families with children, veterans and adults who are verifiably on their way to mental health or drug and alcohol treatment.

But with these donations, Halle said the shelter will not have to limit its guests.

“We see no reason to change,” Halle said.

To help, he said the center eliminated one of its two “qualified” employee positions. These employees have human services and mental health training. Halle said people staying the night at the center will not notice a difference.

Since the shelter opened Nov. 1, Halle said it is averaging about five guests per night.

The center served more than 1,600 guest nights last year. Halle said that many people stay for one night, but some stay for many more.

Dana Perkins, who is one of the organizers of an effort to open a new homeless shelter in the county after the contract dispute, said he and other organizers are “waiting on word of what we are going to do.”

Even with Grace Youth’s center operating fully, Perkins said there still will be people who will need to be served.

“They need to go somewhere,” Perkins said.