(KANSAS CITY, Mo., AP) — After months of dispute over its management, the new Jackson County animal shelter is scheduled to open Jan. 1.

The county announced Monday that a Kansas-based nonprofit group, Great Plains SPCA, will operate the $5.3 million facility.

The city of Independence was supposed to operate the shelter. But in July, one month before the shelter was to open, Jackson County legislator Dennis Waits raised doubts about whether the city had budgeted enough money to operate the facility as a no-kill shelter.

Waits suggested the county contract with a nonprofit that had run no-kill shelters, The Kansas City Star reported (http://bit.ly/11Mu1mV).

But because the county and city of Independence had a legal contract that remained in force through 2040, the shelter sat empty as the two sides negotiated.