Waterford — As the Board of Selectmen prepares to vote Tuesday to join a three-town committee evaluating a proposal to create a regional animal control facility with Montville and East Lyme, those who have donated $200,000 to replace the existing Waterford shelter say their money should be used the way they want.

Montville and East Lyme officials have already voted to approve the creation of a three-person staff committee whose members would assess the costs and benefits of building an animal control facility serving the three towns.

The proposed facility would be built on state property at the Corrigan-Radgowski Correctional Center in Montville, and would likely would employ prisoners to help maintain it and care for the animals.

The Waterford selectmen are set to vote to join the committee at their meeting Tuesday night.

But supporters of the shelter in Waterford, which the town shares with East Lyme, say they have raised more than $200,000 to replace the Avery Lane facility, and they don’t want to see their money spent on a facility at the jail.

“We had comedy shows, we had bus trips … raffles, silent auctions,” said Joyce Meehan, a Waterford resident who organized many of the fundraising efforts.

Richard Atherton, who worked for 35 years as a janitor in New London schools, donated $35,000 from his estate to the Waterford shelter when he died in 2011.

“It was all under the assumption that we were going to have a new location built in Waterford,” Meehan said.

The donors have deposited $201,104 into the town’s coffers since they began fundraising in 2009.

The money will not be spent until a final decision is made on the future of the Waterford-East Lyme shelter, according to Waterford First Selectman Daniel Steward.

But the committee, once created, will be charged with evaluating the pros and cons of the plan to build a regional facility at the prison, and the idea seems to be gathering steam while efforts to renovate the Waterford facility are left behind, Meehan said.

Fundraisers say they feel they were misled.

“It’s just very disappointing to see another state program for prisoners,” said Karie Kenyon, a Ledyard resident who has adopted dogs from the Waterford-East Lyme shelter and raised more than $20,000 for the shelter in multiple fundraisers at the Mystic store she manages, The Black Dog.

“To me, it’s not a matter of getting the money back,” Kenyon said. “It’s not even about the regionalization ... donors believed that the money was going to build a new animal shelter in Waterford.”

An ad-hoc committee composed of Waterford and East Lyme residents recommended building a regional shelter at the prison last year after months of meetings.

But some local residents still oppose the idea, citing worries about whether volunteers would be willing to go near the prison to work with the animals and doubts about whether state officials would be able to follow through on a new building for the facility.

“I personally don’t want to bring my kid to a prison,” said Waterford Representative Town Meeting member Jeremy Grabel. Plus, he said, “it takes the control of the facility out of Montville, Waterford and East Lyme and gives control to the state.”

Grable said he hasn’t donated money to the Waterford shelter, but that he is an animal lover and believes the shelter should stay in the town.

“It’s a matter of doing what’s right, versus what’s smart,” he said. “The smart thing would be to save money.”

But the right thing for the animals, he said, is to keep control of the shelter in Waterford.

Meehan agreed.

“I don’t think anyone’s against regionalization,” she said. “The issue is where it’s being built — the issue is how it’s being done. We raised (the money) for a reason, and the reason was to build a new shelter in Waterford.”

m.shanahan@theday.com

Twitter: @martha_shan