4 p.m.Despite objections from several neighbors, Napa Valley Exposition’s board of directors voted Tuesday to allow a winter homeless shelter at the fairgrounds.

While details still need to be worked out, the shelter could start operation in November before the worst of the wet and cold weather.

The third time was a charm for Jim Featherstone, assistant director of Napa County Health and Human Services, who had been turned down twice by the Expo over the past decade.

Featherstone said he was running out of options for a place to bed down 50 “chronic homeless” for the winter. Napa State Hospital housed the shelter in recent years, but no longer has an available building, he said.

The board endorsed hosting the winter shelter on a 6-2 vote, after receiving assurances that the operation would not create security problems for Expo rentals or the neighborhood.

As Featherstone told one neighbor, “you don’t have to worry about the people who are in here. You have to worry about the people who are not in here.”

The majority of board members said the Expo should help to meet a community need if a shelter can be run without safety and financial repercussions.

Board member Dee Cuney supported the winter shelter, with the proviso that the lease could be canceled if the fairgrounds began losing rental customers.

“We can’t afford to lose one rental. We’re on a shoe string as it is,” Cuney said.

Expo CEO Joe Anderson identified either Cabernet or Riesling halls as the best shelter location. Both have indoor bathrooms, minimizing the need for the homeless to leave the shelter once admitted.

Stephen Thomas, director of The Oxbox School, a residential arts high school, spoke against the shelter. He feared someone leaving the shelter in the middle of the night and entering his open campus where students are sleeping.

“I only need one incident to be a major incident for the school,” Thomas said.

Another neighbor, Randy Jesch, said a shelter that admitted people under the influence of drugs and alcohol did not belong in a residential neighborhood. It should be located as close as possible to the police station, he said.

Featherstone and Charlene Horton, director of the Napa Valley Shelter Project, said the winter shelter had a 10-year track record of responsible operation at four locations. The shelter typically operates between November and April.

Everyone who comes to the winter shelter will be screened first at the Hope activity center on Fourth Street, where they will shower and undergo background checks, Horton said.

Shelter residents will be bused as a group to and from the Expo. No one is allowed to walk in, Horton said. No one will be in the shelter between 7:30 a.m. and 5:30 p.m.

Shelter sponsors said they would work out a protocol for informing law enforcement whenever a person asks to leave the shelter or is kicked out for a rules violation at night.

Although winter shelter patrons can be under the influence when they are admitted, they cannot have drugs or alcohol with them and must behave with “civility,” Horton said.

Board chair Don Carr and Janet Kirtlink, Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger’s most recent board appointee, voted against the winter shelter.

Kirtlink said anyone who rents space at the Expo for a wedding or party should be notified that there will be a winter shelter nearby. “There possibly could be in their mind uninvited guests wandering in there,” she said.

“I don’t think this is a compatible use for the fairgrounds here in Napa,” Carr said.

Carr tried to delay a vote on the winter shelter, saying he would appoint a committee to study the issue. Board member Myrna Abramowicz, supported by other board members, insisted that the matter be brought to a vote now.

After the meeting, Featherstone said he would continue to look for another site. “If I can do something less controversial than this, I’ll do it,” he said.

Time is the big issue, Featherstone said. Rains are coming this weekend. He may not have any options.