Mayor again pledges to build animal shelter

State will inspect

temporary shelter

sometime this year

BY JAY BODAS

Staff Writer

Mayor Frank G. Pelzman said he is "totally committed" to building a Woodbridge Township animal shelter as soon as possible, despite recent site plan delays.

Pelzman pledged last year to build the much-needed shelter in 2006.

"It is something that is desperately needed, and we will build it," Pelzman said Monday. "The money is in place, and I want to have this thing done."

Pelzman said he agrees that the conditions at the temporary shelter in Sewaren are not well-suited for animals.

"I saw the conditions that were down there," Pelzman said. "I don't want to have animals living like that. I love animals. My two kids have them. We got a little bit of a delay, but we are moving ahead with it."

The current shelter in Sewaren sits near an old, defunct arsenic-producing chemical plant, and houses cats and dogs in close quarters with one another.

The shelter was only supposed to be a temporary fix five years ago, until the township built a new shelter.

It received a "conditionally satisfactory" rating from the state Department of Health and Senior Services' (DHSS) Office of Animal Welfare last year.

There will be another, unannounced inspection of the Sewaren shelter sometime this year, said DHSS spokesman Nathan Rudy.

"I can't tell you when, simply because they want all of these visits to be a surprise," Rudy said. "We do our inspections that way. If there's a complaint and we go out, then that's a different case. But I'm talking about routine inspections."

The first state inspection in February 2005 found 13 violations, including: no provision for hot water during the time of inspection; insufficient lighting for accurate cleaning and monitoring of animals; standing water that does not allow dogs to remain dry in their runs; the use of intracardiac injection as the primary means of euthanasia; and incomplete records.

Seven violations were found in the second inspection in July 2005.

The inspections that had been scheduled for this year have not yet been conducted, however.

"We restructured the department of animal welfare this year, and we have been doing a review of animal welfare throughout the state," Rudy said. "We have a list of facilities that we are going to inspect, and this facility is on that list."

Rudy guaranteed that they would inspect the Sewaren facility at some point in 2006.

In addition to the Sewaren facility, the township has also paid $38,100 a year to house four dogs and 15 cats in a 10-by-15-foot space in the office of Iselin veterinarian Ira Niedweski for more than four years. The township also spends an additional $12,000 a year on medical treatment for the animals.

"As far as medical care goes, we charge [the township] 10 cents on the dollar and give them a very heavily discounted rate," Niedweski has said.

Recent delays in awarding a contract for the site plan were associated with the competitive contract process used to solicit bids, said Business Administrator Robert Landolfi.

"We lost a good couple months using the competitive contract process twice," Landolfi said. "We advertised it twice and didn't get any takers. It was a little frustrating. It takes a certain amount of time to get the documents together. We are now negotiating with an engineer to do a site plan for us."

Building the shelter is a priority, Landolfi said.

"The design is done with the exception of site plan issues," Landolfi said. "The point is, we sometimes get the impression that people think we don't want to do this, but it's something we are committed to. The money's in place, and the building's designed. We are going to have the site plan done in the near future."

Pelzman said the final cost of the proposed animal shelter would probably be "escalated" from the $500,000 currently budgeted for its construction.

"It will probably be one of the nicer facilities around," he said. "I think the plans are quite adequate. I think everyone should be pretty happy once this is completed. It's at a point where we should come out with the information; but the bottom line is, I am committed to having this done."