BY KATHY CHANG
Staff Writer
HELMETTA — Borough officials are working on pumping new life into the now-shuttered Helmetta Regional Animal Shelter.
Council President Peter Karczewski said officials are seeking a request for proposal (RFP) for the two-story building located at 58 Main St., which has been vacant since December of 2014 after it was ordered to be shut down by the Middlesex County Health Department.
“It’s been a financial burden [on the taxpayers of Helmetta],” Karczewski said at a council meeting on Feb. 17.
Karczewski said the town is currently working on clearing out the building and setting up a virtual tour of the facility, which he said would be the forefront of bringing normalcy back to the borough.
“The idea is to sell our town. … Short of last year, we are a great town to live in,” he said.
Karczewski said the virtual tour would be a three- to four-minute video and the borough would pitch it to the likes of the North Shore Animal League as well as to the county.
Mayor Christopher Slavicek said the creation of the virtual tour comes at no cost to the borough. He said the borough is receiving volunteer work from the video technician for the Spotswood School District and another woman from Jamesburg as well as a painting apprenticeship through Karczewski.
“We are doing this with finances in mind,” he said. “Slow and steady wins the race as we educate ourselves.”
Borough officials noted that the former shelter building suffered minimal damage after a water pipe broke over the weekend when temperatures plummeted into the negative degrees. Borough officials were alerted of the damage on Feb. 15. Slavicek said it was a good idea to have members of the Department of Public Works stop at the building on a regular basis.
A member of the public told the mayor and council it was important for a regional animal shelter in the area, noting that municipal shelters in the county are few and far between, with limited space including the shelters in Woodbridge, Perth Amboy and Old Bridge.
The Middlesex County Health Department ordered the shelter in Helmetta closed in November 2014 after inspectors found conditions there had not improved in response to six warnings issued by the New Jersey Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (NJSPCA). With the help of veterinarians, volunteers and animal rescue organizations, the Helmetta shelter was sanitized following the quarantine, and the entire population of animals was moved out by Dec. 22.
Since then, the building has been vacant.
Prior to the quarantine, which was ordered following a joint inspection with the NJSPCA, the shelter ran into financial difficulties due to a $2 million bond issued to refurbish the facility.
The borough last year issued an RFP to find a private buyer for the property, which is zoned for several uses other than an animal shelter, including age-restricted residential units, general retail, food and beverage, professional offices, surface parking and a community center. However, the RFP response period closed without a single proposal.
Another plan, offered by former interim shelter Director Niki Dawson, who was appointed by the NJSPCA following the quarantine, called for $3-per-capita contracts with municipalities. The Borough Council did not adopt that plan, which was put forth in March 2015.
Contact Kathy Chang at kchang@gmnews.com.
