HELMETTA — The borough received no responses to its request for proposals (RFP) to privatize the Helmetta Regional Animal Shelter by the March 31 deadline, leaving officials with few options for the facility.
Councilwoman Yvette Bruno, chairwoman of the Borough Council’s animal shelter committee, confirmed that no private entities expressed interest in purchasing the shuttered facility.
Bruno has supported a plan to reopen the shelter under new management, but said she does not believe council members would approve it.
“I really don’t know where we go from here,” Bruno said.
She said the building will most likely stay closed unless another RFP is put out.
The borough sought buyers for the facility to help pay down the more than $1.5 million in debt outstanding on a bond issued to refurbish the facility. Payments on the bond amount to roughly $10,000 per month.
The shelter ceased operations last November, and former shelter directors Michal and Richard Cielesz were subsequently charged with six counts of animal cruelty by the Middlesex County Prosecutor’s Office.
However, the prosecutor’s office reduced the felony charges on March 11, and the case was remanded to Helmetta municipal court.
Assistant Prosecutor Thomas Mannion and prosecutor’s office spokesman James O’Neill declined last week to comment on the reason why the charges were reduced.
State animal cruelty investigators said they were disappointed with the decision.
The New Jersey Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (NJSPCA) took control of the shelter on Dec. 1 after county inspectors found substandard conditions and failure to provide proper care for the animals housed at the facility, which had been placed under quarantine.
Capt. Rick Yocum, president of the NJSPCA, said while the prosecutor’s decision to remand the charges is disheartening, it is not unusual, and the matter is “far from over.
“Obviously, we are disappointed, because this is something that we consider to be an extremely important case,” Yocum said.
“But, as we do when this happens, we now focus our energies on finding out which municipal court it will be heard in, and we’ll present our case along with that municipal prosecutor against those two defendants.”
According to Yocum, the former shelter directors still face Title IV animal cruelty violations. He said only the “indictable charges” were remanded, meaning the cruelty charges no longer carry a felony component.
“There were indictable charges filed on top of the animal cruelty charges,” Yocum said. “Those now have been … remanded back to the municipal court level, so they will not be felony charges. … But they’re still Title IV animal cruelty violations.”
The six counts against each defendant carry a potential penalty of $1,000 in fines and up to six months in jail, but Yocum said jail time would be highly unlikely for a firsttime offender.
The initial hearing is scheduled to be held in North Brunswick’s municipal court on May 1 at 9:00 a.m. before Judge William Feingold.