The rain silently fell from a stormy Woodbridge sky, setting a perfect stage for what would turn out to be a sad night for at least one board member (actually, only one board member) as District Animal Control bid farewell at its final meeting last night.
While the meeting, in true DAC "are we at a keg party or a formal meeting?" style, had more drama than an episode of Jersey Shore, the board members did take care of some business.
In a nutshell:
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- A local Boy Scout has approached the shelter and asked if he could build an overhang to protect the cats while they're outside. He's working on raising the necessary funds to complete the project.
- Animal control officers responded to 153 calls. They collected 18 dogs in May. Thirteen cats and dogs were sold as pets.
- ACOs Paul Niedmann and Karen Lombardi rescued 9 ducklings from the storm sewer in Orange behind Namco. Lombardi crawled into the sewer, saved 8 ducklings and put them in a crate. While deciding what to do with them, she received a call that there was another duckling in the sewer and she went back to retrieve it. Met by the mother duck, Lombard and Niedmann released all 9 babies to her care. And they lived happy ever after.
- The animal shelter received a cash donation from the student council at Turkey Hill School in Orange. ACOs thanked the children in person, bringing along a couple of dogs from the shelter.
- The board unanimously approved the payout of unused vacation and sick days to Niedmann and he will start fresh when his employment shifts over to the police department on July 1.
The meeting ended with a series of good-byes and even some tears by Joan Blatsky, who attempted to thank the board until she got choked up and couldn't continue.
A tearless Zeoli had no problem speaking: "We've done a good job shifting our system over into something that's understandable. Everyone can see where the expenses are going."
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"In the past four years, we've gotten on the straight and narrow. I'm more comfortable breaking away and leaving the animal control officers with the police department," he said.
Lombari said she, too, is comfortable and looking forward to working under the police department.
"As long as we do our job, we're going to be just fine," she says. July 1, Orange will join Milford's animal control operations and Woodbridge ACOs will fall under the control of the police department.
