Toms River Lays Off Shelter Staff, Preps To Turn It Over To Ocean County

TOMS RIVER, NJ — The staff of the Toms River Animal Shelter was notified Thursday that it is being laid off and animals at the shelter are to be transferred to Ocean County, Patch has learned.

Mayor Daniel Rodrick says the town is moving forward with transferring the shelter to the Ocean County Board of Health through another avenue, in spite of the recently certified recall of the town's ordinance approving entering into a lease with the county.

In addition to the layoff notification, the shelter is no longer accepting animals and is not accepting donations, said Dawn Nivison, wife of Toms River Councilman Tom Nivison, who volunteers at the shelter.

"I knew something was up when I saw the sign on the door that they were no longer accepting donations," she said.

Dawn Nivison was present when Toms River business administrator Jonathan Salonis, assistant township attorney Peter Pascarella and Drew Chabot, who is in charge of the shelter, arrived shortly after 4 p.m. to notify the employees about the impending layoffs. Nivison said the three men were accompanied by a woman she did not know but assumed was the township's human resources person.

The animals that are in the shelter right now — six dogs and 28 cats and kittens — will be moved to the Northern Ocean County Animal Facility on Friday, Dawn Nivison said, with that task falling to the only person who was not laid off Thursday, animal control officer and shelter manager David Matthews.

A copy of the layoff letter, which was provided to Patch, shows the employees have been put on administrative leave with pay for 45 days. The township administration will be meeting with the union that represents the employees, Toms River Professionals Association AFSCME Local 3168 "to explore all possible avenues to limit or avoid the need for these layoffs."

After the 45-day administrative leave the layoffs will become effective, the letter said.

The layoff notification comes days after a recall petition was certified by the township clerk's office as having enough signatures to force the council to rescind the ordinance it passed April 24 to allow the township to lease the shelter to Ocean County. Township clerk Michael Cruoglio wrote the petition, which had more than 450 pages, had met the 3,079-signature minimum and he would be presenting his findings to the council at the June 26 meeting.

The Ocean County Board of Health approved a resolution May 8 to negotiate a lease for the shelter with Toms River, but it was not clear how far those negotiations had progressed. Read more: 'Toms River Told Us They Were Closing The (Animal) Shelter,' Singer Says

Daniel Regenye, the public health coordinator for the county health department, on Thursday night said the county had been waiting for a reply from Toms River, but he did not give details.

Rodrick, in a phone conversation Thursday evening with Salonis and Pascarella listening by speakerphone, said the recall was specific to the town leasing the shelter, and that he was pursuing a different path to give the shelter to Ocean County.

"I don’t need a lease to give the shelter to the county," Rodrick said. "It's a done deal." He did not provide details.

Rodrick said the layoffs happened Thursday because the county will need time to make changes to the building. At the Board of Health meeting, officials said the county would add dog runs to the building.

He insisted giving the shelter to the county will eliminate $1 million in annual costs, and said documents obtained by Patch through an Open Public Records Act request that showed expenditures of $518,000 in 2023 are not accurate and do not capture the full cost. He said health benefit costs for the four full-time employees push the total expenditures much higher.

Rodrick said the Pyne donation — which was more than $1 million when the stock was sold and some of which was used to fund shelter operations in 2023 — would be used to pay for the building updates to the shelter that the county discussed.

He also insisted the opposition to transferring the shelter to the county was just a political ploy from people aligned with former mayor Maurice Hill, in spite of opposition from Tom Nivison, who was on Rodrick's council slate last November. The split over the animal shelter has led to a schism between Rodrick and Nivison that turned into a shouting match at the May 22 council meeting. Read more: 'You're A Sellout': Rift Widens Between Toms River Mayor, Councilman

"The people spoke, and they spoke again on Tuesday," Rodrick said, referring to the victory by William Byrne in the race for the remaining year of Rodrick's former Ward 2 council seat. Unofficial totals show Byrne received 1,419 votes out of 8,475 registered Republicans in Ward 2, or 16.7 percent of the registered voters. Former councilman Kevin Geoghegan received 930 votes out of 8,475 registered Republicans, 10.9 percent.

Dawn Nivison said she was upset the employees weren't given two weeks' notice, said she is concerned about the animals that are being moved to the county shelter on Friday.

Among them is Penny, a black-and-white female cat who has proven to be a tough case, with adopters returning her to the shelter twice because she doesn't get along with other cats.

"She hangs out in the lobby," Nivison said, and gets extra attention as the shelter staff has tried to work with her.

"The people there are very caring," Nivison said. "They are very easygoing with the animals."

She fears Penny will not find the same patient care when she's moved to the county shelter, and that her cranky attitude combined with being a black cat — which are frequently more difficult to place — will lead to her being euthanized.

Nivison said she doesn't understand why Rodrick won't put the shelter matter to a vote of the entire township. One of the options for the town's response to the successful recall petition is to pose it as a question to township voters.

"You know people want it open," she said. "Put it to a vote so the people could decide if they want to pay a dollar or two more (in property taxes) for the shelter."