Toms River Animal Shelter to Expand

Toms River Township officials will spend $6.4 million to construct a new animal shelter on Whitesville Road. The project will also include an expansion of the township's municipal court and renovations to the police headquarters building.

Toms River's township council passed a resolution this week awarding the $6.4 million contract to Kelso Construction Company.

The new shelter is planned to be four times the size of the current incarnation on Whitesville Road, totaling out at roughly 7,000 square feet — and is hoped to meet the pressing demands of taking care of sick, needy and lost animals in the community.

“This (project) has been in progress for a while. We now have all the permits,” said Council President Maurice "Mo" Hill. “This resolution tonight will allow us to start work on that project and break ground for the animal shelter.”

Mayor Thomas Kelaher added that the search process for a new animal shelter led to a spot adjacent to Police Headquarters, where the department’s K-9 training facility is located.

“It took almost one year to get CAFRA (Coastal Area Facility Review Act) approval (for this project),” said the mayor, who estimated that the construction of the new, “state-of-the-art” facility would last about a year.

The mayor also explained that with the location surrounded by youth-oriented programs in the forms of athletic fields and recreational activities, it would lend itself to many animals finding new families and new, loving homes.

Kelaher said that the township then planned to tear down the existing facility on Whitesville Road and sell the property there, in order to help defray the costs of construction for the new building.