CONCERNS

ANYTHING, WE HAUL IT. ATTICS, BASEMENTS, DEMOLITIONS, SHEDS REMOVED, POOLS REMOVED, SPACEPLACES CLEANED OUT, ETC. CALL 609-694-9356.

Household appliances. Televisions, furniture, etc. for disposal or transport. Garage and yard cleanups along with lawn cutting and gutter cleaning. Free estimates. Call or Text Bob at 1-609-880-3789.

HOME HEALTH AIDE

Experienced certified home health aide. Companion and caregiver. References available. Call or text Cindy 609-227-9873.

House For Sale

LAWYERS

Erwin Apell Attorney, Browns Mills. All legal matters - free hotline 24/7. Visa, Mastercard. Call 609-220-3059 or email Erwinapell@gmail.com .

LOST DOG

Adopted from Popcorn Park: looking for three dogs, Miniature Pinschers named Taz, Rusty and Henry. Please call 732-796-3572 or 908670-1173. Reward for return.

SPRING CLEANUPS

Spring cleanups, lawn cutting, and gutter cleaning. Shrub pruning and some tree work, along with hauling. Free estimates=reasonable rates. Call or Text Bob at 1-609-880-3789.

IF YOU’RE READING THIS AD, YOU’VE ALREADY MET ONE OF THE KEY REQUIREMENTS TO BE OUR AD SALES REP.

That’s because familiarity with our newspaper— as well as the area it serves—is one of the most important qualifications you can have to grow the list of local businesses that advertise with us, the other being a successful track record in sales and marketing.

If you do, you’ll find that this can be an immensely rewarding job—one that will not only help the area’s predominant free weekly continue to thrive, but help to keep the free press truly free (in more ways than one). But before you can do that, “you’ve got to know the territory!”

If you possess the criteria we’re looking for (and you already have one of them), email Doug Melegari, publisher, Pine Barrens Tribune, news@pinebarrenstribune.com with your resume and a cover letter.

Directive

(Continued from Page 10) have to buy a printer, do the photo setup or hire a photographer to do that. I brought with me my printer and everything that I needed.”

As for putting a value on such a service, Gardner said that “each photographer is different,” charging a fee based on their “skill set” and “equipment” that they provide in performing their services. However, he did share with this newspaper that he previously charged non-profit organizations $5 per picture.

Gardner then pointed to previous allegations leveraged against Tompkins in 2016, that he drove through a roadblock during a forest fire as a councilman and then tried to use his title to access a restricted area, actions for which he was later censored, or as Gardner put it, the council “gave him a verbal reprimand.”

“The way he operates, he thinks he is in a certain position, and has certain entitlement to things, like being able to cross a fire line,” declared Gardner, further alleging that in a purported recent back-and-forth discussion with Tompkins, a military veteran, about why he should be entitled to a greater salary for the mayoral post, Tompkins informed him, “‘Donovan, I am the general. I am a general.’”

Tompkins, in a second follow-up phone call for this story, declined to provide any rebuttal to those two particular charges by the council president. But what he did offer in that second call is that he attended both sessions of the Breakfast with the Easter Bunny event, and “actually thought the Rec Department did a phenomenal job” and he “didn’t hear any parents” raise concerns about the event.

In fact, he maintained, they were taking pictures using their smartphones, which he noted, “come to think of it,” gives the parents the ability to more easily share any photographs on social media, etc., “if they want to” and reduces the risk to the township of any claim arising from photographs being taken of their children without parental permission.

“It takes us out of it,” he said, adding that to his knowledge a photographer wasn’t booked for the event, although Pittman does have a “little bit of leeway” to contract out just like with any other event.

Following Lazos was Hugh Reed, “here to represent the 32 owners of Shawdow Lake” as part of its homeowners’ association, who declared, “We are very concerned about this potential pig operation that is going to be built.” nationwide recalls of lettuce, and then declared that a pig farm “poses a risk to our community because we are a farming community,” contending, “I know the farmer across the street uses that creek (reportedly behind the property in question) as a water source when the lake drops.”

The council president, when asked if council has the ability to change the rules to allow councilmembers to have more interaction with department heads and town departments, said he would have to take a closer look at the Faulkner Act, which is the basis of the rules and regulations adopted for Pemberton’s form of government.

“So, his crop could be contaminated, and then shipped out to wherever,” said Lazos of what he believed could be effects of any pig farm that extend well beyond even Shamong’s borders. “Those people are going to be at risk.

“I think you guys (the township committee) are levelheaded, and I have no qualms with the Right-to-Farm, and that is why I moved out here, and I love it out here, but I think there is a place and a time. I think this poses real financial risk to all properties and a health risk for everybody involved.”

“We would ask that as any zoning or any other issues are looked at, that this really be examined by the township committee to make sure the residents are being kept safe,” Reed said.

Another resident, Joe Ruiz, who followed Reed noted that he hasn’t “seen this many people together” to voice a concern about an issue since 2009, adding “property value is one thing, but when you talk about health risks, that takes it to a whole other level.”

Ruiz asked for a “transparent process,” maintaining what is proposed is “going to impact us” and there is “no doubt about it” as indicated by “any study you find.”

After Ruiz came up to the dais, resident Ken

(Continued from Page 13) See CONCERNS/ Page 15

But what he does know is that by him doing the photography, he can “save the township money,” pointing out that Tompkins “came in under the notion that he would save the township money, but is just spending, spending, and spending,” with it “first being the lawyers, then wanting a higher salary and now having the township hire a photographer,” though “if another photographer wants to do it for free, I have no problem with it.”

As for whether Gardner accepts the mayor’s explanation for the directive that he relayed to this newspaper (with the mayor aware that this newspaper was going to ask for his rebuttal, calling it “fair” to do so), Gardner quipped of the mayor’s philosophy, “you have certain things in the book that says you can do certain

Gardner, also a veteran, during the April 5 council meeting, maintained there was a “long history” between him and Tompkins, but declined to expand on what he meant, that is until asked by this reporter April 10, alleging that after he defeated Tompkins in 2016, “for two years he didn’t say word to me after the election,” despite encountering each other at “different veteran events at the township.”

“Not a word, not even a ‘good morning,’” Gardner asserted. “It took him two years to start speaking to me.”

As for the photography clash, when asked how it would impact their working relationship in governing the town, Gardner replied, “It didn’t go up or down, and is still going to be the same – nothing has changed,” while Tompkins, when asked if he was concerned this directive would only make things even more tense in their relationship, chuckled, before saying, “No, I don’t think it can get much more tense than it already has been over the last couple of months.”