DOG

(Continued from Page 3)

“The dog is in the witness protection program right now.”

“Is the county aware of that?” King asked. “What the heck? The last time they (the authorities) went there, he said his dog is part of his family’s pets. But there is an ad up that he is selling puppies.”

Heinold, in responding that the “county prosecutor’s office is aware that there is an issue or complaints have been made,” added, “I believe the State Police are aware.”

“Obviously, there has been some communication at the township level,” the township solicitor revealed.

However, as of right now, Heinold emphasized, “the only person who is prohibited from owning dogs is Donna Roberts.”

“So, if the son-in-law has ownership of the dog, that is not something …,” said Heinold, before explaining the conviction was against Roberts and “so that does not apply to him.”

But, “Can he sell dogs?”, is another question that King put to the Shamong committee, alleging that Roberts “is there all the time” and shares the same home, further charging, “That is where she lives!”

“I believe so, but I don’t know the answer to that without looking at additional facts,” Heinold replied. “I believe there is no prohibition to him owning or selling dogs.”

King then contended that Robert’s daughter – who forcefully defended her family back in 2018 when dozens of people called on Shamong to create a dog ordinance (which later passed, leading to the discovery on Oakshade Road as it gave authorities the ability to move in on the Robert’s home due a limit on the number of dogs one can have and an inspection mandate) due complaints about noises and conditions at the elder Roberts’ property with charges that a dog kennel and alleged puppy mill had been established there – was also seen “selling puppies in the yard” of her home when somebody drove by there “several months ago.”

She also asserted “they are doing it in Atco” and “some other places.”

“It doesn’t stop!” King declared. “Why should it stop? They make enough money to pay the fines. They get a slap in the hand.”

The successful sale of just one puppy, King maintained, will cover the cost of a fine.

Roberts, in March 2022, had accepted a guilty plea resulting in 90 days in jail and five years of probation. According to the prosecutor’s office, Roberts “pled guilty to causing the death of six dogs that were being kept at her property by failing to provide them with proper care,” which apparently amounted to “one third-degree count of cruelty to animals.” Additionally, Roberts, according to the prosecutor’s office, must serve five years of probation, during which time she cannot own, raise or otherwise care for any animal.

Public reaction to the sentence handed down to Roberts at the time included that it was “too lenient,” though Shamong Township maintained “for someone to go to jail for 90 days” over animal cruelty, it is a “tremendous outcome” considering how the current state laws in that regard are written.

“I think the issues you are talking about (has to do with) the state,” responded Heinold to King’s contentions that such dog breeding activity has since been moved to other locations, including outside Shamong.

“It is what we sort of have been talking about as we went through this whole process – that is until the state provides for more severe penalties, towns are really left to do what they can, but it never is going to be enough.

Even if we do enough to dissuade the activity here, they can move over to the next town over and do it again.”

King indicated that the blame should not be placed on Shamong officials for the situation at hand, before repeating an earlier expression in regard to the purported situation, “What a disgrace!”

Having roiled what was otherwise anticipated to be a routine township committee meeting, Heinold, in appearing to recognize it, returned to the subject during his solicitor’s report.

After asserting “we will see what happens with the current circumstance,” Heinold declared, “We have learned in Shamong, by living through it, that unless and until the state is willing to look at this through a statewide perspective … anybody who wants to play this game from the other side of the fence doesn’t have enough penalties to face to dissuade them from playing the game.”

“That is kind of where things are at,” the township solicitor added. “It is happening way above any capability the municipality has – not just Shamong.”

He then told the Shamong committee that “he circulated to you” Assembly Bill A4920, which is “not yet law,” which, as proposed by Assemblyman Herb Conaway late last year, “establishes restrictions on the number of dogs kept on residential properties; establishes a residential kennel license for properties of which an owner keeps and houses 15 to 25 dogs, and puts into effect inspection and maintenance requirements for residential kennels.” (The kennel on Roberts’ property burned down in a March 2021 blaze.)

Conaway, Shamong Committeeman Brian Woods pointed out, is also the head of the Burlington County Health Department, declaring it is “no coincidence” why the assemblyman proposed the bill. This newspaper previously reported that in the decade prior to Roberts being charged, the health department received numerous complaints pertaining to Roberts and dogs that she sold, as well as conducted an inspection of her Shamong premises, finding 125 dogs at the Robert’s property around 2014, but was forbidden by a judge to take any action at the time due to Shamong having no dog ordinance then, as well as there being no state statutes limiting the number of dogs one can have in their possession.

“A lot of provisions in it are very familiar or are taken from or influenced by the Shamong Township ordinance,” Heinold maintained. “At least the state is trying to do something in terms of mandates.

“In Shamong, typically, we don’t pass ordinances until somebody doesn’t do what is common sense. And it only takes one person to sort of upset the apple cart. That is certainly what happened here. We put the ordinance in that allowed the inspection to take place, and it resulted in what it resulted in. The reality is that person could pick up and go to the next town over and repeat the same process over again and that town would have to go through the process of responding to it. This would at least have some sort of a statewide maximum in place. This is at least a step in the right direction. I don’t know that it is perfect, but it is something.”

The legislation, “even at that,” Heinold noted, would only prescribe “civil penalties” to offenders, or what amounts to “all fines and the cost of doing business fines.”

Shamong Mayor Michael Di Croce, followed up on that point, declaring, “I am going to say what we did worked, and the person went to jail and it precluded them from having any type of activity with animals.”

“Now that does not include a husband, or a kid … and if someone is going to play

See DOG/ Page 11

(Continued from Page 1) the first Republicans to be seated on the township governing body since 2016, and whose 2022 running mate, Jack Tompkins, toppled longtime township mayor David Patriarca, making for the first political shift in the administration in 16 years. “Me and my fellow councilman, and mayor, had ‘Pemberton Township is Open for Business’ as our slogan, but I am sorry, it is not open for a federally illegal business.”

However, it may still be after all, following a later 3-2 vote along party lines that granted the proprietors’ request.

Setting the ruckus in motion before that vote, however, is when Greg M. D’Agostino, a partner in a Massachusetts-based public relations firm representing the local cannabis proprietors, Aaron Marks and Nate Barney, told the township council that the men are “seeking your support for an application to the New Jersey Cannabis Regulatory Commission (CRC)” for Alchemy Botanics to receive a “Class 5 Retail Cannabis License,” noting “our proposed Class 5 dispensary is located at 6 Fort Dix Road.”

Marks, a senior engineering manager at a global cybersecurity firm who also spent 17 years in the defense industry, identified himself as “majority owner” of Alchemy Botanics, and contended that his experience of “working on various projects in a controlled area” is what “qualifies me for working in situations that are highly regulated and controlled,” while Barney said he worked with Marks when he was at Lockheed Martin, with Marks touting their friendship over the years.

Marks called what is proposed a project that will “ultimately benefit Pemberton.”

D’Agostino, in providing those project details, maintained that at 6 Fort Dix Road is an existing 4,000 square-foot stand-alone building which “both meets the size and the type” of facility required “under Pemberton’s cannabis ordinance.”

“On this site, we have adequate parking for both employees and customers, and good ingress and egress off Fort Dix Road,” contended D’Agostino, pointing out that the preliminary plan calls for the majority of parking for the outlet to be on the southside of the building, along with a few spots on the northside, and that the plan also includes parking for those who are disabled.

Then, in revealing a “concept floor plan for the facility,” he identified a “very large salesfloor area” as well as “back of the house operations” and a “receiving” area.

“All customers,” D’Agostino continued, would enter the facility through the “same entrance,” which would lead to an “entry vestibule.” It is in that vestibule that “age verification occurs,” or where customers will be asked to provide identification that will be “scanned.”

“Nobody will be allowed to enter into the facility until their age has been verified,” he maintained. “Once their age has been verified, customers can enter onto the salesfloor.”

The salesfloor will comprise of “secure product displays” as well as “kiosks in which customers can place orders” and “point of sales stations,” all while “budtenders” will be there to “help educate customers about the product and build their orders” and there would also be a “myriad of ways customers can interact on the salesfloor.”

Customers, D’Agostino emphasized, would not be allowed to exit through the way that they came in, but rather must “exit through the exit vestibule,” with the public relations person noting that the exit door would be “interlocking” to “avoid someone from being able to come in through the exit” to the salesfloor.

Though any potential customers would also have the ability to “build an order on the website” for the enterprise, any online shoppers would still “have to come in” and “be age verified” before being given their goods, according to D’Agostino. (The two owners, in response to a later question posed by Democratic Councilman Elisabeth McCartney, said the firm’s website does not yet exist.)

It is in the “back of house order fulfillment room,” per D’Agostino, that “employees will pick and pack orders” and where an “active inventory” will be maintained “during the day,” with the room outlined to have a “passthrough window similar to a pharmacy” where an employee will pass through any orders to another employee sitting “behind the sales counter.”

The interior of the facility, according to D’Agostino, would also have a general “storage room,” with him maintaining that the rules only allow for “non-cannabis goods” such as t-shirts and hats to be stored in there, while a second area known as “secure storage” will house the product. The latter, he described, would be retrofitted with “steel mesh laid between the glue boards” to “secure the storage area from the exterior of the building,” while also securing the room at its entry point.

A “good thing about this facility,” D’agostino asserted, is that it would have a “separate ingress” for “wholesale deliveries” enabling those customers to “go into a dedicated door.” Those buying wholesale, he said, would “come into the facility” and find “product would be waiting for them, manifested into a tracking system.”

“Based on other commercial businesses in that area, we think the use aligns very well with some of the adjacent businesses along Fort Dix Road,” D’Agostino declared. “We do not expect the use will have any adverse impact to residents.”

On the issue of security, D’Agostino vowed there would be a “security guard on site, at all times at the facility, if it is operational and open to the public” and that a security system would be monitored 24/7, for all 365 days of the year. The facility would also be retrofitted, he said, with seven “electronic and access control card readers” with associated software allowing movement to be “tracked,” while 28 “fixed cameras,” including two “multi-lens cameras” would provide “a 360-degree view of the entire interior and exterior of the building” that “includes all of the parking and loading areas, all ingresses and egresses to the site, and all areas available to the public, and where cannabis is stored, per the Pemberton cannabis ordinance.”

“We will invite the Pemberton Police Department to come in and look at the design, the camera placement, how the system works, and the audit trail process that is created by the access system and seek any input they might have,” vowed D’Agostino, noting that all surveillance footage would be stored for at least 45 days.

Gardner asked if the security guard would be “armed,” to which he was told that person “can be” and that “some law enforcement departments will weigh in as to whether there is a preference or not, or if there is a prohibition on that.”

Some of the state’s existing cannabis retailers are known to be “cash-based businesses,” and the potential for there to be large amounts of cash on hand has led to security concerns being voiced in the state. In broaching this issue, D’Agostino maintained that the enterprise, hoping to bring on about 20 employees, has “already established a bank account with BCB Community Bank,” calling it “one of the leaders in banking, on cannabis,” pointing out the enterprise “had to go through a process to get vetted by BCB bank,” in which the firm “even does their own background check.”

“The bank has its own requirements in regard to movement of cash,” D’Agostino said. “As part of our operations, there will be a safe in the secure storage area, which is already built out to deter penetration from the exterior. There will also be a separate safe in the secure storage area for cash.”

BCB Bank, he explained, “has its own third party vendors” who will travel to the location to “come and pick up that cash” that is received and “once cash leaves the facility, the third party will bring it to a vault, or to a BCB bank branch.”

However, the public relations person maintained that “a lot of transactions” processed at cannabis retailers are actually what are called “cashless ATM” transactions, or ones in which customers use a “debit card.”

“A lot of transactions occur with debit,” D’Agostino said. “So, I don’t expect there to be a huge volume of cash.”

Both Gardner and McCartney posed several questions throughout the presentation regarding how a customer’s identification would be processed and verified, with D’Agostino explaining that the CRC requires all cannabis retailers in the state to “use the same system” or a “seed to sale tracking system.”

“This isn’t something where an operator says, ‘I will try this and see if it works,’ but is rather through a vendor the state CRC has selected,” he responded, noting that the system tracks product as it moves into and through a facility.

While D’Agostino acknowledged he “doesn’t know in particular” how the state handles “weights and measures,” the public relations person emphasized “before that wholesale driver can leave, the product needs to be weighed and entered into that