Police K-9 Memorial Nears Completion

A memorial honoring Gloucester Township Police Department K-9s is almost done.

The memorial, which is located in Gloucester Township Community Park, just needs some lighting for its flag poles and a few other minor improvements before it is officially dedicated this spring.

Money collected through the K-9 Schultz Memorial Fund was used to pay for the new memorial.

K-9 Schultz was killed in the line of duty on Nov. 30, 2010, when struck by several cars on Route 42 while attempting to apprehend a suspect in the robbery of a Chinese restaurant on Church Street.

"The goal all along was to have a nice memorial, and I think it's worked out," Police Chief W. Harry Earle said on Thursday. "It looks fantastic."

The township has also used the memorial fund to add two new police dogsand to pay for the memorial's sign, which was made by Sign Pros of Glendora and unveiled at K-9 Schult'z memorial service last December.

All Green Turf Management was the contractor chosen to put the memorial together.

Thanks to some cooperation from Mother Nature, it took the Blackwood-based landscaping company, which is co-owned by retired Gloucester Township police officer Gene Martinez, less than three weeks to do the job.

"I'm glad they reached out to me (to put in a bid to do the memorial)," Martinez said on Friday. "It was nice seeing some of the guys I used to work with and having them call me to say 'nice job.'"

The landscaping company brought in Lindenwold-based Paver Art to lay the brick pavers that form the Gloucester Township Police crest in front of the memorial sign.

The K-9 Schultz Memorial Fund brought in more than $70,000 in donations, including a $30,000 contribution by South Philadelphia cheesesteak king Joey Vento, who died in August.

Martinez's business partner is Paul Colella.