Created a GoUsaGov utilities class that shortens/lengthens urls and gets the click count - all responses are in JSON
Tested servlet api for minify service -- working as expected:

Example: 
Request: curl 'http://localhost:8080/coastal-hazards-portal/service/minify?action=minify&url=https%3A%2F%2Fgo.usa.gov%2Fapi%23access'
Response: {"response":"{\"response\":{\"0\":[{\"status_code\":\"200\",\"status_txt\":\"OK\"}],\"data\":{\"entry\":[{\"short_url\":\"http://go.usa.gov/TQWM\",\"long_url\":\"https://go.usa.gov/api\"}]}}}","success":"true"}

Request: curl 'http://localhost:8080/coastal-hazards-portal/service/minify?action=minify&url=http://go.usa.gov/TQWM'
Response: {"response":"{\"response\":{\"0\":[{\"status_code\":\"200\",\"status_txt\":\"OK\"}],\"data\":{\"entry\":[{\"short_url\":\"http://go.usa.gov/TQZc\",\"long_url\":\"http://go.usa.gov/TQWM\"}]}}}","success":"true"}