News-pourri

Re-enactor Algernon Ward will be among those participating in the anniversary celebration. (Photo: Millstone Valley Preservation Coalition.) Submitted by the Millstone Valley Preservation Coalition. The Millstone Valley Preservation Coalition (MVPC) is teaming up with Franklin Township on August 28 to commemorate the 700-mile victory march of American and French troops along the Millstone River 240 years ago. Thousands of troops …

Jared Sheffrin and Nikki Tatum are the school district’s newest vice principals. Vice principals for Hillcrest School and the Road To Success Program, and Franklin Middle School – Sampson G. Smith campus, were appointed August 26 by the Board of Education. Nikki Tatum will leave her dual position as vice principal at Claremont and Franklin Park elementary schools to take …

Parents and children gathered at the township Gazebo August 26 for the annual backpack giveaway. Township students and their parents gathered August 26 at the township’s Gazebo for what is becoming an annual tradition: the distribution of backpacks filled with school supplies. The effort was undertaken by Franklin Township Police Department’s Community Relations Bureau and PBA Local 154, the Community …

The Franklin Township Public Library Board of Trustees voted August 25 to prepare to receive bids for a new library branch in September. The Board also made decisions on suggested modifications to the new branch from the Planning Board and the Environmental Commission. The 5,580-square-foot building is targeted for a 2.3-acre plot of land adjacent to Franklin Park School. The …

District and school administrators took part in an August 23 webinar about the start of the school year. Student work loads this school year will generally be the same as they were before the Covid-19 pandemic, although students will work more independently, rather than in groups. Also, school buses will top off at about 40 students per trip, as a …

Approximately 48 percent of the school district’s teachers, administrators and support staff have self-reported that they have been vaccinated against the Covid-19 virus, a district official said on August 20. Of the 666 people who responded to a district survey – which was sent to 1,250 teachers, administrators and support staff – 604 of them reported being vaccinated against the …

The landscape plan for the proposed southern branch of the Franklin Township library. The Franklin Public Library Board of Trustees should heed suggestions on its proposed southern branch made by the township Environmental Commission and planning department officials, the Planning Board recommended at its August 18 meeting. The Board passed on its recommendations over the objections of a handful of …

Prizes were awarded at various holes during the golf outing. More than 70 duffers hit the links at the Bunker Hill Golf Club August 16 to raise money for the district’s teachers. The event was the inaugural golf outing hosted by the Franklin Township Warrior Educational Foundation, a 2-year-old non-profit formed by “a group of parents, former educators, representatives of …

Baseball great Dwight “Doc” Gooden shows kids in the Simuel Whitfield Simmons Organization program how to throw a curve ball. About two dozen kids from Franklin and the surrounding area – most of them baseball fans – got a treat on August 7: a face-to-face meeting with baseball great Dwight “Doc” Gooden. Gooden, who at one time called Piscataway his …

Environmental expert Susan Quackenbush told the Zoning Board of Adjustment about potential environmental impacts from a proposed temple on South Middlebush Road. The attorney for the developer of a proposed 21,000-square-foot temple slated for South Middlebush Road said August 5 that the building’s design will probably be changed. Attorney Peter Lanfrit told the Zoning Board of Adjustment that so many …