The new Middlebush skate park is open. The new Middlebush Park skate park is already garnering attention. The new park, located next to the basketball courts, is smaller than the one it replaced, but is considered by skaters as an upgrade.

Contracts worth more than $430,000 were approved October 11 by the Township Council. The largest of the two, for $363,746.70, was for lighting for a Franklin Township Little League field at the DeKalb Avenue baseball complex.

Ordinances creating a mid-block crosswalk and banning parking on one side of a township road saw Township Council action at the October 11 meeting. The Council approved on second reading an ordinance that creates a mid-block crosswalk on Rutgers Boulevard, near Schoolhouse Road.

Levin vice president Sidney Singer talks to the Planning Board at. the special October 12 meeting. Township residents packed the Council chambers on October 12 for the chance to give the Levin Management Company their thoughts on the plan to turn the former Kmart building in Rutgers Plaza into a four-story apartment building. Those thoughts were not positive.

Rose Gessner, 99, passed away on October 12 at St. Peter’s University Medical Center in New Brunswick. Mrs. Gessner was born July 17, 1923, in New Brunswick to the late Eugene and Rose Vajai. She relocated to Milltown in 1946, before moving to Somerset in 1955. Rose attended Middlebush School in Franklin Township. She began her career at Triangle Cable …

Dorothy Reed, right, president of Sister 2 Sister, was at the October 11 Township Council meeting to receive the Council’s proclamation on Breast Cancer Awareness Month. The Township Council on October 11 formally declared October as Breast Cancer Awareness month in the township, and gave a nod to a local organization helping women going through the disease. Dorothy Reed, president …

Map showing where retail applications for cannabis business would be located. Another six applications for cannabis businesses were voted on by the Township Council at its October 11 meeting.

The Franklin High School boys’ and girls’ soccer teams won their opening rounds in the Somerset County tournament October 10 in back-to-back games in Warrior Stadium. Not only did both teams win, but they won by identical scores: the boy’s bested Immaculata 6-0 while the girls’ topped Manville, 6-0.

Jim Cramer signs of a bottle of his Fósforo mezcal at Bottle Republic on Easton Avenue on October 8. Jim Cramer, of CNBC “Mad Money” fame, cringes when he’s called a celebrity. That holds true whether the source of that celebrity is his financial program, or Fósforo mezcal, his latest venture with his wife, Lisa Detwiller.

The first weekend in October saw a number of events occur in Franklin. On October 7, the Franklin High School senior field hockey players were celebrated with their senior night.