A 16-year-old township resident has been arrested in connection with the Feb. 27 fire that briefly emptied out Franklin Township High School. In a release about the incident, Somerset County Prosecutor’s Office spokesman Capt. Jack Bennett said the youth has been charged with 2nd Degree Aggravated Arson. Bennett said the youth used a lighter to set fire to a piece …

By Bill Connell, Somerset. I was watching the February 20, Board of Education meeting.  One of the board members explained their vote was due to being worried about an orderly transition.  This board member voted for the super’s non-renewal and early exit.  This does not reflect the goal of an orderly transition.  I could not tell if this over explanation …

An unoccupied car on Ray Street was shot at multiple times the evening of Feb. 25, police said. Township police received a call about gunshots at about 8:40 p.m., according to a release on the incident from the Somerset County Prosecutor’s Office. Township police officers, detectives and members of the prosecutor’s Major Crimes Unit responded, the release said. The incident …

The school district is no longer considering outsourcing its 123 paraprofessionals as a means to bridge a $1.7 million budget gap, but it has not ruled out some type of staff reduction. In a letter sent to staff members and posted on the district Web site, interim schools Superintendent Eveny Pagan said outsourcing the paraprofessionals “is no longer a consideration …

Two contracts worth $69,000 were approved by the Township Council at its Feb. 25 meeting. The largest of the two, worth $55,000 a year, was awarded to Joseph Smentkowski, Inc. of Jersey City for servicing the township mini-dump. The two-year contract expires on Feb. 28, 2016. A $14,000 contract for electrical services as needed was awarded to Vetter Electric of …

A fight over a cell phone charger led to a man being sent to Robert Wood Johnson University Hospital, New Brunswick, police said. Police reported that on Feb. 25, a fight between two men broke out in front of a Pickering Place home. Police said the two men – identified only as a 41-year-old Asian man and a 42-year-old black …

Robert Trautmann, a Board of Education member in the middle of his first term, has resigned. But he’s not going quietly. In his Feb. 24 resignation letter, Trautmann said his goal is to see board president Julia Presley, board vice president Eva Nagy and board member Richard Arline “removed from their position as board members and restore order, civility and …

Cars driven by Hedwig Kayden and Timothy Danzey, both of Somerset, in the K-Mart parking lot off Easton Avenue collided. Each driver blamed the other. § Virginia Coughlan of Somerset was driving down Winston Drive when she veered to the right to avoid an oncoming car. In doing so, her car struck a parked auto owned by Leon Arias-Solano of …

St. Thomas Syro-Malabar Catholic Church of Franklin Township has received a $3.5 million loan and a $5,000 donation toward construction of its new church on Elizabeth Avenue. The 10-acre site, currently under construction, will feature an 11,000-square-foot church, a 10,000-square-foot fellowship hall, meeting rooms and a kitchen, according to a press release about the loan. In addition to the loan …

“Several” summonses for not obeying the township’s law regarding sidewalk cleanups after snow storms have been handed out by police since the Valentine’s Day weekend storms, a police spokesman said. Several storms spanning from Feb. 12 to Feb. 18 dumped as much as 20 inches of snow on Franklin Township, according to the New Jersey State Climatologist. The township’s ordinance …