The Spooky Brook Golf Course in Colonial Park, Mettlers Road, will be open during the winter, weather permitting, according to the Somerset County Park Commission. The course will be one of two open for the winter; the other is Neshanic Valley Golf Course in Neshanic Station.

Residents wishing to recycle their Christmas trees may do so from Dec. 26, 2013 to Jan. 31, 2014 at Parking Lot F in Colonial Park, 156 Mettlers Rd. Trees will be accepted from 8 a.m. to 4 p.m., seven days a week.

  When did this madness begin?

With four days left until Christmas, Santa Claus made some last-minute appearances in the township on Dec. 21. Pet parents were able to take their furry children to Sampson G. Smith School for “Santa Paws” pictures in a fundraiser that benefited Second Chance for Animals, the organization that funds the Franklin Township Animal Shelter.

The Franklin High School girls’ basketball team started its season with a win against Immaculata Dec. 20, but the boys’ team wasn’t as fortunate. Two three-pointers each helped Adreana Miller and Mary Trossi lead the girls’ team to a rolling win, 53-31, at home.

The school district is in search of a temporary personnel director. The former director, Gail Reicheg, left earlier this month to accept a similar position in the Moorestown, Burlington County, school system.

School district officials are waiting to see what happens in the bankruptcy proceedings of the Staten Island, N.Y. based bus company that transports nearly half of the district’s 8,000 students. Atlantic Express Transportation Corp., which has an office in New Brunswick, filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection last month. The company is offering itself up for sale, but, according to …

The Franklin High School’s telephone lines are still down, but district officials are hopeful the system will be repaired quickly. The phone lines went down Dec. 18, schools Superintendent Edward Seto said at the Dec. 19 Board of Education meeting.

Schools Superintendent Edward Seto on Dec. 19 was given the green light to study privatizing the school district’s 125 paraprofessionals next year. The approval came in the form of a Board of Education resolution which also included direction to study all other possible cost-cutting measures, including limiting the use of consultants.

An application for a controversial digital billboard near Grant Street and Davidson Avenue was approved Dec. 18 by the Planning Board, but that’s not the final word in the matter. That’s because the issue of the Constitutionality of a township ordinance banning digital billboards is making its way through the state Appellate Court system, with a decision not expected to …