News-pourri

MAKING HIS CASE – Keith Cahill, the project engineer for Onyx 789, makes a point during the January 15 Planning Board hearing. A revised plan to build a 91,000-square-foot warehouse on a tract of land between New Brunswick and Old New Brunswick roads received a chilly reception January 15 from the Planning Board. The new plan represents an attempt by …

U.S. Rep. Bonnie Watson Coleman will be the keynote speaker at the 2025 Martin Luther King Foundation Community Breakfast. The breakfast is set for 8:30 a.m. January 20 at DoubleTree by Hilton, 200 Atrium Drive. The event is a fundraiser for scholarships awarded by the Foundation to Franklin Township graduating seniors. Early bird tickets, available until December 31, are $50. …

ARTIST’S RENDERING – Levin Properties wishes to raze the former Big K-Mart building in Rutgers Plaza and replace it with a 4-story, 200-unit apartment building. An application to build a 4-story, 200-unit apartment building in Rutgers Plaza on Easton Avenue has once again been delayed. Ongoing hearings on the application were scheduled for September, October and January of 2025, and …

As they have for more than 70 years, members of the Millstone Valley Volunteer Fire Department ushered Santa Claus around East Millstone and neighboring Millstone on December 21 to spread Christmas cheer. This is the second year that Grinch has accompanied Santa on his tour, which took place in the afternoon and evening. After the evening run, Santa and Grinch …

CRB GIVEAWAY – The line is out the door at the FTPD’s Community Relations Bureau on Hamilton Street for the annual Toy & Coat giveaway. The line formed outside the Franklin Township Police Department’s Community Relations Bureau at about 10:30 a.m. on December 21, about 90 minutes early for the annual toy and coat giveaway. Interest in the charitable event …

Students in the school district’s Road to Success program spent a few hours on December 19 celebrating the upcoming holidays and doing some good. The more than 50 students who gathered at Franklin Middle School – Hamilton Street Campus were treated to hot chocolate, cookies and pizza for the program’s fourth annual “Cookies & Cocoa” event. “Really the event is …

It doesn’t look like retail cannabis businesses in the township will have the chance to expand their business to include “cannabis consumption areas.” There is no interest on the part of the Township Council to make the needed code changes to allow for the smoking parlors, Mayor Phil Kramer said on December 18. And Vince Dominach, the Township’s Economic Development …

Supports Proposed Bill – Environmental Commission member Stan Jaracz brought the idea to the Commission. A bill that would hold fossil fuel companies liable for some damage to the state and its residents through climate change was supported by the Environmental Commission at its December 16 meeting. The bill, of which state Sen. Robert Smith (D-17) is a prime Senate …

Student Of The Month – Taylor Robertson of Somerset was named SCVT’s Student of the Month for December 2024. (Photo: SCVT). Taylor Robertson of Somerset, a Sophomore in the Graphic Communications program at Somerset County Vocational & Technical High School, has been selected as Student of the Month for December 2024. Taylor is the child of Kelly and Rob Robertson …

Assemblyman Joe Danielsen The federal government must provide answers to New Jersey residents concerned over the multitude of drone sightings over the past month, state Assemblyman Joe Danielsen said. In a statement released last week, Danielsen (D-17), who is chairman of the Assembly’s Public Safety & Preparedness Committee, said that he has been monitoring “the recent influx of drones flying …