Community Building

The Franklin Township Cultural Arts Commission performance gazebo was officially gifted to the township at the Feb. 12 Township Council meeting. The gazebo, located in the municipal complex, next to the township library’s main branch, was the brainchild of Bill Grippo, the MacAfee Road School principal and former township politician known for his fundraising prowess.

Organizers of the upcoming “Empty Bowls Franklin Township” fundraiser have high hopes for their inaugural event. The founding executive team members – Susan Winston Seamon and Bob and Ceil Cheril – say they wanted to do something to help ease the concerns of people with food insecurity.

The township’s municipal prosecutor and a long-time educator are among the nine women chosen as the 2019 Outstanding Women in Somerset County by the Somerset County Commission on the Status of Women. Bernice Jalloh, an attorney who is currently the township prosecutor, will be honored in the Journalism/Media/Law category, and Wanda Brooks-Long, CEO of an educational services company and former …

Hundreds of attendees at the annual Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Community Breakfast were urged Jan. 21 to continue the slain civil rights leader’s legacy by acting as he would. “Dr. King’s legacy would demand that we not sit back, that we look inside of ourselves first, and that we launch out where we see injustice,” keynote speaker Tiffany M. …

PRINCETON – Hundreds of protestors from across the state gathered at Palmer Square here Jan. 12 for what they thought was going to be a counter-demonstration against a fledgling white supremacist group’s march. But the group – the New Jersey European Heritage Association – never showed up, so the protestors turned the event into a general ant-hate rally.

The notion of “paying it forward” can be traced back to the ancient Greeks; it is the idea that one does not repay a kindness one was granted back to the benefactor, but, rather, finds someone else in the same situation and lends a similar helping hand. “Paying it forward” has been explored in plays, books and movies through the …

This week’s podcast features news about the Township Council’s decision to censure Councilman Rajiv Prasad, news about our presiding Municipal Court Judge and the start of the Franklin High School Lady Warriors’ basketball team’s promising season start. Music is “Winter Sunshine” by pianist Evgeny Grinko.

We’re proud to introduce Franklin Reporter & Advocate Radio, a weekly podcast that will look at the top stories of the previous week, speak to a topical Newsmaker or two, and take a peek into the week ahead. This week’s Newsmaker is Franklin High School Girls’ Basketball Coach Audrey Taylor, who gave us some of her time to talk about …

Franklin High School was the scene Dec. 8 of a holiday festival, courtesy of a Newark-based foundation. The Three Doctors Foundation, a group created to promote a message of health, education and youth mentoring, brought its annual Positive Peer Challenge and Holiday Health Basketball Benefit to Warrior Country.

A DeMott Lane resident started spreading the Christmas cheer a little earlier than usual this year, but for a good reason. Ralph Biondi doesn’t create the colorful Christmas playland in his front yard simply because he likes the lights and the holiday, which he does.