General News

  A school district administrator recovering from two strokes said he “felt the love” Dec. 9 when more than 200 people showed up for a fundraiser for his recovery efforts. They packed the banquet hall at the East Franklin Fire Department headquarters on Pine Grove Avenue for Rodney Wilkerson, the dean of students at Sampson G. Smith Intermediate School. He …

The deadline is fast approaching for donations to a college fund established for siblings of a township teenager killed over the summer in an automobile accident. Andrew Russoniello, 13, was killed Aug. 29 when he was struck by a car while riding his bicycle on Amwell Road. Russoniello was active in the township and Sampson G. Smith school theater community, …

  Submitted by Paul Walitsky. Records were set in 2016 by the Canal Walk community’s food drives for the Franklin Food Bank. On Dec. 3, the community donated 4,100 pounds of food, bringing the year’s total to a record 5,600 pounds. Monetary donations for December totaled $1,490, bringing the year’s total to another record of $2,800. The Canal Walk Men’s …

  The holidays are popping up all over the township. Sales were the main topic on Dec. 3, with several organizations – the Griggstown Historical Society, the Millstone Valley Preservation Coalition and St. Matthias Home School Association – offering wares for those early shoppers. The old Griggstown Schoolhouse on Canal Road was the site for the “Greens and Goodies” sale …

Six area families that were “adopted” by a township church will be sure to have a hearty Thanksgiving dinner this year. That’s because the families – two each in the township, South Bound Brook and Somerville – received holiday baskets complete with turkey and all of the fixings. Members of True-2-Life Ministries on Victor Street “adopted” the families for Thanksgiving, …

Bill Grippo, the longtime head of the township’s July 4th celebration committee, was commended by the Township Council at its Sept. 13 meeting. The commendation, Grippo said, “belongs to all the people” who contributed to the event. “Every year I go about the fun of asking for money for this event, and every year there are more donors,” he said. …

The 15th anniversary of the September 11 terrorist attacks were observed in the township throughout the course of the day. At about 8:30 a.m., an observance organized by Mayor Philip Kramer was held at the township’s 9-11 Memorial near the library. Among those in attendance were Township Councilman Charles Onyejiaka (D-Ward 3), Township Councilman Rajiv Prasad (D-At Large), Alex Kharazi, head …

Saying he was “frustrated” with the slow pace of arranging for their meetings to be televised, Mayor Phillip Kramer Aug. 24 told the Library Board of Trustees, to, essentially, “get it done.” “I am suggesting that you task January (Adams, the library director) to get it done,” Kramer told the board. “Find the cheapest way.” Kramer’s frustration stems from the …

Update: An interesting wrinkle developed Aug. 24 in the “adopting” of Cedar Grove Lane by the two Somerset County Sheriff’s candidates. Incumbent Sheriff Frank Provenzano, at a press event in the township that morning, said that his office had adopted the entire stretch of Cedar Grove Lane from Amwell Road to Easton Avenue. His assertion was confirmed by Somerset County …

The first installment of about 400 backpacks filled with school supplies, destined for area schoolchildren, was distributed Aug. 20 at First Baptist Church of Lincoln Gardens on Route 27. The backpacks were collected and distributed by the Zakee Bowser Enrichment Foundation, an 18-year-old charity founded in memory of a New Brunswick teenager killed in 1997. The event was the sixth …