News-pourri

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 …

A developer is looking to bring a Chick-fil-A and a second Starbucks to a lot adjacent to the Route 27 redevelopment area. The project is targeted for land now occupied by Frank’s Hardware & Building Supply and Sunny Seafood on Rt. 27/Somerset Street, bordered by Kevin Apuzzio Avenue and the WaWa convenience store. The project also includes a Secure Space …

Township Democrats tapped some home-grown talent in picking the newest member of the Township Council on Jan. 22. Township native Crystal Pruitt was unanimously picked by the council to fill in the one-year unexpired term of former Councilwoman Shanel Robinson. Robinson, who held an At-Large seat, is now a Somerset County Freeholder, having won that position in November’s election. In …

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. Prominent among …

The township’s presiding Municipal Court Judge denies that a comment he made to a defendant in December 2017 was sexual in nature and violated any judicial ethics rules that would require formal discipline. Judge Hector Rodriguez in December 2018 was hit with charges that he violated three tenets of the state Judicial Canon of Ethics. The charges stem from a …

The Township Council picked a Deputy Mayor for 2019 at its Jan. 7 reorganization meeting, but did not choose to fill the seat vacated by the person who held the position last year. The Council also filled a number of positions on the various township boards and commissions, named a municipal court judge, prosecutors and public defenders, and the other …

SOMERVILLE – Two township residents were part of history at the Jan. 4 Somerset County Board of Chosen Freeholders meeting. Former township Deputy Mayor Shanel Robinson took the oath of office for her first Freeholder term, and former township Mayor and current Freeholder Brian Levine was elected as the Freeholder Director for 2019. The history revolved around Robinson and her …

An incumbent and two returning Board of Education members were sworn in Jan. 3 at the board’s annual reorganization meeting. Also at the meeting, Nancy LaCorte was re-elected by board members as their president, and Ardaman Singh won re-election as board vice-president. Sworn in for new three-year terms were incumbent Lauri Merris and returning board members Ed Potosnak and Pat …

By PJ Parker. Franklin’s Native Son Kevin Apuzzio was only 21 years old when he lost his life, trapped in a basement during a structural fire. Jan. 3, nearly 13 years later, East Franklin Volunteer Fire Department, the fire department Apuzzio called home, was honored in his memory with the donation of a FAST Board by FAST Rescue Solutions, a …