News-pourri

Township resident Daryl Kipnis will kick off his 2017 state Senate campaign with a Jan. 5, 2017 reception at The Imperia, 1714 east Ave. Kipnis, an attorney, hopes to win the Republican nomination to challenge incumbent and presumptive Democratic nominee state Sen. Bob Smith for the 17th District seat, which represents Franklin, Milltown, New Brunswick, North Brunswick and Piscataway. The …

Nearly one in every 10 township school-aged child lived in poverty in 2015, a figure that is 41 percent higher than in all of Somerset County. In its annual Small Area Income and Poverty Estimates for 2015, released Dec. 14, the U.S. Census Bureau estimates that 9.4 percent of children aged 5 to 17 years in the township live below …

The 2016 winners of an annual poster contest for the township’s school children were celebrated at the Dec. 13 Township Council meeting. The contest is sponsored by the township Municipal Alliance for the Prevention of Substance Abuse. This year’s theme was “We Can Be Above The Influence And Still be Influenced.” “Students did a great job in translating their thoughts …

The state Assembly’s appropriations committee recently advanced two military veterans’-related bills co-sponsored by Assemblyman Joe Danielsen (D-17). One bill would establish a pilot program to assist disabled and low-income veterans in paying for housing modifications, and the second would extend state civil service eligibility for non-combat veterans. The first bill, known as the New Jersey Housing Assistance for Veterans Act …

A township charter school will have to wait until after the new year to find out if it will be able to relocate. Central Jersey College Prep Charter School, which now occupies part of a building on Schoolhouse Road, wants to move into space in a Mettlers Road building. The school plans to take up two, two-storey wings of the …

The on-again, off-again dispute over amplification of Pop Warner football games at Middlebush Park is apparently on again. The topic resurfaced at the Dec. 13 Township Council meeting, and even though the problem has been rectified, it resulted in a minor dustup between Councilwoman Roz Sherman (D-Ward 2) and Councilman Carl R.A. Wright (D-Ward 4). The topic was broached by …

The U.S Congress’s Black Caucus is likely to take a more “in your face” approach starting next year in dealing with any Republican attempts to roll back Progressive gains, an audience at First Baptist Church of Lincoln Gardens was told Dec. 10. The speaker was U.S. Rep. Bonnie Watson Coleman (D-12), who appeared at a town hall meeting at the …

  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 …