News-pourri

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.

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.

Update: The Freeholders approved the plans and authorized receipt of bids for the project. Original: Replacement of the Six Mile Run bridge on South Middlebush Road is expected to be brought closer to reality at the Somerset County Freeholder’s Aug. 23 meeting.

The Township Council next month will formally oppose a natural gas pipeline compressor station proposed for a site in Franklin Park. The decision came after a nearly four-hour special meeting Aug. 10, during which representatives from Williams-Transco – the company proposing the compressor station – were peppered with questions and comments by council members, area residents and environmental activists.

Steep increases in their property tax bills sent a contingent of Canal Walk residents to the Aug. 9 Township Council meeting for help, but they didn’t really get any satisfaction. The residents were basically told that their beef is with the state Legislature, and the age-old process by which property taxes are calculated.

A revised bill, co-sponsored by state Assemblyman Joseph Danielsen (D-17), designed to better prepare law enforcement agencies to handle racial, ethnic, religious and other diversities has been signed into law. Other co-sponsors of the bill, (A-1663), were Assembly Democrats Gary S. Schaer, Speaker Vincent Prieto, Shavonda Sumter and Gordon M. Johnson.

A township woman stopped by Robert Wood Johnson University Hospital in New Brunswick Aug. 5 for a reunion of sorts. Tamara D’Ambra, accompanied by her mother, husband and three children, wanted to say “thank you” to the hospital’s Mobile Health Services and medical staff who helped save her life in June. D’Ambra, 44, suffered a major heart attack at home …

A bill that aims to help prevent college student suicides was signed into law earlier this week. The bill, known as the “Madison Holleran Suicide Prevention Act,” was co-sponsored by state Assemblyman Joe Danielsen (D-17), as well as Assembly members Joseph Lagana, Tom Goblin and Raj Mukherji.

By Somerset County Freeholder Brian Levine. Crescendo.

Key people involved in the Class of 2016 graduation – the first one held at the current Franklin High School – were commended at the July 21 Board of Education meeting. “We thought it was important to recognize a few key individuals who made the graduation at Franklin High School possible,” said board president Ed Potosnak. “It was a fabulous …