News-pourri

Update: State Assemblyman Joe Danielsen (D-17) will temporarily work out of three locations in the township municipal complex on DeMott Lane. Video taken by state Assemblyman Joe Danielsen during his walk-through of his former office, destroyed along with other businesses’ offices in a March 6 fire.

“Fewer than six” of the more than 6,000 district students eligible for the controversial PARCC exams have opted out of the tests, interim schools Superintendent Lee Seitz said Feb. 26. The computerized tests – known as the Partnership for the Assessment of Readiness for College and Careers exam – will be given to students in grades 3-11. They will be administered in …

Plans for a WaWa gas station and convenience store – which could provide up to 35 jobs – were presented to the township Redevelopment Agency at its Feb. 23 meeting. The targeted site is the former home of Guaranteed Motors at Route 27 and Juliet Avenue. If approved, it would be the first WaWa in the township.

Some of the township’s professional and amateur chili cooks squared off Feb. 20 for the Franklin Food Bank’s Chili Cook-Off. Contestants were divided into two groups, restaurants and fire houses. Participants tasted samples from each of the contestants, and then voted – with red and white beans – for their favorites in each category.

A settlement agreement involving a township Fire District and a former fire commissioner must be turned over to the township resident who requested it, a state Superior Court Judge ruled on Feb. 20. Judge Yolanda Ciccone, sitting in Somerville, also ruled that the Pennsylvania-based insurance company, Volunteer Fireman’s Insurance Services, Inc., must pay the to-be-determined legal fees of the resident, John Paff.

Township drivers will continue to face detours and construction sites throughout the year. In addition to emergency work currently being done on the Delaware & Raritan Canal bridge on Amwell Road and the County Route 518 reconstruction project, a state official said bridge replacement work on Rt. 518 is slated to start later this year and road reconstruction on Route …

A township charter school on Feb. 5 received Zoning Board approval to construct an inflatable bubble next to its School House Road building. The Central Jersey College Prep school wants to use the bubble as a gym. The structure will also be shared by the New Jersey Chinese Community Center on a limited basis for its students.

[wpgmappity id=”16″]   A proposal by the co-owner of a Kingston yoga studio to move her business into a residential zone has many of her prospective neighbors upset.

A proposal to build 20 one-story office/warehouse buildings on Weston Canal Road was approved Feb. 4 by the Planning Board. The approval is the fourth on the property since 2003.

A more than 30,000-square-foot retail center for the Summerfields at Franklin active adult community was approved Feb. 4 by the Planning Board. The center, which will be located at the corner of School House and Randolph roads, will also serve residents of Canal Walk.