News-pourri

NEW PLANNER TESTIFIES – Planner Spach Trahan testifies on behalf of the Tawheed Dawah Center’s application to build a mosque on South Middlebush Road. (Screenshot of Zoning Board meeting). The township Zoning Board of Adjustment chairman said Sept. 25 he is not convinced that a mosque holding prayers five times a day, seven days a week, belongs on a South …

The school district paid more than $2 million in charter school tuition in September and received nearly $1.2 million from the state after closing out five construction grant projects dating to 2015, according to committee reports presented to the Board of Education at its September 24 meeting.

HONORING A LEGEND – Warriors’ Stadium will carry the name of the football coach who led FHS to state titles in the 1980s. The Board of Education on September 24 approved renaming Franklin High School’s Warrior Stadium as Len Rivers Stadium, honoring the former football coach who led the Warriors to two undefeated state championship seasons in the 1980s.

The Franklin Food Bank’s dream to build a new, larger headquarters on property near Pine Grove Manor School may have been dashed. The Board of Education at its September 24 meeting rejected the Food Bank’s $400,000 bid for the roughly 4.5-acre parcel next to the school on Highland Avenue.

NEW VICE PRINCIPAL – Jason Richardson speaks to the Board of Education after he was appointed the new vice principal at Franklin High School on September 24. The township Board of Education appointed a nine-year educational administrative veteran as a new vice principal at Franklin High School on Sept. 24, following a search that drew more than 60 applicants.

MOVING ON – Dan Loughren and Nicholas Solomon, left to right, submitted their formal resignations at the September 24 Board of Education Meeting. (File photos). Two longtime Franklin Township school administrators are leaving the district, with one retiring after nearly four decades in education and the other taking over as schools Superintendent of the Dunellen school district.

SHE HAS QUESTIONS – Teresa Cordero of Franklin Park speaks about the Flock Security cameras at the September 22 Township Council meeting. Opponents of Franklin Township’s Flock Safety license plate reader cameras escalated their campaign at the Sept. 22 Township Council meeting, saying the public has been misled about the system and calling for an independent audit of the governing …

Legal steps to allow for the conversion of a former Davidson Avenue hotel into 142 affordable rental units were taken September 22 by the Township Council. The Council approved a developer’s agreement with CWP-ASR Somerset I and CWP-ASR Somerset II to turn the former Sonesta Suites Hotel at 260 Davidson Avenue into 1-, 2-, and 3-bedroom rental units.

Township officials are keeping a wary eye on the weather to help determine weather the September 26 Franklin Day will go on as planned. A coastal Nor’easter is expected to make its presence felt on Saturday, with the National Weather Service on September 23 predicting a 40% chance of rain during the day.

READY TO GO – David Spruill gives last-minute instructions to the 50-mile course riders September 19 at the RCDCU ride for prostate cancer awareness. More than 100 riders and walkers gathered at the township Senior/Community Center off DeMott Lane September 19 to mark the 20th anniversary of a local bicycle tour designed to raise awareness of prostate cancer.