News-pourri

A state panel has ordered a township Fire Commissioner to pay $2,500 and his Fire District nearly $15,000 in fines for “willfully and knowingly” violating the state’s Open Public Records Act. The Government Records Council made the Dec. 18 ruling against William Kleiber, a Fire Commissioner with Fire District 2 and that district’s former designated public records custodian, in a …

UPDATE: The proposal to eliminate mid-term exams was approved by the Board of Education at its Dec. 11 meeting. The measure was to have been voted on at the board’s November meeting, but interim schools Superintendent Lee Seitz asked that it be pulled pending further study of grade calculations.

Mayor Brian Levine was honored Dec. 11 by the Township Council at what was his last meeting as a local official. Come January 2015, Mayor Brian Levine becomes Somerset County Freeholder Brian Levine.

News that several outside groups have approached the Recreation Department with requests to rent Middlebush Park was not greeted with enthusiasm by the Advisory Recreation Council. Township recreation director Alice Osipowitz told council members at their Dec. 10 meeting that the department has received requests from a variety of groups, including a “semi-professional football team and an independent AAU soccer team” …

“Sinterklass” – the Dutch version of Santa Claus – kicked off the 2014 holiday season Dec. 7 with his arrival at the Hageman Farm on South Middlebush Road. The annual event was highlighted by Klompen Dancing, coloring projects for the kids and a harpsichord recital.

  The traditional holiday tree lighting ceremony will return to the township’s municipal complex on Dec. 12.

Seven members of the township police department were honored Nov. 22 during the state Policeman’s Benevolent Association’s annual Valor Award ceremony. Officer Robert Brown was given the Gold Medal of Valor. Brown was nearly shot by a robbery suspect in August, 2013, in a violent struggle behind St. Matthias Church on John F. Kennedy Boulevard.

The costs of complying with federal regulations – the deadline for which is the end of this year – are the real reason why Somerset County is turning off the spigots at public access wells in Colonial Park, according to a county official. Those costs would be incurred if the county decided to bring the wells in conformity with federal regulations, …

The planned closing of two wells in Colonial Park was not mandated by state environmental regulations, as asserted by a Somerset County official, a state spokesman said Nov. 19. To the contrary, the decision to close the popular wells was an economic one made by the Somerset County Department of Health, according to state Department of Environmental Protection spokesman Bob …

  School district representatives looking to drum up support for the upcoming $85 million referendum received a rocky reception Nov. 17 from members of four township adult communities.