News-pourri

The design of a new recreation park, to be built by the developer of the Summerfields housing project, was approved Jan. 28 by the Township Council. And although a concept plan shows two bocce ball courts, they’re not included in the final design.

The DeForest B. Soaries Jr. Senior Residences at Somerset building was officially opened on Jan. 28. Located at 630 Franklin Blvd., the 64-unit building is geared toward senior citizens and veterans.

[wpgmappity id=”10″]   Mylar balloons released near an overhead transformer at Pine Grove and Highland avenues the afternoon of Jan. 29 sparked a power outage that affected more than 1,200 customers in the township and New Brunswick.

The school district has launched an internal investigation as to why a child left on a school bus for five hours Jan. 28 was reported as being in school. Franklin Township police are also investigating the incident, said department spokesman Sgt. Philip Rizzo.

The Franklin Township Police Department officially has three new police officers and one new sergeant. The four were sworn in to their positions at the Jan. 28 Township Council meeting by Township Clerk Ann McCarthy.

Public Service Electric & Gas is still investigating the cause of a substation failure in Somerset Jan. 24 that knocked out power to thousands of township residents. In a release, the company said that about 5,900 customers in the township lost power shortly after 11 a.m. when a substation malfunctioned.

Franklin Township is the launching ground for a new training tool to educate food service workers about food defense. The tool is a set of cartoons used to illustrate what food service workers should do in four common scenarios: Being presented with an unknown food source, dealing with symptoms of illness, preventing employee contamination of food and dealing with suspicious …

Franklin got an average of 9 inches of snow on Jan. 21, according to the National Weather Service. Streets were pretty drivable by about 9 a.m., as crews were out all night plowing and salting.

The forecasters had the snow starting after 10 a.m., but Mother Nature had other plans. Small flakes began falling several hours before that, and by 8:30 a.m., there was already the beginnings of a coating on the streets.

More than 160 telephone lines owned by Verizon were damaged June 14 by water, causing phone service outages to homes, businesses, the Board of Education and the police department. Phone service at Hillcrest Elementary School was restored by late in the afternoon of Jan. 15, said district spokeswoman Mary Clark. Also affected was the district’s buildings and grounds department.