News-pourri

VOLUNTEERS AT WORK – Volunteers at the Food Bank’s warehouse on Churchill Avenue. (Photo: Franklin Food Bank.) The Franklin Food Bank recently received a $15,000 grant from Bank of America. The grant will help the Franklin Food Bank further its mission of serving neighbors in need, while improving economic mobility in greater Somerset County. Between 2022 and 2023, the Franklin …

LIBRARY ACCIDENT – The aftermath of a July 9 incident at the Franklin Township Library’s Main Branch. (Reporter photo.) One person was injured on July 9 when some shelving collapsed at the Franklin Township Library’s main branch on DeMott Lane. The person, who was not identified, was treated by EMTs but declined to be taken to a hospital, said January …

TRUSTEE TESTIFIES – Severina Edward, a church Trustee, told the Planning Board the Church felt it needed the larger building to accommodate future growth. A Booker Street congregation that has been trying to get a new church approved for more than seven years will have to wait a little bit longer. The Planning Board on July 10 made it clear …

ON THE HOT SEAT – Members of the Fire District 3 Board of Commissioners at the July 9 Commission meeting. Representatives of the east Franklin Volunteer Fire Department and the Fire District 3 Commissioners will meet before the end of July to try to iron out a fire service contract that has been in dispute for months. That was the …

There was music, food trucks and, of course, fireworks. Mother Nature smiled down on the township July 3, providing beautiful weather for the annual celebration that has been hit with foul weather at times over the past few years. Don’t Miss Out! No other media outlet covering Franklin Township brings you the depth of information presented by the Franklin Reporter …

NEW DIRECTOR – Stephen Dahl, the Township’s new Recreation Director, made his public debut at the Independence Day Celebration on July 3 in the Municipal Complex. The Township has installed new leadership in the Parks & Recreation Department and the Franklin Township Youth Center. Stephen Dahl takes over the helm of Parks & Rec, according to a July 3 announcement …

STUDY DESCRIBED – Dave Roberts, a planner with Bright View Engineering, discusses the results of the company’s traffic study at the Master Plan Community Meeting on June 27. Traffic conditions at eleven of 14 key intersections in the township’s Business and Industry Zone are bad and will get worse when all currently approved warehouse projects are operational, an engineering consultant …

ARCHITECT SPEAKS – David Minno, the architect for the proposed 200-unit apartment building in Rutgers Plaza, testifies before the Zoning Board of Adjustment. The Rutgers Plaza retail center will get a complete facelift with the approval of a proposed 200-unit apartment building in the former K-Mart space, the Zoning Board of Adjustment was told during a contentious June 20 hearing. …

SWEARING IN – Fr. Simon El Hajj, Rabbi Eli Garfinkel and Rev. Jamin Powell, left to right in white shirts, are sworn in to their FTPD Chaplaincy positions at the June 25 Township Council meeting. Three of the five Chaplains in the Franklin Township Police Department’s “revamped” Chaplaincy program were sworn in at the June 25 Township Council meeting. Rabbi …

PARKINSON’S PATIENT – Mayor Phil Kramer announced that he has been diagnosed with Parkinson’s Disease. (File photo). Mayor Philip Kramer has been suffering from Parkinson’s Disease since the middle of 2019, he said on June 24. Kramer, 68, said the disease has not affected his mobility and that he has no plans to resign the seat that he’s held since …