News-pourri

Friday, Sept. 11 First Responder 9-11Memorial Mass, St. Matthias Church, 168 John F. Kennedy Blvd., Somerset. 5:30-6:30 p.m. Somerset Patriots vs. Hartford Yard Goats, TD Bank Ballpark, Bridgewater, 6:35 p.m. Pregame 25th anniversary tribute with speakers and a video presentation; the club donated more than 2,000 tickets to first responders and their families. Andrew Schulz, Stress Factory Comedy Club, New …

Here is the latest on the various street projects going on around town. Please note due to extreme heat and weather conditions these dates are subject to change.

ON THE FENCE ON FLOCK – Mayor Phil Kramer said during the September 8 Township Council meeting that he was “not sold” on the Flock Safety cameras in use by the Township. Franklin Township residents renewed their call for the Township Council to cancel its contract with surveillance camera vendor Flock Safety during the public comment portion of the council’s …

SOLEMN REMEMBRANCE – Mayor Phil Kramer speaks during the Township’s commemoration of the 25th anniversary of the terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center and Pentagon. Township officials and clergy gathered at Franklin Township’s 9-11 Memorial on September 8 for the annual commemoration of the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, with speaker after speaker using the 25th anniversary to ask …

FUNDRAISER HONORED – Ava Golchha accepts a commendation from Deputy Mayor Alex Kharazi at the September 8 Township Council meeting. Golchha was honored for raising $175 for the Franklin Township Animal Shelter. The Township Council issued three proclamations and commendations at its Sept. 8 meeting, declaring September as Ovarian Cancer Awareness Month, honoring a young resident who has donated her …

BEST IN THE STATE – Principal Oguz Yildiz stands with a graduating senior at the 2025 Thomas Edicaon EnergySmart Charter School graduation ceremony. (File photo.) Thomas Edison EnergySmart Charter School and Central Jersey College Prep Charter School are ranked as the top two charter schools in the state in the latest US News & World Report ranking of high schools …

FIRST DAY CHAT – Schools Superintendent Jamil Maroun speaks with a Road to Success program student September 3 at the Franklin Youth Center. Elementary and high school students across the township returned to their classrooms September 3 for the opening of the 2026-27 school year, and for schools Superintendent Jamil Maroun, the morning marked a first of his own.

TRAFFIC GARDENS EXPLAINED – Hannah Younes, of the Voorhees Transportation Center at Rutgers University, talks to Advisory Recreation Board members about traffic gardens at the Board’s September 2 meeting. The Franklin Township Recreation Advisory Board on Sept. 2 endorsed a plan to study whether an unused slab of asphalt at Middlebush Park, left behind when the township’s skate park was …

WORK DELAYED – A new water main installed in MacAfee Road can’t be activated until all bacteria tests are passed. Parents who drive their children to MacAfee Road Elementary School will have to park on Berger Street and walk their children the rest of the way on the first days of school, because work on the road’s new water main …

Hydrants throughout the township will be flushed from September 8 through October 30. The flushing will occur between 7 a.m. and 3 p.m., according to a notice from the township Public Works Water Division.