News-pourri

Mark Healey, the township’s Director of Planning, explains the proposed warehouse ordinance at the June 28 Council meeting. Spurred by residents of Canal Walk who are opposed to a proposed warehouse abutting their community, the Township Council on June 28 introduced new zoning requirements for future warehouse projects. The new regulations would increase the distance between a residential property and …

Township Councilmember Ed Potosnak describes the “genderless bathroom” ordinance at the June 28 Council meeting. An ordinance that would require the establishment of single-occupancy, all-gender bathrooms in some public places within Franklin was introduced June 28 by the Township Council. The ordinance is championed by Councilmember Ed Potosnak (D-Ward 1), the Council’s first openly gay member.

The township Republican Party leadership is, left to right, Robert Petersen, 2nd Vice Chair; Bob Lacorte, Chair; Lori Van Dyke-McGregor, Secretary; Vice Chair Beverly Lawson and Secretary Pat Stanley. (Photo: Franklin GOP.) Bob Lacorte was returned to the leadership of township Republicans on June 28. Lacorte was re-elected Chairman by acclimation.

Contracts worth more than $3 million in goods and services were approved by the Township Council in June. The Council authorized contracts totaling $913,281.60 at the June 14 meeting, and $2,274,154.55 at the June 28 meeting.

The Franklin Township Democratic Municipal Committee elected Ronald Jordan as Municipal Chair at its annual reorganization meeting on June 26 during a meeting at the Doubletree Hotel, Somerset. Also elected to serve were Linda Montgomery Williams, First Vice-Chair; Edward  Potosnak, Second Vice-Chair; Shepa Uddin, Third Vice-Chair; Damianty Chivukula, Recording Secretary, and Phyllis Beals, Corresponding Secretary. 

Doris Lin, of the Animal Protection League of New Jersey, discusses nonlethal methods of deer control at the Open Space Advisory Committee’s June 21 meeting. The township Open Space Advisory Committee could not be called an anti-hunting group, but nonetheless its members listened politely to an animal advocate who tried to convince them of the merits of nonlethal deer control. …

Bob Chilton of Gabel Associates explains an aspect of clean energy aggregation during a special Township Council meeting on June 20. The pros and cons of clean energy aggregation were discussed at a special Township Council meeting on June 20. The meeting was necessitated by the submission of petitions requesting that a question be placed on the November ballot asking …

The Township Council handed out a variety of commendations and proclamations at its June 14 meeting. Four Franklin youth who recently medaled in a national Tae Kwon Do tournament were recognized, as well as St. Matthias Church on the occasion of its 60th anniversary.

Floats, speeches and music were on tap for the Juneteenth parade and festival held in the township on June 18. Sponsored by the Somerset County Democratic Black Caucus and Week of the People, the parade featured marchers and floats making their way up Highland Avenue and down a stretch of Hamilton Street before turning on to Matilda Avenue and into …

Quiyon Peters is the school district’s new K-12 counselor supervisor. The Board of Education once again reached into the district to fill a top supervisory post, tapping an eight-year veteran to be the new Supervisor of School Counseling. Quiyon Peters, currently a guidance counselor at Franklin Middle School – Hamilton Street campus, will start her new $105,000-a-year position on July …