Township Council

A 30-year veteran of the Franklin Township Police Department has been picked to head the agency. Richard Grammar, who for the past six years has served as Deputy Police Chief, will be formally sworn in to the position at the Jan. 9 Township Council meeting. Grammar was officially sworn in on Jan. 5. Grammar, 51, replaces former Police Chief Lawrence …

Winners of the November 2018 Township Council election were sworn in Jan. 1 at the annual reorganization meeting. Newest council member William Galtieri (D-Ward 2) was sworn in, as were returning council members Ted Chase (D-Ward 1), Charles Onyejiaka (D-Ward 3), Carl R.A. Wright (D-Ward 4) and James Vassanella (D-Ward 5). Councilwoman Shanel Robinson (D-At Large), was voted by her …

The Township Council officially began the search for a new police chief on Dec. 12, but the decision to do so was not without its drama. Current Police Chief Lawrence Roberts is retiring on Dec. 31. He announced his intention in June. The council on Dec. 12 held an executive session to discuss the chief’s position, after which they returned …

The Township Council said goodbye Dec. 12 to one of their own and to the township’s police chief. FTPD Chief Lawrence Roberts is retiring at the end of the year, capping a 30-year career in law enforcement, while Councilwoman Roz Sherman did not run for re-election this year. Following are videos of the presentations made to Roberts and Sherman. Chief …

The township has already provided for more than enough low- and moderate-income housing to meet its Mt. Laurel obligations through 2025, a township official said in the wake of an affordable housing agreement approval. An agreement between the township and the Fair Share Housing Center, approved at the Township Council’s Oct. 10 meeting,  sets Franklin’s “fair share” of affordable housing …

An Eagle Scout and the leader of a township-based cancer support organization were in the spotlight at the Sept. 26 Township Council meeting. Joseph Repsher, an Eagle Scout with Boy Scout Troop 113, chartered by Somerset Presbyterian Church, was commended for attaining the highest rank in scouting, and Dorothy Reed, co-founder and president of the Sisters Network of Central New …

An idea to place a “performance gazebo” on township property next to the library’s main branch was given conditional support July 11 by the Township Council. The gazebo would be donated to the township, but paid for by private donations and managed by the Franklin Township Cultural Arts Council. Council members were told about the idea by two members of …

A proposal to reduce the amount of time hunting is allowed on two township nature preserves this year was adopted July 11 by the Township Council. As a result of the vote, hunters using firearms on the Negri Nepote Native Grassland Preserve and the Griggstown Native Grassland Preserve/Bunker Hill Environmental Center will be restricted to from sunrise to 9 a.m., …

Update 3: After a lengthy discussion, the Human Relations Commission deferred making a recommendation to the Township Council, pending information members said Mayor Kramer was going to supply. The mayor also told the commission that part of the recording package would be a relocation of their meetings from the library’s Historic Collections Room to the municipal building’s large conference room. …

The township will increase the number of board and committee meetings that are recorded and televised. That was the decision June 13 by the Township Council, after the idea was broached by Mayor Phil Kramer. Kramer said he was responding to a June 5 editorial in the Franklin Reporter & Advocate, in which it was noted that most every board …