Township Council

Outgoing Mayor Chris Kelly has some advice for the man who’s going to be filling the seat come Jan. 1, 2016. Well, actually, he has a lot of advice.

The Township Council Dec. 8 presented commendations to a number of students who won a township-wide poster contest, and to two of its own. The students won commendations for their entries in the annual Red Ribbon Poster Contest. Red Ribbon Week is a national substance abuse prevention campaign run in schools.

  The two rivals for the mayor’s seat agreed on one thing at the final Township Council meeting of 2015: Donald Trump is not welcome in Franklin.

In the wake of the Veterans Day commemoration debacle, township officials have decided to take over the arrangements for that and one other commemoration. Township manager Robert Vornlocker at the Nov. 24 Township Council meeting suggested that since the township already runs the July 4 celebration, it should also handle the Veterans Day and Memorial Day observances.

Despite a continued objection emailed from a member of the township’s historic preservation commission, the Township Council Nov. 10 voted to replace the Hageman House roof with a synthetic material. Tom Gale, vice chairman of the Historic Preservation Advisory Commission, had argued in September that the roof should be replaced with natural slate.

The Township Council at its Nov. 1o meeting declared Nov. 13 as “World Pancreatic Cancer Day” in the township. With Rachel Shaw of the Pancreatic Cancer Action Network looking on, Deputy Mayor Kimberly Francois read the council’s proclamation into the record.

The two hot topics of the past year or so failed to manifest themselves at the voting booth in the Nov. 3 election, an FR&A analysis of the results shows. Although they were the subjects of several heated Township Council meetings and endless debates on social media, the development of Middlebush and Catalpa parks failed to result in the threatened voter …

Township Councilman Phil Kramer handily won the mayor’s race, and his Democratic running mates swept the Township Council race in the Nov. 3 election. With all districts reporting, Kramer, currently a councilman from Ward 3, garnered 5,045 votes and his challenger, current Mayor Chris Kelly, received 3,208 votes.

An editorial analysis. A political flier put out last weekend by the Somerset County Republican Organization supporting the mayoral bid of Chris Kelly has ruffled the feathers of his Democratic rival.

FR&A Editorial Analysis.