Taxes

Claremont Elementary School was the capstone project in the $85 million school referendum passed in 2014. (Photo: Franklin Township schools.) Work on the $85 million school referendum passed in 2014 has been completed, Board of Education prescient Nancy LaCorte said on July 22. The keystone of the work, which began in 2015, was the construction of Claremont Elementary School.

An artist’s rendering of the proposed skate park replacement for Middlebush Park. Rather than replace the skate park at Middlebush Park, members of the Open Space Advisory Committee said July 20 that they would prefer a spray park in its place. Some Committee members contended that the skate park was rarely used, and that a spray park would be a …

Contracts totaling nearly $2 million for goods and services were awarded at the July 13 Township Council meeting. Included in that amount was $678,572 for the purchase of vehicles and software:

Three township parks’ playgrounds will get new equipment and playground surfaces under a series of contracts awarded by the Township Council at its June 22 virtual meeting. The playgrounds are in the Rutgers Heights, Kingston School, and Dunham Lebed parks.

A multi-year contract giving district teachers average 3 percent raises in each of the agreement’s three years was approved June 16 by the Board of Education. The contract, which takes effect in the 2021-22 school year, also includes average 2.5 percent raises for district clerical staff and average 2.7 percent raises for district paraprofessionals in each of the agreement’s three …

The Township Council introduced its proposed 2021 budget at its April 13 meeting. Update: The Township Council adopted the budget, with a slight modification, at its May 25 meeting. Township Manager Robert Vornlocker said that the township anticipated being able to use $581,000 of a federal CARES grant to offset losses in revenue from hotel taxes.

The Somerset County Engineering Department has announced updates to its road resurfacing schedule. Milling and paving along South Middlebush Road, from Amwell Road to Buffa Drive, is set for 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. on April 8 and 9.

Franklin Township is in line to receive more than $6.8 million in direct, flexible aid through the recently passed federal American Rescue Plan. Franklin’s $6,819,531.17 is the largest amount of the aid earmarked for any Somerset County town, according to a joint press release issued by U.S. Sens. Cory Booker and Bob Menendez.

New vehicles and equipment for the township police and public works departments, improvements to parks and upgrades in software and hardware systems highlighted the Township Council’s second 2021 budget hearing on March 10. The nearly three-hour session featured mostly capital improvement requests, the big-ticket items in the yearly spending plan.

Update 2: The Board of Education passed the 2021 budget at its April 27 meeting. With a school tax rate of $1.39 per $100 of assessed valuation, the yearly school tax bill on the township-average home assessment of $354,791 will be $4,939.47, an increase of $2.70 from last year’s budget.