Taxes

Reginald O. Davenport has resigned as principal of Franklin Middle School. The resignation was effective April 3. Nick Solomon, the Sampson G. Smith vice-principal, has been named interim FMS principal. Davenport’s resignation letter cited “personal and health reasons,” district spokeswoman Mary Clark said in an email statement. “In the interim, as is standard operating procedure when a principal is out …

Bonding and capital ordinances appropriating more than $11 million for purchases and capital improvements were introduced by the Township Council at its March 28 meeting. The ordinances will have a public hearing and final vote in April. Among the biggest-ticket ordinances are $3,459,600 for water utility projects and $3,324,000 for the 2017 phase of the township’s road resurfacing project. The …

Nearly $1.5 million in contracts were approved by the Board of Education at its March 23 meeting. The biggest ticket item was a $1,128,999 contract awarded to Irvington-based KM Construction for reconstruction of the Franklin Middle School parking lot. The base cost of $830,707 is for the side lot and service courtyard. Alternate bids were also accepted for the service …

Update 2: The Board of Education gave final approval to the 2017-18 school year spending plan at its April 27 meeting. The budget passed unanimously, but board member Pat Stanley said she was doing so with some “reservations.” Stanley questioned why the proposed $1.1 million concession stand at Franklin High School needed to cost so much. She asked why school …

The Township Council gave the green light March 7 to a sidewalk program that will affect about 150 property owners around Franklin Middle School. The council met in a special session to consider the project, during which a number of area residents spoke in favor of or against the plan. The $750,000 program will install new sidewalks on parts of …

Update: The budget presentation meeting has been rescheduled for 7:45 p.m. March 21 in the FHS media center.   Flat state school aid and more than $2 million in other aid cuts and charter school cost increases is making preparing the 2017-18 school district budget a challenging proposition for district officials. But that’s the reality that schools Superintendent John Ravally …

The $59.3 million budget introduced Feb. 28 by the Township Council carries something that hasn’t been seen in quite a while: a decrease in the local portion of the property tax rate. The decrease is slight and varies depending upon whether a property has been reassessed in the last year, but it’s a decrease, nonetheless. The proposed $59,306,412 spending plan, …

Work on the Route 518 bridge is expected to resume this week, nearly two weeks after contractors found traces of a possible carcinogen in the ground around the construction area. Workers found creosote, a wood preservation chemical, in the ground and water near the bridge earlier this month. Work was immediately stopped so that an environmental plan could be created …

Technology, like time, waits for no one. Township police found that out recently when the decision was made to roll out the body worn camera program, a pilot program using cameras that had been purchased in 2015 through a grant from the state Attorney General. The plan hit a road bump recently when police officials were told by the camera’s …

Township officials anticipate the 2017 budget will allow them to do a little more with a little less. As in, a little more in services with a little less spending. And that’s even after creating one new full-time position, increasing a current part-time position to full-time, and adding another part-time position, at a price tag of about $145,000 in salaries. …