Taxes

The five commissioners of Fire District 3 have changed their minds about the $144 salary increases they requested. The commissioners, whose territory includes the areas covered by Community Fire Company on Hamilton Street and East Franklin Volunteer Fire Company on Pine Grove Avenue, had requested the Township Council approve 2014 salaries of $7,428. But in the face of Township Council …

Former schools Superintendent Edward Seto will be paid nearly $55,000 and has agreed to waive ethics complaints against the Board of Education leadership in a separation agreement approved Jan. 31 by the school board. The board met in a special session to approve the agreement, accept Seto’s resignation and appoint Eveny Pagan as the interim Superintendent. Neither vote was unanimous; …

On the night the Board of Education was told it could save at least $675,000 a year by privatizing its paraprofessionals, one board member said the district should also outsource substitute teachers. The idea came from the Board of Education’s finance committee chairman, Delvin Burton, after he told his colleagues that they’re looking at a more than $2 million shortfall …

A host of contracts for the year for services and supplies were approved by the Township Council at the Jan. 28 meeting. Many of the awards were for state and shared purchase contracts. The awards were as follows: Somerset County and Morris County Cooperative Pricing Programs – Janitorial Supplies – CY2014 – W.B. Mason/Bio-Shine/Central Poly Corp./Spruce Industries/Mooney-General Paper Company – …

The Board of Education has called a special meeting for 7 p.m. Jan. 31 for an executive session to “discuss the Superintendent’s separation agreement and the appointment of an acting superintendent,” according to the meeting’s notice. The notice says that public action will be taken after the executive session. In a split decision, the board voted last year to not …

A proposed ordinance that would give to the Township Council  all meaningful power over the renovation of the Hamilton Street business district – and relegate business owners to an advisory board – is being opposed by a group of those business owners. The ordinance was introduced at the Jan. 28 council meeting, but not before Councilman Carl R. A. Wright …

The first real discussion among Board of Education members about selecting a new schools Superintendent will be held at the February work session. That’s not to say the board hasn’t already talked about it, albeit haltingly. At the Jan. 23 work session, several board members peppered board president Julia Presley with questions about the selection process, and also questioned why …

They’re just temporary fixes, but crews from the township and Somerset County have been traveling township roads over the past week filling in potholes that seem to appear about this time of year. The mixture of lots of moisture, then cold and warm temperatures, as we’ve had over the last several weeks, makes the perfect recipe for bone-rattling potholes, township …

The Jan. 6 schools closing over the bus contract crisis used the last of the district’s four “snow days,” schools Superintendent Edward Seto said in a message to parents. If schools need to be closed for the remainder of the school year, the district will have to take away scheduled vacation days, he said in the message, posted Jan. 10 …

Township Council members didn’t have much to critique when they were shown the township’s newly redesigned Web site at the Jan. 7 meeting. The council was taken through the site’s new features by Justin Heyman, the township’s Information Technology director. The overarching thought behind the redesign, Heyman told the council, was to give residents “the information they want, the way …