The Franklin Reporter & Advocate Eight Villages, One Community
The historic village of East Millstone and a group of environmental stewards were recognized at the November 26 Township Council meeting.
The Council commended East Millstone for being named a “Great Neighborhood” by the New Jersey chapter of the American Planning Association.
East Millstone “represents the gold standard in planning and demonstrates why stakeholder engagement at the local, state and federal levels matter,” and “East Millstone is a unique community within Franklin Township offering historic sites and homes; recreation; shopping and safe and multi-modal transportation options to its residents and visitors,” the commendation reads.
Patti Sofran was among the East Millstone residents on hand to accept the commendation.
“I guess what makes East Millstone a great neighborhood is that we have a really active and vibrant community,” she said. “The neighbors come together, and it’s all about the people who live there and it’s really great.”
“In my mind, it’s the best place to live in America,” Mayor Phil Kramer said. “With the canal, the little park and what makes it really great are the community members. They have the East Millstone crawl, where you go to one house, then another and another for various parts of dinner, and it really is a community in the old sense.”
“I love living on the outskirts, in the suburbs of East Millstone, and this is a well-deserved award,” he said.
Members of the Steering Committee of the Franklin Township Task Force on Compressor Station 206 and the NESE Project, as well as a 24-year veteran of the township’s Environmental Commission, were honored by the commission.
Commission chairman Walter Anderson presented the awards.
David Triggs, who served on the commission from 1995 through 2019 and is a current member of the township Open Space Advisory Committee, was honored for his “outstanding efforts to protect and preserve the environment through 24 years of dedicated service to the environmental commission.”
Triggs said that it was his pleasure to serve on the commission.
“To be honest, the best part about being on the commission is the incredible people I’ve been able to work with,” he said. “They’re just dedicated, talented individuals who give their time to protect the environmental resources of Franklin.”
“We accomplished a lot over the years, but one notable thing we did was create the open space tax fund which was overwhelmingly passed by our citizens,” he said. “Because of that, we were able to preserve not only open space but also our historic homes. Marquee parks likes Middlebush Park wouldn’t exist without that, I don’t think.”
The task force steering committee was formed to guide efforts to oppose a planned natural gas pipeline extension – with a proposed gas compressor station in the township – pushed by the Williams Company.
The task force has been effective in garnering public opposition to the projects, permit applications for which are now before the state Department of Environmental Protection. It was that effort which earned the group its Environmental Stewardship Award.
Those given the award were Linda Powell, Carol Kuehn, Barbara Cuthbert, Bernadette Maher and Kirk Frost.
Powell thanked the commission “for your recognition and support.”
