A look back at Ledger articles from years gone by.
Throughout the coming months the Board of Trustees of The Lawrenceville School will be considering a recommendation of the School’s “Turning Point Committee” that “coeducation in some form is desirable at Lawrenceville School.”
In a special issue on the topic, the school’s student newspaper endorsed the recommendation editorially, suggesting “as a first step, that girls be accepted on a day basis in the hope that residential coeducation might soon become a reality.”
The Turning Point Committee, explained Lawrenceville Public Information Director James Blake, was set up several years ago and is composed of seven faculty members, three students, three trustees and one parent. (Wednesday, May 6, 1970)
After a week which saw a wave of student protests across the nation, Rider College remained relatively quiet today, with a “non-coercive” strike in effect on campus.
This afternoon, students at Rider will be asked to join other area college students in a march down Route 206 and into Trenton, to support a lowering of the voting age in New Jersey.
Lawrence Township police, who say that they “plan to be prepared just in case,” have not been called to duty on the campus at all throughout the strike. (Wednesday, May 6, 1970)
Previously at Lawrence High School, some girls competed with the boys on the track team because there was no girls’ team. This year, for the first time, Lawrence is sporting a girls’ track team, coached by Joanne Bartoletti.
She feels that the girls could not really compete with the boys and it’s a good idea to have the girls competing in girls’ track events. There is a state rule that there must be equality in high school sports.
The girls on the track squad last year did not get letters (letters are given to those who get a certain amount of points and no girl reached that amount) and they have a better chance to get them this year. (Wednesday, May 7, 1975)
The Trenton Rescue Mission announced it will terminate its total recycling program in Lawrence after the May 23 pickup, according to Richard Kohler, Conservation Advisory Committeeman who has been handling the recycling project.
“The Mission has stockpiled about 310 tons of paper, and can’t handle it any more,” said Mr. Kohler.
The news came a day after Municipal Manager George Gottuso announced a firm commitment to begin a pilot newspaper recycling program in three weeks.
“This puts the total responsibility of recycling back on township council,” said Mr. Gottuso. (Wednesday, May 7, 1975)
In light of the Department of Transportation’s recommendation to scrap plans for building the I-95 link, Township Council decided to reaffirm its stand supporting the highway’s construction.
At Monday’s agenda session council agreed to have Township Manager George Gottuso prepare a position paper stating Lawrence’s support for the project and opposition to DOT’s recent recommendation. Councilwoman Mary Tanner was the lone council member to favor the DOT’s stand.
Councilman Herman Hanssler said that council should make its stand known to the governor to show that the project is still favored.
He also said that if the proposed link, which would join I-295 and I-287, is not built then Lawrence should press to have those funds used for constructing a grade-separated interchange at the Clarksville intersection, a traffic bottleneck at the Lawrence-West Windsor boundary. (Wednesday, May 7, 1980)
Facing possible disciplinary action, about 300 Notre Dame High School students staged a rally at the school’s entrance, Thursday, to protest teh principal’s decision to fire the school’s disciplinarian earlier this week.
The principal, meanwhile, refused to address the students, saying he would meet instead with student government leaders “in an appropriate forum.”
The students, most of them juniors and seniors, were protesting the dismissal of David Kelly, the school’s dean of discipline and a part-time Latin teacher for the last 18 years.
Claiming that Mr. Kelly is a friend of theirs, the students said the disciplinarian’s dismissal was the result of a personal conflict between him and the school’s principal, Michael Carr.
Mr. Carr, who became the school’s first lay principal in 1988, said that he discovered that Mr. Kelly had never received his bachelor’s degree while reviewing faculty credentials in March.
Although Mr. Kelly was asked to disclose evidence of a degree, he failed to do so, while continuing to claim he was a graduate of St. Bonaventure University in New York, Mr. Carr said. (Friday, May 4, 1990)
The picket line has gone from full to part time, but there seems no end in sight to a strike that 10 nurses are waging against the Saint Lawrence Rehabilitation Center, according to a spokeswoman for the nurses’ union.
“This is the worst kind of strike, because it’s a principle strike not an economic one,” Virginia Treacy executive director of the JNESO nurses’ union said, Monday.
Ten of the center’s 17 union nurses went on strike April 6, claiming that the per diem, or part time, nurses, who are not covered by the union, would be getting better bonuses and working hours under a new contract proposed by the center, which is owned and operated by the Catholic Diocese of Trenton.
William Keane, the center’s assistant administrator, has said, however, that the nurses are themselves seeking pay and shift changes that would be impractical, especially since there is a nursing shortage throughout the state. (Tuesday, May 1, 1990)
The Lawrence Neighborhood Service Center is looking for a new executive director.
Executive Director Robert Donaldson was terminated from the top administrative job at the Eggerts Crossing Road center, effective April 28. The decision by the Lawrence Township Community Council Inc.’s board of directors was unanimous. Assistant Executive Director Vivien Lynn was named to serve as interim director.
Mr. Donaldson said he had “no idea” what the board meant what the board meant when it said he was going in one direction and the board was going in another direction. He had worked as the center’s executive director since June 1992.
Board president Steven Zagoreos said Mr. Donaldson’s strengths are in programming. The board felt that releasing Mr. Donaldson would present him with an opportunity to become more involved in programming, since that is where his career goal is heading, he said.
The center recently has undergone a reorganization, Mr. Zagoreos said. It was in danger of being cut off by some of its funding sources, which were unhappy with the way the center was being run, he said. The agencies agreed to continue funding the center, provided the board of directors took over control.
Compiled by T.J. Furman from the pages of The Lawrence Ledger from 1970 to 1995.