A look back at Ledger stories from days gone by
The report of the Board of Education’s desegregation committee will be released to the public and discussed at the Board’s public information meeting, Sept. 14, at 8 p.m. in the new Intermediate School.
The report is the one filed with the state to indicate what Lawrence plans to do, has done and is presently doing to correct a racial imbalance in its elementary schools.
The state notified the Lawrence district that Eldridge Park Elementary School had a population too predominantly black, while all other Township elementary schools had too few blacks to meet state guidelines.
In its plans, Lawrence has proposed no busing plans, explained Board president Martha Crowley.
Rather the Board felt that the opening of the new Intermediate School – which takes students from throughout the Township from grades five through seven – would greatly help to eliminate racial imbalance in the system as a whole. (Wednesday, Sept. 9, 1970)
Lawrence residents, pleased with an increasingly reliable supply of water, are beginning to worry about who will pay for the massive rescue operation and emergency water provided from outside companies. Officials estimate at least $100,000 damage to fire equipment and $800,000 to $1 million cost for the emergency pipeline. These figures do not include the cost of the water.
"There has been no establishment yet as to who is paying for what," said Lawrence Municipal Manager George Gottuso. "That is one of the things I hope to get straightened out this week."
A spokesman from Elizabethtown Water Co. was also uncertain Monday about the source of payment for the water.
"We don’t really know whether it will be state, federal, city money, or what. All we did was supply it when it was needed, and not worry about being paid until later," said Elizabethtown vice president Walter C. Money.
Since Monday of last week Elizabethtown supplied nearly two million gallons of water per day, according to Mr. Money. And since the pipeline was completed, effective Sunday morning, the supply has remained at about three million gallons per day. (Wednesday, Sept. 10, 1975)
Willie Mays, the Say Hey Kid plus a few years, made a brief appearance at the opening of Lawrence Junior High School Wednesday. In the area for a golf benefit, Mays visited the school at the request of his friend and former Trenton Giants teammate Leonard Matte, of 3 Irwin Place.
Thirty years ago Mays hit .353 for the Trenton team that played out of Dunn Field at the Brunswick Circle before moving on to the majors in 1951. Inducted into baseball’s Hall of Fame in 1979, Mays was unquestionably one of the game’s greatest superstars ever.
Yet, as he himself admitted to a small assembly of students Wednesday morning, many youngsters today are unfamiliar with who he is or was.
The students listened with respectful silence as Mays spoke off the cuff about his present activities and the importance of education.
"What you are doing now is more important than gambling," said Mays, who works in a public relations function for Park Place, a casino in Atlantic City. (Wednesday, Sept. 10, 1980)
The Commissioner of Environmental Protection Jerry English approved the tax exemption for Educational Testing Service Monday, thereby granting $55,403 in tax relief.
However, Lawrence may be getting some of the funds back, as ETS has expressed interest in considering a voluntary contribution of half the exemption total to charitable causes directly benefitting the township.
ETS president William W. Turnbull said in a statement last week that he would make such a recommendation to the organization’s Board of Trustees.
He also said that ETS hopes to use some of the funds gained from the exemption for improving the park land on ETS grounds which are now available for recreational public use as Green Acres open space.
Mayor Robert Kusek said that he has spoken with ETS officials and is optimistic about the possibility of having the organization fund township programs and help alleviate the tax loss. (Wednesday, Sept. 17, 1980)
Hopewell Township faces a possible court challenge over its new zoning plan that places the township’s high density Mount Laurel housing near the Lawrence Township border.
Lawrence attorney Robert Gladstone is expected to report to the Lawrence Township Council on Sept. 16 or 18 regarding the chances of success for a challenge to Hopewell Township’s new zoning. By law, Lawrence must file a suit by Sept. 19, 45 days after the new zoning was approved by the Hopewell Township Committee.
Hopewell Township Mayor Richard Van Noy called the possible lawsuit "absurd and ridiculous" in a telephone interview Thursday.
Although Mr. Gladstone conceded that it would be "an expensive proposition," he said the council had no alternative if it wished to challenge the zoning plan. "This is the kind of case that after substantial expenditures, the case could be lost," he warned.(Friday, Sept. 6, 1985)
Although there may have been some opening-day jitters, the "grand opening" of the refurbished Eldridge Park School went off virtually without a hitch, according to Principal Sheila Angeloni.
Months of preparation ended Tuesday afternoon, when township officials issued a certificate of occupancy for the school – at 5:06 p.m., Mrs. Angeloni said.
"I was very concerned about that (certificate of occupancy). We are in. Everything went according to plan," the principal said, as she praised the staff for making the transition so smooth and uneventful.
Those "plans" have been in progress since mid-April, Mrs. Angeloni said. An orientation program was given for the Eldridge Park School’s new teachers in the spring, for example. (Friday, Sept. 7, 1990)
School board members gave their blessing to the proposed elementary school, planned for a 19-acre tract on Denow Road between Sturwood Way and Federal City Road.
The Board of Education approved the plans in an 8-1 vote at its public meeting Wednesday night. Board member Anita Macheda cast the lone dissenting vote.
Last month, the school board set Dec. 5 as the date for a public referendum on the 90,000-square-foot school. It has not been determined whether the vote will be on the site or the financing, or both, said Nicholas Puleio, school business administrator/board secretary.
The 90,000-square-foot school has been designed for a maximum of 750 students. Plans call for six kindergarten classrooms and 19 classrooms for the other four grades.(Friday, Sept. 14, 1990)
New programs, new teachers and a new classroom wing were ready and waiting for the nearly 3,700 students who started a new year in the Lawrence public schools last week.
The new programs are geared toward ensuring that first-graders learn how to read, and to help students whose native language is not English learn the new language quickly.
The ability to read is one of the keys to success, and educators want to make sure that this year’s crop of first-graders has every chance to achieve that skill, said Superintendent of Schools Claire Sheff Kohn.
That’s why the school district is offering a new program called "Reading Recovery," which aims to identify first-grade students who may have difficulty in learning to read.
Compiled by T.J. Furman from the pages of The Lawrence Ledger from 1970 to 1995.