A look back at Ledger articles from days gone by
The Lawrence Board of Education has called a special public meeting for Aug. 24 to answer almost a hundred residents who besieged them Monday night with demands for changes in school bus transportation patterns in the Township before the school year opens on Sept. 9.
At Monday night’s Board meeting, Transportation Committee chairman Gean Holden joined the other Board members in inviting the residents to air their complaints and to give the Board a chance to consider them.
Most of the residents, especially those residing in the Norgate III area, registered complaints about fifth, sixth and seventh graders from that area having to cross both Princeton Pike and Route 206 to reach classes at the Intermediate School on Eggerts Crossing Road.
A petition asking that buses be provided for all children attending the Intermediate School from east of Princeton Pike was submitted to the Board bearing 271 signatures. (Wednesday, Aug. 19, 1970)
Schools will not open today, and will remain closed on a day-to-day basis as officials grapple with a critical water shortage which flung the township into a state of emergency 12:26 p.m. Tuesday.
The emergency affects most directly those portions of the township serviced by the Trenton Water Co., whose water reserves were expected to run dry before noon today as a result of a disastrous valve malfunction and overflow in the Route 29 Trenton water plant.
The critical water shortage will affect a third of Lawrence’s land mass, and about half its population, according to Mayor Frank Nerwinski. Trenton water lines extend to Franklin Corner Road.
Volunteer fire companies began busily making connections to surrounding water companies, making extensions and hooking up lines from one fire hydrant to the next. Elizabethtown Water Co., which services the northern portion of the township, has committed itself to supplying two million gallons per day to the affected areas. (Wednesday, Sept. 3, 1975)
Noxious odors – possibly linked at least in one resident’s mind to five cancer deaths in the last five years – brought a group of south Lawrence citizens fuming into last Wednesday’s meeting to the Lawrence Township Council.
The citizens believe the odors may be emanating from local chemical companies, but investigators from the Bureau of Air Pollution Control have not been able to locate the source of the odors during the past week, or even verify that the odors exist.
Winona Nash, president of the Colonial Heights Civic Association, was the first of several residents at last week’s meeting to complain about the odors and "hazardous conditions" which she believes might be caused by Saturn Chemicals, Inc., and/or Hydrocarbon Research, Inc., both on New York Avenue.
In a letter to council, Mrs. Nash said that residents in her area often have to run their air conditioners just to make the air breathable, and that sleep is still impossible some nights due to the fumes. (Wednesday, Aug. 27, 1980)
For just a few moments, Monday night’s council meeting seemed more like a seminar in romantic literature.
"Truth is beauty and beauty is truth … If you argue the case that beauty is different for each person then don’t pass this ordinance," Municipal Manager Robert Albertson said.
A proposed Townscape Advisory Committee ordinance, designed to address the "rapidly increasing urbanization" of the Lawrence landscape, was presented to the council Monday night. It also introduced a completely new, and as yet untried concept to New Jersey, Mr. Albertson admitted.
Trying to "instill a sense of ambience, to add interest to the area and help create a sense of place" about Lawrence would be hard, he agreed, "but at least we’ll be one of the few townships to try." (Friday, Aug. 23, 1985)
Village area businesses and residents are seeing to it that Wawa’s will not be the newest kid on the block.
Since Bentley’s Market, located on Main Street, went out of business nearly a year ago, neighboring businesses have speculated as to its future inhabitants. What they definitely don’t want to replace the prior all-purpose grocery store is a convenience store like the chain of Wawa markets.
Bentley’s, a family-owned grocery was sold to attorney David Hoffing, an investor who resides in Yardley, Pa. Wawa’s, an all-night convenience store operation, has offered to lease the property, but several meetings with Wawa representatives and members of the Village Business Association have solidified Lawrence business owners and residents’ opposition to the move. (Tuesday, Sept. 3, 1985)
Herman W. Hanssler, a three-time mayor of Lawrence who served on the governing body from 1965 through 1983, died Sunday in Jonesboro, Ark., where he retired several years ago.
Those who served with Mr. Hanssler on Township Council described him as a highly-principled public servant who did not waver once he made up his mind on an issue.
Mr. Hanssler, 68, was driving a car in Jonesboro when he suffered a heart attack, according to his next-door neighbor when he lived in Lawrence, William Seabridge, a former Lawrence chief of police. The car came to rest on a lawn and Mr. Hanssler was found slumped over the steering wheel by his wife. She was following him in her car after they had taken a walk on the Arkansas State University campus in Jonesboro. He had suffered another heart attack several years ago. (Tuesday, Aug. 28, 1990)
A proposed ordinance that would have made it illegal for minors to smoke cigarettes or use tobacco products in public in Lawrence Township was snuffed out by Township Council.
Township Council listened to about an hour’s worth of comments from opponents of the proposed ordinance during a public hearing on it at its public meeting Monday night.
None of the five council members offered a motion to approve the ordinance on second reading, so the proposed law died. But Mayor Rick Miller left open the possibility that a new ordinance that aims to discourage teen-agers from smoking could be introduced later this year.
Opponents of the ordinance, most of whom were parents, told the council that while the ordinance was well-intended, it would not accomplish what officials had hoped it would do – cut down on the number of teen-agers who smoke. (Thursday, Aug. 24, 1995)
Wednesday marked the first day of school for the Lawrence Township school system. It also marked the first time in more than a decade that teachers walked into the classrooms without a contract.
The Lawrence Township Board of Education and the Lawrence Township Education Association have reached an impasse in contract negotiations. The teachers contract expired in June.
A state mediator is expected to meet with the negotiating teams from the school board and the 440-member teachers union next week, in an effort to break through the impasse.
Meanwhile, about 150 teachers and custodial and maintenance workers held a peaceful rally outside the school district’s administration building Tuesday night. Placards in hand, they called out to school board members Dennis Casale and Buz Donnelly as they went inside to a contract negotiation meeting. (Thursday, Sept. 7, 1995)
Compiled by T.J. Furman from the pages of The Lawrence Ledger from 1970 to 1995.