Category: archives

  • Red tape foils silly push for toll-free holiday

    PACKET EDITORIAL, May 29 By: Packet Editorial    We have one question to ask the folks who’ve been pushing so hard to make July 4 a toll-free day on the Garden State Parkway.    What’s the point?    It isn’t like removing the tolls, even on the richly symbolic occasion of Independence Day, is going to prove anything.…

  • John D. Cerami

       John Daniel Cerami, 49, of South Brunswick, died Sunday at JFK Hartwyck at Cedar Brook Nursing Home in Plainfield.    Born in New Hyde Park, N.Y., he lived in Colonia for 20 years before moving to South Brunswick in 1975.    He was a craftsman in the trades of carpentry and plumbing.    His father, Anthony Cerami, is…

  • Kid cartoonist

    A self-described jokester and class clown, Benjamin Perry started working as a political cartoonist in the sixth grade. By: Helen Pettigrew    MONTGOMERY — At 14, township resident Benjamin Perry has plans to conquer the world — and has been trying hard to do so since the second grade.    "In 20 years I want to see…

  • Rocco Casella

       Rocco Casella, 83, died Saturday, May 26 at the Medical Center at Princeton.    Born in New York, he lived in Harlem and then the Bronx for 15 years before moving to Spotswood in 1975.    He was a painter out of the International Brotherhood of Painters and Allied Trades Local No. 18 in Manhattan for over…

  • Fitness, day-care center planned in Plainsboro

    The 90,000 square-foot-facility is proposed for Forrestal Center. By: Gwen Runkle    PLAINSBORO — The Township Planning Board last week viewed a preliminary concept plan for the Wellness Center at Plainsboro, a 90,000-square-foot facility at Forrestal Center, and forwarded it to the Master Plan Subcommittee for changes to be made in land-use classification.    The two-story facility…

  • New life for old Mercer Oak

    A 20-foot sapling will stand in for the legendary tree. By: David M. Campbell    There were no speeches or fanfare Friday morning as volunteers lowered the 20-foot sapling grown from an acorn of the original Mercer Oak into place at Princeton Battlefield State Park, near where the original oak once stood.    But the handful of…

  • Irene P. Larson

       Irene Pinkocze Larson, 79, of Monroe, died Wednesday, May 23 in North Lavallette.    She was born in Carteret and lived in Avenel before moving to Monroe 14 years ago.    She had been employed as a retail manager for 36 years in many stores, including Spencer Gifts in Menlo Park, the Tall Girl Shop at Woodbridge…

  • Parents to demonstrate for school crossing guard

    By: Jeff Milgram    A group of parents of Littlebrook School students is planning to hold a walk to school Wednesday to help demonstrate that the intersection of Snowden Lane and Rollingmead is dangerous enough to warrant a crossing guard.    The walk is set to get under way at 8:15 a.m.    The group, calling itself Princeton…

  • Author: What price public input?

    John Weingart tells a story of intractable NIMBY-ism. By: David M. Campbell    When Sarnoff Corp. unveiled plans to build a 2.75-million-square-foot research campus in residential Penns Neck in February, neighbors and activist groups mobilized such swift and organized opposition that local politicians had to listen.    Township planners responded by down-zoning the Sarnoff property by half,…