Category: news/the_princeton_packet

  • MONTGOMERY: School budget affirmed by state education commissioner

    By Kristine Snodgrass, Staff Writer    MONTGOMERY — The state commissioner of Education this week affirmed the recommendation of the Somerset County executive superintendent of schools to reduce the 2010-11 township school tax levy by nearly $2.1 million.    The district’s proposed $77.96 million spending plan was overwhelmingly defeated in April’s school elections, and when the Township…

  • PLAINSBORO: 12-year-old visitor drowns in family’s pool

    By John Saccenti, Staff Writer    PLAINSBORO — A 12-year-old boy from Queens, New York, who was visiting relatives in Plainsboro, drowned in their backyard pool Tuesday, police said.    According to police, Robert Yang was in the in-ground pool of the Partridge Court home at about 4 p.m. when he apparently slipped from the shallow end…

  • PRINCETON: University Cottage Club loses tax-exempt status

    By Lauren Otis, Staff Writer    TRENTON — A three-judge appellate panel has ruled against Princeton’s venerable and elite University Cottage Club of Princeton in its quest for tax-exempt status in Princeton Borough.    On Friday, the Appellate Division of Superior Court of New Jersey affirmed state Department of Environmental Protection Commissioner Bradley Campbell’s 2003 decision refusing…

  • BUSINESS: Wine bill doesn’t worry Princeton merchants

    By Lauren Otis, Staff Writer    Legislation pending in New Jersey that would enable consumers to receive direct shipments of wine from wineries in and outside the state would not significantly impact the business of retail wine stores, according to two wine merchants in Princeton.    The legislation, S766/A1702 has passed the state Senate and in the…

  • PRINCETON: John Witherspoon principal retiring after 34 years

    By Kristine Snodgrass, Staff Writer    When Bill Johnson took over the principal’s office at John Witherspoon Middle School 34 years ago, he scrawled the word “excellence” across the chalkboard.    Today, the word has been erased but remains in a more permanent form, branded on a small wooden sign on the front of his desk, a…

  • BUSINESS: Rental status extended for Waxwood in Princeton

    By Lauren Otis, Staff Writer    Describing a dire real estate market, which has significantly impacted his own projects, developer J. Robert Hillier has sought and obtained an amendment to a developer’s agreement with Princeton Borough for The Waxwood, his 34-unit property on Quarry Street.    Mr. Hillier asked for and obtained a second extension from the…

  • MONTGOMERY: Michael Demato fund will aid cancer victims, reward scholars

    By Kristine Snodgrass, Staff Writer    A fundraiser was held Saturday at the Somerset Patriots baseball game to raise money for the Michael Robert Demato Memorial Fund, established in honor of a Montgomery Lower Middle School student who died earlier this year from a rare childhood cancer.    The Sayreville War Memorial High School Class of 1988, which…

  • PRINCETON: PHS graduates Class of 2010

    By Kristine Snodgrass, Staff Writer    In broiling heat and under threat of a thunderstorm, the 81st graduating class of Princeton High School took the traditional walk through the school’s tower doors and onto the front lawn for commencement on Wednesday evening.The mercury soared into the 90s but no rain fell as the 354 members of…

  • PRINCETON: Borough Council approves $24.7 million budget

    By Lauren Otis, Staff Writer    The Princeton Borough Council adopted a $24,716,959 municipal operating budget for 2010 at its meeting Tuesday night, formalizing a budget with the same spending levels as in 2009 and no increase in municipal taxes from the year earlier.    The 2010 budget is $50,000 above 2009’s due to a state-mandated payment…