By Andrew Martins, Managing Editor
With the end of the year fast approaching, people around the world are looking forward to 2017., From the incoming Trump administration to the future of a proposed Verizon Wireless cell tower on Woods Road, residents in Hillsborough Township and the surrounding area should expect to see major changes in the coming months., In an effort to look back on the year that was, the following is a compilation of the top stories of each month. Each piece was selected either for its impact on the respective community or its importance to decisions expected to take place in the new year., Former township mayor remembered by officials, Township officials and local organizations were left stunned after learning of the passing of former mayor and township administrator Michael Merdinger, who died at the age of 67., Municipal flags flew at half-staff and other acts were planned, including a a memorial service on Saturday, Jan. 30 at South Branch Reformed Church., For 40 years, Mr. Merdinger was acting at the center of township life, particularly his Flagtown village., Mr. Merdinger served as township administrator for 19 months before retiring in the summer of 2012., Mr. Merdinger was a Rotary Club member for 36 years, and the Flagtown fire company for nearly 40. He has served on many township boards, including four years on the Township Committee, serving as mayor in 1984. His service on the library board lasted more than 20 years, as did his tenure on the municipal utilities authority., Mr. Merdinger was selected as township administrator in late December 2010 after a private engineering career highlighted by 23 years of working around the world on environmental projects in such places as Kuwait and South Africa and Africa. Photos of African animals in the wild and him dressed in Arab garb brought personality to his township office., In his final days at work in the summer of 2012 and at Planning Board meetings in recent months, he could be seen wearing a cabana shirt and shorts, implicitly communicating he was enjoying his days at his Shore house., Township Committeeman Douglas Tomson said Mr. Merdinger “dedicated his entire life to making Hillsborough a better place.”, Mr. Merdinger came on board at the township helm after then-Administrator Kevin Davis had resigned to take a state political staff job. Mr. Merdinger was a perfect fit, township leaders said, able to jump right into township business, especially environmental remediation projects., Massive fire closes Route 206, A major warehouse fire grabbed national headlines back in February, putting Hillsborough at the center of coverage for a short time., From Feb. 11-13, the blaze at the Somerville Industrial Park caused large swaths of Route 206 to be closed by officials as firefighters worked to get a hold on the situation., The Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives’ National Response Team said the fire began in the high-rack storage area of building 14 in the west side of unit C, which was the location of a paper records storage business., By the end of the fire, investigators said the monster fire consumed a half-million square feet of space in warehouse buildings., The large cloud of smoke rising from the fire could be seen for miles. During two press conferences, Mayor Frank DelCore reported that two fire fighters suffered injuries., The blaze called on the resources of volunteer firefighters from 30 neighboring towns in five counties —Somerset, Mercer, Hunterdon, Warren and Morris. At one time, there were an estimated 200 vehicles on site, said the mayor, who extended “thanks and a debt of gratitude” to the volunteers from the township and other areas., At times, near-zero temperatures, combined with a steady wind, plagued fire fighting efforts., There were no occupants in the buildings. The fire resulted in more than $50 million in damages and was extinguished with the assistance of 93 fire companies responding with more than 200 emergency vehicles from across central Jersey., Two of four warehouse buildings in the industrial park, which is owned by the federal government with space leased to businesses, were on fire. Each building is about 240,000 square feet — 1,240 feet long, he said., The buildings were made of wood with wooden truss ceilings and flat roofs, allowing the fire to be spread along the roofline., Demolition of Duke mansion approved by judges, Appellate court judges denied a request for a continued hold on the demolition of the former home of tobacco heiress Doris Duke., An order signed Judge Douglas Fasciale denied the motion — which sought to keep the stay in place until an appeal could be heard by the court — “for failure to demonstrate ‘a reasonable probability of ultimate success on the merits.’”, Following a Superior Court decision on March 4, Duke Farms began the demolition the next day, and then was stopped by a court order issued after midnight and delivered early Sunday morning, March 6., Aerial photos taken by the opposition group on March 13 showed most of the demolition damage to the newer “Hollywood wing” of the house, and not its older core., Duke Farms had its right to demolish the former home — which has been closed since the 1994 and mothballed for at least 10 years— upheld March 4 when Judge Ciccone rejected the opposition group’s request for a township commission to rehear the application that allows the demolition of what the opponents claim is a historic structure within the 2,500-acre estate in northern Hillsborough., Duke Farms applied in June for a demolition permit. After three hearings, the Historic Preservation Commission ruled, 6-1, in October to allow the process to apply for the permit to proceed., The roughly 50 acres around the house will be ultimately be opened to the public, he said, especially from a back entrance off the Raritan Borough side of the property., James Buchannan Duke (Doris Duke’s father) had bought a Civil War-era farmhouse in 1893 and expanded and renovated it several times over the decades. Duke Farms’ historical expert Emily Cooperman testified that the overlapping and even contradictory work made the house an architectural “pastiche” with little significance. , Christie announces school funding plan in Hillsborough, Near the end of the 2015-16 school year, Governor Chris Christie chose Hillsborough as the site to announce his support for school funding reform., The governor tied what he called disproportionate amounts of money going to poorer, usually urban, schools as the cause for the state’s highest-in-the-nation property taxes. He said 31 districts under the control of the N.J. Schools Development Authority take 58 percent of the billions that will flow from the state government to local schools., The governor called for state aid to be determined solely on a per-pupil basis, with each school district receiving $6,599 per student., State education association leaders immediately criticized the governor’s comments. NJEA President Wendell Steinhauer said in a press release the proposal “would result in a huge step backward to the days when poor families in economically challenged communities were left to fend for themselves., Gov. Christie said school funding and high property taxes were “two separate but intertwined crises that must be dealt with.”, He said the Supreme Court had ruled that money alone would solve the education problem. They were “wrong, very wrong,” he said, and called it “30 years of failed governmental engineering.”, New Jersey spends the third-most of all states on K-12 education, he said. Of the $9.1 billion in state aid for the upcoming school year, $5.1 billion will go to the 31 SDA school districts with $4 billion for the remaining 546 districts, he said., Over 30 years, 58 percent of state aid has gone to 5 percent of the districts, he said. That also computes to 23 percent of state’s students getting 59 percent of the aid, he said.Hillsborough Board of Education President Thomas Kinst called the governor’s speech “an intriguing proposal,” especially for a district like Hillsborough, which receives an average state aid of about $3,400 per student., The governor said he wanted to make the Legislature defend the indefensible, especially when it seems poised to put a referendum on the 2017 ballot that would force the state to make quarterly payments into the woefully underfunded pension and health benefit funds for municipal workers and teachers., Residents oppose Verizon Wireless cell tower, Opponents of a proposed 120-foot cell phone tower behind the Woods Road firehouse have spent most of the year jockeying against the project before the zoning Board of Adjustment., Earlier this year, neighbors reached out to property owners not just in their neighborhood, but across the township, arguing that approval would “set a dangerous precedent.” In an online petition they say that approval would be the first time in Somerset County that a cell phone tower would be located in a purely residentially zoned area., Verizon Wireless wants to erect the tower to improve service, especially with 4G phones that increasingly need to reach high-demand internet service. It needs variances, primarily to place a cell tower in a residential zone, close to homes. The ordinance says a tower must be 1,000 feet from a residence; Verizon’s proposed tower is 120 feet from the closest home., Verizon also needs a variance to come within 2,000 feet of the Woods Road Elementary School (the proposed tower is 940 feet), and to exceed the allowable maximum 35-foot height for a structure in the zone., Verizon would pay the Woods Road Fire Company No. 3 an undetermined amount per year for the right to operate behind the firehouse, beyond the outfield of a baseball field. The issue is causing enmity between neighbors and the fire fighters, whom neighbors have asked to reconsider., Foes say they fear a loss of property values (up to 22 percent, according to the petition) and possible health issues due to cell phone tower radiation exposure., Doctor among those indicted in prescription drug ring, A pair of grand jury indictments were handed down to eight individuals on Tuesday, including a Somerset County doctor, for their alleged involvement in a prescription drug ring and the 2013 overdose death of a Hillsborough man., According to state Attorney General Christopher S. Porrino’s office, the individuals were allegedly involved in the procurement and distribution of oxycodone, which generally came in high dosage pills., Officials said the ring can be directly linked to the death of Jason Stoveken, who overdosed on Xanax and oxycodone in July 2013 at age 30., Among those charged is Dr. George Beecher, 75, of New Providence, who allegedly wrote “tens of thousands” of illegal prescriptions for people that he never personally examined or met, including Jason Stoveken., As a result, Dr. Beecher was charged with 1st degree strict liability for a drug induced death; 2nd degree conspiracy to distribute a controlled dangerous substance (oxycodone); one count of 2nd degree distribution of oxycodone; and one count of 3rd degree distribution of alprazolam (commonly known by brand name Xanax., Officials said that Dr. Beecher, an ear, nose and throat specialist based in Warren, was linked to Jason Stoveken’s death for allegedly writing fraudulent prescriptions for oxycodone and Xanax., It was alleged that, in the months before Stoveken fatally overdosed, Beecher regularly wrote false prescriptions for him. Two days prior to his death, Beecher wrote a fraudulent prescription for him for 90 oxycodone 30 mg pills. Ten days before he died, Stoveken refilled a prescription written for him by Beecher for 60 Xanax 2 mg pills., Along with Dr. Beecher, Jason’s father Andrew Stoveken, 66, of Edison; John J. Burnham, 41, of South Plainfield; Jared Burnham, 31, of South Plainfield; George Sara, 37, of Bordentown; Marlena Burnham, 37, of Piscataway; Donn Rush, 34, of Somerset; and Jamar Mayers, 32, of Green Brook, were charged in the second grand jury indictment., All seven individuals were charged with 2nd degree conspiracy to distribute a controlled dangerous substance (oxycodone) and 2nd degree distribution of oxycodone., John Burnham allegedly then met Dr. Beecher and Andrew Stoveken at their offices, where he usually paid $500 the men for a prescription for 90 oxycodone 30 mg pills. Once John Burnham collected the prescriptions, he allegedly ferried them, both directly and through intermediaries, to the various co-conspirators in whose names they were written., Those co-conspirators filled the prescriptions at pharmacies and provided the pills to the ring in exchange for cash, pills or both. Once pills were obtained, John Burnham coordinated their distribution, both directly and through intermediaries, to various large- and small-scale purchasers., As far as distribution, the Attorney General’s office alleges that John Burnham used Jared Burnham and others to distribute the prescription drugs on the street., Ciattarelli announces gubernatorial bid, Standing at the entrance of Manville High School, Republican state Assemblyman Jack Ciattarelli formally announced his candidacy to become the 56th Governor of New Jersey., The Hillsborough resident, who served four years as a Somerset County Freeholder from 2007 to 2011 prior to becoming a representative for Legislative District 16, pointed to the existing political climate within the state, as well as a perceived lack of focus from the legislature, as the impetus for his run., Stating that he wanted to affect change within the state, Mr. Ciattarelli said he had a plan to address a number of key problems in the state if elected, including the way school districts receive state aid, healthcare contributions and the state’s high taxes., Mr. Ciattarelli also said he would look to streamline the governemnt by reducing the state government workforce by five to 10 percent and using the money that would go to salaries to pay for “state-of-the-art technologies” at agencies like the Motor Vehicle Commission., Mr. Ciattarelli’s announcement made him the third individual vying for the governor’s mansion., Election day results, Residents who took to the polls in Hillsborough Township earlier this year elected incumbent Republican Committeeman and current Mayor Frank DelCore back to his seat on the governing body for another three year term., According to county officials, Mr. DelCore defeated Democrat opponent Laurie Poppe by a resounding margin., Hillsborough voters also supported incumbent Republican Leonard Lance in his bid to remain on the House of Representatives against Democrat Peter Jacob., Voters overwhelmingly turned down Ballot Question No. 1, which asked whether casinos should be constructed and operated in northern parts of the state, such as Jersey City and Hoboken., Ballot No. 2 was also voted down by borough voters, which called for an amendment to the state constitution that would require all funds generated by the recent gas tax hike to go strictly to the Transportation Trust Fund., Though Republicans enjoyed wins on those two fronts, Republican Presidential candidate Donald Trump fell to Democrat hopeful Secretary Hillary Clinton in Hillsborough.
