WESTFIELD — Imagine going through your life not knowing any blood relatives. That was the question Keith Hertell, a 53-year resident of Westfield, raised when sitting down to an interview with The Westfield Leader one sunny summer morning at his office on Elm Street in town. For Mr. Hertell, the que...

COUNTY — The Union County Board of County Commissioners met on September 2, just a day after the remnants of Hurricane Ida pummeled the county and New Jersey with major flooding. The commissioners began their meeting by acknowledging county residents affected by the storm, while also recognizing the...

WESTFIELD — Westfield residents filled the board room and stood in the hallway during Tuesday night’s board of education meeting, where concerns were raised regarding the district’s Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) curriculum, school-masking policies, and the Edison Field Project. In a 5-to-4 ...

AREA — Summer is waning, the 2021 school year is here — and the Tuesday, November 2 General Election is approaching fast. At the ballot box, communities across Union County will elect members of their local school boards. In addition to municipal government, local school boards play a significant ro...

SCOTCH PLAINS — After a summer when many things returned to some semblance of normal, the fall calendar in Scotch Plains and Fanwood is a busy one, and one that will remain dependent on whether or not coronavirus-related restrictions need to be re-imposed as new cases rise. The end of summer will be...

CLARK — The Clark Council met on Monday to pass a dozen new resolutions. These resolutions covered topics like the school mask mandate, Arthur L. Johnson High School’s improvements to the athletic field and grant applications. The first resolution passed that evening was in support of the Clark Boar...

CLARK – The Clark Zoning Board met on Monday to vote on a resolution that would allow the property owners at 98 Grand Street to build an in-ground pool on the property. The resolution comes after the case was presented during the July 26 meeting. The applicants, Ken and Jocelyn Hutton, went before t...

SCOTCH PLAINS — The state’s Cannabis Regulatory Commission issued rules and regulations last week governing marijuana sales and distribution, and it is expected that licenses to operate retail and other types of outlets can soon be applied for and then issued. Last November, voters in New Jersey — i...

AREA — Tony LaPorta, a long-time Westfield resident and father, like so many Americans, experiences extreme sadness every time he sees a mass shooting on the news. What has become commonplace in American society since the Columbine shootings in 1999, notes Mr. LaPorta, follows a predictable cycle of...

WESTFIELD — It’s a story straight out of a Hollywood World War II epic. A young man enlists in the Army to prevent his brother from being drafted into the war. That is what Frank De Cillis did in the early 1940s, in the hopes that joining the military would allow his brother, Tony, to escape the war...