Edison school destroyed by fire: This week in Central Jersey history, March 18-24
Fire ravaged James Monroe Elementary School in Edison on March 22, 2014.
The fire displaced nearly 500 students in kindergarten through fifth grade. Board of Education President Gene Maeroff said it would be a challenge to find a place for the students to go to school that Monday.
Here's a look at events that happened in Central Jersey from five, 10, 25, 50 and 100 years ago this week.
Five years ago
March 18, 2019: Approximately 100 residents, officials and environmentalists gathered at a rally that preceded a state Department of Environmental Protection hearing at Hammarskjold Middle School in East Brunswick about permits for the construction of Williams' 26.8-mile Northeast Supply Enhancement of its Transco Pipeline.
March 19: It was reported the Franklin High School girls basketball team beat Saddle River Day on Sunday, March 17, 2019, in the NJSIAA Tournament of Champions, giving them their second TOC crown in three years, and made them the third undefeated season in state history.
March 21: Richard Zuvich, 65, of Metuchen, with a law practice in Woodbridge, was disbarred and sentenced to 10 years in state prison for stealing funds from his clients.
March 22: Declining enrollment and the threat of less state aid had prompted a 5.8 percent increase in tuition at Raritan Valley Community College in the North Branch section of Branchburg, it was reported.
March 22: WWE Live, the Road to WrestleMania tour, was held at Cure Insurance Arena in Trenton.
March 24: It was reported the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation and the University of Wisconsin Population Health Institute released their annual report on the healthiest counties in America the previous week. Morris, Hunterdon, Somerset and Middlesex counties were in the top five; Union County ranked eighth.
10 years ago
March 20, 2014: State Superior Court Judge Yolanda Ciccone agreed that Raritan Borough should be made to pay more than a half-million dollars in legal fees to Gannett New Jersey ― of which the Courier News and The Home News are a part of ― after losing a public records lawsuit to the media company.
March 21: At Match Day at Rutgers Robert Wood Johnson Medical School in New Brunswick, 98 percent of the students matched at a residency of their choice, exceeding the national average of 94.4 percent. The Class of 2014 would be the first class of medical school students to graduate as part of Rutgers University.
March 21-22: Comedian Gilbert Gottfried performed at the Stress Factory in New Brunswick.
March 22: A parade in Flemington, with more than 70 trucks and other equipment, floats and marchers from businesses, civic groups and nonprofit organizations, marked the 300th anniversary of the founding of Hunterdon County.
March 24: Metuchen's St. Joseph boys basketball team beat East Side, 49-47, becoming the first boys team in Middlesex County history to win a Tournament of Champions title.
1999
March 18, 1999: Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band performed to a sold-out crowd at Convention Hall in Asbury Park.
March 21: The Rutgers University women's basketball team beat Texas Tech, 53-42, in the Midwest Region semifinals of the NCAA Tournament before a crowd of 9,041, the largest ever for a women's basketball game at Redbird Arena in Normal, Illinois, it was reported.
March 23: In Middlesex County, municipal police forces and the county Sheriff's Department began distributing trigger locks to gun owners.
March 23: A spokeswoman for the state Department of Human Services said in two days of frenzied grocery shopping, New Jersey food-stamp recipients spent $5 million ― more than 20 percent ― of the $23 million in benefits wrongly credited in their electronic accounts on Sunday, March 21, 1999.
March 24; The Anti-Defamation League, a national anti-bigotry organization, said its audit of crimes in 1998 showed an increase in anti-Semitic vandalism and related offenses in New Jersey in 1998.
1974
March 18, 1974: Displaying more leniency than the Board of School Estimate, the Plainfield City Council rejected the record $878,499 cut made in the Board of Education's local tax request.
March 19: Dorothy Florence Sevenski, a 50-year-old mother of five, died shortly after being admitted to St. Peter's Hospital in New Brunswick, after being caught in a fire at her Piscataway home.
March 19: It was reported the Bridgewater West swimming team established two school records en route to its Division B fourth-place standing in the State High School Swimming Championships which ended Saturday, March 16, 1974, at Princeton University's Dillon Pool.
March 20: A complex burglary ring, believed responsible for more than 50 break-ins in seven Middlesex County communities and Franklin in Somerset County, was broken up with the arrest of three New Brunswick men. Others were still being sought, it was reported.
March 22: Jerry Frost, 32, of East Brunswick, co-partner in Class Jewelry Co. Inc. in New York City, was robbed of $40,000 in gold and diamonds when a gunman and his masked partner met Frost as he pulled into his driveway.
March 24: The Plainfield Symphony and the New Jersey Ballet Company performed a joint program of music and dance at Plainfield High School.
1924
March 18, 1924: The Union County Board of Taxation announced the 1924 Union County tax rate was .0035188. In 1923, it was .0035232. Plainfield's new tax rate was $3.13, an increase of 19 points over the previous year.
March 19: It was reported the St. Peter's High basketball team beat Bayley High of Morristown, 35-10, on Monday, March 17, 1924.
March 20: The halfway mark in the $200,000 building campaign to be opened by the Young Women's Christian Association on Saturday, April 5, 1924, had been reached, it was reported.
March 21: The North Plainfield Borough Council approved specification for a Maxim, triple combination hose, chemical, and pumping fire apparatus at a cost of $14,000.
March 22: Fire of unknown origin in the Albany Hotel in New Brunswick did damage estimated at $2,000 and drove 17 sparsely-clad guests into the street.
March 24-25: The movies "Masters of Men" and "The Day of Faith" were shown at Reade's Strand Theatre in Perth Amboy.
Brad Wadlow is a staff writer for MyCentralJersey.com
This article originally appeared on MyCentralJersey.com: NJ history for March 18-24
