HHS poetry group
holds first recitation
p. 12
Embrace a greener
lifestyle today
p. 27-34
An unlikely super hero
in Levi’s Shazam!
p. 45
FIRE BADLY DAMAGES HOME
Wednesday, April 10, 2019
Volume 23 • Issue 15
by Gabe Donio
www.hammontongazette.com
Centennial Drive home sustains ‘major property damage’
G AZETTE S TAFF W RITER
that was reported to police at 11:32
a.m. on April 6, Hammonton Po-
lice Lt. Kevin Friel said.
According to Friel, the police
department received a call about a
fire that had started in the garage.
Planning board
denies 6-ft. fence
HAMMONTON—A home lo-
cated on the prime block of Cen-
tennial Drive in the Meadows
development off of Pleasant Mills
Road was badly damaged by a fire
by Stephen Pistone
G AZETTE S TAFF W RITER
HAMMONTON—During the
Hammonton Planning Board’s
meeting on April 3, it denied a
hardship variance application that
The Hammonton Police Depart-
ment, the Hammonton Volunteer
Fire Department and neighboring
fire departments responded, Friel
said.
The fire was extinguished with
no personal injuries or fatalities,
Friel said.
“The house sustained major
property damage which made the
house uninhabitable. The fire de-
partments were able to prevent fur-
ther damage to adjacent houses.
The American Red Cross was con-
tacted for alternate lodging for the
family that was displaced from the
house,” Friel said.
See POLICE, Page 15
would’ve allowed residents Bryan
and Kaitlyn Kiefer to construct a
six-foot-tall fence that would ex-
tending from the backyard to a
screened-in porch in the side yard
of their property, located at 728
Central Ave.
According to board solicitor
Students at Sooy,
ECEC meet author
Kate Messner
See PLANNING, Page 8
by Stephen Pistone
G AZETTE S TAFF W RITER
HAMMONTON—The students of Warren E. Sooy Jr. Elementary
School and the Hammonton Early Childhood Education Center (ECEC)
were visited by children’s book author Kate Messner on April 2.
Messner’s visit, which was sponsored by the Hammonton Home and
Elem. students welcome author
See AUTHOR, Page 10
St. Joseph High
going international
For THG/Brian Attard. To purchase photos in The Gazette, call (609) 704-1940.
This home on Centennial Drive was severely damaged during a fire on April 6.
by Stephen Pistone
G AZETTE S TAFF W RITER
HAMMONTON—St. Joseph
High School (SJHS) will aim to
broaden the horizons of a few
Chinese students next year
through an international student
education placement program in a
partnership with the education
consulting firm EduBoston.
On March 18, SJHS Principal
the Rev. Allain Caparas and SJHS
Director of Guidance Louise
Fourney returned from a five-day
trip in China, where they met with
representatives from EduBoston
and interviewed several prospec-
History of area
exp. aircraft assoc.
G AZETTE S TAFF W RITER
THG/Stephen Pistone. To purchase photos in The Gazette, call (609) 704-1940.
Author Kate Messner (third from right) visited Warren E. Sooy Jr. Elementary School on April 2. Sitting with Messner
during a writer’s luncheon in Sooy Elementary’s Loretta Rehmann Media Center are students (l-r) Jocelyn Emmel,
Cheyenne Krisak, Austin Kemp and Julia Creamer. Students at Sooy and the Hammonton Early Childhood Education
Center are reading her books throughout the school year for its “One School, One Book” shared reading program.
SUBSCRIBE TO The
HAMMONTON—Southern
New Jersey is home to Chapter
216 of the Experimental Aircraft
Association (EAA), an interna-
tional organization of aviation en-
thusiasts who collectively learn
how to fly, build and maintain
Gazette • SUBSCRIBE NOW! • CALL 609-704-1939
small airplanes together.
“We’re just a bunch of people
who get together, we build air-
planes, we teach flying, we fly our
own airplanes and we go out to
the community and we educate
people on what we do … flying,”
chapter president Thomas Mc-
Dowell said.
See EAA, Page 4
by Stephen Pistone
See CHINA, Page 3