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Horsing around
TWW: 25% of lead lines removed
Township native recounts relationship with diving horse Gamal in new book
EDITED BY BILL SANSERVINO
Trenton Water Works has removed 25% of the lead pipes from its water-distribution system, including at private homes, according to the utility, which serves most of Lawrence Township. TWW began removal in February 2020 with an inventory of 31,791 lead lines in the system. Since then, TWW used four vendors and six publicly awarded contracts to replace 8,008 lead services with safer copper lines in its system and at private homes in Trenton, Hamilton, Lawrence and Ewing. TWW funds its Lead Service Line Replacement Program with state grants and loans featuring forgivable principal from the N.J. Infrastructure Bank, which enables municipalities to make critical investments in public infrastructure. To date, TWW’s LSLRP has received $50 million to fund the program’s five phases, $21.5 million of which will be forgiven by the I-Bank. TWW estimates completion of the LSLRP to cost $150 million more over six years. According to the federal Environmental Protection Agency, replacing lead services at homes ranges from $4,000 to $12,000 per home. However, to participate in TWW’s LSLRP, homeowners are charged $1,000, not including a plumbing permit See TWW, Page 3
BY DAN AUBREY
Lawrence Township resident Floyd Bennett recently opened Final Boss Comics and Games in downtown Lawrenceville. (Photo By Angel Ortiz Jr.)
A new player in comics and video games comes to town BY ANGEL ORTIZ JR.
In many comics and video games, the final boss represents the end of an adventure. When you defeat the final boss, you save the day and become the hero. At Final Boss Comics and Games, however, the adventure has just begun. Lawrence Township’s newest comic book shop, located on 10 Gordon Avenue, officially opened its doors to the public in November. The store sells not only comic books and video games, but also action figures, board games, table
top games and trading cards. There is something for everyone at all ages at Final Boss and the owner, Floyd Bennett says he is making sure that everyone gets whatever they are looking for. “Whatever people want, I will sell,” Bennett says. “I always want this to be a onestop shop.” This isn’t the first time Bennett, also a Lawrence Township resident, has owned a comics and games shop. He previously ran FJB Comics and Games (named after his initials), which was located in
Jersey City from 2007 to 2017. FJB Comics 10-year run came to an end when the landlord of the building that the shop was located in sold the property. He considered looking for a new home for FJB Comics, but ultimately opted against it. “I thought about looking for another space, but decided it was best to close after a decade of serving the [Jersey City] community,” says Floyd, The Jersey City native hung up his hat as a comic book shop owner for more than four years. He had moved to LawSee FINAL BOSS, Page 6
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The Last Diving Horse in America is Lawrence Township native Cynthia A. Branigan’s book that mixes a personal journey, a friendship, and a slice of New Jersey and American history. The book’s title can be interpreted literally. Branigan tells her encounter with a horse that had once amused and amazed audiences by appearing with a rider on a high platform and then diving from a great height into a body of water. Using a prose that is often elegiac in tone, Branigan recounts a personal memory of a horse that will “always be in that invisible sacred place that others cannot see, but which each of us carries within ourselves.” Yet the same tone also fits the recollection of an era when thousands flocked each year to Atlantic City to witness such a spectacle that eventually and rightfully became unpopular to the public’s sensibilities but is now a distant memory of many, including myself. Here Branigan thoughtfully recreates the sensation of seeing Atlantic City’s Steel Pier’s “High Diving Horses” and her own soul stirring that led to saving a horse: Gamal, the horse, who would become mine, was See BRANIGAN, Page 4
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