Friday, April 13, 2012
Township man makes first court appearance on charge he set fire to building
- POLICE & FIRE
- Mike Deak
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Friday, April 13, 2012
The first appearance in court of township resident Curtis Westover, charged with setting fire to a historic barn on Amwell Road in March, was short on Friday afternoon. The purpose of the hearing before Superior Court Judge Paul Armstrong was to advise Westover of his rights and to determine if he will be represented by an attorney in the ongoing legal process. Free on $50,000 bail, Westover told the judge that he has been appointed an attorney from the state Public Defender’s Office. Court records indicate that the attorney is Chanel Hudson. Armstrong said the case will next be presented to a county grand jury which will decide whether to issue an indictment or return a “no bill.” The judge said that process usually takes two months. The …
Curtis Westover to appear in State Superior Court on second-degree aggravated arson charges.
A Hillsborough man accused of setting fire to a historic Amwell Road home last month will be arraigned Friday afternoon. Curtis Westover, 69, of Zion Road, will be arraigned on second-degree aggravated arson charges for the fire that destroyed a historic home at 697 Amwell Road on March 18. Westover wil appear with his public defender, Chanal Hudson, before State Superior Court Judge Julie Marino at 1:30 p.m. John Lazorchak, who owned the structure, had unsuccessfully tried to demolish the building to construct a 6,700-square-foot office building. The home has since been demolished, but the future of the property remains unknown. Westover was arrested on March 24 and released after posting 10 percent of his $50,000 bail. Shortly after …
Friday, March 30, 2012
Owner of building destroyed by fire uncertain if he'll still pursue construction plans.
The future of an Amwell Road property, where a vacant historic building was destroyed by fire earlier this month, has yet to be determined. “Your guess is as good as mine,” said John Lazorchak, the owner of the property. Zion Road resident Curtis Westover, 69, has been charged with arson for allegedly setting the blaze on March 18. After buying the property in 2005, Lazorchak, who also owns the adjacent JML Landscaping at 695 Amwell Road in the Neshanic section, developed plans to build a 6,700-square-foot office building on the property. Those plans, approved by the planning board, called for the demolition of a vacant building on the site, a home dating back to the 1800s that had fallen into disrepair. But neighbors opposed to the plans …
Monday, March 26, 2012
Curtis Westover's lawsuit dismissed in February; barn on his property burned in 2005.
- POLICE & FIRE
- Mike Deak
-
Monday, March 26, 2012
The 69-year-old Zion Road resident accused of setting fire to a historic Amwell Road home last weekend had filed suit against the Hillsborough Zoning Board in November. Curtis Westover's suit, dismissed in February, charged the board with acting arbitrarily in ruling that it had no jurisdiction on Westover's application for a subdivision on his Zion Road property, the home of B&W Nursery, filed in June 2011. UPDATE: Westover asked the Township Committee for help Tuesday night in resolving the zoning issue on his property. In August 2005, a 40-foot by 40-foot pole barn burned on Westover's property. Smoke from that blaze, which was not deemed suspicious, could be seen as far away as the Somerville Circle, according to published reports. …
Monday, March 19, 2012
Prosecutor's office handling probe of fire that burned historic Hillsborough home.
The investigation into a fire that ripped through a historic Amwell Road home Sunday morning remains under investigation, a spokesman for the Somerset County Prosecutor's Office said. Capt. Jack Bennett, a spokesman for Prosecutor Geoffrey Soriano, said Monday the investigation remained ongoing and did not release further details. A spokesman for the Hillsborough Police Department on Monday referred questions regarding the blaze to the prosecutor's office. Hillsborough Chief Fire Marshal Chris Weniger said Sunday the fire was considered "suspicious." The cause of the fire has not been released. The fire broke out at the single-family residence Sunday morning at about 7 a.m. Fire companies from Hillsborough, Neshanic and Flagtown responded …
Thursday, January 19, 2012
Board members state that commission has ultimate authority on demolition of historic property.
John Lazorchak's appeal of a Historic Preservation Commission decision to prevent the demolition of a historic property on Amwell Road was remanded back to the commission from the Zoning Board of Adjustment, the latest development in Lazorchak’s ongoing quest to build an office building on the property. Members of the board cited a lack of an audio recording—and therefore, a transcript—from the previous commission hearing on the matter as a reason to send the appeal over to the commission. “It still comes down to fact that this board is being asked to make a determination on basically almost hearsay. We really don’t have a transcript of what the historic commission actually said or wants,” said Zoning Board member Walter Dietz. “If they …
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Hillsborough Municipal Complex
379 S Branch Rd, Hillsborough, NJ
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russell gernert
9:51 am on Friday, April 20, 2012
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