The inaugural game at the new Somerset County ballpark in Bridgewater was held on Monday, June 7, 1999. A sellout crowd of more than 6,500 saw the Lehigh Valley Black Diamonds beat the Somerset Patriots, 4-2.
Gov. Christie Whitman threw the first pitch, a ball delivered from the hospital bed of Milton Kalafer, father of Patriots co-owners Steven and Michael Kalafer.
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
June 3, 2019: In a dramatic revamp of New Jersey’s medical marijuana program, the Murphy administration was seeking applicants to operate up to 108 weed treatment businesses statewide, which was up from the then-current number of six.
June 4: According to the Middlesex County Office of Health Services, a bat found in the bedroom of a home in the area of Front Street and Maple Avenue in South Plainfield tested positive for rabies.
June 5: It was reported the Hillsborough school district offered an apology for an incident at the senior prom when 11 students, nine of whom were special needs, were forced to leave early. Some parents of the students said they were not satisfied with the school district’s statement.
June 6: A Highland Park Public Library event featuring the children’s book, “P is for Palestine,” and its author, Golbarg Bashi, which had been postponed the previous month, had been rescheduled, it was reported.
June 6: In the NJSIAA Tournament of Champions final, Old Bridge High School volleyball team beat Fair Lawn, 25-19, 17-25, 25-18, to win its second-straight state title.
June 8: Dio Returns, featuring the music of Ronnie James Dio, who died in 2010, was presented at the Paramount Theatre in Asbury Park, using hologram technology and isolated vocal tracks from live recordings of Dio.
10 years ago
June 4, 2014: It was reported state Senate President Stephen Sweeney, D-Gloucester, criticized Rutgers University officials on Monday, June 2, 2014, for their failure to publicly release what he labeled a “hidden” internal report that apparently detailed recommendations to improve the school’s governance system.
June 5: Six fifth-graders at Samsel Upper Elementary School in Sayreville joined Assemblyman John Wisniewski, D-19th District, before the Assembly Tourism, Gaming and the Arts Committee to lobby for the passage of A1715, a bill designating salt water taffy as the official state treat.
June 6: Police patrolled schools in Manville after a bear was spotted on two streets before disappearing into the woods.
June 6: Highland Park-based Jersey Pride held its 23rd annual Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgendered and Intersexed Pride Celebration in Asbury Park on Sunday, June 1, 2014, it was reported.
June 7: In the NJSIAA Group IV final, the North Hunterdon High School softball team beat Hillsborough, 6-4, capturing its first state championship since 2006.
1999
June 5, 1999: The Hunterdon Central softball team beat Paramus, 3-2, at Toms River East High School, capturing its first state Group IV title.
June 5-6: The New Jersey Arts and Music Festival, featuring The Temptations, Los Lobos and the Neville Brothers, was held at the New Jersey Performing Arts Center in Newark.
June 6: Sixteen people were left homeless after a fire blazed for hours through the multifamily dwelling they occupied at 195 Pulaski Ave. in Perth Amboy.
June 7: In the second such attack in two months, Rashan Counsler, 13, of Plainfield, was bitten by a pit bull at Monroe Avenue and West Third Street in Plainfield. He was treated at Muhlenberg Regional Medical Center in Plainfield and released.
June 7: Marc Anthony Jordan, 28, who had addresses in Freehold and Eatontown, convicted of robbing an Old Bridge man and his three house guests at gunpoint, was sentenced to 50 years in prison by Judge Mathias Rodriguez in New Brunswick.
June 8: It was reported Delaware Township police received about eight complaint calls the previous week about noise from stunt planes practicing their high-flying tricks over the northwestern portion of the township. More complaints went to the Federal Aviation Administration.
1974
June 4, 1974: In the primary election, Somerset County stronghold Millicent Fenwick seized the GOP nomination in the Fifth Congressional District, receiving 12,481 votes to Assembly Minority Leader Thomas Kean of Livingston’s 12,371 votes.
June 4: In the Somerset County girls’ softball tournament championship, Hillsborough beat Bridgewater West, 7-0, to capture the county title.
June 5: The Suburban Symphony Orchestra of New Jersey, conducted by Henry Bloch, would perform on Wednesday, June 12 ,1974, and Wednesday, June 26, 1974, at Echo Lake Park in Mountainside, it was reported.
June 6: Nicholas Kehayas was convicted in County Criminal Court in New Brunswick of charges he participated in a scheme to bribe Monroe Council President John R. Klink almost two years prior.
June 7: It was reported Rutgers University had agreed to pay $100,000 in back pay to eight women faculty members at the university’s Newark campus who complained they were being discriminated against because of their gender.
June 9: A fire which smoldered inside a two-story building in Montgomery for nearly an hour before it burst through the roof destroyed Fifth Dimension Inc., taking with it nearly $1 million worth of electronic components and equipment.
1924
June 3, 1924: In the first game of the baseball season of the New Brunswick Factory League, the Howe and Powers plants beat the Janeway and Interwoven Nine, 8-5, at Buccleuch Park in New Brunswick.
June 4-5: The movie, “Jealous Husbands,” starring Earle Williams, Jane Novak and Ben Alexander, was shown at Reade’s Strand Theatre in Perth Amboy.
June 6: Three men, employed by the Delta Construction Company, of New Providence, to build a reservoir at Bonnie Burn Sanatorium in Berkeley Heights, were badly injured when they fell off a plank, which had been placed on two wooden horses on a scaffold, and landed about 25 feet below in the reservoir.
June 6: Steve Barduyck of New Brunswick was sentenced to not less than 10 or more than 15 years of hard labor in state prison by Judge Frank L. Cleary in Court of Special Sessions in Somerville. Barduyck entered the store of Joseph Fetcho in Manville on Wednesday, Jan. 30, 1924, and shot Fetcho in the hip, then robbed him of $300.
June 7: Fifty-seven seniors, the largest class in the history of the New Jersey College for Women in New Brunswick, received diplomas at the commencement exercises. Corinne Roosevelt Robinson, sister of the late President Theodore Roosevelt, was the commencement speaker.
Brad Wadlow is a staff writer for MyCentralJersey.com
This article originally appeared on MyCentralJersey.com: NJ history for June 3-9
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