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FAIR HAVEN: KOCH JOINS COUNCIL AFTER ALL

With an assist from Councilwoman Susan Sorensen, Betsy Koch, right, takes her seat for the first time as a council member during a meeting held at the Knollwood School, where she’s a teacher. Members of the student council were also on the dais. (Photo by John T. Ward. Click to enlarge.)

By JOHN T. WARD

Less than a three weeks after a narrow loss at the polls, Elizabeth ‘Betsy’ Koch won unanimous appointment to the Fair Haven council Monday.

She replaces Councilman Rowland Wilhelm, who stepped down with two years remaining on his third three-year term.

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FAIR HAVEN: KOCH RECALLED WITH HUMOR

koch funeral 120414Pallbearers with the casket of Councilman Jerome Koch, below, who died Sunday. (Photo by John T. Ward. Click to enlarge)

By JOHN T. WARD

Koch 2008Friends and family eulogized Fair Haven Councilman Jerome A. Koch, Jr. with love and humor in the form of some of his favorite aphorisms Thursday, four days after he died from injuries suffered in a bicycling accident on River Road.

Setting aside the “nightmare” circumstances of Koch’s death, one of his four children told a packed Church of the Nativity that her father “would be telling us to knock off with the crying.”

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FAIR HAVEN: KOCH DIES FROM INJURIES

By JOHN T. WARD

Koch 2008Fair Haven Councilman Jerome Koch died Sunday, one day after he was was critically injured in a bicycling accident on River Road.

Borough police reported Koch’s passing in a one-paragraph statement issued at 7 p.m.

Koch, was riding westbound near Elm Place when he was struck by a vehicle headed in the same direction at about 3:25 p.m., police said.

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FAIR HAVEN: KOCH CRITICAL AFTER CRASH

jerome koch 112811Councilman Jerome Koch speaking during a council meeting at the Knollwood School in November, 2011. (Photo by John T. Ward. Click to enlarge)

By JOHN T. WARD

just_in1Fair Haven Councilman Jerome Koch was critically injured in a bicycling accident on River Road Saturday afternoon, according to Mayor Ben Lucarelli.

Koch, a retiree who has served on the council since 2006, was riding westbound near Elm Place when he swerved into the traffic lane and was rear-ended by a vehicle at about 3:30 p.m., Lucarelli said.

“It was a severe impact,” said Lucarelli, who arrived on the scene moments later.

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FAIR HAVENITES QUACK OVER PET DUCKS

nicole-dawn-stoverNicole Stover, left, and her mother, Dawn, make their case to the borough council to keep six ducks as pets. (Photo by Dustin Racioppi; click to enlarge)

By DUSTIN RACIOPPI

The borough council in Fair Haven is faced with a difficult and unusual decision.

On Monday night, the governing body heard from Nicole and Dawn Stover, who for the last six months have raised six ducks on their South Woodland Drive property — to the chagrin of their neighbors, who have health concerns and complain that the noise from the ducks is irritating.

If the council allows the Stovers to keep the ducks, it will upset the neighbors. If it denies the family’s request, then it will have broken the heart of 12-year-old Nicole, who’s raised the ducks — she’s named them Jeffrey, Delilah, Daisy, Lucifer, Blue and Genie — and says they’re “pretty much like my children.”

This is a touchy subject, especially in Fair Haven, where disruptions to the status quo tend to spin the populace into a tizzy.

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