Hamilton Post
NOVEMBER 2019
COMMUNITYNEWS.ORG
Ensuring Trenton’s water works
Hacked in minutes New Jersey’s aging voting machines dogged by questions of vulnerability
New interim director discusses Sept. boil advisory, Hamilton politics and the future of TWW
By roB anthes ranthes@communitynews.org
By roB anthes ranthes@communitynews.org It has been an eventful first few weeks on the job for Steven J. Picco. The new interim director of Trenton Water Works, Picco assumed his position Sept. 16. He dealt with his first crisis just 11 days later when a mechanical failure caused chlorine levels in the water to drop and a boilwater advisory to be issued. TWW uses chlorine to disinfect the drinking water. The advisory lasted 30 hours, but Picco says TWW will carry the lessons learned in that twoday span for much longer. Picco replaced Dr. ShingFu Hsueh as head of the utility after Hsueh resigned suddenly in early September. Trenton Mayor Reed Gusciora had handpicked Hsueh to correct long-standing issues at TWW, one of the state’s largest water utilities. While Hsueh accomplished plenty in his year on the job, he also left behind plenty for Picco to handle. Picco, 71, is no stranger to TWW or Mercer County. He grew up locally, living in Hamilton, Ewing and Trenton. He See TWW, Page 24
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Hamilton resident Peter Kernast works on his show “Legacy,” which has aired on WTSR for 30 years. (Photo by Lois Levine.)
‘Legacy’ of his own Peter Kernast celebrates 30 years of his radio show By lois leVine When Peter Kernast graduated from what was then Trenton State College in 1976, he knew WTSR-FM as the college’s small radio station that played rock groups like Journey and REO Speedwagon. He couldn’t have imagined that nearly 45 years later he would be nearing three decades as one of the station’s mainstays. Although he graduated with a degree in chemistry and spent his career as a process chemist
working at well-established pharmaceutical companies in Mercer County, Kernast remained passionate about music. FM radio, in particular, fascinated the Hamilton resident. “Back in the 1960s when I was a kid, it was all AM radio: that’s how we listened to music. It was groups like the Beatles, and not much folk music except for the superstars like Bob Dylan and Joan Baez. But then, in the late 1960s, WMMR out of Philadelphia came on the scene.” Hearing music on FM radio for the first time changed the whole music game for Kernast. “It was completely different from AM: it was very progressive,” he said. “I really got
attracted to that music, to the folk singers of that era, through that early exposure to FM.” By the 1980s, Kernast knew he wanted to find a way into the business. Through his brother, Kernast met a DJ at the radio station, Gail Gaiser. That was the kismet moment: through Gaiser, Kernast was able to join the station. Though he began at the station, in the late 1980s, playing a variety of music, including progressive rock, Kernast was more and more fascinated with the idea of creating a show that focused mainly on folk and alternative music. He started with a show, “Other Musical Diversions,” on See KERNAST, Page 16
In 2004, Hopewell resident Stephanie Harris went to her polling place for the presidential primary, never expecting what was about to happen would alter her life and the public discourse around voter security for the next decade and a half. When Harris entered the privacy booth that day, she saw one of Mercer County’s then-new touchscreen voting machines facing her, a model called the Sequoia AVC Advantage. She found her candidate of choice on the large paper ballot overlay, pressed the box next to the candidate’s name and then hit a large button at the bottom right of the machine to cast her vote. Typically, at this point, the AVC Advantage will make a noise to indicate a vote has been counted. For Harris, nothing happened. Harris exited the privacy booth slightly confused. A poll worker stopped her, and said her vote didn’t register and that she should try again. Harris did, four times with the same results. After the fi fth time, the poll worker shrugged, and said, “Well, I think it worked.” Harris never received definitive confirmation her vote had been cast. To this day, she doesn’t know whether the machine recorded her vote. Harris couldn’t shake the feelSee VOTING, Page 18
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