Volume LXXVI, Number 45
Morven’s Festival of Trees Brings in New Audiences . . . . . . . . 5 SHUPP Continues Fight Against Hunger . . . . . . 8 “An Evening of Readings and Carols” Marks 30th Anniversary . . . . . . . 12 Soundings and Echoes: The Waste Land at 100 . . . . . . . . . . 22 Brentano String Quartet Returns to Princeton University . . . . . . . . 23 Theater Intime Presents Twelfth Night . . . . . . 26 PU Football Edges Dartmouth 17-14, Girding for Showdown at Yale . . 33 Wilberforce Girls’ Cross Country Wins Non-Public B Group Title . . . . . . 39
James H. Litton, Internationally Acclaimed Choral Conductor and Educator, Dies at 87. . 41 Art . . . . . . . . . . . . 29-31 Books . . . . . . . . . . . . 21 Calendar . . . . . . . . . . 32 Classifieds . . . . . . . . . 44 Mailbox . . . . . . . . . . . 20 New To Us . . . . . . . . . 19 Obituaries . . . . . . . 41-43 Performing Arts . . . 27-28 Police Blotter . . . . . . . 12 Real Estate . . . . . . . . 44 Religion . . . . . . . . . . . 43 Sports . . . . . . . . . . . . 33 Topics of the Town . . . . 5 Town Talk . . . . . . . . . . 6
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Neighbors Circulate Petition After Traffic Fatality Along Mercer Road On Friday, October 28 at 10:38 a.m., a landscaper working in the 900 block of Mercer Road was struck by a 2010 Kia Forte traveling south on the roadway. Ewing resident Salvatore Esposito-Dimarcant, 70, was transported to the Bristol Myers Squibb Trauma Center at Capital Health Regional Medical Center, where he later died from his injuries. The tragic incident, which is still under investigation, has been especially troubling to neighborhood residents who had employed the man, known as Sal, for decades. And it has renewed attempts to get the speed limit reduced on that portion of Mercer Road (also known as Princeton Pike), where a woman was struck by a vehicle and killed in 2016. A petition is being circulated for presentation to Princeton Council regarding lowering the speed limit from 45 to 35 miles per hour, matching the speed of Mercer Road as it crosses the Princeton Battlefield. According to the petition, there are 19 homes that line the road in the Gallup Road area alone. “Those homeowners, and the contractors working at those homes, are at risk,” it reads. “The tragic fatality that occurred on October 28 might have been avoided with a lower speed limit.” The petition also cites dim lighting, a high population of deer, narrow cycling lanes, and a rise that impedes visibility when exiting at the southern intersection of Gallup and Mercer roads, as problematic. “The change to 35 miles per hour past the battlefield was a welcome one,” it reads. “And when Princeton Pike continues in Lawrence past driveways, streets, and schools, the speed limit is even lower than 35 miles per hour. The many Princeton Pike residents at the southern end of Princeton deserve similar protection.” Last week, neighborhood representatives reached out to Princeton Council about their concerns. Deanna Stockton and Jim Purcell of the Municipal Engineering Department met with three Princeton Police representatives about the issue. Correspondence from Stockton to Council members indicated that police are collecting traffic data near the site of the accident, which will be used to evaluate whether the speed limit can be adjusted. Continued on Page 16
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Wednesday, November 9, 2022
Despite Glitches, “All Votes Will Be Counted” Despite some delays in voting, delays in counting the votes, and concerns throughout Mercer County as voting machines failed and voters had to complete ballots manually on Election Day, November 8, Mercer County Clerk Paula Sollami Covello assured residents that the vote tally would be fair and thorough. No results were available at press time Tuesday evening. “It’s disappointing that the machines didn’t work, and it’s going to take longer than usual,” she said in a phone conversation late Tuesday afternoon, “but I have full confidence that it will be a reliable vote count. We’ll count them all.” The county clerk’s office is investigating the problem, “how it occurred and what took place,” Covello said. “It’s a problem between the voting machines, the scanners, and the printer that prints the ballots.” Dominion Voting Systems and other IT professionals are also working on the problem, she noted. Covello stated that, starting at 8 p.m. last night, when the polls closed, the bipartisan Board of Elections, two Republicans and two Democrats, would be counting all ballots that have been received so far — including early voting, mail-in, provisional, and those voted manually on Tuesday. Additional mail-in
ballots may arrive and be counted in the coming days, as long as they were mailed by November 8. Workers at the Community Park School polling location on Witherspoon Street reported that the first hours of voting early Tuesday morning were problematic, as the machines malfunctioned, and workers had to ask voters to fill out ballots manually and insert them into the machines, though they could not be scanned. Many voters were frustrated as lines built up,
but later in the day the manual voting seemed to be proceeding smoothly with a moderately brisk turnout of voters. Voting was also proceeding smoothly at the polling location at the Princeton Municipal Building in the early afternoon. Not all voters, however, were confident that their votes would be tallied accurately. “How do I know that my ballot is going to be scanned?” said Richard Romanski, who voted at the Suzanne Patterson Center on Monument Drive. Romanski, Continued on Page 14
Peace Coalition to Hold Service, Conference, Confront New Post-Election Challenges Looking to tackle the challenges of the post-election period, the 42nd Annual Conference and Multifaith Service for Peace, sponsored by the Coalition for Peace Action (CFPA), along with 35 co-sponsoring religious and civic groups in the region, will take place on Sunday, November 13. Rabbi David Saperstein, called the most influential rabbi in America by Newsweek magazine, will deliver the Multifaith Service sermon at 11 a.m. in the Princeton University Chapel, and in the afternoon he will be joined by climate justice movement leader and New Yorker writer Bill McKibben, and social justice advocate and co-founder
of the CODEPINK peace group Medea Benjamin for a Conference for Peace on Zoom from 2 to 4 p.m. “These are trying and troubling times,” said the Rev. Robert Moore, executive director of the CFPA. “It’s good this event is happening so soon after Election Day, especially if there is a concerning outcome on Election Day. People are going to want to be somewhere together in solidarity.” He also noted that the service and conference would encourage participants ”to be more empowered to effectively advocate for peace policies.” Continued on Page 10
DEMOCRACY IN ACTION: Voters went to the polls in Princeton yesterday, November 8, and, despite widespread technical malfunctions in Mercer County and some citizens’ concerns, election officials said that all votes would be counted accurately. Voters had to complete ballots manually, and the bipartisan Board of Elections in Trenton is still tallying the totals. (Photo by Charles R. Plohn)