Volume LXXIV, Number 8
Summer Camp Guide Pages 28-32 Montessori Musical Coming to Hopewell Theater . . . . . . . . . . . 5 Judge Considers Arguments in Westminster Lawsuits . . . . . . . . . . 12 Business Concept Wins Student Full Scholarship at Rider . . . . . . . . . . 13 Music from China Concert at PU Art Museum . . . . . . . . . . 20 PU Men’s Hoops Tops Brown, Tied for 1st in Ivies . . . . . . . . . . . . . 35 PHS Boys’ Swimming Falls in Sectional Final . . . . . . . . . . . . . 38
Alex Slusher has Big Debut for PU Men’s Lax . . . . . . . . . 34 Art . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 24 Berkshire Hathaway Fox & Roach Realtors . . 14-15 Books . . . . . . . . . . . . 19 Calendar . . . . . . . . . . 26 Classified Ads . . . . . . 46 Mailbox . . . . . . . . . . . 18 Music Review . . . . . . . 20 New To Us . . . . . . . . . 33 Obituaries . . . . . . . . . 43 Performing Arts . . . . . 21 Police Blotter . . . . . . . 12 Real Estate . . . . . . . . 46 Sports . . . . . . . . . . . . 34 Topics of the Town . . . . 5 Town Talk . . . . . . . . . . 6
www.towntopics.com
PCDO Straw Poll Voters Favor Elizabeth Warren In Presidential Primary The Princeton Community Democratic Organization (PCDO), in a straw poll of 114 voters gathered at the Suzanne Patterson Center on Sunday evening, supported Elizabeth Warren for president as they geared up for the 2020 primaries and the November general election. After hearing an array of speeches from organized campaign representatives as well as volunteers from the floor weighing in on why they are supporting one of the eight remaining candidates in the Democratic presidential primary race, the audience members ranked the candidates. First-choice votes were weighted with eight points, second choice seven, third choice six, etc. Warren won a total of 634 points, Amy Klobuchar finished second with 602, and Michael Bloomberg was third with 530. Pete Buttigieg finished in fourth place with 501 points, followed by Bernie Sanders with 453, Joe Biden with 372, Tom Steyer with 227, and Tulsi Gabbard with 116. Warren won the most first-choice votes with 31, followed by Bloomberg with 24, Klobuchar and Sanders with 16 each, Buttigieg with 13, Biden with 5, Gabbard with 1, and 0 for Steyer. PCDO President Jean Durbin interpreted the results as an indication of Princeton Democrats’ focus on winning in November. “The data from this poll shows that moderate progressives were favored over liberal progressives, which could point towards Princeton Democrats overall focusing on winning regardless of the standard bearer,” said Durbin. Also voting on the most important issues in the campaign, participants chose climate change (68 points), defeating Donald Trump (67), and health care (35). The PCDO gathering also unanimously endorsed Congresswoman Bonnie Watson Coleman for re-election to the House of Representatives for the 12th District and Senator Cory Booker for another term in the United States Senate. In urging the Princeton Democrats to make sure that friends, family, and neighbors are registered to vote and that they do actually vote in November, Watson Coleman described the current moment as “a very crucial time for us. Everybody says that this is the most important Continued on Page 9
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Wednesday, February 19, 2020
County Clamps Down On Recycling Rules If you find a bright red tag attached to the recycling bin you dutifully placed by the curb the night before, and the can is still full, consider yourself warned. The Mercer County Improvement Authority (MCIA) is getting serious about enforcing just what can and cannot be recycled. As of this past Monday, recyclables that do not qualify for pickup are being tagged and left for homeowners to sort through before the next scheduled pickup. The red tags list possible reasons why the materials were not collected — plastic bags, the biggest culprit; pizza boxes; Styrofoam; cardboard not broken down into manageable piles; and items not placed in the county-issued bins — along with a written explanation if the problem was something else. The hope is that the public will catch on quickly, streamlining the recycling process and, in turn, saving money. The red tags are being issued in towns across the county. “We got a heads-up from the county about this,” said Princeton Council member Eve Niedergang, one of three members of the governing body who serve
as liaisons to Princeton’s Department of Public Works. “From our perspective, it’s fabulous, because despite efforts to educate people, some don’t understand what is acceptable and what is not. But it’s not supposed to be punitive. It’s supposed to be educational. We’re hoping it will get people’s attention. The key goal for the county is to bring down the cost and make people more compliant along the way.” Plastic bags clog the recycling machinery and drive up the cost of sorting. If there is too much contamination, entire truckloads can end up being discarded. Molly Jones, executive director of Sus-
tainable Princeton, welcomes the MCIA’s efforts to enforce the recycling rules. “The municipality has worked for a long time to educate residents on what can be included in the bins, but we have seen other towns have success in cleaning their recycling streams by having the enforcement go hand in hand with the education,” she said in an email. “People want to do the right thing when it comes to recycling, but the rules can be hard to know and get complicated because they do vary from place to place.” Jones said she took a walk on Monday Continued on Page 8
Construction To Begin at John Witherspoon; Planning for Budget, Facilities Accelerates The renovation of the John Witherspoon Middle School (JW) Academic Conference Center (ACC), part of the facilities referendum passed last year, is scheduled to begin on March 1, transforming the ACC into new learning spaces for all JW students. “This renovation will provide muchneeded space for our growing student body and provide us with some state-of-
the-art, flexible learning spaces that can be used for collaborative projects,” JWMS Principal Jason Burr wrote in a letter to JW families earlier in the month. The four new flexible classrooms/ learning spaces will all be on the same level and will have access to an outdoor courtyard. The construction schedule for Continued on Page 10
HAPPY BIRTHDAY GEORGE: Music from the Washington Crossing Fifes & Drums ensemble was part of the festivities at George Washington’s 288th Birthday Party, held Sunday afternoon at Washington Crossing Historic Park in Washington Crossing, Pa . The free event also featured various children’s activities in the park buildings, a drawing contest, and birthday cake . (Photo by Charles R. Plohn)