Volume LXXVI, Number 29
“In Lunch With Love” Shows Work of Local Artist . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5 Residents Can Participate In Mileage-Based Pilot Program . . . . . . . . . . . 9 Jane Austen and John Keats: Once Upon a Time In Winchester . . . . . . 12 PU Alumna Hompe Helped England Earn Bronze at Women’s World Lax . . . . . . . . . 21 Former PDS Star Franzoni Produced Huge Season For Xavier Baseball . . 23
Local Author Deanie Yasner’s Childhood is Basis For Youth Novel . 7 Art . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14 Books . . . . . . . . . . . . 10 Calendar . . . . . . . . . . 20 Classifieds . . . . . . . . . 28 Mailbox . . . . . . . . . . . 10 New To Us . . . . . . . . . 18 Obituaries . . . . . . . . . 27 Performing Arts . . . . . 13 Real Estate . . . . . . . . 28 Sports . . . . . . . . . . . . 21 Summer Health . . . . . . 15 Topics of the Town . . . . 5 Town Talk . . . . . . . . . . 6
www.towntopics.com
Pandemic Not Over Yet, Despite Appearance Of Normality in Town The COVID-19 virus, in its current predominant BA.5 variant, is “still evolving rapidly,” warned White House COVID-19 Response Coordinator Dr. Ashish Jha in a July 17 interview. But around town in Princeton it looks like the pandemic is over, with most people behaving normally, showing little hesitation to go out and few masks in evidence. Infection rates seem to have leveled off locally, but nationwide they’re rising. Is Princeton prepared for the fall flu and back-to-school season, with cooler weather and activities moving indoors? Princeton Board of Health Chair George DiFerdinando noted that we’re still not out of the woods, and he emphasized some essential guidance based on lessons learned from the pandemic so far. “While it’s clear that many people have moved on from mask wearing and social distancing, there are still clear benefits to both those non-pharmaceutical interventions,” he wrote in an email Tuesday. “BA.5 is the most infectious variant yet, with its impact on severe disease being ‘softened’ by the high rates of vaccination in New Jersey in general and Princeton in particular.” He continued, “We do know that BA.5 can cause infection and disease even if you’re fully vaccinated and boosted. If you have other health conditions that might make a case of COVID worse, if you’re older, or if you’re planning to attend a large event that you really don’t want to miss, mask wearing, keeping your distance, and shopping or dining during ‘off hours’ still make sense.” The BA.5 subvariant has been described by the World Health Organization (WHO) and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) as “a variant of concern,” which accounted for about 65 percent of all new infections last week. New Jersey reported a COVID-19 transmission rate of 1.11 on Monday, up from 1.10 over the weekend, with any number above 1 indicating that the outbreak is expanding, with each new case leading to more than one additional new case. Mercer County is considered in the medium risk category for COVID-19 transmission, along with Hunterdon, Salem, and Cumberland counties. Continued on Page 8
75¢ at newsstands
Wednesday, July 20, 2022
Summer Construction Projects Underway All Over Town The decision by Mercer County to build a roundabout on Rosedale Road this summer came as welcome news to area residents, who had lobbied for years for traffic calming at General Johnson Drive and Greenway Meadows. Construction began a few weeks ago. But due to the behavior of some motorists — ignoring road closure signs and moving barricades — the site, where a pedestrian was killed last August, continues to be dangerous. “Access to Johnson Park Elementary School and the park is only from the west side. You cannot go through the construction zone to get from one side to the other, but people are doing that,” said Jim Purcell, Princeton’s assistant municipal engineer, on Tuesday. “I was out there this morning with a police officer, and we actually turned three cars away. And this was while the contractors were out there doing work. It is truly a construction zone, and there are open trenches, equipment, and materials they cannot get through. I’m pleading with the public to please pay attention. Driving through a construction zone is unsafe. And so is moving barricades.” The Rosedale Road roundabout is just one of several sites throughout Princeton where some sort of construction is in progress. In and around downtown, and on the Princeton University campus,
workers are in the process of demolishing, blasting, and building. At the Graduate Hotel project, which has closed Chambers Street in one direction as demolition has been completed along the street, things are going more smoothly than expected. The hotel is to be located in the former office building at 20 Nassau Street, with new construction along Chambers Street where a row of shops stood until recently. “I haven’t heard complaints from any of
the neighbors on Bank Street,” said Purcell. “We do hear from people who work on Chambers Street about the traffic pattern. It’s difficult for them, but we knew it would be. We respond to their concerns as soon as we hear from them.” Workers are currently hauling away debris as cleanup is being completed. The next phase will be to bring in a crane that will be set up in the excavation area. The Graduate, which is part of a chain of Continued on Page 8
A New Form of Public Art to Be Displayed by Arts Council The Arts Council of Princeton (ACP) has been sponsoring a lot of public art in recent months, mostly in the form of murals. Thanks to a resolution passed by Princeton Council last week, the ACP is planning to add 20 4-by-2-foot banners to the mix, on poles along Paul Robeson Place, John Street, Birch Avenue, and Witherspoon Street. These vinyl banners are digital depictions of collages made by photographer and historian Romus Broadway, a beloved figure in the Witherspoon-Jackson community who died two years ago. Broadway was known for the collages he made of numerous events in Princeton, particularly
involving people in the WitherspoonJackson neighborhood. They come from a collection acquired from his family by Princeton University, which gave the ACP 20 of the collages in digital format that were used to create the banners. “We’ve been displaying his collages here in our gallery every summer for the past eight years or so,” said Adam Welch, ACP executive director, “generally during the annual Joint Effort Safe Streets Program. Me being relatively new to the neighborhood and trying to get involved [Welch joined the ACP in September 2020], this was something that really interested me.” Continued on Page 8
EVENING CHORES: Youngsters helped farmers feed and water the animals, collect eggs in the henhouse, grind corn in the barn, scrub and fill water tubs, clean the horses’ stalls, and more on Saturday evening at Howell Living History Farm in Hopewell Township. Participants share what they learned at the event in this week’s Town Talk on page 6. (Photo by Charles R. Plohn)