Volume LXXVI, Number 32
Children’s Book by Local Artist Marks 50th Anniversary . . . . . 5 Municipality Enlists Homeowners to Help Keep Drivers’ Sightlines Clear . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8 Princeton Public Schools Welcome New Spaces, Faces in Fall Term . . . 11 Life in the Sunshine with Three Heroic Single Mothers . . . . . . . . . . 13 Choral Concert Recalls Legacy of Eminent Composer . . . . . . . . . 14 Former PU Women’s Hoops Star Meyers Helps U.S. Win Gold at Maccabiah Games . . . 22 Sparked by Larranaga’s Clutch Play, Majeski Foundation Wins Summer Hoops Title . . . . . . . . 26
Piper Dubow Helps CP Bluefish Win PASDA Championship . . . . . . 25 Art . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18 Better Living. . . . . . 16, 17 Calendar . . . . . . . . . . 19 Classifieds . . . . . . . . . 29 Luxury Living . . . . . . . . 2 Mailbox . . . . . . . . . . . 12 New To Us . . . . . . . . . 20 Obituaries . . . . . . . . . 28 Performing Arts . . . . . 15 Police Blotter . . . . . . . 10 Real Estate . . . . . . . . 29 Sports . . . . . . . . . . . . 22 Topics of the Town . . . . 5 Town Talk . . . . . . . . . . 6
www.towntopics.com
Five-Year Program Proposed For Collection Of Waste and Organics At a meeting Monday evening, Princeton Council heard a presentation on a new town-wide, cart-based, pick-up program for landfill waste and organics. The proposal, which is for residents, aims to reduce fees paid at landfills while lowering the town’s carbon footprint. Council also approved measures allowing developers to proceed with obtaining financing for two inclusionary housing projects at Princeton Shopping Center. Consultant Wayne DeFeo, who has been advising the municipality on trash and recycling issues, spoke, as did Sustainable Princeton’s executive director Christine Symington. DeFeo said the proposed five-year waste removal program would not replace the current system of every-other-week recycling pickup. But the weekly collection of trash would be more efficient. Residents would be issued a 64-gallon standardized can, or 32-gallon if requested. These standardized containers can be picked up mechanically, allowing for automated or semi-automated collections and lower labor costs. Thanks to the increased volume of residential trash because of the pandemic, and a shrinking labor pool, costs for waste pickup have soared in recent years. “More volume at the curb means more people are needed to pick it up, more trucks, and higher costs,” DeFeo said. “Labor is a nightmare in the solid waste industry right now.” In New Jersey, costs have risen to about 40 to 150 percent higher than what they were, DeFeo added. “In a recent bid in Atlantic City, they were thrilled to only receive a 45 percent increase,” he said. “They took measures to contain the increase in price, and that’s what is being suggested here.” In one option, residents would make a reservation for the collection of bulk waste. In surveys done in other towns, DeFeo said, it was determined that a relatively low percentage of households put out bulk waste each week. Collecting bulk waste from households that have scheduled them, rather than going down every block past every residence, would make the operation much more efficient. Another option would include a component for town-wide organics collection, which would be once a week. The town’s Continued on Page 10
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Wednesday, August 10, 2022
Monkeypox Has Arrived in Mercer County The first confirmed case of monkeypox in New Jersey was reported on June 18, and since then the Princeton Health Department has received more than 300 calls and emails, and has responded to residents’ concerns about how the virus is spread, reviewed possible exposures to identify risk, and answered questions about vaccination sites and eligibility. As of Tuesday, August 9, the New Jersey Department of Health had reported 264 confirmed cases of monkeypox in the state, mostly in northern counties. There were just seven cases in Mercer County. Last Thursday, the White House declared the outbreak a national health emergency, following the World Health Organization’s declaration in July of monkeypox as a global health emergency. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) reported 8,934 cases in the United States as of Monday, August 8, with New York reporting the highest total at 1,960 cases. The U.S. has the highest number of monkeypox infections in the world. “Although the risk of monkeypox in
Princeton is thought to be low, we are continuing to urge everyone to be knowledgeable about the disease and how it is spread,” wrote Princeton Deputy Administrator for Health and Human Services Jeff Grosser in an August 9 email. When asked whether any cases have been reported in Princeton, Grosser stated that, due to the limited number of cases, municipalities do not report case numbers out of concern for protecting individuals’ health and private health information.
“Monkeypox spreads in different ways,” Grosser wrote. “It can spread from person to person through direct contact with rash, scabs, or bodily fluids. It can also spread by face-to-face contact through respiratory droplets, or during close contact such as kissing, cuddling, or sex.” Grosser went on to point out that scabs are much less infectious than respiratory secretions, and that monkeypox can also be spread through items like clothes, towels, and bed linens that have been in Continued on Page 10
Joint Effort Safe Streets 2022 Honors The Ancestors of Witherspoon-Jackson At last Friday’s opening reception for 2022 Joint Effort Safe Streets, Princeton Councilman Leighton Newlin was remembering Romus Broadway, photographer, historian, and one of the “ancestors” to whom the nine-day Joint Effort celebration is dedicated. “He is resting in peace, and he must have a big smile on his face to know that he has brought all of us together tonight to look at his work and to celebrate
ourselves and the town of Princeton,” said Newlin, referring to Broadway and his collection of photo montages depicting many of the residents of the neighborhood. Eighteen two-by-four-foot vinyl banners, digital depictions of Broadway’s collages, were mounted on poles in the Witherspoon-Jackson (W-J) neighborhood on Friday, August 5 as the culmination of a project by the Arts Council of Continued on Page 8
FUN WITH BUBBLES: A Bubble Show was among the many activities at The Watershed Institute’s Butterfly Festival on Saturday. Participants share what they learned at the event in this week’s Town Talk on page 6. (Photo by Sarah Teo)