Volume LXXIV, Number 34
Back to School Pages 10-14 Orchestras Announce Partnership . . . . . . . . 5 Police Department Reports Progress in Annual Report . . . . . . 8 “Art for the Streets” to Fill Empty Store Windows . . . . . . . . . . 8 Playing Post Office with Thomas Pynchon . . . 16 PHS Boys’ Soccer Alums Field Team in Mercer Men’s League . . . . . . . 25 WW-P Babe Ruth 13s Fight Hard in Southern NJ State Tourney . . . . . . . 26
PU Alum Craig Robinson to Lead Basketball Coaches Association . . 23 Art . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20 Berkshire Hathaway Fox & Roach Realtors . .18, 19 Calendar . . . . . . . . . . 21 Classified Ads . . . . . . 30 Mailbox . . . . . . . . . . . 15 Obituaries . . . . . . . . . 28 Performing Arts . . . . . 17 Police Blotter . . . . . . . . 9 Real Estate . . . . . . . . 30 Sports . . . . . . . . . . . . 23 Topics of the Town . . . . 5 Town Talk . . . . . . . . . . 6
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Health Dept. Prepares For School Reopenings And Fall Flu Season With September fast approaching, the Princeton Health Department continues to work with Princeton Public Schools, Princeton Charter School, and area private schools on their return-to-school plans. The New Jersey Department of Health issued guidance on school openings on August 13, the same day Gov. Phil Murphy announced that all-virtual learning would be acceptable as long as certain conditions were met and the schools had a clear plan for progressing soon to at least partial in-person learning. “Princeton schools have put a tremendous amount of time and effort into these plans,” said Princeton Health Officer Jeff Grosser. Those plans include extensive measures to implement protocols and policies to keep students and staff safe. The Health Department reported one new case of COVID-19 in Princeton on August 16, the only new case of the past seven days, with four new cases in the past 14 days. The new case was noted as a family/household exposure linked to an out-of-county occupation exposure. Princeton now has four active cases, 211 total positive cases, and 176 cases recovered with isolation complete. There have been 18 COVID-19-related deaths and an additional 12 probable COVIDrelated deaths. The average age of death in those cases is 84.6 years. The average age of all Princeton COVID-19 cases is 55 years. Last Friday, August 14, New Jersey Gov. Phil Murphy announced that, to help protect against COVID-19, all active registered New Jersey voters would receive a prepaid return-postage mail-in ballot for the November 3 general election. The plan is similar to how New Jersey conducted the July primary elections, mostly through mail-in voting with some polling locations available. Murphy noted that the July 7 primary registered the second highest voter turnout in the history of New Jersey primaries. “No one should have to choose between their right to vote and their health,” he said. Voters will have the option of returning their ballots by mail, depositing them in a secure drop box, or handing them directly to a poll worker at a polling place on Election Day. Each municipality will be required to open at least one in-person polling site. Voters who choose to cast their ballots in Continued on Page 9
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Wednesday, August 19, 2020
In-Person Reopening at PPS May Be Delayed In the sixth month of the coronavirus pandemic, with a number of schools and colleges delaying in-person reopening and just weeks to go before the Princeton Public Schools’ (PPS) originally scheduled reopening, the district is revising its plans for students’ return to the school buildings. The PPS August 7 Restart and Reopening Plan, a hybrid model for a combination of in-person and remote learning, was designed as a flexible work in progress, “tempered by the recognition that uncertainties remain regarding the degree to which the district will be able to return students to brick-and-mortar education.” The uncertainties — in the spread of the COVID-19 virus, in achieving standards of health and safety as directed by the New Jersey Department of Education and state and local health authorities, in staffing sufficiency, and in parental concerns — seem to have multiplied, with prospects for a successful in-person or hybrid opening less clear than ever. Deciding on a revised reopening plan was on the agenda for last night’s August 18 virtual Board of Education (BOE) meeting, taking place after press time. Earlier in the day, PPS Interim Superintendent Barry Galasso said he would be presenting a “phase-up” plan to the BOE last
night. “But there are two contingencies,” he added. Those contingencies, which might necessitate postponement of any in-person learning until later in the school year, were staffing and the installation of ionization filtration systems in all of the HVAC units. An increasing number of staff are seeking “approved accommodations,” opting for remote rather than in-person teaching in the fall, Galasso said. “It gets to the point where you can’t staff your schools
for in-person learning.” As of yesterday afternoon, 90 staff members had requested accommodations. Authorization to purchase 128 ionization units for the schools’ HVAC systems at a total cost of $98,456 was on the agenda at last night’s meeting. Galasso mentioned that the Board had been thoroughly supportive in meeting the schools’ requests as they prepared for reopening. In the next few days, Galasso said, “We Continued on Page 7
Transitioning Outdoor Dining to Fall Is a Focus of Merchants’ Meeting During the pandemic, many Princeton restaurants have coped with the ban on indoor dining by serving patrons outside, at carefully distanced tables under tents or umbrellas. Business, for the most part, has been brisk. But with the end of summer approaching, a new set of challenges awaits. Just how to cope with colder temperatures while still serving outdoors was among the topics at last Thursday’s virtual meeting of the Princeton Merchants Association. Additional discussions were about Princeton University’s plans for fall, a drop in cases of the coronavirus, and a
plan to place representations of artwork from the Princeton University Art Museum in empty storefronts [see story on page 8]. Princeton Fire Official Joe Novak told merchants his department is working on a safety sheet outlining rules about using heaters outside. He has already received requests from some restaurants about how to proceed. “A lot of people already have the towertype heaters, which are absolutely acceptable,” he said. “They just have to be at least five feet from the building — two feet vertically, and three feet horizontally from Continued on Page 9
DINING AL FRESCO: The outdoor tables at restaurants along Witherspoon Street are popular with residents and visitors alike. Town officials are planning to keep outdoor dining going into the fall and beyond, as long as the weather allows. (Photo by Weronika A. Plohn)
