Town Topics Newspaper August 5, 2015 by Witherspoon Media Group

Volume LXIX, Number 31 Nine Princeton Community Village Students Awarded Affordable Housing Scholarships . . . . . . . . 7 University Graduate College’s Cleveland Tower Carillon, the Fifth Largest in North America, Presents Summer Concert Series . . . . . . . . . . . . 18 PU Men’s Hoops Star Brase Has Productive Summer, Helping Germany to 2nd at World University Games . . . . 25 Uchrin Enjoys Debut Season at Helm of CP Bluefish, Guiding Squad to Division 1 Title at PASDA Finals . . . . . . 28

The 50th Anniversary of “Help,” One of John Lennon’s Most Personal Songs, Is the Subject of This Week’s Record Review . . . . . . . . . . . 17 Art . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14 Books . . . . . . . . . . . . 12 Calendar . . . . . . . . . . 19 Cinema . . . . . . . . . . . 22 Classified Ads. . . . . . . 33 Clubs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8 Music/Theater . . . . . . 17 Mailbox . . . . . . . . . . . . 9 New to Us. . . . . . . . . . 24 Obituaries . . . . . . . . . 31 Police Blotter . . . . . . . 10 Real Estate . . . . . . . . 33 Religion . . . . . . . . . . . 31 Sports . . . . . . . . . . . . 25 Topics of the Town . . . . 5 Town Talk . . . . . . . . . . . 6 Weddings . . . . . . . . . . 16

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Princeton Legend Changes Hands, Maintains Vision The legend known as the Princeton Record Exchange (Prex) originated in April 1977 in the U-Store parking lot on University Place on the same block as F. Scott Fitzgerald’s first residence. “I used to find students and offer them an album or two to help unload a van full of heavy orange crates of records,” Barry Weisfeld told Town Topics Monday, regarding his sale of the Princeton landmark to store manager Jon Lambert for an undisclosed amount. In 1980, Mr. Weisfeld’s traveling record fair found a home on Nassau Street, across from Holder Hall, before moving five years later to the Tulane Street building it occupies today. Mr. Lambert, 53, still shares the attitude he expressed to a New York Times interviewer in October 2008. Referring to the “cold, sterile world on the Internet,” he said, “people get an experience here you can’t get online,” adding, in the context of the plight of independent record sellers, “If there are five stores left standing, I think we can be one of them.” Customers and dealers all over the world will agree. In a telephone interview Tuesday, Mr. Lambert emphasized, “No big changes, no turning everything on its ear.” The “main thrust” is to continue doing what has worked so well. Prex has been named among the top 20 record stores in Rolling Stone; in the top 10 in GQ; the top 10 in Time; and in the top five in the Wall Street Journal. Customs inspectors in distant lands know the yellow bag with the cheerleader in mid-leap, CD in one hand, LP held high in the other. In fact, CDs are the only exception to the Prex policy of maintaining the in-store experience. “We may offer some of the rarer CDs, classical box sets, and such online.” Even so, Mr. Lambert pointed out, the same CDs will be available, like all the vinyl, in the store. Mr. Lambert’s wife Cynthia, who worked for Bloomberg and Dow Jones before joining the staff of the Mary Jacobs Library in Rocky Hill, was an important source of advice before the decision to purchase was made. As for the former owner, now a Prex consultant and road warrior, Mr. Weisfeld has a lifetime of experience when it comes to hitting the highway in the quest for big collections. According to the new Continued on Page 10

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Wednesday, August 5, 2015

Ailing Oaks on Nassau Street Are Coming Down

The leafy look of Princeton’s main thoroughfare is about to change. Thanks to a disease known as bacterial leaf scorch (BLS), at least seven of the oak trees that tower over the campus side of Nassau Street will be taken down during the next several weeks. A few of the trees have already had their limbs and leaves removed and a big orange “X” painted onto their trunks. “They look like totem poles,” said Lorraine Konopka, Princeton’s municipal arborist. “They will need a crane to bring down what’s left.” “They” are workers from the New Jersey Department of Transportation (NJDOT), under whose jurisdiction the trees fall because Nassau Street (Route 27) is a state road. Ms. Konopka contacted the DOT several weeks ago after a large branch from an oak tree across from the Panera restaurant fell down. “That jumpstarted them to look at the town,” she said. “I told them it’s a really busy place and we have trees in all stages of conditions. They looked, and marked several for removal because of advanced decay or too much deadwood.” At a meeting of Princeton’s Shade Tree Commission last week, Ms. Konopka told commissioners that research is being done to help determine how to best replant the downtown once the ailing trees

are removed. The municipality is hoping to get assistance from the state. “I’m in touch with the state and they are interested in having a commitment from us that we’ll take care of the trees,” she said after the meeting. “They are taking the trees down, which is saving us thousands of dollars in labor costs. So we hope to continue working with them to replace and maintain, because we want to have a shaded downtown. This is not the shore.” According to a spokesman for the NJDOT, a tree replacement plan is being developed in conjunction with the municipality as part of the “Good Neighbor Landscape” program. Daniel Triana of the NJDOT’s Communications Office said there is currently an unrelated resurfacing construction program underway in the

area. “The removal of trees is not part of the contract, but if ‘dead’ trees are identiﬁed within the project limits and pose a hazard or obstruction, a contractor may sometimes remove them,” he wrote in an email. There is no cure for BLS, and affected trees cannot be treated, Ms. Konopka said. Once the bacteria gets inside the tree, its vessels get clogged. “The trees try to wall it off,” she said. “And with this kind of weather, it’s brutal. The trees downtown have next to no water and soil. This is when you see them start to collapse.” Ms. Konopka has noticed at least eight empty tree pits in the downtown area. Once the oak trees are removed, she hopes to begin filling in those vacant spaces. “We’re actually facing an opportunity to replant downtown,” she said. “We Continued on Page 8

School Lunch Hike Follows Nutri-Serve’s New Contract for Food Service Workers Food service workers in Princeton’s public schools have a new contract with the food management service hired by Princeton Public Schools to run its cafeterias. The cost of school lunches in Princeton’s public schools will be increased as a result.

For the 2015-16 school year, lunch prices will be charged at the New Jersey State maximum for high school and middle school. Lunch at Princeton High School will now cost $4.25 (up from $4:15); at John Witherspoon Middle School lunch will cost $4 (up from $3.95). Princeton’s Continued on Page 12

JUST PEACHY: It was peach heaven at Terhune Orchards over the weekend as families showed up for wagon rides, pedal tractors, live music, lots of children’s games, and tasting adventures provided by, among others, Princeton’s Agricola Eatery, Mediterra, and Jammin Crepes. A cross section of responses can be found in this week’s Town Talk. (Photo by Charles R. Plohn)

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