Volume LXXII, Number 41
Dining and Entertainment Pages 26-27 Justices Kagan and Sotomayor Speak at “She Roars” Event . . . . . . . . 5 Princeton Future Explores Princeton Growth . . . . 10 Historical Society House Tour . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17 PU Men’s Soccer Defeats Brown, Now 1-0-1 in Ivy League Play . . . . . . . . 32 PHS Boys’ Cross Country Shines at Shore Coaches Invitational . . . . . . . . 34
This Week’s Book Review Previews Princeton Legend John McPhee’s The Patch . . 15 Art . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18 Berkshire Hathaway Fox & Roach Realtors . .24, 25 Books . . . . . . . . . . . . 16 Calendar . . . . . . . . . . 28 Classified Ads . . . . . . 40 Mailbox . . . . . . . . . . . 12 Music/Theater . . . . . . 22 New To Us . . . . . . . . . 30 Obituaries . . . . . . . . . 38 Police Blotter . . . . . . . . 4 Religion . . . . . . . . . . . 39 Sports . . . . . . . . . . . . 31 Topics of the Town . . . . 5 Town Talk . . . . . . . . . . 6
www.towntopics.com
Plenty of Opposition To NJ Transit Plan For Dinky Hiatus
NJ Transit’s plan for a three-month halt of the Dinky train that connects Princeton with Princeton Junction on the Northeast Corridor line is not going over well with commuters and members of the town’s governing body. At Princeton Council’s meeting Monday night, October 8, several residents and Council members spoke in opposition to the plan, which NJ Transit representatives attending the meeting said is necessary so that all NJ Transit equipment and personnel can be utilized during the installation of federally mandated Positive Train Control (PTC) in other parts of the system. The train’s two cars would be replaced by buses. Anita Garoniak, head of the citizen group Save the Dinky, read a letter she has written to NJ Transit Executive Director Kevin Corbett asking that the decision to temporarily shut down the line be reconsidered. Some 1,500 people have signed petitions, some of them online, in opposition to the plan. The Dinky is “an economic lifeline for Princeton and the region,” Garoniak read from the letter. “The service that the Princeton Branch performs for commuters, occasional users, and students is a critical feature of our community’s commitment to sustainable transit and support for mobility options that reduce reliance on the automobile.” Princeton University has also been in conversations with NJ Transit, and has offered to make Tiger Transit buses available should they be needed during the stoppage. Tom Clarke of NJ Transit said that buses on a regular schedule would ferry commuters to and from the two stations while the trains are out of commission, estimating that the trip would take 15 minutes. The Dinky trip is approximately 5 minutes long. Eve Niedergang, who is a candidate for Council, asked Clarke who came up with the 15-minute figure, since it can take up to 45 minutes to make the trip across US 1 during rush hours. Clarke also said that riders will get a 10 percent discount during the shutdown. “It’s a small way to compensate you, but we’re doing our best,” he said. New Jersey Assemblyman Roy Freiman and Assemblyman Daniel R. Benson, who chairs the Transportation and Independent Authorities Committee, Continued on Page 8
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Wednesday, October 10, 2018
BOE Chair Plans New Referendum Proposal
As press time approached yesterday afternoon, Princeton Public Schools Board of Education (BOE) Chair Patrick Sullivan prepared to present a new compromise proposal to his Board and the community at the special BOE meeting scheduled for last night. At a BOE forum in September, PPS Superintendent Steve Cochrane had posted on the screen a quotation from Witherspoon-Jackson Neighborhood Association President Leighton Newlin: “Let’s not have a good plan for our children become divisive for our community.” Newlin had expressed concern about the “perfect storm” of critical needs for the schools clashing with widespread economic distress and rising taxes. Sullivan was hopeful that his new plan would help to calm the conflict, meet the schools’ most urgent needs, and give PPS and the community time to work towards a consensus. “I’m going to propose that we step back and look at this as a multi-year plan,” said Sullivan. Sullivan’s latest proposal would include a single question for $27M on the December 11 ballot, with the construction of the 5/6 school, the acquisition of the Thanet property, and the major expansion of Princeton High School (PHS) postponed until next year. Sulllivan’s compromise plan represents a significant reduction from an original proposal of $129.6M and a more recent
narrowed down two-part question of $27M plus $55.5M ($82.5M if both parts passed). It also represents a significantly less onerous real estate tax burden for Princeton residents, though Sullivan pointed out that another referendum would be needed in November 2019, requiring about six months lead time to formulate the ballot question. Cochrane emphasized the importance on the December 2018 ballot proposal of “unifying the community around the needs we have identified — security and HVAC throughout the district; and $11M for needs at PHS, including four new classrooms, and upgrades to guidance, dining, and athletic areas.”
“We plan to address the long-range needs for space at the middle school and the high school in a way that honors the economic diversity in our town,” he added. “We want to bring the community together through a process that looks at the needs of the schools and also the economic concerns of the town.” Sullivan discussed his plan. “I’m also proposing that we begin a process over the next six or seven months to give the community another chance to weigh in, as we work to actively engage the town in terms of land use, planning, and traffic, as well as concerns people have about overcrowding,” he said. Continued on Page 7
Five BOE Candidates Exchange Ideas At League of Women Voters’ Forum
With the election just a month away, five candidates, including two incumbents, for three available seats on the Princeton Public Schools (PPS) Board of Education (BOE) exchanged ideas at a public forum last Thursday at the Unitarian Universalist Congregation on Cherry Hill Road. In a 90-minute session sponsored by The Princeton League of Women Voters (LWV), incumbents Betsy Kalber Baglio and Dafna Kendal and new candidates Mary Clurman, Daniel J. Dart, and Brian McDonald presented their qualifications and answered questions on a wide range
of subjects, many related to recent concerns about school finances and the facilities referendum proposal planned for December 11. In a closing “lightning round,” where candidates were allowed to respond with only “yes” or “no,” the incumbents disagreed with the new contenders on two referendum-related questions, with Clurman and Dart doubting the demographic projections that support the need for expansion, and McDonald, Dart, and Clurman all claiming that the public had not Continued on Page 20
“CRITICAL POINT” FOR SCHOOLS: Five candidates for the Princeton Public Schools Board of Education offered their ideas on the facilities referendum and other school issues at a forum last Thursday night sponsored by The League of Women Voters of the Princeton area . From left, Betsy Kalber Baglio, Mary Clurman, Daniel J . Dart, Dafna Kendal, and Brian McDonald are vying for three seats up for grabs in the November 6 election . (Photo by Anna Savoia)