Volume LXXII, Number 23
www.towntopics.com
Niedergang, Williamson Win Democratic Primary For Princeton Council
Booker Gives PU Class Day Speech . . . . . . . . . 5 Town Topics Readers’ Choice Awards Kicks Off TODAY . . . . . . . . . . . 12 Report on Kaiwen’s Finances Disputed by Rider . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14 West Windsor Transit Village Plan . . . . . . . . 16 On D-Day It’s All About Character . . . . . . . . . 19 PU Men’s Lightweight Varsity Eight Takes 2nd at IRA Regatta . . . . . . . . 31 PHS Boys’ Track Wins State Group 4 Championship . . . . . . 34
Raymond R . Wadsworth, founder of Spirit of Princeton, dies . . . . . . 38 Art . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17 Berkshire Hathaway Fox & Roach Realtors . .24, 25 Books . . . . . . . . . . . . 11 Calendar . . . . . . . . . . 18 Cinema . . . . . . . . . . . 26 Classified Ads . . . . . . 40 Mailbox . . . . . . . . . . . 10 Music/Theater . . . . . . 20 New To Us . . . . . . . . . 30 Obituaries . . . . . . . . . 38 Police Blotter . . . . . . . . 4 Religion . . . . . . . . . . . 39 Sports . . . . . . . . . . . . 31 Topics of the Town . . . . 5 Town Talk . . . . . . . . . . 6
In yesterday’s primary election, Democrats Eve Niedergang and Dwaine Williamson earned the highest number of votes for two open seats on Princeton Council. According to unofficial results, Niedergang won 2,363 votes, while Williamson got 1,792. The two seats are to be vacated at the end of the year by longtime Council members Heather Howard and Lance Liverman. Also vying for the posts on the Council were Democrats Michelle Pirone Lambros, who earned 892 votes; Surinder Paul Sharma, who received 573; and Adam Bierman, who got 514. Alvin McGowen, who dropped out of the race but was on the ballot, earned 140 votes. Lisa Wu, the lone Republican running, will represent her party in the November election. Niedergang received the Princeton Community Democratic Organization endorsement for Council, while Williamson earned the organization’s support for Council. They both also won the Princeton Democratic Municipal Committee’s vote to determine recommended ballot placement. Democratic Congresswoman Bonnie Watson-Coleman, who represents New Jersey’s 12th Congressional District, ran unopposed. In the November election she will face Republican Daryl Kipnis, who was also unopposed in yesterday’s primary. Voters also cast ballots for the United States Senate, with Democrats Robert Menendez earning 59 percent at press time and Lisa A. McCormick receiving 41 percent. On the Republican side, Bob Hugin received 82 percent of the votes and Brian D. Goldberg got 18 percent. Running unopposed for Mercer County Board of Chosen Freeholders were Democrats Ann M. Cannon, Samuel T. Frisby Sr., and Pasquale “Pat” Colavita. Republicans running unopposed for Freeholder were Michael Silvestri, Mary R. Walker, and Andrew Curcio. Niedergang, a Princeton resident since 1985, works at the Watershed Institute and had her own business in educational testing for several years. This is her first time running for a government post. Williamson, who was born in Jamaica and grew up in Trenton, is an attorney in private practice. He is a member of the town’s Planning Board and chairs the Zoning Amendment Review Committee. —Don Gilpin —Anne Levin
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Wednesday, June 6, 2018
Eisgruber Tells Graduates to Champion Higher Education
Princeton University President Christopher L. Eisgruber, presiding over the University’s 271st commencement ceremony yesterday on the front lawn of Nassau Hall, asked the graduates to become champions of higher education. “The world needs more college degrees,” he said. A total of 1,281 seniors were awarded undergraduate degrees, three from former classes, and 563 students received graduate degrees. The University also conferred five honorary degrees for contributions to public service, architecture, education, and the humanities. The honorary degree recipients were the Rev. Gregory Boyle, S.J., founder and executive director of Homeboy Industries, a Los Angeles gang rehabilitation program; Lonnie Bunch III, founding director of the Smithsonian’s National Museum of African American History and Culture; Robert Geddes, professor of architecture emeritus at Princeton and dean of the School of Architecture for 17 years before retiring in 1989; R. Barbara Gitenstein, president of The College of New Jersey since 1999, the first woman to have that role in TCNJ’s 160-year history; and Carla Diane Hayden, the 14th librarian of congress, the first woman and the first African American to lead the
national library. The full text of Eisgruber’s speech follows: In a few minutes, all of you will march through FitzRandolph Gate as newly minted graduates of this University. Before you do, it is my privilege to say a few words about the path that lies ahead. It is indeed a privilege, and also a joy, to address you, for all of you who graduate today have accomplished something genuinely important and worth celebrating. You have completed a demanding
course of study. It will transform your life in many ways. It will expand the range of vocations you can pursue, increase your knowledge of the world, deepen your capacity to appreciate societies and cultures, and provide a foundation for lifelong learning. So we celebrate here on the lawn in front of Nassau Hall, as do other college communities in courtyards, auditoria, arenas, and stadia around the country. Graduates toss caps in the air and
The Princeton Public Schools (PPS) Board of Education (BOE) has withdrawn two of the components of its $130 million bond referendum application to expand and renovate district schools, and will seek to purchase two buildings on 15 acres on Thanet Road rather than a Herrontown Road building previously under option.. Driven by the availability of the 100-101 Thanet Road property for $6.5 million as a more practical alternative to the earlier plan, the new proposal will allow the district to relocate administrative offices to
Thanet Road and drop plans to construct administrative offices on school property next to John Witherspoon Middle School. The Thanet Road property, located off Terhune Road with about 110,000 feet of office space, would also accommodate transportation and maintenance offices, as well as school bus parking. Since students would not be on the Thanet Road property, no additional approvals from the DOE would be necessary, and, according to PPS Superintendent Steve Cochrane, the timetable
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Public Schools Revise Referendum Plans, Look to Purchase Thanet Road Property
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THE OLD GUARD LEADS THE WAY: Joe Schein, Princeton ’37, leads the Old Guard, classes that graduated 66 years ago or more, at the start of this year’s Princeton University P-rade on Saturday afternoon . The P-rade is traditionally led by the 25th reunion class, which this year suggested the change and followed right behind . More photos are featured on page 23 . (Photo by Charles R. Plohn)