winter wellness Special Edition see pg 9
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Affordable housing deadline looms
NEWS BRIEFS
Cantu won’t be Plainsboro mayor in 2025 By Bill SAnseRVinO
Plainsboro Mayor Peter Cantu has announced that he will not seek another term as mayor, ending a historic 44-year tenure in the job. Cantu, in December statement, said he has informed his colleagues on the Plainsboro Township Committee of his decision. He confirmed that he will remain on the committee until his term ends in December 2026. Cantu, 84, has served on Township Committee for 50 years and was first selected as mayor in 1977. Under Plainsboro’s township committee form of government the mayor is not directly elected by residents. Each year the members of the governing body vote to elect the mayor, who also acts as the presiding officer at Committee meetings. Cantu’s decision will take effect during the township’s annual reorganization meeting on Jan. 2, 2025, at 6 p.m. During this meeting, the committee will choose a new mayor to serve a one-year term. “I am happy to assist in the transition in any way possible,” Cantu said. “I have full confidence that my colleagues will agree upon a highly qualified and dedicated individual to become mayor who will work with township committee members to keep the See NEWS, Page 3
By Bill SAnseRVinO
WW-P High School South senior Advik Vermani, pictured above in Banff, Canada, is president of ENGin, a non-profit organization dedicated to facilitating English language education for Ukrainian students
WW-P senior founds group to support Ukrainian students By IsABellA DARCy
Plainsboro Township resident Advik Vermani was in search of volunteering opportunities when he began his time at High School South. Vermani, the son of two IT professionals who moved from India to the United States two decades ago, grew up in cen-
tral New Jersey and has lived in Plainsboro for the past 12 years. Vermani says he cares deeply about making a difference in his community and wanted to do so in a more non-traditional way. That’s how he found and got involved with ENGin, a Ukrainian nonprofit organization dedicated to facilitatSee UKRAINE, Page 4
Leaders in emergency and elective angioplasty.
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New Jersey municipalities are once again under the gun to build thousands of units of affordable housing thanks to a new state law passed earlier this year. Every town in the state is currently up against a Jan. 31 deadline to pass a binding resolution to formally adopt their affordable housing obligation for the next decade. The goal is to address a statewide demand for almost 150,000 low- and moderate-income units. In addition to the resolution, the law also requires municipalities to adopt a Housing Element and Fair Share Plan by June 30 this year. Under numbers released by the state earlier this year, Mercer County towns would be required to rehabilitate a total of 1,800 existing affordable units (mostly in the City of Trenton) as well as provide for the construction of 3,500 new units. Because the construction of these affordable units is often subsidized through the construction of market rate housing, it could result in tens of thousands of new houses in Mercer County alone. See AFFORDABLE, Page 5
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