Volume LXXVI, Number 46
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Wednesday, November 16, 2022
ppreciation ctober 18 Making Connections Through Love of Music is Goal of Series . . . . . . . 5 Municipal Employees Recognized for Milestones . . . . . . . . 8
Witherspoon Street To Reopen During Holidays . . . . . . . .10 On Winning and Losing, Baseball, Politics, And Dr. Hofmann's Discovery . . . . . . . 17 NJSO Begins 100th Anniversary Celebrations . . . . . 18
PU Football Falls at Yale For 1st Loss, Hosting Penn in Finale with Ivy Title on the Line . . . . 28 Senior QB Lainez Stars As Hun Football Tops Wyoming Seminary to Finish 9-0 . . . . . . . . . 34
Town Agrees To Asbestos Removal At Veblen House
Local Election Outcomes Look Clearer
Incumbents Susan Kanter, Dafna Kendal, and Debbie Bronfeld appear to be winners in the 2022 Princeton Public Schools (PPS) Board of Education (BOE) election, though provisional and some mail-in ballots are still to be counted. The result will not be official until certified by the county clerk by November 21. Voting machine failures and a problem with temporarily missing ballots from three Princeton precincts delayed the count, but by late Friday afternoon, November 11, ballots from the three precincts had been tallied, along with those of Princeton’s 19 other precincts, early votes, and mail-ins that arrived by Election Day on November 8. Kanter with 3,744 votes (24.9 percent), Kendal with 3,516 votes (23.4 percent), and Bronfeld with 3,325 votes (22.1 percent) seem to have secured re-election for another three-year term on the PPS Board. Challengers Margarita “Rita” Rafalovsky with 2,716 votes (18.1 percent) and Lishian “Lisa” Wu with 1,733 votes (11.5 percent) have fallen short. The leading incumbents chose not to comment on the election, and significance of vote totals, until the results are official. In the election for two seats on Princeton
Council, Democrats Mia Sacks and Michelle Pirone Lambros were running unopposed for a second term. Sacks has so far received 5,496 votes, Lambros 5,405. Democrats Cathleen Lewis with 47,560 votes (31.7 percent) and incumbent Nina Melker with 48,209 votes (32.1 percent) appear to have won election to the Mercer County Board of Commissioners, defeating Republican challengers Michael Chianese, who won 27,648 votes
(18.4 percent) and Andrew Kotula Jr. with 26,796 (17.8 percent). In the Congressional election for New Jersey’s 12th district, incumbent Democrat Bonnie Watson Coleman has handily defeated challengers Darius Mayfield, a Republican, and Lynn Genrich, an Independent. Coleman has registered 93,947 votes (60.2 percent) to 60,523 (38.8 percent) for Mayfield and 1,487 (1 percent) for Genrich. Mercer County Clerk Paula Sollami
At its Monday, November 14 meeting Princeton Council passed unanimously a resolution authorizing payment of up to $43,850 to complete an asbestos abatement project at the Veblen House in Herrontown Woods. “This is a big step ahead for us,” said Friends of Herrontown Woods (FOHW) Board President Stephen Hiltner, noting the assistance of town officials led by Continued on Page 14 Municipal Open Space Manager Cindy Taylor, as well as Land Use Engineer Jim Purcell and Deputy Administrator and Municipal Engineer Deanna Stockton. The topic was circulation and mobility people in town have to say, and the more “They’ve been great to work with as we in the town of Princeton, and the discus- we can do to help the town make the deprepare for the removal, protecting the sion was lively on Saturday, November 12 cisions that are the most appropriate the house’s custom woodwork and identifyin Erdman Hall of the Princeton Theologi- better off we’ll be,” said Tony Nelessen, ing the location of asbestos-coated heat cal Seminary’s Cooper Center in a three- Rutgers University professor emeritus of ducts in the walls,” Hiltner added. hour open public meeting sponsored by urban design and a member of the Council In 2017 Mercer County, which owned of Princeton Future. Princeton Future. the Veblen property, was planning to Nelessen, who led Saturday’s workshop, One in a series of Princeton Future’s demolish the buildings at Herrontown listening sessions “to inform and engage continued, “We’re saying this is what people Woods, but Hiltner and the FOHW were residents as the town prepares its new told us. You should consider this in some able to persuade the town to take ownCommunity Master Plan,” the work of the form or another and allow it to help you ership of Herrontown Woods along with group is “intended to complement the make these decisions that have to be made $100,000 that would be held by the town official master planning process by the in order to keep the town the kind of town in case demolition became necessary in everybody wants now, and into the future.” Princeton Planning Board.” the future. Continued on Page 12 “It’s really about listening to what the “The town is expecting us to raise all funds needed to repair and repurpose the buildings, but because asbestos would need to be removed even if the Veblen House were to be demolished, the town has agreed to pay for the removal,” Hiltner said. He continued, “The removal of the asbestos will create a clean slate for us to begin renovations. We’re grateful to the town for helping us with all of this.” Herrontown Woods, “Princeton’s first and most whimsical nature preserve,” as described on its website, is located on land donated by famed Princeton University mathematician and Institute for Advanced Study co-founder Oswald Veblen (1880-1960) and his wife Elizabeth in 1957. It includes almost 100 acres as well as the deteriorating Veblen House, Cottage, and a barn. FOHW is planning to create a gathering space for meetings and events on the first floor of the house, and to renovate the upstairs for offices and a caretaker’s residence. Plans for the cottage are less Customer Appreciation definite, but Hiltner noted that, having DAY OBSERVANCE: An in-person Friday morning at the18 Princeton University Chapel was fol| October Friday | OctoberVETERANS 7 Thursday | October 13 service onTuesday started out as an 1875 small landholder’s lowed by a swearing-in ceremony on the steps for new cadets and midshipmen, conducted by the Princeton ROTC farmhouse, it should “be reflective of a programs. At noon, American Legion Post 218 held a Centennial Charter Celebration. Attendees share why the simpler lifestyle.” celebration is important to them in this week’s Town Talk on page 6. (Photo by Hendricks S. Davis)
Princeton Future Engages the Public, Urges: “Speak Up! Have Your Say!”
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Continued on Page 13
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