Volume LXXVII, Number 5
Science on Saturday is Back at PPPL . . . . . . . 5 Alexandra Day to Lead Strategic Initiatives At IAS . . . . . . . . . . 7 Thomas Edison Film Festival Returns to PU . . 9 We’re All Passengers On Cormac McCarthy’s Double-Decker . . . . . 11 McCarter Theatre Presents Between Two Knees . . . . . . . . . . . 12 With Nweke Starring Off The Bench, PU Women’s Hoops Routs Yale . . . 20 PHS Wrestling Takes 2nd in Mercer County Tournament . . . . . . . 24
Daniel Baytin Helps PHS Boys’ Swimming Win 2nd Straight County Title . . 22 Art . . . . . . . . . . . . 14-15 Books . . . . . . . . . . . . 10 Calendar . . . . . . . . . . 18 Classifieds . . . . . . . . . 29 Healthy Living. . . . . . . 2-3 Mailbox . . . . . . . . . . . 10 New To Us . . . . . . . . . 19 Obituaries . . . . . . . . . 28 Performing Arts . . . . . 13 Police Blotter . . . . . . . . 8 Real Estate . . . . . . . . 29 Sports . . . . . . . . . . . . 20 Topics of the Town . . . . 5 Town Talk . . . . . . . . . . 6 Valentine’s Day . . . 16-17
www.towntopics.com
Public Encouraged to Offer Feedback for New Resource Inventory In the Environmental Resource Inventory (ERI), currently available on the Princeton Environmental Commission’s (PEC) website, there are more than 150 pages covering everything from flooding and groundwater contamination to rare animal species and soil limitations for development. That exhaustive document was compiled in 2010. The PEC, in partnership with the town’s municipal staff and Ecotone, Inc., has recently announced plans for an update — not to replace the 2010 inventory, but to augment it. And they want input from the community, to be gathered at a Zoom meeting on Wednesday, February 22 at 7 p.m. Members of the public are encouraged to attend, pose questions, and provide feedback. “We want people to ask questions,” said Tammy Sands, PEC chair. “We are highly recommending that people first take a look at the old inventory — at least the introduction — which will give them a background.” The 2010 ERI was completed when Princeton was still divided into Borough and Township. “The town has changed,” said Councilwoman Eve Niedergang, who serves as liaison to the PEC. “The new ERI will look into similar aspects of the old one, like areas for natural vegetation, our animal communities, our little ecosystems, and our waterways. But this one will look at new priorities. What are they? Invasive plants, perhaps? It will be based on data we receive from the consultant.” The ERI “provides information on the natural resource characteristics and environmentally significant features in Princeton,” reads a release from the PEC. “An ERI acts as a baseline for measuring and evaluating resource protection issues, and serves as a tool for decision-making by the municipality, including its environmental commission and planning board. It also informs the public on the status and value of our natural resources.” The 2023 update will provide updated information based on the new data, and will conduct analyses not undertaken in the last report. Both the 2010 and 2023 ERIs may be used as references to inform municipal decisions. “What we’re really looking for is how the information from this ERI might be able
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Wednesday, February 1, 2023
Court Clubhouse Almost Ready for Move The former Court Clubhouse has been hoisted from its current location at 91 Prospect Avenue, with steel beams and hydraulic jacks inserted below the first floor. Dollies are ready to be placed below the steel beams so the building can rotate 180 degrees and roll across Prospect Avenue to its new location. The rotation is expected to take three days, currently scheduled for the week of February 13, and it will then take one day to roll the clubhouse across the street and set it on its new foundation adjacent to 114 Prospect, according to a January 20 Princeton University press release. Constructed in 1927 as the Court Club, one of the University’s eating clubs, the building had more recently served as the home of Princeton’s Office of the Dean for Research. A University plan to move it across the street to a location occupied by three Queen Anne Victorian houses, which were to be demolished, met with resistance from the community and many University alumni until, in October 2021, the University came up with a compromise plan to preserve all three houses. One of the houses, 110 Prospect, was moved last fall to make room for the clubhouse building.
Sandy Harrison, a 1974 Princeton University graduate and board chair of the Princeton Prospect Foundation, a leading force in negotiating the University-community compromise, expressed his gratification at seeing the completion of the 91 Prospect move. “Princeton Prospect Foundation is very pleased that the moving of the former Court Clubhouse is about to come to fruition after months of public hearings and ultimately success-
ful negotiations with the University in 2021 to preserve it in a manner which also keeps three Victorian-era houses across the street from being demolished.” He continued, “After the move is completed, everyone should next look forward to witnessing the renovation of all four historic buildings so that they will retain their original distinctive qualities and also be highly functional for hopefully many decades to come.” Continued on Page 7
Events Throughout Mercer County Mark Annual Black History Month
Ever since Carter G. Woodson inaugurated Negro History Week nearly a century ago, the annual observance has had a theme. Among the first in 1928 was “Civilization: A World Achievement,” followed a year later by “Possibility of Putting Negro History in the Curriculum,” and “Significant Achievements of the Negro” two years on. Negro History Week became Black History Month in 1976 when it was officially expanded and renamed by Congress.
This year’s theme, “Black Resistance,” marking the national community’s efforts to counter ongoing oppression and racial terrorism, seems especially pertinent. As Mercer County Executive Brian Hughes wrote in a newsletter this week, “Every February, Mercer County joins the nation in celebrating Black History Month. This year, however, the celebration feels somber in the wake of yet another case of deadly over-policing, this time in the City of Memphis where Tyre Nichols, Continued on Page 8
WASSAILING THE APPLE TREES: Handsome Molly d ancers were part of the annual celebration Sunday afternoon at Terhune Orchards on Cold Soil Road. The event follows an ancient tradition of protecting the apple trees to ensure a good harvest in the coming year. Attendees share their favorite winter activities in this week’s Town Talk on page 6. (Photo by Weronika A. Plohn)
CUSTOM POOLS • HARDSCAPING CUSTOM POOLS • HARDSCAPING OUTDOOR • LANDSCAPING OUTDOOR LIVING LIVING • LANDSCAPING COMMERCIAL SNOW REMOVAL COMMERCIAL SNOW REMOVAL
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