Volume LXXVII, Number 20
Nassau Film Festival At Princeton Garden Theatre . . . . . . . . . . 5 LALDEF Hosts “When Compassion Defeated Cruelty” Event . . . . . . 10 “Morven Moves” at Morven Museum & Garden . . . . . . . . . . . 12 PSO Closes Season With Journey Through Paris, Italy . . . . . . . . 16 McCarter Presents Blues For an Alabama Sky . .17 PU Men’s Lax Falls to Penn State in First Round of NCAA Tournament . . . . 25 Freshman Pitcher Pilicer Making a Difference As PHS Softball Showing Progress . . . 28
Celebrating Composer Sergei Rachmaninoff’s 150th Birthday . . . . . 15 Art . . . . . . . . . . . . 22, 23 Books . . . . . . . . . . . . 14 Calendar . . . . . . . . . . 24 Classifieds . . . . . . . . . 34 Mailbox . . . . . . . . . . . 13 New To Us . . . . . . . . . 19 Obituaries . . . . . . . 32, 33 Performing Arts . . . . . 18 Real Estate . . . . . . . . 34 Sports . . . . . . . . . . . . 25 Spring Showcase. . . . 2, 3 Top Producers . . . . 20, 21 Topics of the Town . . . . 5 Town Talk . . . . . . . . . . 6
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Mayor Mark Freda Joins National Group to Improve Pedestrian Safety Princeton is well-known for being a walkable community. But vehicles are everywhere, and sometimes the two don’t mix well. How does a municipal government balance the two for its residents? Princeton Mayor Mark Freda may soon have some answers as he joins a national conversation that will grapple with making improvements on dangerous streets, and developing implementation plans for long-term changes. Freda is one of nine mayors nationally to be selected for the inaugural cohort of the Mayors Institute on Pedestrian Safety, a collaboration between the Mayors Innovation Project, AARP, and Smart Growth America. The Mayors Institute on Pedestrian Safety supports mayors in creating communities “that are safe, vibrant, and equitable for people of all ages,” according to its website. The group will provide mayors an opportunity to learn from experts and their peers “about how to create safer streets and better protect their most vulnerable neighbors.” “I think the challenges are finding the correct balance between pedestrians, bicycles, and vehicles,” said Freda. “We have been trying for a while to bring more focus to pedestrians and bicycles over vehicles; but doing that safely is a challenge in many locations.” The solutions may be geared to different situations, he said. “For our business district, many customers are from out of town, so the solution there is likely to be different from the solution for customers from town. There is a mind and cultural shift that we need to help move along, away from vehicles.” Princeton has been the site of several pedestrian accidents in the last few years. According to the Princeton Police Department Chief’s Monthly Report for December 2022, motor vehicle accidents involving pedestrians numbered four in December 2022. By comparison, in 2019 there was one in December and also one in 2021. (There is no record for the year 2020.) In 2022, the report shows, there were 56 summonses for failure to yield to pedestrian in crosswalks. One fatal accident, and nine with injuries, are noted in the report. Communities across the United States are facing record numbers of pedestrian fatalities, according to the Mayor’s Continued on Page 11
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Wednesday, May 17, 2023
Chmiel’s Nonrenewal Stands in 8-2 BOE Vote A crowd of about 200 — almost all supporting dismissed Princeton High School Principal Frank Chmiel — overflowed the Princeton Middle School cafeteria on Monday evening along with hundreds more watching his “Donaldson hearing” remotely on the district’s YouTube channel. They listened to an hour of public comment, then Superintendent Carol Kelley’s statement of reasons for Chmiel’s nonrenewal, then Chmiel’s lawyer and six witnesses refuting those reasons, and then Chmiel’s own 79-minute response to counter Kelley’s charges and cite his accomplishments, followed by the lawyer’s summation.
It was about four hours and fifty minutes into the proceedings before it was finally the turn of the Princeton Public School’s (PPS) Board of Education (BOE) to take action. They could choose not to vote, which would end the hearing with the superintendent’s recommendation of nonrenewal upheld. Or they could vote and decide by majority either to support Kelley or to overturn her recommendation and reinstate Chmiel. Within 10 minutes the outcome was determined, as BOE member Jean Durbin called for a vote and was seconded by Cranbury BOE member Robert Christopher. Though Durbin and Christopher then
voted to overturn Kelley’s recommendation, the other eight Board members supported Kelley’s recommendation. Kelley’s reading of her 21-page “Statement of Reasons” was listened to closely by the crowd. Chmiel had waived his privacy rights for Monday’s session, and the public was hearing for the first time exactly what the charges against him were. They included PIPS (performance improvement plans) not effectively acted upon, lapses in attention to the safety and security of students and staff, “increasingly erratic behavior,” a vote of no confidence by PHS teachers, criticism from the PREA teachers’ union, a “lack of trust and Continued on Page 8
National Bike Month Continues, Bike to Work Day is May 19
BIKING IN TOWN: Improvements currently underway to the Witherspoon Street corridor include a range of traffic-calming measures to slow cars and make cycling less stressful. Bicyclists discuss their favorite places to ride in this week’s Town Talk on page 6. (Photo by Charles R. Plohn)
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It’s officially National Bike Month, with a May 4, 2023 proclamation by New Jersey Gov. Phil Murphy highlighting the importance of walking and biking in New Jersey and celebrating such initiatives as the Safe Passing Law and Safe Routes to School Program. “This is a great time to celebrate the joys of walking and biking and the victories we’ve won in New Jersey so far,” states a press release from the New Jersey Bike and Walk Coalition. “Remember to mark your calendar for Friday, May 19 — National Bike to Work Day!” Princeton is a Bike-Friendly Community with silver status designation from the League of American Bicyclists, and one of the town’s great biking advocates is Community Park second grade teacher Adam Blejwas. Every day Blejwas and his daughter, who is in fourth grade, ride together from their home in the Riverside area across town to Community Park Elementary School, a trip of about a mile and a half. And in following up on an idea from a student in his second grade class, Blejwas on Fridays leads a “bike bus,” a group of riders all riding their bikes to school. “A light bulb went on for me and I decided to invite the whole second grade,” he said. “Then I decided to invite the whole school to join in. Now on nice days there are as many as 50 to 70 riding with us every Friday. We pick up people as we go.” He insisted, “There’s no significance or value to this, except that it’s a fun way to Continued on Page 11