Volume LXXIX, Number 16
Education and Recreation Pages 19-22
Hinds Plaza, Palmer Square Join Settings for This Year’s Porchfest . . 5 PHS Students Take Behind-the-Scenes Role for Regional Theater . . 8 New CEO Leads Meals on Wheels Mercer County. . . . . 14 Benefiting From Her PU Hoops Experience, Chen Helped UConn Women Win NCAA Title. . . . . 28 Developing Into a Mound Ace for Hun Baseball, Junior DeLue Stars in 4-1 Win Over Lawrenceville . . . . . . 32
On Chaplin’s Birthday, The Pilgrim Offers Some Comic Relief to “1923’s Embattled Alexandra . . 17 Art . . . . . . . . . . . . 24, 25 Books . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15 Calendar . . . . . . . . . . . 26 Classifieds. . . . . . . . . . 37 Earth Day. . . . . . . . . . . . 2 Mailbox. . . . . . . . . . . . 16 New To Us . . . . . . . . . . 27 Obituaries . . . . . . . . . . 35 Performing Arts. . . . . 18, 23 Police Blotter . . . . . . . . . 12 Real Estate . . . . . . . . . 37 Religion. . . . . . . . . . . . 36 Sports. . . . . . . . . . . . . 28 Topics of the Town . . . . . 5 Town Talk . . . . . . . . . . . 6
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Trump Administration Cuts Off Funding For PU Climate Research
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Wednesday, April 16, 2025
Council Approves Budget With 3 Percent Increase At its meeting on Monday night, April 14, Princeton Council voted to pass a budget that is 3.04 percent higher than that of last year. The total figure will rise from $75,674,457.12 to $77,982,417.10. This means that a home of average value in Princeton will see its taxes increase by about $133, said Sandra Webb, the town’s chief finance officer, during the public hearing. This year’s budget was driven by the usual things, she said: garbage and trash collection, insurance, debt service, participation in the Stony Brook Regional Sewage Authority, and the public library. Councilman Brian McDonald commented that though he considers Princeton Public Library to be “one of our crown jewels,” he was concerned that their increase of 5 percent, from $4,738,184 to $4,975,094, was high. Mayor Mark Freda, who sits on the library board, said he had advised the board that next year’s budget is not likely to provide that much of an increase.
“A few meetings ago I mentioned when they were reviewing their budget that we, the town, cannot continue to shoulder that kind of burden year after year, and that they should assume that next year will be a different story with Westminster [the choir college property that the town has purchased] coming on. Our finance committee should talk to them to help prepare for that.” Council voted in favor of an ordinance amending fees for zoning permits.
Councilman David Cohen commented that the change was a good one. “It makes fees a little more scalable related to the amount of work required to process the permit,” he said. A second ordinance lowering speed limits on Mt. Lucas Road, Route 206, and Cherry Hill Road was also approved. McDonald and Councilman Leighton Newlin commented that they hoped additional reductions in speed limits will be made on other roadways in and around town.
Claiming that three programs are “no longer in keeping with the Trump administration’s priorities,” the Department of Commerce (DOC) last week announced that it is terminating nearly $4 million in funding for climate research at Princeton University. The DOC stated that one of the programs to be defunded, conducted by Princeton’s Cooperative Institute for Continued on Page 12 Modeling the Earth System (CIMES), “promotes exaggerated and implausible climate threats” and contributes “to a phenomenon known as ‘climate anxiety,’ which has increased significantly among On April 2, Morven Museum & Garden But a few days later, another commuAmerica’s youth.” got welcome news from the National En- nication arrived from the federal agency. dowment for the Humanities (NEH): The The grant was being rescinded, it said, The announcement’s criticism of the museum was being awarded a grant of because it “no longer effectuates the program continued, “Its focus on alarm$25,000 to help support an interpretive agency’s needs and priorities and coning climate scenarios fosters fear rather plan addressing Morven’s history of slav- ditions of the Grant Agreement and is than rational, balanced discussion. Adery when it was owned by two generations subject to termination due to several ditionally, the use of federal funds to supContinued on Page 10 of the Stockton family. port these narratives, including educational initiatives aimed at K-12 students, is misaligned with the administration’s priorities.” Princeton University Geosciences Professor Stephan Andreas Fueglistaler, who is leading two of the climate research projects impacted by the funding cuts, and the University’s Media Relations department, had no comment on the announcement. CIMES, a collaboration between Princeton University and the Department of Commerce’s National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), includes on its faculty the noted physicist, meteorologist, and climatologist Syukuro Manabe, winner of the 2021 Nobel Prize in Physics for his work in climate science and the prediction of global warming. NOAA is facing cuts to operations and research totaling about $1.3 billion. The DOC announcement further stated that the termination of the “cooperative agreement” programs with Princeton University would “streamline and reduce the cost and size of the federal government, consistent with President Trump’s promises for his administration.” Set in one of Princeton's most prestigious Two other Princeton programs, fiveneighborhoods, within a short walk to town, the and other cultural venues, this classic year research projects, thatUniversity will lose govFederalist home embodies the community's ernment funding are a study of fluctuahistory of sophistication. A grand, inviting with a fireplace opens to the spacious tions in the Earth’s water hallway availability as living and dining rooms suitable for the most a result of global warmingelegant and aentertaining. project Built in a period of skilled these well-proportioned rooms CELEBRATING RECORD STORE DAY: Music lovers lined up outside Princeton Record Exchange at the 15th annual National to assess risks associatedcraftsmanship, with climate have high ceilings, deep moldings and other Record Store Day celebration on Saturday for a chance to find limited-edition titles. People share that they were hoping sought after details. First floor rooms flow change, including changes in patterns of
Local Arts and Cultural Organizations Affected by Cuts From Federal Agencies
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