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Coaching success

Coming clean

Total teardown

Area residents coached Olympic runner Athing Mu

TWW treatment superintendent talks about operations

By DAN AUBrey

The humidity and heat are high. The day is fading. Yet parents lean or stand by the track fence and watch while coach Al Jennings calls to their children as they pace their feet in starting blocks and prepare to sprint. “Try it and see how it fits,” calls Jennings, “Try ‘em out.” As the young runners take off down the College of New Jersey track, Jennings gives a supportive nod and reflects on the next tip for the dozen or so teenage athletes whose parents have driven from around a large swath of central New Jersey. “I try to help them succeed in school and give them a better perspective of track,” Jennings says as the sun closes this session of the Trenton Track Club’s summer young athletes program. One of the first sessions of the season, the event is helping the club get back on track after the pandemic forced the 48-year-old group to suspend operations. It is also helping young people to embody Jennings’ belief that track “can help you go to school and build lifelong friendships.” Or in the case of Athing Mu, it can open the world in unexpected ways. The young Trenton native is currently representing the U.S. in the 2021 Olympics in Tokyo and is one of several successes that sum up the club’s motto: “Running is a way of life.” Jennings, a resident of See COACHES, Page 7

By DAN AUBrey

A construction tractor demolishes the old Pit Stop building at 1175 Lawrence Road. Municipal manager Kevin Nerwinski tells the story of the efforts to clean up the “zombie property” in his column this month on Page 15.

A library of our own Lawrence branch has been around since the 1960s By DeNNis P. WATers

The Lawrence Branch of the Mercer County Library has a long and colorful history. Dennis Waters, county library commissioner and former Lawrence Township historian recently presented a virtual talk titled “The People’s Books: The Story of the Lawrence Library” during an online event in July.

Below is a condensed version of Waters’ presentation. *** The Mercer County Library System began operation in 1928 using bookmobiles to deliver books to residents of suburban and rural neighborhoods throughout the countryside beyond Trenton. It provided service only to communities that did not have their own municipal libraries, and was supported by a dedicated library tax. The library had its headquarters in the basement of the county courthouse.

In Lawrence, the bookmobile would stop at public schools to replenish their stocks of children’s books, and at various points around town where residents would gather to check out books from the onboard collection. The bookmobile ran on a schedule that brought it to Lawrence every other week for a series of twenty-minute stops. The county library system operated on this basis for its first three decades. As Trenton’s inner-ring suburbs grew rapidly after World See LIBRARY, Page 6

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Trenton Water Works Treatment Plant Superintendent Taya Brown-Humphrey says during her daily drive to the Route 29 facility she has two thoughts on her mind. “Hopefully treatment is okay,” and “There is no major catastrophe.” “Usually after a rain storm the river tends to go up,” she says during a recent interview in her second floor office in the building sandwiched along the banks of the Delaware River, the provider of the facility’s water. “Sometimes the water level goes up slowly,” she continues. “But if it goes up fast, we have to worry about making the chemical changes. Recently our pumping stations had water rushing out on the street at 5 a.m. Our operators had to operate pumps.” Then she shares the bottom line. “I need to make sure we’re meeting the water quality [standards] for customers.” Describing her duties, Brown-Humphrey says, “I’m in charge of plant operations, which includes operation maintenance and laboratory, and I am responsible for storage systems and three pump stations. We have a pump station in Ewing, Hopewell, and across from the reservoir (in See TWW, Page 3

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