Volume LXIX, Number 26
Town Making Plans for Hurricane Season . . . . 7 Exhibit of African American Collectors and Their Art Opens at Trenton City Museum . 13 Princeton Festival Baroque Orchestra Performs in Miller Chapel . . . . . . . 15 Senior Cox Pesce Ending PU Crew Career at Henley, Coming Full Circle in Return Trip to Storied Regatta . . . . . . . . . . . 23 With Kioko Starring on the Mound and at the Plate, Princeton Repeats as District 12 Intermediate Champs. . . . . . . . . . . 28
In James Baldwin’s 90th Birthday Year, A Princeton Epiphany, The Charleston Syllabus, and Some Personal History . . . . . . . . . . . 12 Art . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13 Books . . . . . . . . . . . . 12 Calendar . . . . . . . . . . 20 Cinema . . . . . . . . . . . 21 Classified Ads. . . . . . . 32 Home Improvement . . . 33 Music/Theater . . . . . . 15 Mailbox . . . . . . . . . . . 11 Obituaries . . . . . . . . . 30 Real Estate . . . . . . . . 31 Religion . . . . . . . . . . . 30 Sports . . . . . . . . . . . . 23 Topics of the Town . . . . 5 Town Talk . . . . . . . . . . . 6
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Fireworks, Flintlocks, Benjamin Franklin as Princeton Celebrates Independence Day falls on a Saturday this year and there will be enough historyinspired events to fill the entire day, not to mention a few that take place on the run up to the event. This year’s traditional fireworks display, courtesy of the Spirit of Princeton, will take place on Thursday, July 2, at 9 p.m. The community is invited to come early and enjoy their own picnics on the fields next to the Princeton University Stadium, along Western Way. The site will open at 7 p.m. so that everyone can settle in for the 16th Annual Independence Day Fireworks, which will take place rain or shine. Only lightning will cancel the spectacle in red, white and blue. Visitors are asked to follow the rules that exclude alcoholic beverages and, because of the newly-installed artificial turf, they are asked not to smoke. The event is free and open to all, with parking at University Lot 21 below the fields adjacent to Faculty Road. Parking is also available on streets nearby and in the University parking garage on Prospect Street. The non-profit Spirit of Princeton not only sponsors the free July 4 fireworks but also the Memorial Day Parade as well as the Flag Day celebration, and Veteran’s Day ceremony. For more information, visit www.spiritofprinceton.org. So much for the fireworks, now for the flintlocks, which will feature, appropriately enough, on Princeton Battlefield Park, at 500 Mercer Road (Princeton Pike) when numerous re-enactors will mark Independence Day on Saturday, from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. Also free, this event seems to draw more and more visitors to Princeton each year. Many bring a picnic lunch and enjoy not only the park and the hiking trails of the adjacent Institute Woods but the period demonstrations that are intended to bring history to life. The use of flintlock muskets as well as artillery drill will be demonstrated by soldiers of the Revolutionary War period from Mott’s 6th Company of the new 2nd Continental Regiment of Artillery. Named for Gershom Mott, who was born in Middletown, New Jersey in 1743, “Mott’s Artillery” was involved throughout the war, in New York, Connecticut, New Jersey and then as far South as Virginia. At the Thomas Clarke House, which Continued on Page 9
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Wednesday, July 1, 2015
Teachers, District Sign Memo of Agreement
After well over a year of negotiations, the Princeton Public Schools Board of Education (BOE) and the teachers’s union, Princeton Regional Education Association (PREA) issued a statement Thursday announcing a “Memorandum of Agreement for a successor contract.” Today, July 1, marks the end of a year in which teachers in Princeton Public Schools have worked under the terms of an expired 2011-2014 contract. In spite of lengthy negotiations that began as early as fall 2013, their union and the Board failed to come up with a new contract. Talks dragged on as both sides became entrenched over their respective positions on salaries and health benefits. A major
stumbling block was conflicting interpretations of the State of New Jersey’s Chapter 78. Even sessions with a state-appointed mediator failed to move the parties closer. It looked as though the next step would be non-binding arbitration for which an independent “fact finder” would be called in at a cost of between $1,600 and $2,500 per day, to be split between the BOE and the PREA. Spurred by this, both sides moved to meet face-to-face in order to thrash out a deal before the close of the school year. Hopes rose after two marathon negotiat-
ing sessions on June 2 and June 10, the first lasting 18 hours and the second, 12 hours. After the second meeting, BOE President Andrea Spalla said that both parties were working to “close the remaining differences between the two sides.” The above-mentioned statement from Ms. Spalla together with PREA President Joanne Ryan, reads: “We are pleased to inform the Princeton community that the negotiating teams of the PREA and the Board of Education for the Princeton Public Schools have signed a Memorandum of Agreement for a successor contract. Further details of the new contract will be published Continued on Page 10
655 Bus Will Likely End But Alternative Exists, More Being Explored
STANDING TOGETHER: Speaking at the Interfaith Prayer Vigil for Peace and Racial Justice held in response to the previous week’s shooting at the Emanuel AME Church in Charleston, S.C., Director of the Coalition for Peace Action and Co-Pastor of Christ Congregation in Princeton Rev. Robert Moore told the gathering “We stand together in unity as a community of love.” The event was organized by CPA, the Mt. Pisgah AME Church and the Princeton Clergy Association. (Photo by Charles R. Plohn)
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For those who rely on NJ Transit’s 655 bus for transportation between Princeton and the University Medical Center of Princeton at Plainsboro, prospects are dim for the future of the route. The line is among those that NJ Transit is proposing to discontinue as a way to cut costs as the agency’s federal grant runs out. With a decision expected in a few weeks, efforts are being made by the municipality, the hospital and Princeton University to come up with an alternative. But it turns out that there is already a way for those without access to cars to get to and from the hospital. “It’s important to let people know that there currently is a free and open-to-thepublic way to get there, which is Tiger Transit,” said Kristin Appelget, the University’s director of Community and Regional Affairs. “It’s our Forrestal/Princeton Plasma Physics Lab route, which stops at Princeton [Dinky] station.” Ms. Appelget said the University reviews the route of its Tiger Transit bus each year. “Given the change in the 655, we’re looking at how we may be able to modify the PPPL route. We’re considering two locations: Nassau Street or Merwick/ Stanworth, and we will probably know by midsummer.” NJ Transit introduced its proposal to cut routes and raise fares last April. The agency maintains that the changes are necessary to keep up with rising costs including employee healthcare and other Continued on Page 8
The Spirit of Princeton Independence Day Fireworks Thursday, July 2, 2015 See page 7 for details.