Volume LXXIV, Number 19
Health Care Highlights Page 24 Trio of Pests Threaten Local Trees. . . . . . . . . 5 Mercer County Parks and Golf Courses Reopen . . . . . . . . . . 12 Seminary Provides Rooms For Those Who Need to Isolate . . . . . 13 Holding Up Walt Whitman's Mirror . . . 16 McCarter Honors Emily Mann with Online Tribute . . . . . 17 PU Hoops Star Alarie Primed to Make Impact in WNBA . . . . . . . . . . . . 26 PHS Grad Shane Returns to Lacrosse with Coaching Role at Harvard . . . . . 29
Local Businesses Show Their Appreciation for Frontline Workers in Special Ads Throughout This Week’s Paper Art . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19 Berkshire Hathaway Fox & Roach Realtors . .20, 21 Classified Ads . . . . . . 35 Mailbox . . . . . . . . . . . 14 New To Us . . . . . . . . . 25 . . . . . . . . . 32 Obituaries Performing Arts . . . . . 18 Police Blotter . . . . . . . . 8
Real Estate . . . . . . . . 35 Religion . . . . . . . . . . . 34 School Matters . . . . . . 12 Sports . . . . . . . . . . . . 26 Topics of the Town . . . . 5 Town Talk . . . . . . . . . . 6
www.towntopics.com
Lockdown Continues, But Town and State Start to Open Up The Princeton Health Department (PHD) reported Tuesday a total of 133 COVID-19 cases in Princeton, with 61 active positive cases in isolation and 62 cases that have recovered. There have been 10 COVID-19-related deaths in Princeton, five of them at the Princeton Care Center (PCC) and two at Acorn Glen assisted living facility. “We are continuing to see decreases where we want, hospitalizations and a decreasing percentage of new daily cases,” said Princeton Health Officer Jeff Grosser. “This said, we need to continue to urge residents to stay vigilant. For the past seven weeks we have employed social distancing measures never seen before. After nearly six weeks of dedicated effort, just in the past several days we are seeing decreases in epidemiological metrics that demonstrate outbreak slow down.” Princeton’s long-term care facilities, however, remain a major concern, with 31 confirmed cases of COVID-19 reported at PCC and 14 positive tests at Acorn Glen, according to the New Jersey Department of Health (NJDOH). “Unfortunately, we are continuing to see older adults succumb to COVID-19, particularly in long-term care centers,” Grosser wrote in an email. “COVID-19 is tragically severe in older populations.” Grosser emphasized the complexity of the problem. “COVID-19 tends to have a high level of communicability with a relatively long onset of disease,” he noted. “One can be exposed and not become symptomatic for seven to 14 days after. This presents an issue in long-term care centers where there is constant interchange amongst staff and patients.” PCC and Acorn Glen have, in following PHD instructions, separated individuals, both staff and patients, based on symptoms and potential exposures to confirmed COVID-19 cases. “The strategy has helped, but it isn’t the only answer,” Grosser said. “The facilities have to be vigilant about personal protective equipment, ensuring staff stay home if ill, and testing staff and patients for COVID-19.” The PHD is following NJDOH long-term care facility guidance and communicating with each facility several times each day to help work through the outbreak. Following Gov. Phil Murphy’s first steps to lift the lockdown last weekend in Continued on Page 8
75¢ at newsstands
Princeton Businesses Prepare for Post-Pandemic Back before COVID-19, Patricia’s Hair Design washed, cut, colored, and set the hair styles of eight to 10 customers a day, five days a week. Now, the East Nassau Street salon is preparing to cater to half that number. Pre-coronavirus, The Meetinghouse restaurant on Witherspoon Street was serving up to 180 people at a time, especially on weekends. Now, the owners are contemplating a future of smaller groups of diners, in revamped configurations. As Princeton’s business community awaits the green light from Gov. Phil Murphy to reopen — not expected anytime soon — preparations are underway for what is sure to be an altered environment. The safety of customers and staff is everyone’s priority. But fewer guests means less revenue. For nonprofits, the challenge is how to accommodate a smaller number of visitors. “We will have limits on the number of people we can have in the store at one time,” said Andrew Siegel, president of Hamilton Jewelers on Nassau Street. “Believe me, I hope that’s a problem we’re going to have. I hope the town will be busy and bustling. There’s no playbook for this.” The jewelry store will still be “experience-based,” said Siegel. “Our goal through all of this is that we want people
to feel the Hamilton experience, no matter how they choose to shop. It should feel unmistakably like our store, our company, our business. So the curbside pickup program will still be personable and understanding of the customers’ needs.” The store will have special Hamilton Jewelers masks for customers who arrive without face coverings. Trying on jewelry will be a different experience. “If you want to try something on, every item in the case will have been pre-sanitized. And when we take it out, we’ll hand it to
Leading the battles — medical, economic, societal — against the coronavirus (COVID-19) epidemic have been the individual states and their governors. And one of the most powerful tools assisting the states has been the State Health and Value Strategies program (SHVS), a Robert Wood Johnson Foundation (RWJF) project based at Princeton University’s Center for Health and Wellbeing. “We’ve pivoted to help states respond to COVID,” said SHVS Program Director Heather Howard, who is a lecturer in public affairs at Princeton University’s Woodrow
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Wilson School of Public and International Affairs, former New Jersey commissioner of Health and Senior Services, and a former Princeton councilwoman. In normal times the SHVS provides technical assistance on a variety of health issues — like implementation of the Affordable Care Act, expanding the Medicaid program, and expanding access to substance abuse treatment — but the current crisis has created dire needs that the SHVS has quickly responded to. State governments are working to Continued on Page 10
LOCAL FAVORITE: For week two of our Community Comes Together campaign, we invited local youths to design an ad for their favorite local business . Violeta, age 7, created this festive ad for jaZams on Palmer Square . See the Town Topics website and Facebook page for all submissions for this week . Next week’s project will feature amateur nature photos .
Transparency, communication, and inclusivity
Paid for by Dina for Princeton 185 Clover Ln Princeton, NJ 08540
you. If you don’t want it, it will go straight back to one of our sanitizing stations and ready to go back in the case. That goes for our tools, too,” said Siegel. A few doors down at Labyrinth Books, online sales have been continuing while the store is closed. Owner Dorothea von Moltke wants to be ready once reopening is permitted. “I’ve been learning from the grocery stores. They’ve been doing a lot,” she said. Since browsing books is about
SHVS Supports States With Tools To Combat the Effects of COVID-19
Economic development, management, and oversight
Collaboration with Princeton Public Schools
Wednesday, May 6, 2020
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Extraordinary times call for focused and collaborative leadership that's responsive to the needs of everyone in Princeton.