To the Editor:

While Hurricane Sandy caused considerable disruption to our community when it struck several weeks ago, the soon-to-be consolidated Princeton stood tall and responded efficiently and effectively. While emergency response may not be one of the key reasons why residents voted for consolidation, having a consolidated emergency response was a clear benefit to the Princeton community in the wake of hurricane Sandy.

I want to thank our Emergency Operations Center team: Bob Gregory, the town administrators, police forces, public works, engineering, and fire departments for coming together and working as one during the hurricane response. The Princeton First Aid Squad, the school district and Princeton University were also critical members of our emergency response team. With a single operations center, we dramatically improved our communications and thus our ability to respond to clearing roads, marshalling our resources and communicating to our residents. One communication component was our periodic reverse 9-11 message delivered by our IT Director, Bob McQueen, who did a great job in keeping our residents updated.

I want to extend a special thanks to our clerks office led by Linda McDermott and Kathy Brzezynski. It was this office (with Recycling Coordinator Janet Pellichero assisting) that was on the front lines through calls and emails from residents and they met the challenge with poise and empathy and assisted wherever they could. It was also the clerks office that responded quickly in establishing emergency voting locations due to power outages and helping the election take place with minimal disruption.

Princeton University and the school district helped our community immensely during the storm. The University provided food to our staff and provided a rest and recharge location on campus for residents. They also were vitally important in establishing Jadwin Gym as an emergency voting location. The school district worked closely with the community to establish the temporary reception center at the John Witherspoon Middle School as power outages continued.

While we certainly have much to be thankful for this Thanksgiving week, there will always be areas to improve and work to be done. It is with great sadness that we lost an important member of the Princeton community in Bill Sword during hurricane Sandy. Many residents were without power as we approached 10 days after the hurricane. We will be holding a de-briefing this week with the goal of continually improving our response in the next storm and communicating our concerns to our partners (read: PSE&G) about improving communications with the community when the next storm arrives. Until then, be safe and have a happy Thanksgiving!

Chad Goerner

Mayor, Princeton Township