Should the two kiosks that have become a fixture on Nassau Street be under the management of the Princeton Regional Chamber of Commerce or the town of Princeton? At its meeting Monday night, the Princeton Council was split on this question and ultimately voted to allow the Chamber, which has developed a plan for the kiosks, to take over and renovate one while leaving the other as it is С for now.

That way, Mayor Liz Lempert suggested, Council will be able to better judge whether the Chamber’s proposal to clean up and refocus the two structures, which are located at the intersections of Witherspoon Street and Vandeventer Avenue, is an effective one. They could vote on the issue again at their next meeting April 22.

The Chamber first proposed taking over the kiosks last February. With some adjustments explained last night by the organization’s president Peter Crowley and architect [Town Topics shareholder] Bob Hillier, the plan would allow for municipal information and advertising, mostly by local merchants, as well as the traditional posting of information by the public. It is the advertising side that bothers some members of Council, particularly Jenny Crumiller. While she told Mr. Crowley that she appreciates the revisions to the plan that have been made since comments from Council at the last presentation, she still has major doubts.

“My objection still stands,” she said. “I don’t want to add more paid advertising to the streetscape.” The Department of Public Works could take care of the kiosks instead of the Chamber, she suggested, which has proposed doing so at no cost to the town.

Ms. Crumiller’s doubts were echoed by Council member Jo Butler, who would favor getting rid of the kiosks altogether but realizes that most people want to keep them, and to some extent by Council member Heather Howard. But Council members Bernie Miller, Lance Liverman, and Peter Simon spoke in favor of the proposal.

Mr. Miller said he has asked several of his friends for their opinions, and most say that the kiosks should be kept as they are because that’s the way they’ve always been. But he disagrees. “They are unsightly and they lend nothing at all to the ambience of the community,” he said. “This plan would be a great improvement over what is there now. I think they ought to be replaced or removed,” he concluded, adding that the kiosks as they are now “look like a street corner in a rustbelt town.”

Mr. Liverman said that allowing the Chamber to run the kiosks would be a public/private partnership that would save tax dollars. Mr. Simon, who previously was not in favor of the plan, said he was impressed by the revisions and the way the plan could serve both the public and the business community.

Speaking in favor of the plan were local businessman Jack Morrison, Anne Sears of the Princeton Area Arts and Culture Consortium, Lori Rabon of the Nassau Inn and the local Convention and Visitors’ Bureau (CVB), and Kristin Appelget of Princeton University and the CVB. “The University supports the idea. We think it’s time for the kiosks to be refreshed,” she said.

Route One Traffic

A brief report at the meeting on the New Jersey Department of Transportation’s ideas for solving the traffic congestion on Route 1 drew several residents of the Penn’s Neck neighborhood, who said that an alternative plan drawn up by local engineers would clog their streets with even more traffic. The new plan would include a traffic circle and two bypasses. The DOT’s plan would eliminate some left-hand turns and build new jughandles.

After much public criticism of the DOT’s original proposals, the agency asked Princeton, West Windsor, and Plainsboro to generate ideas of their own on how to lessen traffic. The municipalities asked local engineers for alternatives to the plan.

But Princeton engineer Bob Kiser and Mayor Lempert cautioned that all of the plans are in the preliminary stages, and have yet to be vetted by engineers, who will meet this week to look at the DOT plan and other proposals before coming back to Council with a recommendation. “It is premature to discuss this in detail,” Mr. Kiser said.

Members of the public and Council agreed that more data is needed. Linda Geevers, a member of West Windsor’s Council, encouraged Princeton Council members to consider West Windsor residents when making a decision. “This whole scenario has been viewed as a $40 million band-aid,” she said. “Please keep in mind our residents, particularly in Penn’s Neck. The area will continue to grow, and this Route One issue is not going to go away. Personally, I’m not in a big rush for a decision.”