A plan to refurbish the kiosk at the corner of Nassau and Witherspoon streets has been put on hold at the request of the Princeton Regional Chamber of Commerce. The Chamber has been pushing a proposal to upgrade the structure, and another one at Vandeventer Avenue, for the past several months.

While some members of Princeton Council have expressed enthusiasm for the plan, which would have cleaned up the public message board while adding space for municipal maps and transit schedules and some advertising by Princeton businesses, many members of the public and other Council members have said they want the kiosks to remain as they are.

“In talking to the Chamber and the CVB (Convention and Visitors’ Bureau), we had always looked for a consensus of everybody,” Peter Crowley, the Chamber’s president and chief executive officer, said last Friday. “We want to redesign it to get people to agree with it.”

The Council was scheduled to hold a public hearing on the proposal at its May 13 meeting, but Mayor Liz Lempert said this week that she has agreed to the Chamber’s request to table the issue. After a split vote at Council’s April 15 meeting on renovation of both kiosks, the Chamber had agreed to take on the kiosk at Witherspoon while leaving the other as it was for the time being. But now, refurbishment of both has been put on hold.

“I think the Chamber is trying to come up with a plan that’s a win-win for everyone,” Ms. Lempert said. “I understand that they want this to be a project that has a stronger consensus than it seemed to have. I think there were some great ideas, especially having some space on the kiosks for municipal information about public transportation and maps to orient people to downtown. And in the interim, we’ll likely explore ways to do that while still keeping the bulk for messaging. That’s what I’d like to see.”

Mr. Crowley said the Chamber wants some more time to make adjustments to the mix of media on the kiosk before asking Council for final approval. “We also want to further examine the costs of maintenance and upkeep and see if we can come up with a plan that reduces the cost to upgrade the kiosk and minimize the expected ongoing maintenance support. Our goal continues to be to develop a public-private partnership that does not have the taxpayers of Princeton responsible for funding the renovation costs. As a regional nonprofit organization, it is very difficult for us to sustain a project like this alone without a way to fund it.”

Making sure taxpayers don’t pay for the upkeep and balancing the need for advertising, which Council member Jenny Crumiller and some members of the public opposed, has been a priority. The kiosks would keep the majority of space for public postings, while adding room for local businesses, non-profits, and the town. While many people agree that the kiosks are messy and need cleaning up, they objected to the idea of extensive advertising.

“I think the advertising question, for me, came down to whether the Chamber was going to be able to find local advertisers,” Ms. Lempert said. “Having an ad up there for The Bent Spoon or Small World is very different than having an ad for something that’s not a Princeton business. The kiosks are not in great shape,” she added. “They weren’t built to last 100 years. At the same time, I would like to find a solution that doesn’t use taxpayer dollars or a lot of staff time. If there’s a way to do it through partnership with the Chamber, local non profits and the local business community, that would be ideal.”