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Close Call Prompts Resident to Alert Public Of the Hazards of Driving With Cell Phones

JACK ELLIS
Winant Road

Residents Are Still Stuck in the Mud Over the Unresolved Drainage Project

JUDITH BUDWIG
ANDREW BUDWIG
Jefferson Road

MARY LYNN BAECK
Jefferson Road

JIM SMITH
Jefferson Road

HELEN SCHWARTZ
Jefferson Road

BARBARA WHITE
Jefferson Road

ROSEMARY LANES
Humbert Street

AL LANES
Humbert Street

DAVID POPENOE
Moore Street

Close Call Prompts Resident to Alert Public Of the Hazards of Driving With Cell Phones

To the Editor:

An incident yesterday, September 30, in traffic on east Nassau Street prompts me to alert the local public to the dangers of certain uses of cell phones.

I was driving west toward the center of Princeton in the increasingly congested block with a cycle shop on the left hand side, just before Chestnut Street. In front of me a driver finished backing into a vacant spot. Suddenly, the driver-side door was flung completely open by a woman, who used her heels to keep the door open.

This was necessary since, dealing with her dangling purse with one hand, cradling her cell phone with the other, she had at that moment no other way to deal with her car, except with her feet. It was obvious from her expression that she was having an intense conversation, which began as, or before she parked.

As I get older and increasingly value the privilege of driving and being independent, I certainly do not want to be involved in point-earning accidents when people do stupid things.

I hear a lot these days about the ability to "multi-task." Maneuvering an automobile is task enough, without the added burden of eating, drinking, or cell-phoning.

Can we not all slow down a little, and pay attention?

JACK ELLIS
Winant Road

Residents Are Still Stuck in the Mud Over the Unresolved Drainage Project

To the Editor:

The Jefferson Road-Humbert drainage project has been going on for nearly seven months despite the fact that we were assured the project would last three to six weeks. We have been living in mud when it's wet and unbearable dust when it's dry. We've had many beautiful days of weather yet little or no work has been done in the last five weeks by Michael Dalton and his LBD Construction crew.

We are concerned as winter approaches that our situation will be even worse with no paved surface on Jefferson Rd. or Humbert Alley (which runs between Jefferson Rd. and Moore Street). The situation as we understand it from the borough engineering department is that there are structural problems with the newly installed sewage lines that will seriously impair their function.

According to the Sewage Operating Commission (SOC): 1) there are places where the lines sag. 2) sewage will collect in sags which are also where there are joints, and 3) those places in time will leak.

Several weeks ago the sewage system was tested by the use of a TV camera and it failed to pass inspection. Now an independent contractor has been hired to run a TV camera through the pipes again to see how severe the problem is.

Rather than making sure that the work is properly executed the borough administration says it is feeling time constraints because of cold weather setting in and is suggesting stopgap measures. We demand the sewer lines be corrected immediately: a sanitary sewer system that doesn't drain properly is a public health issue. We will not live with backed up sewers or problems that will surface in a year or two because the easiest way to put an end to this project is to downplay the reality of the problems, and go ahead and asphalt over them.

The proposed solution of having the sewers cleaned out monthly is unacceptable in terms of both function and cost. We were promised by the borough that this whole project would leave our property and neighborhood "as good or better." We had a sanitary sewage system that functioned properly prior to construction and now are being given a potential health hazard.

We deserve better. The job must be done, and be done right.