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Sponsors Thanked for Family Outing That Supported YMCA Scholarship

To the Editor:

The 2005 Princeton Family YMCA Golf Outing was a huge success! More than $90,000 was raised from the outing and Mayor’s Cup Challenge held at Hopewell Valley Golf Club on September 19.

Thank you to all our sponsors and players who contributed, benefiting the Princeton Family YMCA Program Scholarship Fund. Our “Never Say No” program reaches out to families and individuals in the greater Princeton area who are unable to cover expenses for childcare, youth, teen, and adult programs.

This year our main event sponsor was Mark Bovenizer and Community Liquors of Princeton. Other top sponsors included Arlington Capital Mortgage, Edgebrook Property Development, Princeton Real Estate Group, Accenture, AGS Benefits, Bristol Myers-Squibb, CompuCom, Cody Eckert Associate Architects, Cust, Dori & Benick CPA, DeLoitte & Touche LLP, Lanier, J. LaRue Auto Care, Dr. Steve Weintraub, Lawrence Orthopedics, Long Motor Company, Mason Griffin & Pierson, Mayflower Cleaners, Nassau Street Seafood, New York Golf Center, Terra MoMo Restaurants, The Paint Barn, Princeton Amoco, Princeton Car & Truck Country, Princeton HeathCare System, Princeton Shopping Center, PNC Bank, Reilly Financial Group, Spherion, Town Topics, The Tigers Tale, Triumph Brewery, Johnson & Johnson, Janssen Pharmaceutica, Van Note-Harvey, Withum, Smith & Brown, Yardville Supply, and all of our Mayors Cup team sponsors. All contributed to make our outing a huge success.

The Mayors Cup Challenge began in 2004 as a way to acknowledge the Mayors and community for supporting the Princeton Family YMCA. The teams are chosen by the Mayors and underwritten by local sponsors. This year Princeton Real Estate Group came on board as the main sponsor of the Mayors Cup. Team West Windsor, for the second year in a row, won the trophy with a score of 15 under. West Windsor Mayor Shing-Fu Hsueh’s team included Ken Jacobs, Newell Benedict, Alan Todd, and Jim Parvesse.

Special thanks to the Montgomery Middle School Industrial Design class, whose talented students designed and made the trophies for a second year.

In all, 92 golfers teed off; the winning team was William King, Todd Lincoln, Rick Newman, and Tom Gallagher.

The golf outing was followed by after school activities for the kids and an outdoor family barbecue. Special thanks go to Hopewell Valley Golf Club manager Jeremy Ernst and his staff for great food and another great event; and to the behind-the-scenes team that helped to make it all happen: Tina Clement, Pepper DeTuro, Jud Henderson, Fritz Marston, Rod Rickman, Pamela Roes, Nadine Roth, Sue Sipos, John Stahl, and Richard Smith.

Thank you to all involved and we look forward to seeing you next year on June 19, 2006. For more information call the Princeton Family YMCA at (609) 497-9622, ext. 210, or visit www.princetonymca.org.

EDWARD SHEHAB
Event Chair and Board Member
Princeton Family YMCA

Area Red Cross Salutes Volunteers for Aiding Gulf Coast Flood Victims

To the Editor:

Thank you! More than 1,000 individuals contacted the American Red Cross of Central New Jersey to volunteer their time at the chapter or down along the Gulf Coast. We’re proud of the hundreds of volunteers from our area who have assisted the relief effort on both a local and national level following the destruction caused by Hurricanes Katrina and Rita. Our chapter, serving Mercer, Middlesex, Hunterdon, and parts of Somerset counties, is deeply moved by the compassion shown by our community through donations of time and money to assist those affected by these disasters.

Our chapter has been busy supporting this national relief effort by conducting specialized training sessions to prepare 321 volunteers for the relief operation in the Gulf area, including 198 new volunteers. To date, 121 of these volunteers have been deployed for two or three week assignments, with more looking toward deployment throughout October and November.

Members of our Disaster Family Services have been doing extensive client casework to help the 172 families that arrived in our chapter area after evacuating the Gulf Coast. These families have received cash grants, housing assistance, mental health support, and other services.

The support of this community has helped the Red Cross raise the much-needed funds to provide assistance to over one million people who have been affected by the hurricanes. You arranged fund-raising at baseball and soccer games, held concerts and auctions, sold hand-made crafts and lemonade, held school read-a-thons, and sometimes just walked in and donated your hard-earned savings.

Your generosity is highly commendable. You’ve come forward to help your neighbors across the country just as you do right here in New Jersey.

Thank you for supporting the American Red Cross.

KEVIN SULLIVAN
Chief Executive Officer
American Red Cross of Central New Jersey

Talking Politics Over Pancakes at PJ's: Gubernatorial Candidates All the Same

To the Editor:

The following conversation — overheard at PJ’s Pancake House — bears no relation to current events. The names were changed to protect the illogical.

Archetypal Princeton Professor [APP]: Are you voting November 8?

Representative Princeton Professional [RPP]: Sure, I always pull the Democratic lever; most folks in town do. It’s the right thing to do. Any thinking person knows that.

Precocious Teenager [PT]: Hey, guys, help me out here. When I grow up I want to always vote Democratic in Princeton like you do, I just need to know why.

APP: That’s easy: Democrats stand for the people — for consumers, labor, and small business — and the Republicans are just out for Big Business.

PT: I don’t get it. The Democrats’ candidate for Governor is Mr. Big Business. Not only did he head a large Wall Street investment bank that cooked up loopholes and tax evasions for Enron, Tyco, WorldCom, and other companies that committed the largest financial crimes in American history, but I understand his own firm, Goldman Sachs, made millions of dollars on no-bid contracts with the state of New Jersey.

RPP: Well, never mind, the Democrats stand for reform — you know, like Woodrow Wilson.

PT: You gotta like, you know, help me out here. I read about how Democrats have run the state for the last few years and dozens of Democratic mayors and county bosses are in jail for criminal corruption, mostly bribery and extortion. Maybe my memory is hazy, but I thought the last two state-wide officeholders, McGreevey and Torricelli, resigned because many of their associates were indicted or convicted of crimes. How can Democrats claim to be reformers when their “leaders” are committing crimes and cheating taxpayers? Isn’t there one Princeton Democrat willing to stand up and say that criminal corruption is wrong?

APP: Hey, junior, you are going too far. At least the Democrats stand for poor people, for progressive taxation, and for the environment.

PT: I got a couple of questions. New Jersey has the highest per capita income in the country but it also has the second poorest city in America, Newark, and the most dangerous, Camden. If Democrats are for poor people why do they keep giving the taxpayers' money to casino moguls (the $300 million taxpayer funded road to Atlantic City), to multinational corporations like GE and Hanjin (income tax breaks the poor people don’t get), and to no-bid contractors like Commerce Bank? If Democrats are for the environment, why do we have more Superfund sites in New Jersey than anywhere else and the second worst air quality in the nation? Why do Princeton Democrats keep jacking up regressive property taxes right here in town?

APP and RPP: Enough of your impertinence.

PT: I hear almost 70 percent of all voters in New Jersey will not show at the polls next month because they think the two parties are the same — out for themselves and their corporate donors.

APP and RPP: Fools. They obviously don’t know the facts. We gotta go, kid. Nice talking with you.

CARL MAYER
Battle Road

Public Library Addresses Questions About Its Financing and Energy Use

To the Editor:

We’d like to take this opportunity to clear up some of the misconceptions about Princeton Public Library’s impact on Borough and Township taxes that have appeared in recent letters to the editor. While we sympathize with many of the issues expressed in these letters, we are concerned that these misconceptions are spreading in the community.

Specifically, we’d like to address issues regarding library financing and energy use.

Financing the new library — the library’s $18 million price tag was paid for with $12 million of private funds, about $2.3 million in state and federal funding, and $6 million in municipal contributions, $1.92 million from Princeton Borough and $4.08 million from Princeton Township. To protect against the possibility that the library would not meet its goal for raising private-sector funds, the municipalities authorized an $18 million bond anticipation note. When the library exceeded its fund-raising target in 2004, those notes were canceled. In the meantime, the Borough and Township provided a $1 million loan to the library to bridge the gap between construction expenses and pending fund-raising pledges. The library has repaid half of that loan, ahead of schedule.

Energy Use — some have asked why the library lights remain on after we close. Our cleaning contractor cleans the library from 9 p.m. to 1 a.m. Monday through Thursday and from 6 to 10 p.m. Friday through Sunday. We are working with the contractor to reduce the time that all three floors are lit, but with more than 2,500 people visiting the library each day, it takes a significant amount of time to clean the building. To date, energy costs for the library are less than originally anticipated as a result of efficient systems that save energy. In this time of uncertainty about energy costs, we are committed to doing everything we can to contain costs.

We’d like everyone in the community to know that Princeton Public Library trustees and staff accept our responsibility as stewards of the public’s trust with the utmost seriousness. We understand the concern about tax growth, which could force some residents to leave Princeton. To do our part, the library is embarking on a campaign to grow our fledgling endowment to support future growth in the operating costs of the library.

We encourage the community to share their ideas about improving the library and its services with either of us personally, by phone or e-mail.

LESLIE BURGER
Library Director (lburger@princetonlibrary.org)
NANCY RUSSELL
Chair, Library Board of Trustees (nrussell@princetonlibrary.org)

Harrison Street Park Rehabilitation Would Be Funded by Mercer County

To the Editor:

After reading Roger Martindell’s letter to the editor concerning the effort to rehabilitate Harrison Street Park (Town Topics, October 12), I would like to take the opportunity to clear up some facts.

First, Mr. Martindell says the Borough is embarking on yet another pointless “study” of the park. Not so. What I requested, and a majority of Borough Council supported, was for Borough staff to take steps toward hiring a design firm that would draw up actual plans, plans that are absolutely critical to have in place prior to work being done in the park. I agree with Mr. Martindell that we’ve done enough studying. Let’s move on to detailed drawings and work specifications.

Second, Mr. Martindell states that we have no idea what the project will cost or where the money to pay for it will come from. Actually, we have a pretty good idea of the former, and are certain of the latter. Even modest improvements to a park as deteriorated as Harrison Street Park will have a significant cost. Resurfacing the basketball court, replacing worn out playground equipment, thinning overgrown trees, improving drainage, removing the wading pool, and all of the other improvements identified in more than two years of neighborhood meetings will likely carry a price tag of $250,000 or so. While you recover from your sticker shock, I would like to assure you that the taxpayers need not worry. Princeton Borough was fortunate to receive an open space grant from Mercer County for $375,000, and this would be our source of funding for this project.

Finally, Mr. Martindell posits the policy that we should not improve any of our parks until we have a comprehensive plan for all of our parks. While I fully share Mr. Martindell’s concern for our parks in general, I believe it to be simply unfair to hold Harrison Street Park and its neighbors hostage while we engage in the years of study a comprehensive plan would take. After all, Harrison Street Park has been the subject of years of discussion, and has been in the Borough’s capital plan for nearly as long. The only thing holding up this project until now was a lack of cash, but now, thanks to Mercer County Executive Brian Hughes and his administration, we have the necessary funds. I say let’s move forward.

ANDREW KOONTZ
Borough Councilman
Spruce Street

University's Contributions to Borough Represent 17 Percent of Its Revenue

To the Editor:

Newspaper coverage of the upcoming municipal elections has contained references to Princeton University's financial contributions to Princeton Borough. I'd like to provide some relevant numbers, which are made available each year to the governing officials and the public.

Princeton University is the largest taxpayer in Princeton Borough. Last year the University paid $3.05 million in total property taxes (plus $1.03 million in sewer taxes). Thus, even though many of its properties are tax exempt, the University pays taxes on many properties, some of which are commercial, but several of which might qualify for tax exemption, such as graduate student and faculty housing. It has been the University's policy to keep voluntarily on the tax rolls any property that might potentially contribute school children to the schools. Of the $3.05 million paid in taxes by the University, the Borough gets approximately $763,000 (the rest goes to the schools and the county). The Borough last year collected $8.9 million in taxes for Borough purposes; therefore, the University paid about nine percent of the total.

In 2005, the University made voluntary contributions to the Borough of more that $800,000, including $250,000 for road repair and other capital projects. If you add the University's voluntary contribution to the taxes it pays just to the Borough, the University is contributing more than 17 percent of the Borough's tax revenue.

In recent years the University has also made substantial capital contributions for Borough projects (including $300,000 for Monument Drive and $150,000 for the new plaza by the public library), or for projects such as renovation of the local public schools ($500,000), construction of a new public library ($500,000), and purchase of a new rescue squad vehicle ($155,000), in which the University's contribution reduced the demand on local taxpayers.

PAM HERSH
Director, Community and State Affairs
Princeton University

Planned Town Topics Office Location Raises Concern About Street Parking

To the Editor:

At the Princeton Regional Planning Board meeting on October 6, Town Topics proposed to build a sizable addition to the house it has purchased at 305-307 Witherspoon Street. The house is located directly across the street from the drive and crosswalk into Community Park School. The proposed addition would create a structure of almost 3,000 square feet, which under the Township zoning ordinance requires at least 15 parking spaces. The newspaper has asked the Planning Board to approve a plan for only nine parking spaces, including one reserved for handicapped parking, and two reserved for compact cars which means only six regular spaces are proposed. These spaces will not accommodate all nine full-time and four or more part-time employees who need parking. And Town Topics has no viable plan (other than on-street parking) to meet those needs, not to mention the needs of visitors. In fact, on-street parking is not a realistic solution as Witherspoon Street and the surrounding side streets are full from other businesses including the hospital.

The location across from Community Park School raises the potential for congestion and traffic hazards to children not only during the school day but also throughout the day when the playground, park, and pool are heavily used. In addition, the paper has requested a variance for a drop-off space. This will further exacerbate the congestion and hazard in front of the school, as cars and trucks will need drop-off parking to deliver advertisements or packages. The proposed driveway to the parking in the rear is nine and a half feet wide, which will only allow for one-way traffic. How will vehicles get in while other vehicles are trying to get out? This is a recipe for blocked traffic on a street that is already very congested.

If you have children who attend Community Park School, please let the Planning Board know you are concerned about the safety of the Community Park students and the adverse affect on traffic in our neighborhood.

Editor's Note: Town Topics is carefully considering all input from the community and it is our intent to remain a good citizen and good neighbor at our new location on Witherspoon Street.

HEIDI FICHTENBAUM
Carnahan Place

Financing Completed, Ground Breaking Planned for Senior Housing Facility

To the Editor:

Princeton Community Housing thanks all the individuals and businesses who have supported and patiently encouraged us to expand Princeton housing options for low-income seniors. The planning and legal decisions, site acquisition, and building design have taken nine years despite the dedication of the many volunteers, professionals, and municipal officials committed to this development. With gratitude for the steadfastness of our friends, we are now able to begin construction on a second apartment building at Elm Court.

PCH officers and Executive Director Sandra Persichetti Rothe formalized arrangements for financing the facility this week in Newark. Construction funders include HUD, the New Jersey Department of Community Affairs Balanced Housing Program, the Federal Home Loan Bank through its member Hopewell Valley Community Bank, and the Mercer County HOME Program. Significant contributions from the Princeton Borough and Princeton Township Affordable Housing Trust Funds were also received.

Financing in hand, we will celebrate ground breaking at the site on Elm Road on Wednesday, November 9 at 2 p.m. We expect that construction will be completed by early 2007. More than 70 low-income seniors will be accommodated in one-bedroom, independent living units in the new building.

Again, our warmest thanks to all who are helping Princeton continue to welcome and house people of all ages and income.

SHEILA BERKELHAMMER
President, Board of Trustees
Princeton Community Housing, Inc.

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