FRENCH FESTIVAL: The cast of “La dispute” from the recorded live performance that is part of Seuls en Scène online, September 10-20. (Photo by Yohanne Lamoulere/Tendance floue)

Seuls en Scène, the French theater festival featuring renowned and emerging French writers, actors, and directors, goes online for this season with 12 events September 10-20.

Presented by Princeton University’s Lewis Center for the Arts, the festival includes recordings of live performances of contemporary works recently presented on stages in France, several performed in French with English subtitles; recorded readings; and conversations with artists, live on Zoom, and on the current state of theater in France.

Seuls en Scène ushers in the 20th season of L’Avant-Scène, a French theater troupe of Princeton students. It also celebrates professional theatrical achievements from the past year. Many of the artists are prominent contributors to contemporary theater in France. The festival is organized by Florent Masse, senior lecturer in the Department of French and Italian and artistic director of L’Avant-Scène.

Tickets are free and open to the public, but registration is necessary at arts.princeton.edu/frenchtheater for the live conversations with artists on Zoom.

By Stuart Mitchner

The day after Charlie Parker’s 100th birthday, I’m driving to the lake listening to “the earliest authentic document we are ever likely to hear of the 20th century giant.” So say the liner notes accompanying Bird in Kansas City, 1940-42 on the Stash CD The Complete “Birth of the Bebop.” Privately recorded, “probably May 1940,” Parker’s variations on “Honeysuckle Rose” and “Body and Soul” seem to be following me as I walk toward the lake. Because of the unguarded intimacy of the sound I feel as if I’ve been eavesdropping on a 20-year-old’s first recording, in which, as the notes have it, “an overall lack of poise underscores the youthfulness of the performance.” Suddenly, strangely, the sense of “being there listening in” is replicated in the here and now by the sound of a saxophone. Someone on the other side of the lake is playing. For a few seconds it’s an eerie continuum, a phantom player exploring variations on “Body and Soul.” As I come to the water’s edge, peering across the lake for the source of the music, still unable to see the person playing, it begins to sink in (reality bites) that what I’ve imagined as some skilled sharer of Birdlore is more likely a clumsy learner, probably a kid in a school band, and that the tune I’ve been hearing as “Body and Soul” is actually “Happy Birthday.” Still, I’m smiling as I walk along the lakeside, listening. It’s nothing more than a birthday coincidence on the day after, a consolation prize, but I’ll take it.

Born Twice

Only a “20th-century giant” like Charlie Parker could encompass two cities with the same name in two different states, the Kansas City he was born in forever overshadowed by the musically renowned metropolis across the river that gave birth to his legend. The city in Missouri is where he found “a spiritual home in jazz,” as Gary Giddins suggests in Celebrating Bird: The Triumph of Charlie Parker (Minnesota 2013), “which remains the best single examination of his art and life,” according to the “Charlie Parker at 100” link in Friday’s New York Times.

Curious to learn more about Bird’s actual birth city, I’ve been consulting my copy of the WPA Guide to Kansas, which sits on the book shelf next to the WPA Guide to New Jersey. The placement makes sense: I was born in Kansas and live in New Jersey, my life bookended by the Sunflower State and the Garden State.

A Jersey Connection

Charlie Parker was born on August 29, 1920, at home, 852 Freeman Avenue, in Kansas City, Kansas. Checking the net, I see that the vacant lot once occupied by the house at that address is only a block south of New Jersey Avenue and two blocks from Jersey Creek Park. Finding nothing online that explains the Jersey connection, I explore the WPA guide’s detailed entry on Kansas City, Kansas, and find that the area was originally part of a reservation granted to the Delaware Indians (aka New Jersey’s Leni Lenape) and purchased in 1843 by the Wyandot, “the last of the emigrant tribes, … not savages, but an educated and in many instances a cultured people” [note the circa 1930s WPA terminology] that had “intermarried with whites from generations back,” their leaders “men of influence and ability.”

After the California Gold Rush of 1849 placed Wyandot City on “the great highway to the Pacific,” the boom town in the making “passed into the hands of white men” and by 1855 the Wyandot nation had “disappeared from Kansas.”

When the name Kansas City was “finally adopted” in 1886, the population had been swelled by an influx “of freed Negroes from the South” [more 1930s terminology] along with “Germans, Russians, Poles, Croats, Czechs, Slovakians … lured by the prospects of freedom in a new land.” The majority of the African American population “absorbed by the city’s growing industries” found homes “along Jersey Creek in a settlement called Rattlebone Hollow,” the neighborhood where Charlie Parker spent the first decade of his life.

“I Came Alive”

As of 1938, when the WPA Guide was published and Charlie Parker was involved in the Kansas City Missouri music scene, Rattlebone Hollow was “still extant” and would have made a catchy title for some early bebop original. It’s worth noting at this point that besides having Choctaw ancestors and being born in a city haunted by its Wyandot heritage, Bird “came alive” while improvising on the Ray Noble hit, “Cherokee.” As he says in a 1949 Down Beat interview quoted in Ira Gitler’s Jazz Masters of the Forties (1966), “I kept thinking there’s bound to be something else. I could hear it sometimes, but I couldn’t play it.” While playing “Cherokee,” he “found that by utilizing the higher intervals of a chord as a melody line and using suitably connected changes with it, he could make the thing he had been hearing an actuality.”

Moving to KC

The WPA guide makes no mention of the Charles Sumner Elementary School, from which Charlie Parker apparently graduated in 1931. Now known as the Sumner Academy of Arts and Sciences, a nationally ranked magnet school, it was founded in 1905, named for the abolitionist Charles Sumner, and, according to Wikipedia, “its origins can be traced to a racially charged environment.” A series of events following the shooting of a white student at Kansas City High by an African American (the thwarting of a lynch mob, whites agitating for segregated schools) culminated in the opening of Sumner as the first segregated school in the state of Kansas. In Celebrating Bird, Parker’s presumed 1931 graduation indicates the likely date of the Parker family’s move from Freeman Avenue to 1615 Olive Street in Kansas City Missouri, “a short walk from the night clubs and dance halls where a new style of jazz was being born.”

Charlie Parker Place

“The Negro people should put up a statue to him, to remind their grandchildren. This man contributed joy to the world, and it will last a thousand years.” Dizzy Gillespie is talking about “the other half of his heartbeat” in a May 25, 1961 Down Beat interview quoted in Jazz Masters of the Forties. In the Black Lives Matter era, where the slogan of the moment is “I Can’t Breathe,” statues are coming down, not going up; in any case the notion of a monument is at odds with the “I came alive” spirit of Charlie Parker’s genius.

My favorite “monument” is the austere three-story brownstone rowhouse from 1849 adjacent to Tompkins Square Park on Charlie Parker Place, where a plaque from the New York Landmarks Preservation Foundation refers to “the world-renowned alto saxophonist” and “co-founder of bebop” who once lived there.

Leonard Feather and Ira Gitler’s Biographical Encyclopedia of Jazz dubbed him “the jazz world’s Mozart” because he “gathered together” the styles that had come before and transformed them into “a brilliant new design,” everything “fresh and whole” and “precisely right.” When Gary Giddins cites Mozart at the conclusion of Celebrating Bird, he’s thinking of more than the music: “As with Mozart, the facts of Charlie Parker’s life make little sense because they fail to explain his music. Perhaps his life is what his music overcame. And overcomes.”

In Robert Reisner’s oral history, Bird: The Legend of Charlie Parker (DaCapo 1991), Charlie Parker says to Charlie Mingus “Would you die for me? I’d die for you.” It’s easy to hear a cadence resembling the one-two punch in the mid-flight moments that sometimes move audience members at certain crudely recorded club dates or concerts to shout, “Kill yourself!” Knowing his days were numbered, it was as if Bird had a special claim on death. More than once, as recounted by friends and acquaintances in Reisner’s book, he says his goodbyes days and months before 8:45 p.m. on March 12, 1955.

Bird, Mingus, and the USPS

On a lighter note, also from Reisner’s oral history, Mingus recalls the time “Bird paid me the dubious honor of borrowing five dollars from me in 1946, when I was in the Lionel Hampton band. In 1951 he borrowed another ten dollars. The next year was a tough one for me in music; so I took a job in the post office. One night I get a phone call from Parker: ‘Mingus, what are you doing working in the post office? A man of your artistic stature? Come with me.’ I told him I was making good money. He offered me $150 a week, and I accepted. When the first pay day came around I asked him for $165 dollars. I reminded him of the old debt. His eyes rolled back in his head in amazement, ‘Yes, I remember.  But do you remember when I lent you fifteen dollars in front of Birdland?’ (An event which never took place).” At this point Mingus makes it clear that he was making almost as much money in the post office with overtime, and it was steady. After being threatened with bodily harm (“great as you are, I’ll kick your ass in”), Bird paid. Mingus goes on to recall the long involved discussions they used to get into between sets “about every subject from God to man, and, before we realized it, we would be due back on the stage. He used to say, ‘Mingus, let’s finish this discussion on the bandstand. Let’s get our horns and talk about this.’ “

Charlie Mingus and Charlie Parker were among the  jazz musicians honored in the 1996 USPS Legend Series. After all that jive about $150 or $165, Bird and Mingus are the faces on the 32 cent stamp, that is, back in the days before there was no DeJoy in Mudville. Imagine mailing in your ballots with those stamps on the envelope.

By Anne Levin

When it comes to voting by mail in the upcoming general election on November 3, individual states have their own rules. In accordance with Gov. Phil Murphy’s Executive Order 177 declaring the election as a primarily vote-by-mail event, New Jersey is one of nine states (and the District of Columbia) that will send ballots to most registered voters automatically.

Ballots are scheduled to be mailed to residents by October 5. Mercer County officials are urging residents to make sure their voting information is up to date to ensure they receive a ballot. “In an election where so many people will vote by mail, the [County] Clerk’s office must have current information, such as the correct mailing address, for every voter,” said Mercer County Executive Brian M. Hughes in a letter to residents.

In a release from County Clerk Paula Sollami Covello, it is recommended that people who will be away between late September and Election Day should apply to vote by mail specifying the mailing address required. Sollami Covello also recommends that those who have a permanent vote-by-mail status should make sure that the address on file is correct by calling her office at (609) 989-6494 or 6495.

The ballots received can be returned by mail, postmarked no later than November 3; by depositing in a secure drop box; or by handing it directly to a poll worker on Election Day. So far, drop box locations include the Princeton Municipal Building at 400 Witherspoon Street, the Hopewell Township Administration Building at 201 Washington Crossing-Pennington Road in Titusville, the Trenton Courthouse Annex at 209 South Broad Street, the Hamilton Golf Center at 5 Justice Samuel Alito Way, and the East Windsor Municipal Court Building at 80 One Mile Road. More locations are to be added.

For those who opt to vote in person, each municipality is required to open at least one polling site and counties must ensure that at least half of their polling places are open on Election Day. Those who vote in person will do so on a provisional (paper) ballot or in a voting machine if a voter is disabled. Additional polling places will be determined by the Mercer County Board of Elections.

The deadline to register to vote in time for the election is October 13. The deadline for the County Clerk’s office to receive a mailed-in vote-by-mail application is October 23. Residents can also walk in to the Mercer County Clerk’s Office to request a mail-in ballot until Election Day at 8 p.m. All ballots sent in must be postmarked no later than November 3, and received by the Board of Elections no later than November 10. Voters can also return their ballots personally to the poll workers at their polling place.

For a complete list of polling and drop box locations, visit www.mercercounty.org/boards-commissions/board-of-elections after September 8.

“Holding a general election during a pandemic, especially one that’s expected to generate a large voter turnout, is a challenge but it’s one that can be met,” said Hughes. “The state has presented a plan that provides for safe and secure voting, and County elections officials already are hard at work putting the necessary pieces in place.”

HELPING HANDS: Since the onset of COVID-19, there has been an uptick in socially distanced volunteering for projects at Friends of Princeton Open Space. The organization is currently seeking people to assist at the Billy Johnson Mountain Lakes Nature Preserve. (Photo by Giuli Simmens)

By Anne Levin

When it comes to protecting natural resources, environmental groups count on volunteers to help keep up with planting, managing invasive species, and other essential projects. Local organizations such as Friends of Princeton Open Space (FOPOS), The Watershed Institute, and Sourland Conservancy regularly involve the public in restoration and stewardship of the natural world.

Sourland Conservancy looks for volunteers throughout the year, and matches them with their specific areas of interest and expertise. The Watershed Institute relies on volunteers for everything from clearing brush and feeding animals to helping out at the annual Butterfly Festival or staffing the front desk.

The FOPOS Land Stewards Program is currently looking for volunteers to help at the 18-acre Forest Restoration Site on the Billy Johnson Mountain Lakes Nature Preserve. Sessions are September 2, 3, 9, and 12 from 8-11 a.m.

FOPOS usually has a stable crew of volunteers during the summer months. But Anna Corichi, the organization’s natural resource manager, noticed an increase in interest during the spring — which she attributes to changes brought on by the pandemic. “It’s been very popular due to COVID, because people who have been working from home have been coming out on weekdays to help,” she said. “I think people were eager and able to get outside and work in this way.”

In addition to volunteers, Corichi is currently looking for a college student to intern with the organization and work on an important project dealing with stiltgrass (Microstegium vimineum), an invasive grass that threatens native plants and natural habitats in the eastern United States.

“This is our main focus and big need right now, because the stiltgrass threatens the native plant population
and blankets the whole forest,” she said. “Part of the reason it’s so bad is that it’s such a prolific seeder. It starts growing in spring and is about to seed soon. We need help to remove it before it seeds. We’ve taken a unique approach this season, spraying it with vinegar instead of herbicides, and it’s working.”

Later this month, volunteers will help plant another layer of native shrubs including St. John’s wort and hydrangea, “to make the areas look good and provide habitat,” Corichi said.

Volunteers range from children to retired, older adults. Children require a guardian to accompany them. Email info@fopos.org to register, or visit fopos.org for specifics.

“I think people get involved in these projects because they want to make an impact and see things grow,” Corichi said. “If you plant in the spring and then see them leaf out — or maybe one flower — it’s rewarding.”

Remote Learning in PPS

With Princeton Public Schools’ phase-in hybrid program delayed, students will not be going into the schools until October 12, but teachers and administrators are honing their virtual learning plans, and the schools are “well prepared to provide a robust educational experience remotely,” starting on September 14, according to a recent PPS email bulletin.

PPS Interim Superintendent Barry Galasso emphasized that the new Canvas online learning management system (LMS) would provide “a uniform learning platform for all students, and, according to the PPS technology department, it’s 99 percent reliable.”

Admitting that the unreliability of the system used last year caused difficulties, Galasso pointed out that the Canvas system is compatible with both Google and Microsoft, it provides access to a 24-hour, seven-day-a-week hotline for support, and that 60 different teachers and administrators in the district investigated the system before it was chosen.

All of the PPS staff is being trained in the use of Canvas, with 400 starting training earlier this summer and the rest of the staff currently being trained in professional days leading up to the September 14 opening day.

“Teachers appreciate how so many programs, including Zoom, are integrated within the program, so students won’t have to navigate outside of Canvas when using a lot of these tools,” said PPS Technology and Innovation Director Krista Galyon.

“For students, all of the classwork will be in one location,” she added. “In the spring, when our other LMS was not proving to be reliable, teachers moved to various platforms. This was often hard for students who had multiple teachers. Canvas brings all of their learning to one location.”

New Learning Circles Program at YMCA

Whether children are engaged in remote learning, hybrid learning, or in-person learning, the YMCA will be helping Princeton’s students make the most of it with informal, cooperative Learning Circles.

Supervised by college students, these groups will provide a positive and safe setting in which young people can be with their peers and focus on their studies together.

From September 14 through November 6, students entering grades six through nine will be able to gather under the tents on the YMCA field for three-hour sessions. Screened and trained college students and recent graduates will serve as advisers and role models, providing leadership and facilitating fun, structured activities.

Financial assistance will be available. More information will soon be posted on the YMCA website at princetonymca.org.

Villa Victoria  Team Wins National Math Championship

Villa Victoria’s math team, known as the VIL2ABE2S, has won a national championship in the Catholic Math League Advanced Division.  Villa Victoria graduating senior Jane Fan placed first among all competitors in the country.

Coached by math teacher Ann Conway-Konzelman since 1991, the VIL2ABE2S have won 41 awards over the years and placed in the top four schools nationally 12 times. In 11 years in the Advanced Math Division, team members have submitted 29 perfect scores and have consistently placed among the top five schools in the league. 

Student Writes Mental Health Guidebook

Preeti Chemiti, a rising sophomore in Princeton University’s School of Public and International Affairs, has created a free mental health guidebook for students, teachers, and administrators in the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Titled Mind Matters and focusing on student perspectives, the guidebook includes sections for high school students, college students, the BIPOC community, and teachers. There are more than 150 student interviews.

For more information or to download a copy of the book, visit www.mindmattersbook.org.   

Pennington School Teacher Wins Fellowship

Pennington School English teacher Erin O’Connell has been accepted to the 2020-21 Leadership+Design Fellowship. As one of a handful of educators selected, O’Connell will engage in a year-long collaboration with Leadership+Design, an organization committed to creating the future of teaching and learning.

“Addressing the challenges of distance and hybrid learning requires flexibility and focus on what’s most important: in our case, the student,” said O’Connell. “I am looking to Leadership+Design to challenge my own thinking, open me up to new ideas and approaches, and help me move my ideas into realities. At Pennington, I am hoping to further enhance the mentoring program and overall faculty support services.”

LEADING THE SUFFRAGE DEBATE: Catherine Warren, seen in front of her home at 133 Library Place, was treasurer of the New Jersey branch of the Congressional Union, a radical arm of the women’s suffrage movement, and president of the New Jersey State Federation of Women’s Clubs. She is among those featured in a new online exhibit by the Historical Society of Princeton.

By Anne Levin

Despite its small size, Princeton played a significant role in the fight for women’s right to vote. The town was closely watched in the years leading up to passage of the 19th amendment on August 26,1920, because it was home to the sitting president and a former first lady.

“All eyes are on President Woodrow Wilson — who has avoided the contentious suffrage question up to this point — as he travels to his home polling place in Princeton to cast his own vote in the [1915] New Jersey referendum,” reads a digital exhibit by the Historical Society of Princeton and co-sponsored by Princeton Public Library, now on view at princetonhistory.org. “All eyes were on Princeton.”

“Princeton and Women’s Suffrage: The Greatest Question of the Day” takes viewers from the early efforts in 2010 through to passage of the amendment a decade later. While many in Princeton were in favor of suffrage, many were not. The latter group argued that women did not need the vote because their husbands represented them at the ballot box.

“On the question of necessity, in Princeton, as nationally, anti-suffragist women advanced social reform issues through their personal connections with politicians,” the exhibit reads. “To them, this ‘indirect influence’ was a more respectable, non-partisan means to an end for women, but suffragists argued it was an avenue for action that was open to a privileged few.”

The differences of opinion, and how they were resolved, were revealing to those who put the show together.

“Something that surprised me was how closely connected — by friendship and family — the advocates on both sides of the suffrage campaign were,” said Izzy Kasdin, executive director of the Historical Society, in an email. “For example, the Present Day Club leadership oscillated back and forth between pro-suffragists and anti-suffragists throughout the 19-teens, and all these women continued to be active and socialize together in the club. It shows that, in Princeton, the suffrage issue was hotly debated, but not divisive.”

Stephanie Schwartz, curator of collections and research, had a similar reaction. “Reading the back-and-forth discourse in the ‘Princeton Press’ column dedicated to the women’s suffrage question introduced me to the many passionate community members who also acted on a state and national stage,” she said. “Because of the focus right now on 1920, people may not be aware of how important the 1915 referendum was in New Jersey and in Princeton as an area of national attention. This exhibition strives to emphasize the length and intricacies of the suffrage fight, which included many small battles. The big win in 1920 was significant, but it was one of many important milestones in an ongoing effort.”

While Wilson supported the 1915 New Jersey referendum for suffrage, it was defeated in the town, home district, and the state. The exhibit explores the way black voters were blamed for this, “suggesting that they were not informed and were easily swayed by private interests. There was significant challenge to this by prominent black citizens in Princeton and Trenton. ‘Scapegoating’ black voters, as one writer called it at the time, revealed the racism embedded in the suffrage movement,” the exhibit reads. “Though the mainstream suffrage organizations sidelined them, black suffragists, and many black voters, recognized that black women’s suffrage was a critical tool in their fight for racial justice.”

The exhibit weaves in historic photographs, letters, documents, and press clippings. In one shot from the 1910 P-rade down Nassau Street, members of Princeton University’s all-male Class of 1900 mocked the movement wearing white dresses and bearing signs. (The University came out in favor of the referendum in 1915). Another photo shows Alexander Hall, where numerous lectures and debates on the issue took place prior to the 1915 referendum.

The fact that the exhibit is digital rather than hanging on the walls of the Historical Society’s Quaker Road headquarters is not expected to be a deterrent.

“The public’s response to our online programming has been a bright spot in this difficult time,” said Eve Mandel, director of programs and visitor services. “We’ve been able to reach a wider audience and dive into a wider variety of topics than ever before particularly on our social media channels. We’ve been able to share dozens of local history stories there, and have gotten a lot of comments like, ‘I never knew that!’ Our Historical Fiction Book Group is as popular as ever and for a lecture this Thursday on Princeton in 1783, we already have more registrants than we would have been able to accommodate in person.”

Visit princetonhistory.org to view the digital exhibition.

FOXY FRIEND: Princeton Animal Control Officer Jim Ferry is holding a kit fox, only a week or two old, found under a dumpster and taken to Mercer County Wildlife Center, where it was cared for until eventually released back into the wild. (Photo courtesy of Princeton Animal Control)

By Donald Gilpin

Human activity in town may have diminished during the past six months of the pandemic, but foxes have become a common sight in Princeton.

Animal Control Officer Jim Ferry has located several fox dens all across town, in the rural parts near Quaker Road and Stuart Road, and closer to downtown near Springdale Golf Course.

“I have had many reports of foxes looking for food on Nassau Street, Palmer Square, and throughout the University,” said Ferry. “Foxes are territorial. No population estimate, but they are living in every part of town.”

He emphasized that healthy foxes pose virtually no danger to humans. Foxes and any other animal showing signs of rabies  — inability to walk, falling over or walking in circles, making a continuous noise, biting at inanimate objects, appearing overly friendly or aggressive, experiencing seizures or other neurological issues — should be reported right away to Princeton Animal Control at (609) 924-2728.

Ferry said that he had captured several foxes who were sick or injured, taking them to the Mercer County Wildlife Center for care, but no rabies have been found in Princeton foxes.

Most of Ferry’s calls are just sightings, which have increased significantly over the past three years. He noted that these “urban” foxes have grown used to human activity and will come into populated areas looking for food, but will usually keep a safe distance.

“They are opportunistic hunters, feeding on mice, rabbits, birds, and squirrels,” Ferry said, “but will score an easy meal such as trash or cat food left out.” Ferry urged residents to make sure they are not unintentionally feeding wildlife, making sure that trash is secure and that cats are fed outside only during the daytime. “Foxes are most active between dusk and dawn, however will be active during the day if they know they can find food,” he added.

There have been no reported fox attacks on pets or humans, Ferry said, and most fox complaints are sightings from residents who have never seen a fox before. “Or foxes will lounge in backyards like they own the place,” Ferry said. “Banging pots and pans together works well for scaring foxes out of yards, from a safe distance of course.”

Foxes, except for raising their young, are solitary animals, not pack animals like wolves, Ferry explained. “Siblings will stick together for about the first year of life until they eventually spread out and establish their own territories,” he said.

Ferry tells of an encounter last year with a fox kit. “I received a complaint of strange noises from a dumpster, and I found an infant fox kit, maybe a week or two old, under the dumpster vocalizing.”  Since the kit was not injured, but obviously separated from its mother, Ferry set up trail cameras and left the kit for 24 hours to see if the mother would return. 

When there was no sign of the mother, Ferry collected the kit and transported it to Mercer County Wildlife Center, where it was raised to a young adult then released. “It’s important to determine if wildlife is truly orphaned,” Ferry said. “Residents are encouraged to reach out to Animal Control to assess. We work closely with the Wildlife Center to determine the best course of action.”

Warning against interacting with the growing fox population, Ferry emphasized, “It’s important to understand, these are wild animals. It is illegal to feed wildlife (except bird feeders), and you are doing more harm than good, especially if the animal loses its ability or will to hunt.”

He added, “Foxes are critical to our ecosystem. They hunt rodents and other small animals but pose very little danger to our pets and children.”

By Donald Gilpin

Since hiring full-time career firefighters seven months ago, after more than 200 years as an all-volunteer squad, the Princeton Fire Department (PFD) has seen significant improvements in response times and full staffing of apparatus, and increases in active volunteers and volunteer hours.

“This is a tremendous report,” said Princeton Mayor Liz Lempert in response to Fire Chief T.R. Johnson’s annual report last week to Princeton Council. “The fire department has gone through major transitions recently.  It has improved response time, and volunteer numbers are increasing. Wonderful report — reflects truly amazing work.”

Johnson pointed out that full-time staff, brought on board February 3, have made the PFD less reliant on assistance from other towns and have influenced the department in many ways.   

“Career firefighters have had an immediate impact on ensuring there is sufficient staffing supplemented by Princeton volunteer firefighters,” he said. “It has encouraged our volunteer members to take additional duty shifts at the station, which has significantly improved our response times and virtually removed our reliance on mutual aid for the primary apparatus response.”

Emphasizing progress over the past year, Johnson continued, “The Princeton Fire Department has come a long way from a year ago. We are getting an apparatus on the road for every call in a timely manner, and, even with the challenges related to COVID-19, we are ensuring volunteer duty shift hours are being taken by all volunteer members.  As with any department reliant on volunteers to complete our crews, we still have some gaps and are looking for ways to fill them. But our response times and crew sizes are significantly improved from a year ago.”

The fire chief’s Department Assessment and Review, delivered by Johnson and Deputy Chief Devin Davis, noted a 41 percent improvement in response time since February, with an average response time of seven minutes and 15 seconds in getting the first apparatus to the scene.  Volunteer hours have increased by 72 percent in the past seven months, with 28-30 active volunteer firefighters throughout the summer so far,
and “lots of enthusiasm within our membership,” according to Davis.

This year, out of 394 calls, the PFD has averaged more than four firefighters on each call, responding with a “short crew” only three times, less than 1 percent of the time, as opposed to about 8 percent in 2016 and 2017 and significantly higher percentages in 2018 and 2019.

During Tropical Storm Isaias last month, the department responded to more than 30 calls in a 24-hour period, including two first-alarm calls.

Princeton Council members applauded the report and the PFD’s accomplishments.   Councilwoman Eve Niedergang noted, “You have hit one goal after another. Congratulations in melding the new department of career firefighters and volunteer firefighters into a single cohesive unit. I also applaud your increased media footprint, an impressive achievement. I’m proud of what you’ve accomplished for our town.” Councilwoman and Fire Commissioner Michelle Pirone Lambros added, “This report is terrific.”

In previous years the PFD, like many volunteer departments throughout the country, had faced a shortage of volunteers that often necessitated calling for back-up from neighboring towns. In 2018 Princeton hired a consulting firm to conduct a study of the fire department. The consultants’ 2019 report included recommendations for improvements in response times, staffing, and recruitment, most of which have been implemented with positive results.

Career firefighters hired in February include Sal Baldino, Ryan Buckley, George Luck, Mark Sitek, Andrew Summers, and Keith Wadsworth.

“The career firefighters have been able to make sure we have leadership and guidance at the station to ensure all tasks and training of newer volunteer members are a success,” said Johnson. “In addition, they ensure that equipment and apparatus are ready to respond to emergencies and give leverage to the department’s line officers to ensure any challenges are addressed in a timely manner.”

Individuals interested in volunteering for the PFD should visit princetonnj.gov or call (609) 497-7637.

By Donald Gilpin

The COVID-19 news, as usual, is mixed. Gyms were permitted to reopen on September 1, and indoor dining, movies, and indoor performing arts venues can open on Friday, September 4, under an executive order from New Jersey Gov. Phil Murphy — all at 25 percent capacity with social distancing and other restrictions.   

Schools are preparing to reopen either remotely, in hybrid fashion, or in-person in the coming weeks. And on Tuesday, September 1, New Jersey added two states, Alaska and Montana, to its list of COVID-19 hotspots placed on a coronavirus quarantine travel list of 33 states and territories.

Princeton Public Health Officer Jeff Grosser reported yesterday, September 1, that the New Jersey Department of Health (NJDOH) has assessed the central-west region of the state (Mercer, Hunterdon, and Somerset counties) as “low risk,” and that Princeton is among towns with the lowest rate of COVID-19 per 10,000 people in Mercer County. The current COVID-19 prevalence rate in the county as a whole is 230 percent higher than the rate in Princeton, Grosser said.

“The rate of coronavirus spread is currently low in Princeton, but COVID-19 is just as contagious and dangerous as before,” wrote Princeton Mayor Liz Lempert and the Princeton Council in their August 31 Princeton Coronavirus Update. “It is still important to practice socially distancing whenever possible, wear a mask when you cannot socially distance, and wash your hands frequently. These precautions are especially important as the state loosens restrictions.”

Grosser emphasized that a safe, successful reopening of gyms and restaurants would require “a few key strategies”: proper mask wearing, increased building ventilation, and managing a flow of customers. “The reduction of large groups in one location, increased space between patrons, and ensuring visitors wear masks will all ultimately reduce the potential for disease spread in our community,” he said.

The Princeton Health Department reported only one active positive case of COVID-19 in Princeton on Tuesday, with five new cases in the past two weeks, a total of 215 positive cases, and 184 COVID-19 cases recovered with isolation completed.

Though permitted to open yesterday, Princeton Fitness and Wellness (PFW) on State Road will be taking an extra week, planning to reopen at 5 a.m. on September 8. “We are taking the necessary time to rehire and train our employees on the new safety protocols,” states a message on their website. “In preparation for your return we have scrubbed, sprayed, deep cleaned, upgraded air filters, increased the quantity of sanitizing stations, rewritten protocols, and provided social distancing on the fitness floor and in the studios.”

PFW General Manager Tony Parziale noted that everyone will be given a health screening at the door, the HVAC system has been upgraded, equipment will be wiped down before and after each use, the machines are all distanced, and health ambassadors  will be going throughout the center to make sure that protocols and safe distancing are followed. 

“We’re eager to get members back,” Parziale added. “There are so many benefits to a prescribed exercise program, including boosting your immune system, which helps people be resistant to COVID-19. I’m excited about being back here and about all the safety precautions we’ve put in place.”

When some other establishments will open up is less clear, with the Princeton Garden Theatre on Nassau Street still considering issues of safety and whether reopening makes fiscal sense, according to their website, which states “we believe that it is too early to confirm a clear reopening date.”

Grosser commented on the ongoing challenges facing the schools as they prepare to reopen.  “Going back to school will likely look different from what everyone was used to before. It is crucial that schools continue to plan ahead and look at what additional measures they can put in place to help ensure students, teachers, and other staff are safe when they return, and communities are confident in sending their students back to school.”

He continued, “It’s possible that schools may reopen for a period of time and then a decision may be made to close them again temporarily, depending on the situation at hand and the community transmission rate. Because of the evolving situation, we will need to continue to be flexible and ready to adapt to help keep every child, teacher, and school staff member safe. In Princeton we have seen our public, private, and charter schools choose from a variety of options for reopening.”

Grosser pointed out that schools have had to quickly adjust to fit their specific plans within the framework of reopening guidance issued by the NJDOH in mid-August.

Socially distanced parkgoers enjoyed the lovely weather and the shade of the trees on Sunday at Princeton Battlefield State Park on Mercer Road. (Photo by Weronika A. Plohn)