MICHAEL LaRICCIA
Arts Council of Princeton
S. MOODY
Jefferson Road
U. PERNA
Harris Road
D. STARK
Henry Avenue
THOMAS PINNEO
President, Corner House Foundation
DAN PRESTON
Municipal Chair
Princeton Township Democratic Committee
LAURA WARREN
Bayberry Road
To the Editor:
On Sunday, February 26, the Arts Council of Princeton celebrated Black History Month with its Black Arts Extravaganza. The event began with talented performers from neighborhood churches. Following the performance, Gail Mitchell gave a book making workshop for all ages. The three hour extravaganza concluded with an entertaining and educational performance by Mlanjeni's Magic Theater. Throughout the event the Witherspoon-Jackson Neighborhood Quilt by Gail Mitchell was on display.
The Arts Council of Princeton would like to thank all of the individuals and organizations who helped to make the event a success. We thank Minnie Craig, Dana Hughes and our Neighborhood Advisory Committee for their help and advice in coordinating, the Witherspoon neighborhood churches for their support, and McCaffrey's Supermarket for their food donation. Also, a special thank you to the participating performers: Moriah Akrong and Christina Lloyd for their spirited dance performance, Avanti Cole for her skillful piano performance, and Elder Lamont Foreman and Lawrence Foreman for their moving musical performance.
As the new program coordinator for the Arts Council of Princeton I thoroughly enjoyed working with the community to organize this year's event. It was an excellent opportunity to meet and get to know people as well as a chance to relax and enjoy great music, art, and theater. I am excited for Black Arts Extravaganza 2007 and looking forward to further involvement with the community to plan events as successful as last Sunday's event.
MICHAEL LaRICCIA
Arts Council of Princeton
To the Editor:
The efforts to improve the public Guyot Stream Walkway between Moore Street, Harris Road, Jefferson Road, Carnahan Place, and Witherspoon Street continued for the tenth year during 2005.
The Township has again postponed the promised enhancements to the walkway, this time until the summer of 2006. These improvements will include new trees and plantings, plus resurfacing of the walkway, and enhanced drainage to the area and stream bed. Although the Township Engineering Department has promised to avoid destruction of the plantings resulting from our community effort, no new planting was scheduled in 2005-06 until the area work is completed. Thus, the numerous shrubs and plants, regularly donated to the project by the Obal Garden Center on Alexander Road and the Belle Meade Co-op on Township Line Road, were not accepted this past year.
Despite these delayed upgrades to the area the following Princeton residents have provided time, plants, or money in 2005 to make the area more enjoyable for all the community to use: Janet Arrington, Ron Berlin, Danuta Buzdygan, the Kagays, the Kolanos, the Moodys, Tedi Nessas, Sally Stout and an anonymous donor on Jefferson Road, Darlene Crum, the Gibneys, Jennifer Guy, the Rovira-Rodrigues of Moore Street, Dennis Stark of Henry Avenue, Anita Garoniak, Peter Lindenfeld, Umberto Perna of Harris Road, Jimmy Mack and Diana Perna of Carnahan Place, and the Crumillers of Library Place. We also wish to recognize the donations from the Perna family of Carnahan Place and the Ladies Auxiliary of Princeton Engine Co. No. 1 in memory of the late Angelina Perna.
We wish to publicly recognize the continued help of above community members and the Township Engineering Department. We expect the community will continue to enjoy the area after the promised Township renovations are completed and as over $1,000 worth of new shrubbery and groundcover to supplement their efforts are planted by the neighborhood volunteers.
S. MOODY
Jefferson Road
U. PERNA
Harris Road
D. STARK
Henry Avenue
To the Editor:
On behalf of the adolescents, young adults, and families we serve at our agency, we would like to acknowledge the hard work and broad community support that resulted in a very successful event to benefit Corner House Counseling Center on February 24. Board members of the Corner House Foundation, along with corporate and individual donors, enjoyed a festive reception, then "Boogied to the Beat" with New Orleans greats Marcia Ball and Beausoleil at McCarter Theatre. The event raised $80,000 for much-needed, accessible, and affordable substance abuse prevention and treatment services for students and families in the Greater Princeton area.
Benefit co-chairs Barbara Morrison and Marie Burnett did an outstanding job of organizing the event, with help from the benefit committee. Special thanks go to Marian Levine, the Corner House Student Board and Wendy Jolley, Megan Johnston at McCarter Theatre, Nassau Street Caterers, and LeFleur Princeton Flower Shop.
Our President's Circle corporate sponsors are Bristol-Myers Squibb, McCain Foods Limited, Nexus Properties, Inc., and PNC Bank & PNC Advisors. Corporate Leaders are Bloomberg and Pinneo Construction. Corporate Supporters include Arlington Capital Mortgage; N.T. Callaway Real Estate, LLC; Coleman's Hamilton Building Supply Co.; Fox Rothschild LLP; Nick Hilton-Princeton; Mason, Griffin & Pierson, P.C.; McArdel Brothers; Lucio Moschitti & Son, Tile & Marble; G.R. Murray Insurance; Pellettieri, Rabstein & Altman; Sun National Bank; The Times; Volvo of Princeton; and the Yedlin Company. Community Partners are Amper, Politziner & Mattia, P.C.; Ronald Berlin Architect, P.C.; Domanski Plumbing Heating & Cooling Inc.; Mrs. G TV & Appliances; Honda of Princeton; Kale's Nursery & Landscape Service Inc.; Lucy's Ravioli Kitchen, Maguire Automotive Group; PS Books; Snack Factory Inc.; and The Tile Shop, Inc.
Funds raised through the annual benefit help provide essential services at Corner House Counseling Center, located at 369 Witherspoon Street. For close to 35 years, Corner House has been giving hope to individuals and families facing a myriad of problems, and helping young people turn the challenges of adolescence into opportunities for growth as they "build toward a future of promise." We thank everyone who attended for their outstanding commitment to young people.
THOMAS PINNEO
President, Corner House Foundation
To the Editor:
Colin Vonvorys (Town Topics Mailbox, March 1) questions whether the Princeton Township Democratic Committee, which I chair, truly has an "open process" for finding candidates to replace Bill Hearon, who is retiring from Township Committee about nine months before his term is scheduled to end. Mr. Hearon was elected in November 2003 as the candidate of the Democratic Party. State law requires that the party committee of a retiring elected official, who ran as that party's candidate, nominate three people as potential replacements. The remaining elected officials on Township Committee make the final choice from among those three. At the same time, since Mr. Hearon will not be running for re-election, we are also seeking a candidate to run on the Democratic ticket in November for a full 3-year term. Interested candidates are encouraged to contact me by March 12 at (609) 252-0011. (The deadline was misprinted in last week's Town Topics).
Our process is, indeed, as open as we've been able to make it. We are also open to suggestions for improvement, and I was happy to take Mr. Vonvorys' call in that spirit. But that does not mean that we can proceed without rules that adhere to both the law and common sense (details are available at www.princetondems.org/township). One rule is that if you wish to receive the endorsement of the Democratic committee, which consists of two Democrats from each voting district elected by fellow Democrats in the Democratic primary, you must be — you guessed it — a Democrat.
If Mr. Vonvorys, currently a registered Republican, would like to fill the seat currently held by an elected Democrat, he has two choices. If he shares the values of the Democratic Party, he can join his wife, mom, and four sisters and become a Democrat. Since Mr. Vonvorys claims that would force him to "sell out [his] core values," his other choice is to run for elected office as a Republican.
I'm not aware of the procedures that the local Republican Party committee has for recruiting and endorsing candidates. If they are as open as we are trying to be, I applaud them. If not, perhaps Mr. Vonvorys could turn his reformist zeal in that direction. And Mr. Vonvorys could learn a bit about openness himself since he failed in his letter to disclose a highly pertinent fact: he was the Republican Party candidate in 2003 who lost the election to Mr. Hearon.
In the end, it seems that Mr. Vonvorys has a very partisan axe to grind. His assertions that he is a nonpartisan fighter for diversity appear to be (using his own words) "disingenuous or, worse, downright deceitful." In the meantime, I encourage him to continue to serve on local boards and commissions which operate, quite properly, without regard to electoral politics. If one day he should find that his values coincide with those of the Democratic Party, we will welcome him as a member, just as we welcome all similarly-inclined Princetonians without regard to race, ethnicity, income, or social station.
DAN PRESTON
Municipal Chair
Princeton Township Democratic Committee
To the Editor:
I wanted to pass on a warning to others and share the scary and very close call I had in my home on February 17.
Thank God I was home that day and a tragedy did not occur! It was a sunny morning and I had opened the blinds to my living room. I sat down to watch TV at 11 a.m. and about a half hour later I was stunned to see a stream of smoke before me and in seconds a flame develop on some papers strewn on the coffee table. I snapped out of my shock and grabbed the burning pages and put them out in the kitchen sink. Shakily I returned to the scene of the strange and frightening incident to spot a magnifying glass which was the culprit, with the help of the sunlight now pouring through the window at midday. I knew you could start a fire outside with glass magnifying sunlight, but I just never expected it to happen spontaneously in my own living room.
I shudder to think what would have happened to my house, my dogs, cat, and parrot, had I been anywhere but right there at that moment. We now keep the magnifying glass in a box, and I hope everyone else has theirs kept safely as well.
LAURA WARREN
Bayberry Road