News & Notes

U. donates $25,000 to build public skate park

The University has donated $25,000 to Princeton Township to help fund construction of a skateboarding park.

The move comes as the Princeton Recreation Department is short of funding for the park's construction. Jack Roberts, executive director of the Princeton Recreation Department, said the department needs to secure a proper estimate for the cost of the project. "We could be anywhere from $50,000 to $100,000 off," he told The Princeton Packet, "But we're just not sure."

Scheduled for completion in 2008, the skate park is slated to be built more than two miles north of the University at Hilltop Park off Bunn Drive. The park is being billed as a solution to property damage caused by skateboarding, which has afflicted the municipality and the University for years.

University Vice President and Secretary Bob Durkee '69 told the Packet that the University appreciated the "strong community interest" in the park's creation.

The Princeton Parks Alliance has agreed to landscape the park, which will free up as much as $15,000, Roberts said. Princeton Borough, Princeton Township, Mercer County and individual donors have already pledged funds.

If the department can't find enough funding, it is considering building the park in phases, Roberts said. The original plan was to build a streetscape, but Roberts announced in August that the park would also include a concrete bowl. Currently, there is enough money to build the streetscape only, but other township officials hope the park can be built in a single phase.

Township, Borough consider possible merger

Support nonprofit student journalism. Donate to the ‘Prince’. Donate now »

University students' perennial confusion about the difference between Princeton Township and Princeton Borough may finally come to an end.

New Jersey's recent creation of the Local Unit Alignment, Reorganization and Consolidation Commission has resurrected the possibility of uniting the Township and Borough. In the past, proposals to unite the two municipalities have been rejected by borough voters, but the new commission has the power to unite them without putting the proposal to a vote.

Planners on the commission will approach the possibility of unification "starting ... at a grassroots level and seeing what the response is from the community," Township committeeman Chad Goerner said. "That's the only way we could potentially have success after all these tries after all the decades."

If the consolidation does occur, it would allow the Borough and Township to unite but retain differences in local ordinances, lasting debts and service districts.

Get the best of the ‘Prince’ delivered straight to your inbox. Subscribe now »

To ease the stress of a massive administrative reorganization, smaller departments of each town would follow a slower process of consolidation.

Such a gradual approach would prevent possible surges in property taxes following a consolidation. Jenny Crumiller, president of the Princeton Community Democratic Organization, said in a forum last month that in the past, many in the township "worried [that] they're going to have to pay more taxes if they take on the Borough's debt."

The last time the proposal for consolidation came to a vote was in 1996, when it was approved by the Township but rejected by the Borough. Citizens of both municipalities have cited concerns about potential loss of identity and diffusion of individual residents' political representation.