William Hearon replaces Leonard Godrey on committee.
By: David Campbell
Phyllis Marchand was unanimously selected to serve her ninth term as Princeton Township’s mayor at the Township Committee’s annual reorganization meeting Sunday.
Committeeman William Enslin was unanimously selected to serve as deputy mayor for a second full consecutive year. Also at the reorganization meeting Sunday, with almost 100 attendees on hand in the municipal complex’s main meeting room, William Hearon was sworn in to his first three-year term on the all-Democratic Township Committee.
Mr. Hearon fills the seat vacated by Leonard Godfrey, who chose not to run for re-election in November. Mr. Godfrey has served three three-year terms on the Township Committee, first from 1989 to 1991 and from 1998 through 2003.
On Sunday, Mr. Godfrey was appointed to continue to serve on the Princeton Sewer Operating Committee.
This will be Ms. Marchand’s seventh consecutive year as mayor. She also served as mayor in 1989 and 1994.
Mr. Enslin has been deputy mayor for about a year and a half prior to his election to another year on Sunday. In June 2002, he succeeded former Committeeman Steven Frakt in that position when Mr. Frakt resigned from the committee six months before the end of his term.
In her annual address, Mayor Marchand highlighted successes of the past year to be continued in 2004 in key areas such as the township’s deer-management program, parklands and open-space conservation, social services and finance.
The mayor reported that deer-vehicle accidents have decreased "significantly," from a total of 342 in 2000, just before the township began the program, to 128 in 2003, a 62-percent reduction she said was proof the program is working.
"Public safety and environmental protection are two key responsibilities that we, as members of Township Committee, take very seriously," Mayor Marchand said. "We will continue the township’s deer-management program until the deer population is in balance with our environment.
"I thank members of our community who have supported and encouraged the Township Committee in this critical environmental, public health and safety effort," the mayor continued, noting that 35,500 pounds of venison have been donated to the Community Food Bank of New Jersey as part of the deer-management program.
The township plans to hold a grand-opening celebration sometime this year for the new facilities at the 53-acre Greenway Meadows Park off Rosedale Road. Construction work at the park, which will host two soccer fields and a baseball field in addition to existing fields and woodland for passive recreation, was substantially completed in 2003, Mayor Marchand said.
Meanwhile, ground has been broken at the 22-acre park at Coventry Farm off The Great Road, which will include two soccer fields and two baseball fields. As with Greenway Meadows before it, a "name the park" contest will be held for the Coventry parklands in the coming year, the mayor said.
In the area of social services in 2003, she said, the township sold eight condominiums and rehabilitated one residence for low- and moderate-income individuals and families; advanced efforts to bring new senior housing to the municipality; and continued the successful Crosstown 62 transportation service for senior citizens, among other achievements.
The mayor cited continued "outstanding" work by the township’s Public Works Department in maintaining the municipality’s roadway system, as well as completion of the Princeton-Kingston Road sewer-extension project that provided public sewer service to 18 residences.
"We also completed the Community Park bike-path system, which loops through the park and interconnects John Street, Race Street, Stockton Street and Mountain Avenue with the new municipal-building complex and recreation areas within the park," Mayor Marchand said.
In addition, she said, 2003 saw the township maintain its AAA bond rating despite a challenging economic climate, and saw "great strides" to completion of the new public library downtown.
The mayor finished her annual address by publicly recognizing about two dozen volunteers who have helped create and maintain the Pettoranello Gardens at Community Park North.