By Philip Sean Curran, Staff Writer
One parking ticket, two weddings performed and a cold office in the municipal building just some of the highlights of Mayor Liz Lempert’s first seven days as mayor.
Ms. Lempert was able to laugh Monday about some of the travails of leading the community. She has had to resort to wearing a jacket and bringing in a space heater that she had from college to keep warm in her official office.
”It feels cold,” said Princeton’s top official, a California native used to the warm weather. She said the problem of the system not providing enough heat in the room is going to be fixed.
Then there was the $40 parking ticket she got downtown, a fine that she dutifully paid online.
And she already performed her first two weddings, one on Friday and the other on Saturday.
Ms. Lempert, a Democrat, was sworn in Jan.1, the first day of the consolidated municipality. As the town turns a week old, she and other officials are looking ahead to some of the objectives both long term and short term they’re looking to accomplish.
On Jan. 3, the council had a public meeting with a consultant, Joe Stefko, president and chief executive officer of the Center for Governmental Research Inc, the New York-based firm that assisted the Transition Task Force. He advised officials on how they should try to approach things, stressing how important it is for officials to get off on the right foot.
He suggested officials avoid the “tyranny of the urgent” and told them that not all action is “good action.”
High on that short-term list will be preparing a municipal budget for this year that Ms. Lempert has said would not include a tax hike. Other issues on the table include moving CornerHouse, the local substance abuse program and TV-30, the public access cable channel, out of the Valley Road School and into the former Borough Hall.
At the meeting last week, some residents told council that officials need to look at leaf and brush collection and creating a historic district in the Morven Tract section of the former borough, among other things.
