The Borough Council discussed the potential designation of the Dinky train station as a historic district on Tuesday evening. The Dinky has been a state and national historic site since 1984 but is not currently a Borough historic district.
For the Dinky to earn the designation, the Princeton Borough Historic Preservation Review Committee has to receive a nomination report signed by the Borough Council, schedule at least one public hearing and then prepare a report.
Members of the Save the Dinky group Kip Cherry and Anne Neumann spoke at the beginning of the meeting in favor of the designation of the Dinky as a historic district.
Neumann noted that the Dinky has a “visual relation to the community, an intrinsic part of the townscape.”
Similarly, Cherry said that “Princeton should be showing the same recognition [as the state and country have] by designating it a historic district.”
Disagreement ensued, however, about the extent of the original 1984 historical designations and about the current relevance of the 1980s nomination report. Cherry said she believes that the train tracks are listed on the 1984 national record. Yet Assistant Borough Attorney Henry Chou said that he had not read in the 1984 report that the tracks were part of the historical designation.
However, he expressed optimism about the HPRC’s ultimate decision.
“I think it will be obvious when they get the nomination report and they see that [the Dinky] is already on the state and national registers,” Chou said.
Borough Councilman Roger Martindell then suggested that the same 1980s report sent to the National Historic Register could also be sent to the HPRC today.
Richard Goldman, University legal counsel, responded to Martindell that if the same report was used, Goldman would not be able to ask questions of the report’s author.
“Who is going to testify to that report?” Goldman said. “What is the point [of the report] if I don’t get to challenge the producer of that report?”
Goldman added that Martindell was unreasonably trying to rush the HPRC to reach a decision by suggesting that the 1980s report could be used.
“The HPRC has been taking a fairly long process of studying Borough-wide sites,” he said.
Goldman also noted that Neumann, the potential author of the nomination report, is also plaintiff to two lawsuits, one involving the University and the Dinky.
Given that no consensus was reached and that the HPRC would not be able to review a nomination before April, the Borough Council decided to postpone the discussion to its March 27 meeting.
Among the other issues discussed at the meeting were potential staffing reductions following the impending consolidation this January, the construction of a Sept. 11 memorial site and the recent norovirus outbreak that afflicted local residents.
Borough Councilwoman Jenny Crumiller warned about the complexities of managing the Borough and Township knowing that some workers will not have their job again next year.
“We don’t want to lose good people because they are so anxious about their situation that they jump ship. Once we make decisions about personnel we still have quite a bit of work to do,” she said.
Borough Mayor Yina Moore ’79 said that the Princeton Fire Station has procured a piece of steel from the Sept. 11 site that will be brought to town and placed in a memorial. Moore suggested placing the memorial in Borough Hall property on Nassau Street.
“It is a piece of steel that has all of the scars, marring and destruction of that day,” Moore said.
However, Councilwoman Jo Butler noted that there is no guarantee the Borough Hall will still exist after the consolidation.
Borough Councilwoman Heather Howard said that, after talking with the Princeton Health Office, she could confirm that the norovirus outbreak has ended.
“You can feel comfortable now,” she said.
Correction: Due to a reporting error, a previous version of this article misattributed comments by two members of Save the Dinky to the other member. The 'Prince' regrets the error.
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