Just about everyone attending the November 21 meeting of Township Council agreed that the township needs to improve its sense of community. But a steady stream of residents speaking at the meeting sent a resounding message — changing the name of the township’s ZIP code is not the way to accomplish that end.##M:[more]##
As a result, Council rejected a controversial resolution — supported by Mayor Shing-Fu Hsueh — that would have changed the name of the post office and the 08550 ZIP code from Princeton Junction to West Windsor.
The 4-1 vote came after a three-hour hearing during which numerous residents made impassioned pleas to council opposing the change. Only two people spoke in favor of the action.
Voting against the measure were Council President Charles Morgan, Kristen Appelget, Linda Geevers, and Heidi Kleinman. Vice President Franc Gambatese cast the lone vote in favor of the change, stating that it was in the best interest of the entire township.
Morgan started the discussion with an apology, saying that when he scheduled the resolution to appear on the agenda (it was initially considered last month and then tabled for further discussion) he thought it was a “no-brianer.”
The shock waves it sent out through the community proved otherwise. “I’ve had more E-mails on this subject in the last two weeks than I’ve had on the budget over the last six years,” Morgan said.
Before allowing public comment, Morgan gave an hour-long presentation that he hoped would speed the process. He presented the history of the ZIP code issue, quoting from public documents dating back to the early 1990s. From those bits and pieces, Morgan attempted to establish whether the township’s purpose was to create a ZIP code named West Windsor. “Our job is to try to draw a picture from a fuzzy set of facts.”
Morgan also read excerpts from numerous E-mails and letters he received, hoping that residents would feel their opinion was expressed and wouldn’t feel the need to make a public comment.
“You are taking the voice of the people away in a deceptive and deceitful manner,” read one letter.
“Disenfranchising members of a service area is not fostering a sense of community,” said another.
Another threatened a court filing if the name was changed. “We will take legal action to force council to change it back.”
There was also correspondence in favor of the change: This is just a clerical action bringing closure to a process started in 1998.”
“Princeton Junction is a just portion of our town — not our township,” argued another.
“I would much prefer West Windsor to show up on the map,” read Morgan from another. “I don’t see what’s so special about the name Princeton Junction. It sounds like the rinky-dink whistle stop that it once was.”
The name change was recommended by Hsueh as a way to help build a community identity for West Windsor. The Post Office said it was agreeable, but only if a resolution requesting the change was approved by council.
“West Windsor has seven villages and Princeton Junction is the youngest one of them,” Hsueh said at the meeting. “I personally feel that we have to look at the whole community, not just certain residents.”
The mayor said that he was completing a process, started in 1998, that was about creating a unified 08550 ZIP code named West Windsor.
But those actually involved in the consolidation differ, saying that the Post Office never offered them the option to change to West Windsor 08550. The township was just happy that the Post Office was finally allowing them an opportunity for unification after decades of division.
Before 1998 West Windsor was split into seven ZIP codes — Cranbury (08512), Hightstown (08520), Lawrenceville (08648), Princeton Junction (08550), Princeton (08540), Robbinsville (08691), and Hamilton Square (08690). The situation created problems with mail delivery, voting, 911 calls, and the provision of emergency services.
In 1997 the Postal Service authorized a survey of residents that, if approved, would consolidate all addresses in West Windsor — except for those in Princeton (08540) — into the Princeton Junction ZIP code.
Although only a majority of respondents needed to approve the change, the Post Office had another more onerous stipulation —- the survey need to have a response rate of at least 85 percent.
Township officials feared that existing 08550 customers would either not respond, or reject the consolidation outright. Ultimately, Postal officials agreed not to survey the existing 08550 addresses after being convinced by the township that since their addresses weren’t changing, they didn’t need to be involved.
In early 1998 some 2,”306 surveys were sent out — roughly half the homes in the township. A total of 1,”960 responses were returned (85 percent), with 1,”820 voting yes and 140 voting no. The consolidation was approved by the Post Office and put into effect that year.
The issue of changing the name of the ZIP code to West Windsor did not come up until it was raised during a council meeting after the consolidation had occurred. A council member questioned why West Windsor 08850 was not being used. Administration responded that it was not possible due to the computer system the Post Office was using at the time.
During his presentation — referred to wryly by some of the residents in the audience as a “filibuster” — Morgan said that were several issues he hoped to determine over the course of the evening.
The first: “Were the residents of West Windsor and the residents of pre-consolidation Princeton Junction who did not get a chance to vote on the change subjected to a Trojan horse sneak attack where a West Windsor ZIP snuck into town, and the residents were denied a chance to make a choice?”
Another issue was whether residents were precluded from voting on the 1998 survey, in the interest of increasing the chances of success because the ZIP code problem was a health and public safety issue. A final consideration, said Morgan, was whether the township should consider a new township-wide survey on the change.
The fact that Princeton Junction residents never voted on the consolidation survey became a major road block to Hsueh’s proposal to change 08550 to West Windsor.
Some 20 residents spoke at the meeting, many citing the fact they had never voted on the change as a major concern. They also argued that the change could affect property values, diminish the importance of Princeton Junction, and that a new survey should be conducted.
Alexander Road resident Marie Smith presented council with a petition opposing the resolution containing the signatures of 1,”039 residents. “The fact that the post office says you can do this, doesn’t mean that you should do it,” she said, adding that the petition, which took only three days to assemble, was also being submitted to the Post Office.
Hsueh, who has said he was “embarrassed” to be identified as the mayor of Princeton Junction while attending a recent national conference for town leaders, said that changing the name to West Windsor was just finalizing the process started in 1998.
“I am not embarrassed to be a resident of Princeton Junction,” said Montgomery Street resident Ella Hullfish. “How can you remove a community from the map without a survey of its residents? In the past, many of us here in this room have stood at odds. We have been united by this issue.”
Lancashire Drive resident Meg Chicco said changes proposed for Princeton Junction (redevelopment, a transit village at the train station, and Route 571 reconstruction) have unsettled residents. “The climate has changed significantly since 1998. Right now people who live in Princeton Junction are experiencing a great deal of change, a lot of which they have no control over.”
Robert Redmond, a resident of Courtney Drive, pointed out that the 1998 survey was tailored to a select group of town residents to ensure success. “They knew if they sent it out to everyone they would not get the 85 percent response. Elsewhere in the country that’s known as gerrymandering.”
Redmond, one of five people collecting signatures for the petition, said that they made an effort to go throughout the township — not only Princeton Junction. “We had people lined up to sign.”
Berrien Avenue resident David Siegel, an unsuccessful candidate for council last May, also opposed the change. “From all indications, the survey (in 1998) was more about consolidation, not about identity or community.”
Rumford Way resident Stan Katz, a member of the WW-P School Board, said that before the meeting he looked at the addresses listed by parents with the school district to see try and get an indication of whether there was a preference. He found an almost 50-50 split between Princeton Junction and West Windsor.
Katz added that council’s resolution does not meet the stated purpose of creating a West Windsor identity because it only affects West Windsor residents in the Princeton Junction ZIP code, but still leaves out people in the Princeton ZIP. “Changing only one of two post offices doesn’t do what the mayor wants to do.”
“You’re faced with the fact that you’re still going to have a section of the town that will not be West Windsor,” he said, adding that almost every resident living in 08540 listed their address with the school district as Princeton, not West Windsor.
“This resolution does not express the desire of most of our citizens,” asserted Alexander Road resident Peter Smith. “West Windsor government should have come to the neighborhoods to find out what we thought instead of going directly to postal officials and telling them what some people thought should happen.”
“There’s a great deal of disenfranchisement in people in 08550 that their opinion was not asked in 1998 about the change, and it’s not being asked now,” Smith said. “I beg you not to move forward until you reach out and understand in depth what is agreeable to the residents. How can you vote on this until you know what West Windsor wants today?”
Robert Cagan of Lake Shore Drive supported the name change, stating that opponents want to “bathe in the prestige” of the Princeton name. “The West Windsor seal says 1797 (the founding date) — decades before the rail station at Princeton Junction. That history is what we should be looking to preserve.”
“Unlike the mayor,” said Robert Akens of Windsor Drive, a 31-year township resident, “I have never been embarrassed to be identified as coming from Princeton Junction. I’ve lived here twice as long as I’ve lived in other places, and I feel like Princeton Junction is a part of me. To infer that it’s because I want to be part of Princeton is mistaken. I couldn’t care less about Princeton.”
“We will always live under the shadow of Princeton,” he added, “because of the university, the old money, the social structure. So what.”
Washington Road resident Rae Roeder, a former member of council who approved the survey in 1998, recounted what she believed to be the purpose of that action. “It had nothing to do with creating an identity for West Windsor. It had to do with the aggravating mess that people had to deal with because they lived in seven different ZIP codes. The whole issue was about finding the mail and getting the mail.”
She urged council to reject the resolution. “Why do you want to fight with these residents about their post office? It’s part of their sense of pride.”
Nantanee Koppstein of Suffolk Lane said she is not averse to change, but this change is a bad idea. “When you play bridge there is a saying, ‘When you are in a good suit, you should stick with it.’
“There have been many improvements in West Windsor and things are going well. Why are you changing it. This change doesn’t have a positive net value to it.”
Joseph Jensen of Glengarry supported the resolution — he wanted a West Windsor address when he voted in favor of the ZIP code consolidation. “I never lived in Princeton Junction and I didn’t move here because of Princeton Junction. When I voted for the survey, I had a Cranbury address and I wanted a West Windsor Post Office.”
He added that he finds it impossible to get his packages and letters shipped to a West Windsor address, because most national companies don’t recognize West Windsor as a valid post office. “Recently I placed an order with Mikasa, and I had to lie and say that I live in Princeton Junction in order for them to accept my order.”
“Today I got four pieces of mail and four packages. They all had Princeton Junction on them.
Kristin Appelget started Council deliberations with a clear indication that she would vote against the measure. “This is a tough issue and a confusing issue. I am left wondering, if (the change from Princeton Junction to West Windsor) was such a fait accompli (in 1998), then why does the post office want us to pass a new resolution now.”
“I don’t think I have ever used 08550 as a way of telling people where I live,” she continued. “If I am talking to someone from West Windsor, then I tell them that I grew up in Dutch Neck. When I went to college in the midwest, people would ask me what Turnpike exit I lived off of. I explained to them that I didn’t live near the Turnpike and that I came from West Windsor, which was near Princeton University.”
“This issue has created a horrible situation where people (tonight) were afraid to come up to the podium and say they were from West Windsor,” she said. “That should never be the case.”
The overwhelming opposition shown at the meeting to the change seemingly convinced Morgan, Geevers, and Kleinman (who were leaning towards supporting the measure before the meeting) into changing their minds.
Morgan, stating that the issue had been “consuming” him in recent weeks, said that his instincts as a lawyer may have gotten in the way of his practical instincts when he formed his opinion of support for the name change.
In a posting on his web site, www.charlescmorgan.com, Morgan explained his turnaround. “I had to choose between a technically correct and defensible, but legalistic decision that was near the edge of acceptable behavior in our system of government, and a pragmatic decision giving more weight to the real human feelings shown to us during the public comment on the resolution.
“Many people were most articulate in their disenchantment with the resolution and disenfranchisement from the process leading to the resolution. It made a difference to me.”
Linda Geevers said she was troubled by the unclear history of the record for the motivations of the unification. “The record is imperfect and that has bothered me. When I sat on the school board, we made many controversial decisions, but I always felt good about the process we went through to arrive at my decision.”
Heidi Kleinman said she came to the meeting hoping that a compromise could be reached, but was troubled by the fact that the residents of Princeton Junction were not included in the 1998 survey. “We need some identity, but I don’t think that changing the post office name is the way to make it happen. We need to do a better job of defining what West Windsor is, and where you get your mail doesn’t seem to do that.”
Franc Gambatese, though, was unmoved from his position of support for the name change as the best move for the township as a whole.
“I have no other political agenda other than to take care of John and Joannie taxpayer. This was a simple issue for me. I didn’t move to Princeton Junction, I moved to West Windsor,” he said adding that he wasn’t going to be swayed, “just because 60 people show up at a meeting. I have to represent the entire town, even those who don’t come to meetings.”
Gambatese then held up letters that he had mailed to himself, each bearing the 08550 ZIP code, but with a different city name. They included Cambridge, Oxford, Oshkosh, Oz, Timbuktu, Pluto, Martian Hills, Dutch Neck, Edinburg, Queenston, Paris, and Beijing. All of them were delivered.
“If we can’t decide what a post office is going to be named, how are we going to decide what we’re going to do about redevelopment or a transit village? West Windsor won’t be on the map until we start acting as one town,” he said.
