Pam Hersh

We need effective contact tracing with privacy protections to open NJ’s economy and save lives. In NJ, more than 12,000 people in the last three months have died from COVID-19 – more than we lost during all of WWII.  During this same time period as Governor Murphy issued his stay-at-home order that shut down all but essential businesses, more than one million people in NJ claimed unemployment and the budget deficit over the next year is now predicted to be close to $10 billion dollars. During this past week, my committee, the Assembly Science Innovation and Technology Committee, together with the Assembly Community Development and Affairs Committee chaired by Assemblywoman Shavonda Sumter held a hearing on one of the key tools needed to reopen NJ’s economy safely:  contact tracing. 

Contact tracing has been a weapon in the battle to prevent the spread of communicable diseases for decades. According to the World Health Organization, the eradication of smallpox, for example, was achieved in 1979 not by universal immunization, but by exhaustive contact tracing. Diseases for which contact tracing is commonly performed include tuberculosis, vaccine-preventable infections like measles, sexually transmitted infections (including HIV), blood-borne infections, some serious bacterial infections, and novel infections (e.g. SARS-CoV, H1N1, and COVID-19). 

Technology plays a crucial role in contact tracing, and as our world has been more technologically advanced, our personal data have become more vulnerable.  While NJ has no plans to develop a contact tracing app that we would download on our phones to track our movements, it does intend to use a central database to store contact tracing data in “the cloud.” This information, collected through telephone calls to those suspected of being in close contact with someone that has tested positive for COVID-19, will include your name, ask about how you are feeling, ask about others with whom you may have had close contact, and ask that you quarantine yourself.  You will NEVER be asked for money, your social security number, bank information, immigration status, or other personally protected information. READ MORE

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Highland Park High School (HPHS) seniors will be celebrating their graduation this year under a cloud of COVID-19. The traditional graduation ceremony for students and their relatives is being replaced by a virtual ceremony and a car parade. Main Street Highland Park, in collaboration with Project Graduation, however, hopes to bring a little sunshine to the untraditional graduation by implementing a program called “Highland Bucks for HPHS graduates.”

Project Graduation, a group of parent volunteers whose goal is to produce a safe year-end celebration for the graduating high school seniors, reached out to Main Street for an initiative that would give a boost to both the graduates and the retail community. Each graduate will receive a $20 Highland Buck certificate that can be used as cash in any participating Highland Park downtown business. There still is time for businesses to sign up for this program that costs the businesses nothing and generates good will. READ MORE

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Residents, business owners, and visitors express a clear interest in seeing sit down options return to local restaurants as soon as possible. With the Governor’s new policy announced this week, allowing dining outside with social distancing, the time is right to start spending more time with our restaurants.Main Street Highland Park, in cooperation with the Borough administration, has worked to enhance options for dining outside. Main Street’s ‘Town Tables’ program will create new spaces for local restaurants, coffee shops, and food providers to provide outside dining.Starting June 15th, South 3rd Ave between Raritan Ave. and Benner St. will be closed to vehicles and 16 picnic tables will be set up in the street, socially distanced from each other. READ MORE

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The Rutgers University Board of Governors today approved a tuition and fee freeze for undergraduates for the 2020-2021 academic year in response to the COVID-19 pandemic. “While tuition and fee increases have been consistently low over the last five years, the Board of Governors committed to a zero percent increase this year so students and families can access an affordable Rutgers education during this unprecedented crisis,” said Mark Angelson, chair of the Board of Governors. For the last five academic years, Rutgers increased tuition and fees an average of 2.2 percent – typically below average increases at institutions in neighboring states under normal circumstances. However, the resolution approved today for the upcoming academic year will keep tuition and mandatory student fees at the 2019-2020 levels. Tuition and fees help fund the academic programs and university services, including academic advising, library services, computing services, health services, counseling and financial aid, that allow Rutgers to provide a high-quality education to its students, whether delivered in-person or remotely. READ MORE

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LOOSE ENDS FEATURE COLUMN BY PAM HERSH

I am no Pollyanna, but I discovered several glass-is-half-full aspects of this COVID-19 pandemic. The very clean glass becomes even fuller, when you factor in the acts of extraordinary heroism and generosity. Masks. I love masks. They are super anti-aging weapons (you have no wrinkles if you can’t see them), as well as weapons of mass protection. READ MORE

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A birthday celebration on June 13th will have a particularly graceful, albeit virtual, demeanor, when the Princeton Ballet School of the American Repertory Ballet performs its annual school show.  In past years, the show has graced the stage of the Patriot’s Theater of the Trenton War Memorial in front of hundreds of audience members, but this year the audience members will be sitting in front of personal screens in the comfort of their homes. The special video show, which is celebrating the 65th anniversary of the school, will feature 150 PBS students doing excerpts from four ballets originally staged by Princeton Ballet School founder Audree Estey.  The performance video, made available after June 13, will feature new choreography plus small sections of ballets from Princeton Ballet School’s full-length original productions:

Cinderella (1955)

Nutcracker (1956)

Sleeping Beauty (1957)

Coppelia (1960)

“Because our dancers and families could not experience the annual spring performance in-person this year, we are creating a video montage to help celebrate their hard work, passion, and technical and artistic growth,” said ARB executive director Julie Diana Hench. “More than ever, our families and dancers need the beauty and healing artistry of ballet. READ MORE

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It’s a new normal, but one that evokes a return to community life. Rebecca Hersh, executive director of Main Street Highland Park, announced that the Farmers Market on Friday, June 5, 11 a.m to 2 p.m., is transitioning back into the more “normal” walk-up market, with lots of safety and social-distancing measures in place. “There are important restrictions in place for now, but I am so pleased that the Farmers Market – so much a part of Highland Park’s life – remains alive and vibrant. I want to thank everyone who made this possible – the vendors, Highland Park officials, the Highland Park Police Department, and of course, our community members who support our downtown activities,” she said. SOME OF THE UPDATED MARKET RULES INCLUDE: 

Shoppers can now buy onsite, but online pre-ordering and pre-paying is still available for most vendors –and it is encouraged to reduce person-to-person contact. READ MORE

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NBC Nightly News anchor Lester Holt confided in the Rutgers Class of 2020 that this was not the moment anyone had envisioned for them in a recorded message that was part of an unprecedented virtual commencement ceremony. It was a theme echoed throughout an hour-long celebration for graduates of Rutgers University-New Brunswick and Rutgers Biomedical and Health Sciences viewed Sunday on the university’s commencement website, Facebook and YouTube channel. The virtual ceremony was punctuated throughout with selections of videos submitted by about 450 students who shared joyful messages reflecting on their proudest accomplishments and favorite memories of their time at Rutgers. The video also featured Jhanvi Virani, president of the Rutgers University Student Assembly walking on a deserted College Avenue campus, ringing the historic Old Queens bell and sharing her thoughts on the unusual end for the Class of 2020 who were forced to move off campus before spring break as a result of the COVID-19 public health crisis, not knowing that they would ultimately finish the semester apart. “The world is different today, and some of us may still be asking what if the world as we know it doesn’t return,” said Ms. Virani, who is graduating with a degree in mathematics and computer science from the School of Arts and Sciences. READ MORE

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On May 24, 2020, the HP Cousins – six cousins ranging in age from 13 years old to four years old– participated in their own socially distant charity 5K race in Highland Park to raise money for HP Gives a Hoot, whose food-providing services are so much in demand right now because of the COVID-19 Pandemic.  The cousins are seeking five dollar per cousin sponsorships. The Highland Park Planet agreed to be the producing corporate sponsor contributing $108 toward the cause and helping to publicize the effort. The racers – Lily Solomon, Harry Solomon, Sam Solomon, Rubin Hersh, Ilana Hersh, and Phillip Hersh – were accompanied by three parents and one grandparent. They ran, walked and biked 3.1 miles on a route that was drawn up by 11-year old Rubin Hersh and his mother Christine Hersh. The cousins are looking forward to raising enough money to provide dozens of free lunches and all sorts of groceries to those adversely affected by this pandemic. READ MORE

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