#b#Old Trenton Bridge Open#/b#
The bridge carrying Old Trenton Road over the Assunpink Creek has re-opened after a four-month repair job. The new bridge has one lane in each direction, a center turn slot, and two six-foot shoulders. The project also added a new traffic signal at Robbinsville-Edinburg Road where it meets Old Trenton Road. Lastly, there are new left turn lanes on Edinburg Road and Robbinsville-Edinburg Road.
The upgrades, which cost $2.1 million, are intended to relieve rush hour traffic jams.
Seminary Downsizes
Princeton Theological Seminary has laid off 21 employees. School spokeswoman Barbara Chaapel told reporters the layoffs were in line with the school’s strategic plan.
The seminary, which has about 500 students, developed the plan last year after Moody’s downgraded the school’s credit rating, noting the school had issued bonds to cover the construction of a new library and a new student housing project.
The new, $80 million library opened earlier this year, replacing the school’s Speer Library, which dated to 1957. The $75 million student housing project created 68 apartments in three buildings on a 23-acre tract of land on Canal Pointe Boulevard. The development opened last summer and is intended to house more than 200 married students, replaces clusters of garden apartments.
The seminary has about $167.8 in outstanding debt and $894 million in assets, according to statements on the school’s website.
#b#Contracts Awarded#/b#
Rockwood Holdings (ROC), 100 Overlook Center, Princeton 08540; 609-514-0300; fax, 609-514-8720. Seifi Ghasemi, chairman and CEO. www.rocksp.com.
Rockwood Holdings is buying a 49 percent interest in Talison Lithium, an Australian mining company. The other half of the company is being purchased by Chinese firm Tianqi. Rockwood is paying $196 million to the joint venture along with a $670 million loan.
#b#Crosstown Moves#/b#
The Vaughn Collaborative Inc., 250 Phillips Boulevard, Suite 295, Ewing 08618; 609-695-7411; fax, 609-695-2867. Ronald E. Vaughn Jr., managing principal.
The Vaughn Collaborative, a 10-person architecture firm, recently moved to Phillips Boulevard in Ewing from 43 Lafayette Street in Trenton. The company was founded in 1960 in Trenton.
Owner Ronald Vaughn said the company received an offer it couldn’t refuse on its building, but that moving out of Trenton was a “bittersweet” experience. He said the company is saving money by leasing instead of owning its new office.
#b#Deaths#/b#
Tom Dilatush, 89, on November 22. He operated Dilatush Nursery, a business on Route 130 started in 1916 by his father.
Barbara J. Cook, 66, on November 20. She was a computer technician for the state Department of Transportation.
Roald Buhler, the primary developer of the P-STAT statistical software program and the founder of the company named after the software, on November 17. A music major at Oberlin College, Buhler studied computer programming at Rutgers and later worked for Educational Testing Service and Princeton University before starting P-STAT in 1979.
Eric Rau, 84, on June 12. A retired chemist, he served as an executive in FMC’s Princeton labs beginning in 1961, and later became assistant director of the state Department of Environmental Protection. After retiring in the 1990s he was active in the 55 Plus group.
