file photo Boyd Loving
FEMA to Survey Repeat Flood Properties – February 26 to March 26
FEMA will be surveying these repetitively flooded properties to collect data that will help FEMA understand why these structures are vulnerable to flooding and damages, and what mitigation measures may be feasible to protect them from future damages.
Click Here for the complete FEMA Notice. https://mods.ridgewoodnj.net/pdf/manager/2013FEMA.pdf
Midland Park exploring sending arrangement with neighboring school districts
Thursday February 28, 2013, 12:18 PM
BY LYNN BRUGGEMANN
CORRESPONDENT
Midland Park Suburban News
MIDLAND PARK – The Board of Education is in the early stages of exploring a sending-receiving arrangement with a neighboring school district, officials announced this week.
At the Feb 26 school board meeting, board president William Sullivan said he and Superintendent Dr. Marie C. Cirasella would be meeting informally on March 8 with the Ridgewood School District’s board president and superintendent to discuss the feasibility of a sending arrangement.
In such an arrangement, the sending district pays the receiving district a fee to educate its students.
“We’re just gathering information at this point to share with the board, so I don’t want anyone to view this as a consensus by the board on moving forward with anything,” Sullivan said. “If the board has any interest in this type of arrangement in the future, we will have some preliminary information available to us.”
Urbanization: Planning Board Public Meeting – February 28, 2013 in Ridgewood Public Library
PLANNING BOARD
AMENDMENT TO MEETING SCHEDULE
Work Session & Public Meeting: Thursday, February 28, 2013
In accordance with the provisions of the “Open Public Meetings Act,” please be advised that the Planning Board has scheduled a special public meeting and work session for THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 28, 2013, in the RIDGEWOOD PUBLIC LIBRARY AUDITORIUM, 125 NORTH MAPLE AVENUE, RIDGEWOOD, NJ beginning at 7:30 p.m.
The Board may take official action during this Work and Public Meeting at which time the Board will have continued discussion regarding multi-family housing and mixed-use developments in and near the CBD.
All meetings of the Ridgewood Planning Board (i.e., official public meetings, work session meetings, pre-meeting assemblies and special meetings) are public meetings which are always open to members of the general public.
Woodward’s Not Alone – Fmr. Clinton Aide Davis Says He Received White House Threat
8:39AM Thursday
February 28, 2013
WASHINGTON — Bob Woodward isn’t the only person who’s received threats for airing the Obama administration’s dirty laundry. It seems anyone is a potential target of the White House these days – even former senior members of the Clinton administration.
A day after Woodward’s claim that a senior White House official had told him he would “regret” writing a column criticizing President Obama’s stance on the sequester, Lanny Davis, a longtime close advisor to President Bill Clinton, told WMAL’s Mornings on the Mall Thursday he had received similar threats for newspaper columns he had written about Obama in the Washington Times.
Davis told WMAL that his editor, John Solomon, “received a phone call from a senior Obama White House official who didn’t like some of my columns, even though I’m a supporter of Obama. I couldn’t imagine why this call was made.” Davis says the Obama aide told Solomon, “that if he continued to run my columns, he would lose, or his reporters would lose their White House credentials.”
https://www.wmal.com/common/page.php?pt=WMAL+EXCLUSIVE%3A+Woodward%27s+Not+Alone+-+Fmr.+Clinton+Aide+Davis+Says+He+Received+White+House+Threat&id=8924&is_corp=0
BOB WOODWARD: A ‘Very Senior’ White House Person Warned Me I’d ‘Regret’ What I’m Doing
Brett LoGiurato | Feb. 27, 2013, 6:53 PM
Bob Woodward said this evening on CNN that a “very senior person” at the White House warned him in an email that he would “regret doing this,” the same day he has continued to slam President Barack Obama over the looming forced cuts known as the sequester.
CNN host Wolf Blitzer said that the network invited a White House official to debate Woodward on-air, but the White House declined.
“It makes me very uncomfortable to have the White House telling reporters, ‘You’re going to regret doing something that you believe in,'” Woodward said.
“I think they’re confused,” Woodward said of the White House’s pushback on his reporting.
Earlier today on MSNBC’s “Morning Joe,” Woodward ripped into Obama in what has become an ongoing feud between the veteran Washington Post journalist and the White House. Woodward said Obama was showing a “kind of madness I haven’t seen in a long time” for a decision not to deploy an aircraft carrier to the Persian Gulf because of budget concerns.
RHS senior Jason Linker was awarded First Runner Up for the Good Citizen’s Award
February 27,2013
Ridgewood NJ , RHS senior Jason Linker was awarded First Runner Up for the Good Citizen’s Award sponsored by the Daughters of the American Revolution. This is a very prestigious award and only given to students who exhibit extraordinary civic contributions and outstanding character. He will be honored at a luncheon in May.
The DAR Good Citizens Award and Scholarship Contest, created in 1934, is intended to encourage and reward the qualities of good citizenship.
This award recognizes and rewards individuals who possess the qualities of dependability, service, leadership, and patriotism in their homes, schools, and communities. These students are selected by their teachers and peers because they demonstrate these qualities to an outstanding degree.
This program is only open to high-school seniors whose schools are accredited by their state board of education.
Only one student per year may be honored as a school’s DAR Good Citizen.
United States citizenship is not required.
Additional rules and guidelines can be acquired by contacting your local DAR chapter.
Once a student is chosen as the DAR Good Citizen the student is invited to participate in the scholarship portion of the program. This consists of a personal statement and an essay. Student participation in the scholarship portion of the program is optional.
https://www.dar.org/natsociety/programs.cfm
Book drive for Paterson kids gets help from unlikely sources
Thursday, February 28, 2013
BY TATIANA SCHLOSSBERG
STAFF WRITER
The Record
PATERSON – The Big Book Drive has raised donations of perhaps thousands of books for Paterson children, but now help is being offered from all directions — from a regional food bank, to anonymous teachers, to a junk-hauling business, to a Ridgewood restaurant.
CUMAC/ECHO, the city-based regional food bank, has committed to accepting, sorting and delivering more than 1,000 books to be donated by a teacher who wants to remain anonymous.
And the removal company 1-800-GOT-JUNK? has volunteered to help transport large amounts of books in its distinctive blue, white and green trucks.
The book drive, which began last week, is being led by the Paterson Free Public Library and The Record and Herald News, with the Ridgewood and Fair Lawn libraries, and aims to collect as many books as possible to give to Paterson children to take home.
An elementary school teacher in Bergen County, also asking to be anonymous, promised to purchase $1,000 worth of books at a local independent bookstore to donate to the Paterson library.
The library wants to distribute donated books to city children in April at the opening of a new branch. Ridgewood Fare, a restaurant and catering company, offered to help supply food for the branch opening.
MAYOR’S OFFICE HOURS FOR RIDGEWOOD RESIDENTS – Saturday, March 2, 2013
Mayor Paul Aronsohn will be holding office hours for Ridgewood residents on the first Saturday of every month from 9:00 a.m. to Noon in the Council Chambers (Sydney V. Stoldt, Jr. Court Room) on the fourth floor of Ridgewood Village Hall. The next session will be Saturday, March 2, 2013.
Village Council and Ridgewood Board Meetings
02/12/13 7:30PM Board of Adjustment Public Meeting
02/13/13 8:00PM Village Council Public Meeting
02/19/13 7:30PM Planning Board Public Meeting CANCELLED
02/25/13 8:00PM Village Council Special Public Budget Meeting
02/26/13 7:30PM Village Council Special Public Budget Meeting
02/26/13 7:30PM Board of Adjustment Public Meeting
02/27/13 7:30PM Village Council Public Work Session
02/28/13 7:30PM Planning Board Special Public Meeting
03/05/13 7:30PM Planning Board Public Meeting
03/06/13 7:30PM Village Council Public Work Session
03/11/13 7:30PM Planning Board Special Public Meeting
03/12/13 7:30PM Board of Adjustment Public Meeting
03/13/13 8:00PM Village Council Public Meeting
03/15/13 7:30PM Village Council Special Budget Meeting
03/18/13 7:30PM Board of Education and Village Council Joint Meeting
Reader says We need to continue to keep Valley in check
The second that everyone read last week’s Time magazine (cover story -Bitter Pill).
It explains how all the non-profit hospitals make a fortune by substantially overcharging for just about everything. They then need to reinvest the profit in continuous growth.
Another interesting thing. If Valley is the same as the hospitals in the article, all those nice photos of fund raisers we see in the Ridgewood News every other week represent less than 1% of annual revenue.
We need to continue to keep Valley in check. If they really need to expand so dramatically, then move out of a residential neighborhood and find a nice parcel close by in Paramus in a more commercial zone.
rendering of the previous Valley Expansion plan
Valley Hospital New Plan same as the Old Plan
February 28th 2013
the staff of the Ridgewood blog
Ridgewood NJ, It goes with out saying that more than a year after Valley’s mishandled huge expansion plan to double its size was resoundingly rejected by the residents of Ridgewood and the Village Council The Hospital cavalierly submitted a new proposal that is virtually identical in scope and scale.
The project filed with the Ridgewood Planning Board this week still calls for the hospital to increase significantly from 570,000 to 910,000 square feet, excluding parking and includes buildings up to 94 feet high on a site in the middle of a residential neighborhood. https://www.northjersey.com/news/Valley_Hospital_submits_new_plan_to_expand.html#sthash.BLlIn46A.dpuf
In utter disregard for the residents of Ridgewood Valley’s management seems tone def to public skepticism as to the hospital expansion leaving only neighborhood watch dog CRR looking more out of the loop apparently thinking Valley would offer a more acceptable revised plan .
One can only wonder if Valley feels so confident in its current stacked deck at Village hall ,that it will take little effort to jam this over-sized elephant down the throats of Village residents .
Sourced:
RIDGEWOOD — Suggesting the process employed by the village in crafting its annual budget was flawed, Mayor Paul Aronsohn this week proposed officials take a different approach when developing a spending plan.
Village officials keen on a zero-percent tax increase learned Monday they would have to slash more than $1.5 million in spending before such a budget can be adopted.
The flat-tax spending plan was one of three options presented Monday to the council during the first of several budget sessions.
The first option increases last year’s $45.2 million budget by 1.1 percent, with a projected municipal tax increase of 3.4 percent. Two village employees would lose their jobs under that plan, which also called for the restructuring of other departments, Village Manager Kenneth Gabbert said.
A second plan would keep spending flat, but not without cutting $500,000 in spending. A third plan, which would not increase municipal taxes for residents, requires an additional $1.5 million in cuts and an increase in revenues.
All options could require layoffs or staff cuts, but Mayor Paul Aronsohn said he wants to avoid that “at all costs.”
– See more at: https://www.northjersey.com/news/Ridgewood_officials_in_budget_talks.html
Christie: Obama to blame if compromise not reached on federal budget cuts
Wednesday February 27, 2013, 12:51 PM
BY MELISSA HAYES
STATE HO– USE BUREAU
The Record
From the Political State blog on NorthJersey.com
Governor Christie said President Obama must take the blame if he is unable to reach an agreement with members of Congress that would halt automatic budget cuts, set to take affect Friday.
“The person that has to shoulder the blame is the President, because he’s the one we elect to lead,” Christie during an event in Montville Wednesday morning.
A resident asked Christie, who has worked with Democrats to pass legislation in New Jersey, why he isn’t calling Obama and offering advice for how to deal with the budget cuts, known as sequester.
“I find it kind of hard to believe that we can’t find $44 billion to cut in a $3.6 trillion budget and not bring America to its knees,” Christie said.
– See more at: https://www.northjersey.com/news/Christie_Obama_to_blame_if_compromise_not_reached_on_federal_budget_cuts.html#sthash.h62z86gp.dpuf
Christie at Elmwood park
State aid to North Jersey towns flat under Christie budget plan
Wednesday, February 27, 2013 Last updated: Wednesday February 27, 2013, 6:31 PM
BY JOHN REITMEYER
STATE HO– USE BUREAU
The Record
Related: North Jersey proposed municipal aid by town
The state will increase spending by more than $1 billion under Governor Christie’s proposed budget, but North Jersey towns and most others across the state that faced additional costs after superstorm Sandy will get no additional aid to help hold down property taxes.
Total state aid for municipalities again remained flat in the $32.9 billion budget Christie put forward earlier this week, and town-by-town aid figures released by the administration Wednesday show no increases for every community in Bergen and Passaic counties.
Local municipal officials were not surprised, but no less upset to be getting the identical aid payment they received last year from Trenton even as their costs continue to go up.
“When it’s flat, that’s just wrong,” Ridgewood Mayor Paul Aronsohn said. “This is taxpayers’ money that goes to Trenton, and they decide how much we get back. Flat sounds good, but the fact is it is a decrease in state aid.”
– See more at: https://www.northjersey.com/news/State_aid_to_North_Jersey_towns_flat_under_Christie_budget_plan.html#sthash.AdRMVFlN.dpuf
Ridgewood’s reassessment shows decrease in overall property values
Wednesday February 27, 2013, 4:27 PM
BY DARIUS AMOS
STAFF WRITER
The Ridgewood News
The total worth of all Ridgewood property will likely decrease between 13 and 14 percent, a figure that might affect homeowners’ municipal tax bills this year, village finance officials said Monday.
Approximately 90 percent of Ridgewood’s village-wide reassessment was verified when tax assessor Michael Barker addressed the Village Council earlier this week and discussed the potential impact that new property values will have. Definitive numbers and values were not yet available.
Ridgewood is currently notifying residents of their individual results from last year’s reassessment, the first complete property appraisal since the 2008 revaluation. The reassessment, performed by Appraisal Systems Inc., is also the village’s first since the real estate bubble burst, which caused a downward spiral and rapid decline in the previously robust housing market.
– See more at: https://www.northjersey.com/news/193650031_Ridgewood_s_reassessment_shows_decrease_in_overall_property_values.html#sthash.tCYa6GRm.dpuf
Candidates are Announced for April 16 School Election
The Ridgewood Board of Education will have two vacancies in the Tuesday, April 16 Annual School Election. Up for re-election are current Trustees Michele Lenhard and James Morgan, who will each run unopposed for another three-year term.
Any Ridgewood resident who is a registered voter may cast a ballot in the Annual School Election. Voting takes place at regular polling locations from 7 a.m. to 9 p.m. In addition, any registered voter may choose to cast a ballot by mail.
Click here to download a Voter Registration Application form. Registration must take place by Tuesday, March 26.https://www.co.bergen.nj.us/elections/PDFs/VoterRegEng.pdf
Click here to download a vote-by-mail / mail-in ballot application.https://www.bergencountyclerk.org/web_content/pdf/voting/Vote-By-Mail-Application.pdf
