To: Splendore, James (J.A.) Subject: Ken Smith Dealership
Dear Mr. Splendore,
I don’t know how long you have lived here in Ridgewood with your family, but only a few years ago we had 4 car dealerships here. Now we have one, Ken Smith. I support his efforts to stay in business and acquire the ability to sell your Ford model cars in addition to your Lincoln now that Mercury is gone. It seems like Ford is trying to pressure this long owned family business to close shop. That is not healthy for Ridgewood or might I add for Ford. I won’t buy another Chrysler product because the dealerships are too far from here now that Fairway Dodge closed. And I certainly wont buy another Ford car if you make me drive to the “highway” to get it serviced too.
Ken Ford L/M has been and continues to be a good business citizen of Ridgewood. It would be a shame for you to force him out of business because you deny him an opportunity to sell cars. I trust you will work to preserve his franchise and help him grow his business far all concerned; Ford, Ridgewood and K. Smith by securing the right for K. Smith to sell Ford model cars.
All the best,
Ridgewood Resident *the letter writer ask to have there name with held
Bucky Pizzarelli & Friends ,Thursday, July 21 at the Kasschau Memorial Shell PJ Blogger
Ridgewood NJ – Bucky Pizzarelli & Friends will appear at Kasschau Memorial Shell under the stars this Thursday, July 21 at 8:30 pm.
John Paul “Bucky” Pizzarelli was born January 9, 1926 and is an American Jazz guitarist and banjoist. Music runs in the family Pizzarelli is the father of jazz guitarist John Pizzarelli and upright bassist Martin Pizzarelli. He worked for ABC with Bobby Rosengarden in 1952 and NBC as a staffman for Dick Cavett in 1971 .
Bucky Pizzarelli has released over 30 albums and completed countless compilation and ensemble recordings with some of the world’s greatest jazz musicians. Pizzarelli has toured and played with jazz legends such as Benny Goodman, Zoot Sims, Bud Freeman ,as well as Les Paul, Stephane Grappelli.
Pizzarelli acknowledges Django Reinhardt, Freddie Green, and George Van Eps for their influences on his style and mode of play.
School-community partnerships meld academic discipline and social services
Geoffrey Canada, CEO of the famed Harlem Children’s Zone, is no stranger to New Jersey — or to Gov. Chris Christie. Yesterday in Paterson, the two stood together for a third time since Christie’s election to talk about replicating the New York City program on this side of the river.
The two were at a downtown nonprofit to announce a partnership between Canada’s organization and the state. (Mooney, NJ Spotlight)
Most schools to keep restored state aid for next year’s budget, not property tax relief
New Jersey residents will have to wait until next year to see significant property tax relief from the extra $600 million in school aid restored in the state budget.
Only 20 of the state’s 580 public school districts have opted to return some or all of their restored state aid to taxpayers as property tax relief this year, a list provided Wednesday by the state Department of Education shows. (D’Amico, Press of Atlantic City)
>U.S. Senator Robert Menendez Congratulates New Ridgewood Firefighters By Mel Fabrikant Wednesday, July 20, 2011, 05:36 PM EDT
Three new hires were made possible with a SAFER grant; a federal funding program that allows for the hiring of first responders.
Three new firefighters were sworn-in to the Ridgewood Fire Department. These new hires were made possible by the FEMA Safety for Adequate Fire and Emergency (SAFER) program, which has provided over $56 million in federal funding for towns throughout New Jersey that were successful in competing for this grant. In Ridgewood, this translates to funding of $349,031.
THURSDAY, JULY 21, 2011 PASCACK VALLEY COMMUNITY LIFE Woodcliff Lake
The Ridgewood Public Library is offering guest memberships to residents of Woodcliff Lake.
Family memberships are available at the gold and silver levels, with both memberships offering access to the library’s collection of over 190,000 books and media and research databases.
The gold membership provides additional benefits such as access to the library’s children, teen and adult cultural, educational and entertainment programs. It also provides discounts on computer classes.
>Ron Paul: “We Will Default Because The Debt Is Unsustainable”
“When a country is indebted to the degree that we’re indebted, the country always defaults. We will default because the debt is unsustainable,” Rep. Ron Paul (R-TX) said on the House floor today.
“If we don’t understand this, this default will not be because we don’t send out the checks. We will send out the checks. It will be defaulted on because people will get their money back, or they will get their Social Security checks and it won’t buy anything.”
>Some Latin American presidents mock U.S. for debt woes By Brian Winter
SAO PAULO, July 20 (Reuters) – After three decades spent battling their own debt crises and getting constantly lectured about them by Uncle Sam, many Latin Americans are watching the countdown to a possible default in Washington with a mix of schadenfraude and fear of what a collapse might mean for them.
For everybody from presidents on down to street vendors, seeing U.S. politicians argue over where to make painful budget cuts has also been a reminder that those days are over in Latin America. For now, at least, as most of the region enjoys an era of economic prosperity and comparatively tiny deficits.
>Scott Garrett : End of the Line: Our Last Chance for Spending Sanity By Rep. Scott Garrett July 19, 2011
Here we are, just days from a defining moment for this Congress and our nation as a whole – raising the amount of money the United States government can continue to borrow. Rarely in life do we have retrospective vision on failed policies as well as foresight to see an imminent disaster. It is equally rare to be handed an opportunity to correct those problems and make decisions, even if they are not popular, that will affect every future generation of Americans.
Of course, we all know President Obama is asking Congress for another blank check to borrow and spend as he wishes. We also know – from the comical budget he presented to Congress earlier this year – the president is not at all serious about addressing the reality of our $14 trillion national debt and the $188 million that we add to it every hour.
A lot has been said about the catastrophic consequences of not raising the debt limit. I agree, the debt ceiling must be raised, but I firmly believe that failing to immediately address federal spending presents the same risk to our country as failing to raise the debt ceiling. It is crucial that my colleagues on both sides of the aisle understand this is a spending problem, not a revenue problem. Maintaining good credit means more than raising your credit card limit.
I have yet to hear a convincing argument that can explain how taking money away from businesses and corporations as they begin to turn a profit creates jobs. With unemployment locked in above 9% nationally, it is amazing to think that anyone would even offer raising taxes as a feasible solution.
Every dollar the federal government takes out of the American economy is a dollar that cannot be used by American companies and entrepreneurs to create jobs and grow the economy. That is why I will not vote for a debt ceiling increase that involves any tax increases on any segment of the American population. Period.
My colleagues and I in the Republican Study Committee (RSC) have proposed a “Cut, Cap and Balance” solution to end our spending addiction and pay off our nation’s debt. This three-pronged approach would both rein in spending now and ensure we never end up with $14 trillion in debt ever again.
Here’s how it works:
The first step is making discretionary and mandatory spending reductions that would cut the deficit in half next year. This includes evaluating every aspect of the federal government, including entitlement programs.
The second step is setting enforceable caps to align federal spending with average revenues at 18% of GDP. This includes enforcing automatic spending reductions if the caps are breached in any given year.
Finally, the last step is passing a balanced budget amendment to the United States Constitution. Congress’s past failure to produce balanced budgets is a major cause of the fiscal crisis facing the country. It is past time that Congress accepts a limit on its runaway spending so that the federal government can join the 49 states that already govern with some form of a balanced budget.
Of course, it will not be easy to convince my colleagues to support this plan. It involves making difficult decisions and confronting years of irresponsible behavior dating back to before many of us began to serve. Real solutions are not necessarily easy solutions. But given the dangerous condition of our nation’s fiscal health, and the long-standing desire to leave our country in a better state for the next generation, we must recognize that tough choices will be necessary.
No one wants to clean up someone else’s mess, but our constituents sent us to Washington to make difficult decisions. At the end of the day, every Member of Congress will be faced with the question: “What did you do to preserve economic freedom for future generations?
>Ridgewood supermarkets now face fines for stray shopping carts.
WEDNESDAY, JULY 20, 2011 BY JOSEPH CRAMER STAFF WRITER THE RIDGEWOOD NEWS
Village Council members voted unanimously to fine supermarkets if their shopping carts stray across Ridgewood, based on residents’ concerns over what they deem a growing public safety issue.
The ordinance requires that all shopping carts picked up around the Central Business District (CBD) and elsewhere by Village staff will carry a $25 fee per cart. The new measure, passed by council members on July 13, is a reaction to the stores’ lack of compliance with previous requests by Village officials to manage the problem of delinquent property, according to Mayor Keith Killion.
“If there was compliance, and if the stores did pick up the carriages, we wouldn’t be at this point,” he said.
Managers from two local supermarkets, Evie Ascencio from Super Stop & Shop on Franklin Avenue and Vince Gramaglia from Kings on Maple Avenue, spoke up in protest during the public hearing of the ordinance, collectively saying that they are doing all that they can to correct the problem.
Offshore wind developers appear to be moving toward a consensus on how the state should finance the building of wind farms off the Jersey coast, but it could be at least three to five years before wind turbines start churning out power.
In a meeting at the Board of Public Utilities (BPU) offices in Trenton, developers, power suppliers and utility executives yesterday debated the details of how the wind farms would earn offshore renewable energy credits (ORECs) for the electricity their wind turbines generate. (Johnson, NJ Spotlight)
>Decision makers for Ford effecting Ken Smith Lincoln Mercury
The following are the decision makers on a national and regional level for Ford: Mr. Allen Mulally President and CEO Ford Motor Company 1 American Rd., Dearborn, MI 48126 Mr. William Clay Ford, Jr. Executive Chairman Ford Motor Company 1 American Rd. Dearborn, MI 48126 Mr. Jim Splendore Regional Sales Manager Ford Motor Company, New York Region 1 International Blvd., Suite 1100 Mahwah, NJ 07495 Phone:201 512-7601 Email:jsplendo@ford.com
Audit finds Port Authority could have saved $22M yearly, service contracts lack oversight
In a rare rebuke of the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey by another public entity, an audit by the New York State Comptroller’s office found the bi-state agency lacked documentation to justify hundreds of millions of dollars in contracts with outside vendors for cleaning, trash hauling, maintenance and other miscellaneous services.
The audit, made public yesterday, also found the Port Authority failed to show that it periodically reassessed service contracts and may have missed opportunities to save millions of dollars. (Strunsky, The Star-Ledger)
N.J. Senator Donald Norcross says he was not pressured to resign from labor union
The head of one of the biggest labor unions in New Jersey will be leaving on Labor Day, but he says he’s not being pressured. State Sen. Donald Norcross plans to retire as head of the Southern New Jersey Central Labor Council on Labor Day weekend.
Norcross, 52, from Camden, told The Philadelphia Inquirer that his decision had nothing to do with the union members’ unhappiness with his support of the pension and health care reform bills. His well-known brother George has long supported public-sector reform of health care and pension benefits. (Holt, New Jersey Newsroom)
