PUBLIC FORUMS ON SCHEDLER PROPERTY – May 16 Ridge School & May 29 VH Court Room

The Village of Ridgewood Open Space Committee will conduct a series of three public forums to discuss future development of the Schedler Property located at Route 17 North and West Saddle River Road in Ridgewood. The date and location of the meetings are Wednesday, May 16, 2012 at Ridge School and Tuesday, May 29 in the Court Room, 4th Floor at Ridgewood Village Hall. All of the meetings will begin at 7:30PM and end at 9:00PM.

The purpose of the meetings are to gather community input regarding a development plan for the Schedler property and to gauge the level of interest in funding the development through private contributions. At each meeting, following a brief presentation by the Open Space Committee, the floor will be open to interested residents to express their comments, ideas and concerns.

For further information, visit the Open Space Committee’s page on the Village of Ridgewood website under “Boards and Committees” www.ridgewoodnj.net/department.detail.cfm?dept id=84

For further information, contact the Village’s Director of Parks and Recreation, Tim Cronin at tcronin@ridgewoodnj.net or by calling 201/670-5560.

long-term jobless Americans forced off federal extended benefits program
May 11 2012
the staff of the Ridgewood blog

Ridgewood ,NJ Over 200,000 long-term jobless Americans in California, Florida, Illinois, North Carolina, Colorado, Connecticut, Pennsylvania and Texas will lose their unemployment checks this week, when eight states roll off the federal extended benefits program.

Nearly half of them live in California. The federal extended benefits program has provided the jobless with up to 20 additional weeks of unemployment checks after they’ve run through their state and their federal emergency benefits, which together last up to 79 weeks.

But the extended benefits program is expiring throughout the country as the the Obama administration claims the economy improving. States must show that its unemployment rate is at least 10% or more to be eligible for the program .

State unemployment rates have been falling as more and more workers exit the workforce and the job market shrinks .

Already, 25 states have rolled off the extended benefits program, with 15 of them exiting last month alone. But more unemployed folks will be affected by this week’s cessation than April’s, when about 135,000 people saw their payments end.

Ridgewood Project Pride Day – May 12th

Project Pride Committee will plant the large containers with a wide variety of colorful flowers for the summer season on Saturday, May 12th starting at 9am at the Clock tower at Van Neste Square. If you are able to volunteer and help, please call 201/670-5560 for more details.

Lugar Loss Highlights how out of touch DC insiders are to voters
Friday, May 11, 2012
the staff of the Ridgewood blog

Ridgewood ,NJ America’s Political Class.continues to act in ways contrary to the people they are supposed to represent . Many in Washington, D.C. took delusional comfort over the past year in polling data showing that fewer voters now consider themselves part of the Tea Party movement.

According to Rasmussen In recent surveys only 13% of voters identify with the tea party today, just about half its peak in 2010. This gave comfort to those in power, suggesting voters were willing to let the politicians return to politics as usual.

But recent events such as the defeat of 36-year incumbent Senator Richard Lugar in the Indiana Republican primary election who was often viewed by the Tea Party members as the poster boy for the inside the belt way kiss -asses has given DC insiders pause for panic again.

Politicians seemed to have missed that the supposed declining membership in the Tea Party did not mean a decline in anger at the Political Class. The Tea Party has highlighted over and over the twin problems of continuous government spending growth and a self-serving Political Class that is totally out of touch with voters.

The disconnect is highlighted by the fact that government spending has gone up every single year for 58 years even though voters have continually elected politicians who promise every election to cut that spending. Contrary to popular belief voters are ready to make the hard choices needed to cut spending and balance the budget, but the Political Class is more interested in pursuing its own agenda.

Again according to Rasmussen only 33% of voters are even somewhat confident that their representative in Congress is looking out for the best interests of their constituents ,with only eight percent (8%) are very confident.

Sixty-five percent (65%) are angry at the policies of the federal government, and few see anybody in Washington willing to take on the status quo. There is a strong belief that Democrats are the party of big government while Republicans the party of big business with 7-out-of-10 believe big government and big business work together against the rest of us.Therefore it’s no surprise that 53% believe that neither Republican nor Democratic leaders have an understanding of what the country really needs today.