Readers Ask, Do these Planning Board Resignations have anything to do with that purported “pressure”?
At the last Village Council meeting, someone mentioned that they heard that members of the planning board were feeling pressured by Aronsohn and Pucciarelli. Do these resignations have anything to do with that purported “pressure”? Yes, I know the “pressure” is a mere rumor, but just wondering if anyone knows anything more.
They were both smart to get out before Aronsohn and Pucciarelli push along their construction agenda. Anybody else think it’s odd that we have 4 housing projects in the works, yet still no solution to parking and revitalizing the business district?
Ridgewood Council to consider bid on Graydon Pool ramp
Wednesday February 13, 2013, 11:01 AM
BY DARIUS AMOS
STAFF WRITER
The Ridgewood News
The Ridgewood Council is expected to award a bid for the construction of a new ADA-compliant ramp at Graydon Pool.
According to Village Manager Ken Gabbert, the lowest responsible bid came in at approximately $48,000. At last Wednesday’s work session meeting, the manager reported that 12 bids were received.
Ridgewood previously received a Community Development Block Grant to offset $55,000 of the ramp’s cost. The village also appropriated $40,000 of its own money to fund the remainder of the project after Ridgewood staff estimated that the final cost of the project might exceed $90,000.
Sen. Robert Menendez at Ridgewood REORG photo by Boyd Loving
DHS chief: Menendez intern should have been deported earlier
Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano said Wednesday that she didn’t order immigration agents to delay arresting an illegal immigrant and registered sex offender working for Sen. Robert Menendez’s New Jersey office in the middle of his re-election campaign last year.
Republicans said U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents’ failure to arrest Luis Abrahan Sanchez Zavaleta in October showed the holes in President Obama’s new non-deportation policies, which try to steer immigration authorities away from arresting all but the most serious criminal immigrants.
According to Sen. Charles E. Grassley, the ranking Republican on the Senate Judiciary Committee, documents show that agents had planned to arrest the man in October, ahead of the November election, but it was put off until December.
Ridgewood NJ, PSE&G is alerting its customers not to be defrauded by a scam in which individuals misrepresenting themselves as PSE&G employees threaten to turn off electric and gas service if payment is not made to them that day.
The scam, which has been reported across the country, involves payments using Green Dot MoneyPaks and seems to be targeting Hispanic neighborhoods in PSE&G’s service territory. As noted on the MoneyPak packaging and on the company’s Web site (www.moneypak.com), to protect themselves from fraud, consumers should treat the MoneyPak like cash and only use the MoneyPak number with businesses on their approved partner list.
“We take very seriously any attempt to defraud our customers,” said Joseph A. Forline, vice president of customer solutions for PSE&G. “We are working closely with law enforcement to investigate these scams. In the meantime, we ask our customers to be wary of callers who demand immediate payment and threaten service termination. When in doubt, hang up and call PSE&G directly at the phone number listed on your bill.”
PSE&G alerted the public to a similar scam in January 2012. Reports indicate that this scam is again targeting Hispanic customers, but this time not exclusively.
Here is how the scam works:
• A Spanish- or English-speaking individual pretending to be a PSE&G employee calls customers saying their service would be disconnected if they do not make a payment using a prepaid debit card. In some cases, the call is prerecorded.
• Customers are told to purchase a Green Dot MoneyPak at a pharmacy or convenience store, use cash to put money onto the card, and then provide the number on the card to the person who called them.
• Customers are advised that if they do not immediately call back and provide the MoneyPak information, their service will be turned off that day.
• Typically, after the customer provides that MoneyPak number, the scammer transfers the funds to a prepaid card, and cashes it in at an ATM.
What to do if you get a call
When PSE&G makes an outbound phone call to customers, customer-specific information is shared with the customer. That information includes the account name, address, number and current balance. If customers do not receive this correct information, they likely are not speaking with a PSE&G representative. If customers feel uncomfortable and they know they have an outstanding balance that needs to be resolved, they should hang up and call PSE&G directly at 1-800-436-7734 or visit a local PSE&G Customer Service Center. Service Centers are open Monday through Friday, 8:00 AM to 4:00 PM with locations listed on customer bills and online at: https://www.pseg.com/centers.
Any customer who has doubts about the legitimacy of any call from PSE&G, especially one in which payment is requested, should call the utility directly.
PSE&G is working with law enforcement to investigate the matter and is also reaching out to its contacts at local community service agencies asking them to spread the word to their clients.
Photo by Boyd Loving Senator Menendez at Ridgewood REORG
Pressure builds on Sen. Robert Menendez: Is it enough to topple him?
The New Jersey senator is accused of political favors, bribery, and prostitution. But those charges are difficult to prove, and experts say Menendez has the popularity to ride out the political storm.
By Husna Haq, Correspondent / February 12, 2013
Even as pressure on New Jersey Sen. Robert Menendez (D) continues to mount over allegations of political favors, bribery, and prostitution, political analysts suggest the controversy, at this point, is unlikely to end the stalwart senator’s 40-year political career.
Over the weekend, calls for Senator Menendez to resign his post as chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee gained momentum, with a New York Times editorial pressing him “to relinquish his leadership role.” The Senate Ethics Committee is currently investigating allegations of his misconduct.
But with little public outcry against Menendez in his home state or among his Senate colleagues – and with allegations of political favors hard to prove – Menendez could survive if further allegations do not emerge.
In N.J., police deter complaints, ACLU finds
Barbara Boyer and James Osborne, Inquirer Staff Writers
Posted: Wednesday, February 13, 2013, 3:01 AM
More than three-quarters of New Jersey police departments failed to give the public correct information when they were asked how to file a complaint against officers, the American Civil Liberties Union has found.
The organization Tuesday released a report based on a 2012 survey of 497 departments. It followed a similar study conducted in 2009 that produced similar findings. “The results remained disconcerting,” the report said. “Once again, a majority of local departments provided inaccurate information in response to the most basic questions regarding individuals’ rights to file [internal affairs] complaints.”
Ridgewood Art Institute : The Music and Art of Bucky Pizzarelli
New RAI Exhibit- The Music and Art of Bucky Pizzarelli
February 23rd – March 8th
John Paul “Bucky” Pizzarelli (born January 9, 1926) is an American Jazz guitarist and banjoist, and the father of jazz guitarist John Pizzarelli and upright bassist Martin Pizzarelli. Pizzarelli has also worked for NBC as a staffman for Dick Cavett (1971) and also ABC with Bobby Rosengarden in (1952). The list of musicians Pizzarelli has collaborated with over his career includes Les Paul, Stephane Grappelli, and Benny Goodman. Pizzarelli acknowledges Django Reinhardt, Freddie Green, and George Van Eps for their influences on his style and mode of play.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bucky_Pizzarelli
Ridgewood Art Institute
12 East Glen Avenue
Ridgewood, New Jersey 07450
William Mowell Indicted – Former Chief Engineer of Ridgewood Water – Laid Off in 2010
Top officials of East Orange Water Commission allegedly hid chemical in drinking water
TRENTON — Two top officials of the East Orange Water Commission have been indicted for allegedly conspiring to hide elevated levels of an industrial solvent in drinking water pumped to tens of thousands of residents in the city and neighboring South Orange, state authorities said today.
The executive director, Harry Mansmann, 58, of Lawrenceville, and the assistant executive director, William Mowell, 51, of Wyckoff, falsified levels of tetrachlorethene to show the water supply was meeting state safe drinking water standards, the state Attorney General’s Office said in a news release.
Working on the roadside is a dangerous and sometimes deadly job. That’s why the Division of Highway Traffic Safety is asking motorists to Make the Move. What’s the Move? When you see flashing lights on the side of the road, slow down, and if it’s safe, Move Over – away from police, fire crews, paramedics and tow truck drivers. If you make the move, others will follow.
To learn more about New Jerseys move over law click on the link below.
Photo credit: Boyd A. Loving Christ Episcopal Church, Ridgewood Celebrates Shrove Tuesday In Style
February 12,2013
Boyd A. Loving
7:53 PM
Ridgewood NJ, Shrove Tuesday was celebrated at Ridgewood’s Christ Episcopal Church with a pancake supper and pancake relay races (indoors, of course). Parishioners of all ages partook of the buffet style meal, which included pancakes, sausages, and salad. Blue and Red teams were then formed for the traditional pancake relay races. Fellowship and fun was had by all attendees!
Ridgewood citizens may soon supplement emergency services
Tuesday February 12, 2013, 10:01 AM
BY LAURA HERZOG
STAFF WRITER
The Ridgewood News
A Neighborhood Watch program or a Community Emergency Response Team (CERT) might be coming to Ridgewood if enough residents want to be trained in emergency preparedness
To gauge initial interest, the Ridgewood Police Department and the Office of Emergency Management (OEM) hosted a meeting Wednesday night in Village Hall. About 20 residents attended, and several filled out Bergen County CERT volunteer applications.
OEM Coordinator Jeremy Kleiman said he was encouraged by the initial response, but noted that he still cannot be sure based on one meeting whether the idea of a community-based, organized volunteer group will come to fruition.
Readers Debate Tiger Team Report focus on Village Worker Salaries and Benefits
All the suggestions from the tiger team revolve around reducing employee wages and benefits, dismantling contracts, changing work rules. It’s not the employees fault the village is in the mess that it is, and no mention is made of a multimillion dollar cost over run when rebuilding village hall, nor is there any mention made of the squandering of cost savings from the pension contribution holiday left over from the Whitman years. No mention made of reining in costs of health care legislative help needed of course. Maybe someone can sugar coat what they want to do by calling it something else but it is what it is.
or
You obviously have not read the report. That is not what the group recommended at all. Most of the recommendations had nothing to do with employee benefits or wages.
The recommended contract changes were about simplifying the contracts and correcting certain unrealistic policies that cannot be sustained to bring them more in line with best practices in the private sector. However, starting salaries look like they have increased and the rate of base pay increases are higher than current levels in the first half of most employees’ careers. The big changes seem to be eliminate accumulated sick day pay, which is basically “double dipping” on the same pay and reducing excessive pension obligations to levels that are closer to what they were originally intended to be.
The report doesn’t blame the employees (I think it actually says that). Nor does it seek to punish them. You can blame whomever you want. But, the reality is that the current contract structures are unrealistic and unaffordable. The taxpayers can’t afford to keep paying more and, in private, many employees will admit that they knew this day was coming.
Readers Debate Independence of proposed Financial Oversight Board
The Tiger Team recommended a Financial Oversight Board. The Council is elected by law. The recommendation in the report that was published on the village website proposed the following process…
“FOB members may include any Ridgewood resident, who is not a member of Village Management or the Village Council. Nominations for the charter FOB members may be submitted by the Village Council, or any interested eligible resident may nominate himself or herself, according to a process defined by the Village Council. After the charter FOB members are approved by the Village Council, all future nominations would be made by the FOB members, with final approval to be made by the Village Council.”
Clearly, the idea is to create a group that is independent from the politics within village management or among Village Council members (which is probably a good idea, given behavior of the Village Council in recent years). It does not appear to be an “appointment”. I suspect that any interested resident could be nominated.
Tree list in Ridgewood is trimmed by storms
Tuesday February 12, 2013, 10:01 AM
The Ridgewood News
The wrath of several storms, including Hurricane Sandy, trimmed a significant number from the list of Ridgewood trees slated for removal, but the volume of work to wipe the slate clean still requires outside assistance, village officials indicated last week.
The Village Council is expected to award an approximate $50,000 contract next week to a private vendor, which will be given the task of removing more than 90 dead trees that have been marked, many several months ago, and destined for the chipper.
“This is attempting to take the backlog of trees in the village that are designated for removal and, in one fell swoop, remove those trees so our newly directed tree crew can then not only keep up with the day-to-day needs of the trees, the trimming and the root cutting and control, but also expand that and do other things with trees that we wanted to in the village,” said Village Manager Ken Gabbert.
It is a primary offense for a motorist to talk or text message with a hand-held wireless telephone or electronic communication device while driving.
Use of a hand-held wireless telephone or electronic communication device includes, but is not limited to:
Talking or listening to another person.
Text messaging or sending an electronic message.
There is a fine for violating this statute; no points will be assessed for the offense.
The operator of a motor vehicle may use a hand-held wireless telephone while driving with one hand on the steering wheel only if:
The operator has reason to fear for his/her life or safety, or believes that a criminal act may be perpetrated against him/herself or another person.
The operator is using this device to report to appropriate authorities: a fire; traffic crash; serious road hazard; medical or hazardous material emergency; or another motorist who is driving in a reckless, careless or otherwise unsafe manner or who appears to be driving under the influence of alcohol or drugs. The amended law took effect on March 1, 2008.
