the staff of the Ridgewood blog
Ridgewood NJ, At the Village Council budget meeting on February 26, there was discussion of spending an estimated $700,000 on lighting at Vets Field. We are pretty sure there are opinions on this from one end of the spectrum to the other.
The thing that bothered us at The Blog is that when Councilwoman Reynolds asked whether a letter could be sent to all the residents whose homes are near the field, there was pushback from Councilwoman Winograd, Mayor Vagianos, and Mr. Kazmark. Basically it sounded like the neighbors would be invited to see a presentation on the lighting AFTER it has been approved into the budget and after the lighting company (which seemingly has already been selected) is under contract. What good does it do to tell the neighbors after it is already a done deal??? The non-transparency of this Village Council continues.
This will be discussed in detail at 8:00 PM next Tuesday, March 5, in the Village Hall courtroom in a special budget meeting. Residents on Warren Place, Marshall Street, Northern Parkway, Linwood Avenue, Overbrook Road, Fairway Road, Colonial Road, and North Irving Street should consider attending if they are concerned about the new lighting which, it was announced, will enable games to go later into the evenings than they do now. Speak up BEFORE the Council Majority shoves this enormous expense into the already bloated budget.
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Artificial turf next.
Where are they getting the money for this?
From your wallet.
New Village motto: “Sports is more important than quality of life.”
How right you are!!
They need to find something since they can no longer tout the quality of our schools.
Vagianos and Winograd – They smile in your face while stabbing you in the back. What a team.
More money being spent, how about finishing the sidewalk on W. Glen Ave., 1st, or repaving the parking lot on Franklin Avenue next to the old town garage
About getting those sweepers out there seven days a week the roads are filthy
The cannot even afford to buy necessary garbage trucks, but have $$$ for fields, lighting, turf…
The village cannot even buy the required garbage trucks needed. They lease them or rent from other towns. This cost $$$. Ridgewood residents need to protest that your money is not being allocated responsibly. Vagianos, a business owner, votes designer garbage cans as it benefits him and makes the village more attractive, however, many safety and other important projects gets put on the back burner as it isn’t prioritized. Remember actions speak louder than words. These people put into power are going to ruin this beautiful village. last year, the village got 1 cop now they are having problems filling these roles. Safety first.
Is this the highest priority in town? Stop this nonsense.
ha…around a field that will be unplayable well into the spring do to flooding….and every time we have a heavy rain storm.
that is one sharp village mgr …
Post of the day !
He calls balls and strikes!
the diesel-powered lighting at vets is a much better solution than quiet, odor-free LEDs right?
Not worth $700k.
Maybe there is another solution. $700k is a huge chunck of change!
The temporary lights serve the purpose. There are other priorities.
There is a focus on sports/fields that is not in the resident’s interest. I have lived here almost 40 years and these unnecessary expenses are slowly pushing me out. My house will easily sell to a large family. They will love the Parks & Rec initiatives.
So true.
I like the practice of letting people chime in after the deal has closed. After all, this town and those people around Vet’s field vote predominantly democrat and adore Nancy Pelosi. As the greatest speaker once said, we need to approve this bill in order to see what’s in it. It falls right along that line. We will approve the plan and then you will see what’s in it and bark some if you want.
Fits you great, su.kers. Keep voting democrat and take this town down this drain like you’ve been doing for a while now.
I hope this VC has no mercy and bulldozes through all the controversial plans they fantasize about.
Heck, why not put a wind turbine farm at Vets. We could save the earth.
If we had an expendable amount of money, then it might make sense, only and I mean only if it were to be used responsibly. Night games would not be fair to neighbors and intrusive lighting is also not responsible. Siobahn Whinograd has insisted that this is necessary and not intrusive. We shall see if that is truth or fiction.
Our village has become so focused on sports when we have so many other priorities to fix. Makes me sick.
They are changing existing lights to led. Why do the neighbors need notification??
Not sure if there are “existing lights”. I see portables there.
It’s election year for Vagianos.
The ONLY community group he has worked for in last three years is the sports group, so he’s doubling down to get their votes.
Winograd has money in the game.
Weird and Perron are non existent. Vag and Winograd are running the show here, like aronshon and Gwen did a few years ago!!
Yes, it is extremely obvious if you dial into these VOR council meetings. Vagianos is pro sports and pro Healthbarn and Whino is the cheerleader for all things sports in the village but don’t forget she also loves trees (LOL) the calendar should have had her photo on it as the poster girl for treess. Pam and Weird Weitz are lame ducks and complain about having to stay late at meetings…nonsensical self importance. both lawyers, both unimpressive and contribute nothing. All four of them are horrendous and bad for the village.
why not just do what they did at maple??? get the sports teams to fork over the money for it. MSC (non-profit) is sitting on over 300k in cash.
Welcome to Ridgewood. At least now the rest of ridgewood is being treated as badly as the Schedler neighborhood. Maybe this will wake people up to how terrible the council is.
They keep bonding, which is very expensive in the long run. They make the case that Ridgewood has a triple A rating, however, this just means we can pay our bills. The fact that money is allocated for special projects, such as sports, should be a concern. The people in power are making dangerous decisions not based on safety for its residents. We needed more police officers and money was available last year for one. We almost furloughed village staff becasue they had no money? People need to start waking up to the reality of this mayor and council not prioritizing the right things. It is very sad.
I see and agree with many of your points, but why do we need more police officers? How many more do we possibly need? I mean need, not want.
We rent cops from other towns which probably adds up (overtime, etc) does that make sense? I believe a bunch had left Ridgewood, either retirement or other reasons, so they were just trying to replace those officers and not just add on. If we don’t have officers to respond when something happens, it will be an issue. I believe one council person was also trying to cheap out with walkie talkies and required trainings-definitely not nice to haves. I am not an expert, but if you are allocating money to P&R but don’t have funding for police matters, could be a concern about priorities.
My opinion is that the sports organizations and sports families should pay extra. Yes, we all pay taxes but if most of the efforts are going toward sports and Healthbarn money making activities, then why are they not paying for this. There should be an extra line item added to the budget and a percentage of their money can go to sports initiatives above and beyond like the lights or anyone who wants to additionally support healthbarn USA and an over priced pavillion to be used for their activities. Seems like a no brainer.
they have the $$$ trust me.
lots of paul aronsohn cuc boys posting today
“grown men” as egregious a$$ kissers , not a good look
did winygrat tell you to post?
I remember when this was a nice town
stupid knows no bounds in Ridgewood
people who vote for a living outnumber the people that work for a living
What about all the wasted money the school district abuses. Our taxes are high enough just from that alone. Time to leave