file photo by Boyd Loving
The regionalization of you local police force doesn’t save money (ask the county sheriff how his merger is doing), it adds to the response time of calls and believe it or not every ridgewood cop has lived in this town at one point or another. Knowing your work environment makes a significant difference in quality.
The schools argument is even more significant. Bad schools = less desirable place to live. Name me one large regional school district that performs in comparison to Ridgewood or Glen rock etc.
I have said this before but living here is not cheap and unfortunately if you can’t afford to live here you should not expect a cut in services to enable your continued residency. Living here is not for everyone and certainly not everyone can afford it. But those who can want what we have now. That includes rear yard garbage pickup.
If you want regional services. The Poconos are close by.
The union is very vocal in saying that it is a disaster, just as you would expect them to say. Layoffs are due to duplication of positions and a 2% cap on increased spending.
Do you feel any less safe?
Unfortunately there are actually many of us living in Ridgewood who moved in many years ago when taxes and housing were cheaper than today. Even then, however, when we moved here our taxes alone were more than the taxes, mortgage and insurance on our previous house combined. So, to us then, it still wasn’t cheap. The contributor of this article seems to think that we should have been able to foretell the future and not have ever moved here. But we did, and now we are stuck. When your whole extended family is local, no one wants to rush off to Florida or North Carolina as we age. Does this contributor have any suggestions for us?
“Do you feel any less safe?”
YES.
There are dead bodies piling up all over Ridgewood… not to mention gun sightings!