let’s hope we don’t need the SWAT teams again
Valley continues to underestimate the size and resolve of its opposition.
The 2010 Planning Board meeting at GW was a classic case of trying to silence the voices of people wanting to be heard. Valley tried to pull a fast one and it blew up in their face. Thankfully, the Valley meetings are now held in venues large enough to accommodate all that want to be a part of the process.
While justice triumphed in the short run, Valley’s stubbornness has prolonged this costly process well beyond the point where it should have stopped. If Valley truly had the best interests of the Village in mind, they would have either scaled back or abandoned their plans for over expansion years ago. Yet onward they charge and our public officials have not only allowed it, but they seem to be supporting it. Something didn’t smell right then and something doesn’t smell right now.
The Planning Board’s Mr. Grant tipped his hand during the first procedural meeting by declaring that “The Hospital should be able to expand”. This is akin to a juror blurting out “he’s guilty” during the opening argument of a criminal trial. The Council’s Mrs. Hauck, a high profile Valley insider, still has not recused herself in the Valley matter. Let’s hope that she does not choose to vote on this issue if and when it gets to the Council. Thanks to these two, the whole thing could end up back in court.
Valley continues to underestimate the size and resolve of its opposition. Let’s hope that our public officials don’t make the same mistake. And let’s hope we don’t need the SWAT teams again.
Although I agree with most of your post, I really don’t think Valley “underestimates” anything. All they want to do is present “experts” to this PB, who,Valley believes, will agree to a project in this town that has become borderline ridiculous.
Valley will never stop agitating for this expansion…they are not our friends.
Valley wants what it wants when it wants it. In response to Mayor Arohnson’s question on the first night about why Valley did not decrease the number of beds in light of their battle cry against the reopening of Pascack Valley and in light of the council’s denial they have added another hospital planner to show how much this current hospital is needed. They are relentless and they have huge pockets to fight on. If the planing board is going to hear any testimony that will acknowledge the fact that this is not in the best interest of Ridgewood they had better add an Urban Planner to their list of experts.