>How much more in reduction of services are Village residents going to take? Since the Village Hall building project and other real estate purchases. This Council and administration is bringing living in Ridgewood to new low. Council members and Village Manager should just admit that they were left some serious debt from previous Village Manager and Council decisions and projects.
Take the hit, advise residents that they need to raise municiple taxes to getback on track and bring the Village back to the community it once was. There is point where you have stop cutting back on services this Village proudly had. Streets used to be cleaned of snow and leaves ontime. Village owned properties and buildings used to look clean and functional – no more! And now, start charging for medical attention and transport? I think residents will not take any more of this. We will see at election time, won’t we.
>This is so true. Took my family to eat lunch in VAn Neste PArk on Sunday, what a dump. Weeds in the sidewalks, grass not cut, grass not edged on the sidewalks, dead tree branches, and then walked down the street towards bookends and weeds in the brick sidewalks. Where are our tax dollars going. Summit,Westfield, Shorts Hills and other downtowns do not look like this
Council needs to resign or start taking care of this town and not all their cronies
Too man of the same last names in the village government and BOE- no wonder where all the $$$ is going
>What about all the loose bricks on the corner of East Ridgewood & Cottage place? A pedestrian fell there the other day…. How long will the yellow tape be there before it is repaired?
>Habernickel Park will be a HUGE money pit. We should have never purchased that property. It should have been developed as one acre building lots instead.
>Now the village is as bad at managing money as the BOE. We really need to vote differently if we’re ever going to end this one-party party they’re having at our expense.
>The way the water company manager was quoted in the Record about the “blending” of surface water and aquafer as being a good business decision is utter nonsense. Whenever you “water-down” a superior product with a far inferior product, you do not come out with a good business decision. Barring a captive audience, you lose business.
I propose that we give Wyckoff, Midland Park, and Glen Rock over to United Water’s highly treated surface water and keep the aquafer water for Ridgewood residents. Each passing day we are losing our exclusivity and uniqueness. We are becoming “just another town”.
>I agree. They should hire more help so things can get done.
>I wonder if many of you aren’t focusing your frustration in the wrong direction. Can we assume that the VC or the Village Manager are intimately familiar with every maintenance job? I don’t think that is realistic. If these jobs are done poorly or not at all, it probably has less to do with misallocated resources than it does with poor performance/execution by the Department of Parks & Rec or other maintenance groups, who are responsible for up keep of VOR property. Some of these individuals have a lot of autonomy and I have observed everything from poor scheduling to inefficient workers, which have affected the work that does or does not get done in this town.
This isn’t to say that the VC or Ten Hoeve are blameless. I just think they are the obvious targets and are not always the source of the problem.
>The buck stops with Ten Hoeve. He is the chief operations officer and when everything works well he gets the praise; when it works poorly he gets the blame. All department heads report to him, and while they may be individually culpable for failing in their jobs, Ten Hoeve is paid for and responsible for managing their performance–or not. The Mayor and Council have governance and oversight responsibility and represent our (e.g., the citizens) interests. The original poster is right: Things HAVE been allowed to slip, which is why it is incumbent on the Mayor and Council to turn the heat way up on the Village Manager.
>We are “just another town” get out of your dreamworld!!!!!
>Ya think the hospital expansion is a positive for this town… Don’t think so….. stop valley now… it too will continue to drain not only a neigborhood but the whole town,…a none profit —- do they pay a water bill? the fire dept. goes at least once a week not counting drills….
>I agree with 6:09, in principle. However, the reality is that lack of initiative and poor planning by Cronin and incompetent or just lazy Parks & Rec staff workers have a direct impact on how this town’s facilities look. If they did a better job, we would all have less to complain about.
>Look at NorthJersey.com (https://www.northjersey.com/page.php?qstr=eXJpcnk3ZjczN2Y3dnFlZUVFeXk2MDgmZmdiZWw3Zjd2cWVlRUV5eTcxOTQ4NzkmeXJpcnk3ZjcxN2Y3dnFlZUVFeXky).
Ridgewood scores a 97 – “walker’s paradise” – on website that ranks walkability. With all of the bad news dragging down our real estate values like TERC reform math, the Valley expansion, and toxic ash dumps, it is good to see some positive press about Ridgewood.
>I must say if you take a ride around the village parks you always see someone doing their best to get something looking good. IE. Village hall the mums and such look great there. The parks and rec dept are working with limited staff. I have been a resident now for 48 years and it always has its ups and downs. But I must say this year things are looking VERY nice. If any employees from parks and other depts read this please keep up the good work guys. Most of us really enjoy your work.
Thank you,
Dr. Alan
>The last paragraph of the commentary says ‘take the hit’. Well, truth is we’ve been hit way too often. I’ve said it before, and I’ll say it again: BUDGET means working with the funds you have. Not going out and raising taxes everytime you want t do something else.
We need to keep our Fire Dept and Sanitation Engineers. We need the guys who are doing the lawns and the snow removal to stay on the payroll.
We need to stop giving money to a BOE and Councel that can’t tell their ass from the their collective elbows. (Because they rest on both an equal amount of time).
>thank you