the staff of The Ridgewood Blog
Ridgewood Village Council Members:
Regarding the discovery of potentially contaminated soil on the former Schedler property, it is the considered opinion of The Ridgewood Blog that Ridgewood taxpayers shouldn’t have to pay a dime if site remediation is required by the New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection (NJDEP), or if an environmental clean up is just a prudent action to take on the Village’s part. Either the Village’s liability insurance carrier or the liability insurance carriers of other involved parties should be tasked with covering any costs linked to site remediation.
As evidenced by results obtained from recent environmental tests, some or all of the donated soil was contaminated. Additionally, as per communication received by the Village from NJDEP, a Village employee(s) apparently contracted for an unauthorized environmental testing protocol, and/or accepted results obtained from use of such a protocol in connection with testing performed on samples taken from much of the donated soil prior to it being dumped at Schedler.
Those parties, the Village employee(s) and soil donors, should have all been covered by liability insurance during the time period in which soil donations were being considered and accepted. The Ridgewood Blog firmly believes that the Village’s own liability insurance policy will cover an employee(s) who made a grievous error, which appears to have been the case here (as per NJDEP). The liability insurance companies of the soil donors should cover their failure to know that they were donating contaminated soil.
In summary, Ridgewood taxpayers should not have to foot the bill for any site remediation required that is linked to the placement of contaminated soil; insurance companies should cover every last penny of those costs.
It boils down to gross incompetence. The incompetence on the part of those who donated the soil, and the incompetence on the part of a Village employee(s) who accepted the tainted dirt. Insurance dollars, not hard earned tax dollars, should used to pay for remedying incompetence related messes.
Respectfully,
the staff of The Ridgewood Blog
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I predict your head is going to explode when you find out how much the Town Garage property is going to cost. Maybe they will just bond the expenditures, Evan thinks that’s free money.
Rutishauser
Nope, they want a baseball field. Eminent domain.
Since 1986 all general liability policies have a pollution exclusion. The Absolute Pollution Exclusion not only doesn’t cover the cleanup but it also doesn’t cover liability for causing the contamination. There may be coverage under the Village’s Error & Emissions coverage or that of the testing company for failure to perform duties but otherwise there is likely little if any coverage available for environmental damage unless caused prior to 1986.
Oh you see the d e p said the Village engineer looked at the soil that it looked fine, well it’s not. And he made a big big boo-boo.
( Incompetence) Mustache boy Good job. Talk about under performing.👨🏻⚕️
Time for an overhaul in the engineering department we have had enough.
And parks and rec please
Fire Chris Rutishauser! But Keith Kazmark won’t touch him or investigate, which means he is enabling the gross negligence.
Our Village Manager, soaking up 350k annually, didn’t think of this? What a boob!
The village engineer lied to the council at the time and the public. He should do time in jail.
When I read about this whole episode I have to say it’s Greek to me. No one with any authority in Ridgewood thought to test the soil first? Was trying to get another softball/baseball field so important that they could (Pick you choice): A) Not use any common sense; B) not think to test soil first; C) ignore existing laws/rules?
Vagianos was busy trying to become mayor and getting the shady consultant on board thanks to the introduction from his good pal, Gail Price. Vagianos didn’t have time to be checking any soil and figured no one would be the wiser and thought he would have his shovel in the group likety split. That was his strong messaging to the public. Even when the village had no money in the budget for village staff who were to be furloughed and yet had monies earmarked for Schedler (money that was not part of a bond). Then miraculously, once everyone showed up in droves at village hall, VOILA, the money was magically found. Praise, Jesus. And I am pretty sure that this group of bad actors, Vagianos, Weitz, Winograd and Perron may require some counseling and assistance from up above to dig themselves out of the big hole they have gotten themselves into with this epic debacle. They should start praying now.
They all seriously think they are above the law. Thats the problem
The soil was never tested, it was just happily dumped! Just imagine how much money the builders saved by having soil that needed to be disposed of, and was obviously contaminated because of the businesses who sat on it, taken for free and even transported for free. The builders had to know the soil was contaminated–3 auto dealerships and a gas station–all with their own repair shops. What about THEIR LIABILITY INSURANCE? It will be extremely difficult for them to prove that, as commercial builders, they knew NOTHING about soil pollution!
This is just starting, I told you that you woke up the sleeping giant, there’s a brand new board game, and it’s called the game of f””k”ery. Let’s start having some more fun.
The berm was installed because the old concrete barriers which prevent sound in the immediate area have the unintended consequence of sound echoing to adjoining homes. So most highways either put in wood or thick vegetation. Need something to stop a large truck, so the berm was selected. At the time, “free” soil came from the apartment buildings so it was a good idea. There was testing, but since these buildings were on the site of automotive shops, etc the soil had to be contaminated. I find it hard to believe that the council of 8+ years ago would never doublecheck on testing, but of course that seems to be what happened.
Now it will cost tens of thousands of dollars to clean this up; thousands upon thousands to level the property to put in a field. Glen School is available NOW. Less money. There are already two smaller fields there, no problem with a third. However our Mayor lives near there, so he will oppose.
Look at the old CMX report which Village has: there is room for other fields, and at the time of the report, Schedler was not in the picture!
Well, now that we know that it is contaminated. So now we got to determine who has been affected with possible contamination. The village health department alongside the DEP need to get a full list of employees that worked at that location that would be very responsibility because this doesn’t just go away. Everyone could be feeling fine now but down the road no one knows so this must be documented legally, and for the village well they will be liable, they put employees impossible, danger situation healthwise. This is no joking matter so the mayor council manager health department. DEP must reach out to everyone. I’m sure someone has a list of employees that work there we do know from the grapevine. There were a few equipment operators from the street department, so we would think it be wise to have those employees checked out somehow someway . It’s their responsibility
Isn’t it funny ever since this article came out how many employees are so very quiet about this so sneaky I think someone’s walking around telling people not to talk and be quiet about it, too late the cats out of the bag. It’s amazing how many employees are so scared, and up certain peoples asses.
Thumbs down on people being scared is so very true. It’s amazing how many Employees, so quiet. Workers walking around stating they don’t wanna get involved, I didn’t see anything. Full of shit they just warn about their job. Amazing.