Author: James

photos by Boyd Loving

October 27,2016

the staff of the Ridgewood blog

Ridgewood NJ, Wednesday night’s Village Council Meeting led off with a moment of silence in honor of the missing Rurik Halaby . Mo, Larry and Curly a Peter,Paul and Mary cover band sang , “I am leaving on a jet plane”. Women wore black and wept openly during the pledge .

Now a brief rundown of last night’s council meeting. Congratulations to Ramon Hache on the birth of his son on October 15th.

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League of Women Voters President Anne Walsh read a resolution on the Pilgrim Pipeline which stated its negative effects if built on our environment, infrastructure and water.

Later in the evening after comments from Rich Calbi and council members ,it was approved 4 – 0 with councilwomen Walsh recusing herself.

Resident Martin Walker came to the mic in support of the TAP grant which needs to be submitted by November 10th.  A discussion on TAP occurred later in the evening.

A presentation from Uber was next. The two women representatives came to the table and discussed a public/ private  partnership opportunity for Ridgewood. They were quite professional and friendly. They referenced their relationship with Summit, New Jersey which from all accounts is working well.  A pilot program could be introduced rather quickly if they got council approval. Ramon Hache commented that the use of Uber was essentially like building a virtual garage. Estimated arrival times from when the call is first made averages around 5 minutes.There are background checks on all approved drivers and their cars must also pass muster. Uber carries commercial insurance of 1.5 million dollars on every drive which is higher than what is standard for licensed taxis.  The council appeared positive in their responses and will be considered after additional information is gathered.

Next was the discussion of the TAP ( Transportation Alternative Program).  The dynamic duo if Chris Rutishauser and Jeanne Johnson made a presentation and it became clear that in the last two weeks the council never received copies of the grant or background information that they had requested in order to make a decision. There was no explanation of why this happened.  While everyone agreed that pedestrian safety is a top priority, no decision could be made without the requested materials.The mayor asked if they could have it on Thursday but Chris said he was busy with a trial and therefore Friday or Monday would be the earliest he could send it .

Later in the evening,Boyd Loving commented on the absurdity of a paid employee of the village not fulfilling his duties and seemingly getting away with it.

Richard Calbi of the Water Department was on board to speak of the drought conditions in New Jersey due to a long hot summer, little rain and overuse by consumers for lawn and shrub watering/ irrigation. New Jersey relies on winter rain to recover.  We will stay in stage 2 water restrictions indefinitely and will looking at additional water conservation methods to introduce to our residents through forums, entices and other forms of communication.  A discussion ensued as to whether Ridgewood should privatize the water utility in total, in parts or not at all.  I believe Richard Calbi’s preference would be to retain ownership as it is a huge asset and we would have local control which has served us well for the most part. November 1st , is also the water trial begins which is the law suit filed by Glen Rock, Wyckoff and Midland Park against Ridgewood  for years of overcharging.

In a discussion amongst council members, two great ideas came up and seemingly got full support from the 5. One was the possible hiring of a grant writer and Mike Sedon’s suggestion that they take a second look at a town garage proposal on the Hudson Street site which actually fit the footprint keeping sidewalks and on street parking.  Mike had all the information and will make a presentation at Ramon Hache’s CB  meeting next week.So far there has been no hard decision on the parking garage ,just more studies and information gathering.