Ridgewood NJ, Just weeks since a potential strike was adverted and less than a year after NJ Transit closed a $56 million budget gap by raising passenger fares 9 percent, NJT now finds itself another $57 million in the hole. Slower ridership growth leading to lower-than-projected revenues leaves the agency 128 days to close the budget gap.
The biggest single hit “surprise “was a new contract for unionized bus workers, which cost the agency $46.6 million in additional salaries and benefits. NJ Transit also spent $18 million more than it expected on services by outside companies, including a program to overhaul the agency’s double-decker train cars, plus another $13 million on materials and supplies, to renovate facilities . Federal money partially offset some of these expenses , and NJ Transit expects more federal reimbursements to help off set budget gap.
According to NJT the biggest financial challenge is the new contract with 11 rail unions to increase pay for its 4,200 train workers by 21 percent between now and the end of 2019, including retroactive pay to 2011. NJT has not yet released the contract’s total cost, but Governor Christie reiterated it will not necessitate another fare increase. NJT last raised fares in July 2015.
Besides the new contract NJT will soon pay more money yest unspecified to use Northeast Corridor tracks belonging to Amtrak, this according to the Northeast Corridor Commission.
Ridgewood NJ, Hillary Clinton told Jimmy Kimmel that barring any national security risk, she would like to open up the government files on Area 51 to the public if she is elected president.
“I would like us to go into those files and hopefully make as much of that public as possible,” she told Jimmy Kimmel Thursday night on his late night ABC talk show. “If there’s nothing there, let’s tell people there’s nothing there.”
When Kimmel followed up by asking what she would do if she discovered there was actually something alarming in the files, Clinton replied: “Well, if there is something there, unless it’s a threat to national security, I think we ought to share it with the public.”
Area 51 is an Air Force facility in Nevada that was only recently acknowledged by the U.S. government. Some conspiracy theorists believe it is where the government houses secret information about aliens and UFOs. many point to the 1947 crash in Roswell. In 1947 an unidentified flying object crashed on a ranch northwest of Roswell, New Mexico, sometime during the first week of July .
Ridgewood NJ, Ridgewood commuters may finally get the much coveted “One seat ride ” to Manhattan . On Thursday the Port Authority committed it self to building a connection as part of a new Hudson River rail tunnel ,this connection would give Ridgewood rail commuters a direct train ride to New York City.
The agency authorized spending $35 million ,which would be matched by $35 million from Amtrak to fund the preliminary planning and environmental review for the project, known as the Gateway tunnel.
The new rail connection known as the Bergen Loop would connect NJ Transit’s Main-Bergen and Pascack Valley train lines directly to the Northeast Corridor line, bypassing Secaucus Junction and delivering commuters to New York Penn Station.
That means no more ferry rides, PATH trains or transfers in Hoboken or Secaucus. Proponents claim direct train service will increase the value of North Jersey real estate by billions of dollars.
Norwood NJ, “Republican” Norwood Councilman Allen Rapaport demonstrated more of the cowardise that has so typified the GOP establishment. deciding to defect from his county party organization’s support of Scott Garrett (R-5), the incumbent Republican congressman in his district. Thursday morning, Rapaport joined Garrett’s Democratic challenger Josh Gottheimer in Paramus to declare his decision to endorse him over Garrett , finishing his political career.
With this move Rapaport joins and other failed politicians with Gottheimer in support of Wall Street bailouts , big banks .
Rapaport’s decision to endorse Gottheimer comes hot on the heels of the January party switch of “Double dipper “Sheriff Michael Saudino. The once-Republican will now be running as a Democrat on the November ballot. Yudin’s challenger for the BCRO chairmanship Paul DiGaetano, like the rest of the BCRO, he is supporting Garrett.
Trenton NJ, A veteran state lawmaker State Sen. Gerald Cardinale (R-Bergen) is at it again saying on Thursday he will soon launch another push to make it easier for law-abiding residents in New Jersey to obtain permits to carry a handgun.
On Tuesday Cardinale introduced a measure that sparked controversy . Measure (S1982) that would allow legislators and judges in the state to obtain carry permits if they complete at least eight hours of training.
Critics and proponents alike said it amounted to nothing more than the state bring “dueling” back to Trenton Dueling a time honored tradition in Politics was made most notable in New Jersey by the Burr–Hamilton duel . The former secretary of the treasury, Alexander Hamilton, and sitting vice president, Aaron Burr, dueled on July 11, 1804. The duel was the culmination of a long and bitter rivalry between the two men. The duel took place .in Weehawken, in New Jersey, Burr shot and mortally wounded Hamilton. Hamilton was carried to the home of William Bayard on the Manhattan shore, where he died the next day.
New Jersey’s unemployment rate fell two percentage points in February, even as the state recorded a loss of more than 10,000 private-sector jobs. Samantha Marcus, NJ.com Read more
BY DIANA OLIVEIRA
STAFF WRITER |
THE RIDGEWOOD NEWS
RIDGEWOOD – Thirty years ago, Kerry Kletter was graduating from Ridgewood High School with a less-than-stellar record — one that probably included the many naps she took during English class.
Today, the 1986 RHS alumna is a published author, who is currently on a book tour to promote her first novel, “The First Time She Drowned.” She stopped by the high school’s Learning Commons last week to meet with students and discuss her book. For Kletter, who now lives in Santa Monica, Calif., it was imperative to return to her former home.
BY MATTHEW SCHNEIDER
STAFF WRITER |
THE RIDGEWOOD NEWS
RIDGEWOOD – A citizen group was present at the village’s Twinney Pond this week, observing the removal of some invasive plants from a natural landscape that has been “in existence since the days of the glaciers.”
Cynthia Halaby, president of the Conservancy for Ridgewood Public Lands group, explained via email that her organization is dedicated to tending to public lands that do not get enough care due to village budget cuts.
Change? As in making a city? No. Let’s be real here…. No one, I mean no one…. will move to Ridgewood without the idea of having children. People move here fore the schools. Dont believe me? Go see a Travell school directory and see the amount of kids from the Oak St. area. that live in apartments.
3000k a month for a luxury apartment for a commuting husband and wife? Why? We have nothing to offer that other closer more stable cities have. 3000k a month with children sounds like a better idea.
We are NOT hoboken, we are NOT montclair, we are NOT morristown. We have few similarities at best as in a train station and some nice shops but thats it.
Your schools class sizes are about to get a shock of their life, your nice class sizes are about to get big. No one seems to remember when Hawes and Sommerville had trailers as classrooms because of over-crowding, I remember because I was taught in them and it takes years for infrastructure to catch up to over building. If you have young children entering the schools you should be the most concerned.
Sewer, water, police, fire and DPW services all have to be increased to support additional population. We ALL pay for that. Don’t want to pay for it? Enjoy more county involvement.
BY MATTHEW SCHNEIDER
STAFF WRITER |
THE RIDGEWOOD NEWS
RIDGEWOOD – Despite protracted negotiations with the Ridgewood Education Association (REA), Board of Education (BOE) President Sheila Brogan announced Monday night that a contract settlement still had not been reached between the two sides.
Brogan explained that she and Trustee Jim Morgan met with REA negotiators Mike Yannone and Laura Grasso over the past few days, having “a good exchange,” but that nothing had been agreed upon.
Ridgewood NJ , Council Candidate Jeff Voigt give the Ridgewood blog his take on the March 23rd meeting .
Jeff started off , ” last night – no surprises. Yes we need parking (I actually voted for parking on Hudson St). However, I did not vote for the options presented by the council to the public. My mistake was actually believing that the council majority would be reasonable in coming up with a garage that would fit on the Hudson St/S. Broad area. As it happened, the Village residents were presented with 4 bad options and the council asked for input/feedback from the community. This was called compromise by the council majority. Compromise in my mind is when two parties, who are on opposite ends of the spectrum, meet somewhere in the middle. If this has occurred, a much smaller parking deck would likely have been the result. What occurred, however, was nothing but a multiple choice test amongst 4 bad choices.”
Jeff mentioned a new petition , “There is a petition going around (which I support) for repealing Ordinance 3521 (Ridgewood bonding the garage) – for the very reason that the garage does not fit in this space as it is currently configured. The website https://www.its2big.com has more information; email:[email protected]. As you can tell by this website, the garage is way too big (5 levels; 4 stories; with 60+ foot high towers [note: that zoning in this area is for 45 feet]) and; does not fit with the aesthetics of the surrounding area. The committed Village citizens leading this petition initiative include: Jacqui, Anne Loving, Gail McCarthy, Ellen McNamara and Saurabh Dani . As well please reach out to Lorraine Reynolds (phone: 201-264-8151). Thank you to all of these people for heading this up.”
Regarding high density housing and the Ordinances 3489-3492 that were passed, Jeff said he left the meeting with the following impressions and thoughts:
“· Affordable housing is driving the Master Plan and appears to hold precedence (from a legal standpoint) over the Village employing spot zoning to address it (note: the NJ Supreme Court has ruled that spot zoning is illegal; Riya Finnegan LLC v Township S. Brunswick; 2008). It also appears the current council majority is holding good land use planning (via our Master Plan) hostage to affordable housing. While I am not against affordable housing and agree that Ridgewood should do its best to meet its obligation, we still do not know what this obligation is and; we have no plan for it. This makes no sense to me. As well, it would be nice to understand from some good lawyers, which of the following holds precedence if the 2 are intertwined – the use of spot zoning (to address an issue – is this legal or not) or affordable housing.
· What would be optimal regarding Ridgewood’s affordable housing obligation is for the Village to wait and see what this obligation is from the state and then plan for it. It is hard understanding why we are chasing an elusive target and zoning in a willy-nilly fashion (e.g. new AH-3 zone on Rt. 17 North across from the park and ride). This new zone, AH-3, was presented on at the 3/15/16 planning board meeting – where the Valley Hospital resolution was also presented. Note: Since the agenda for this meeting was published on the Ridgewood website only 3 hours prior to this meeting, only about 10 people attended. The open public meetings act requires that agendas be published 48 hours before a public meeting. Therefore, no surprises as to why so few people attended and why so few people know about it. ”
Ridgewood NJ, At a recent council meeting pets of Mayor Aronsohn used foul language, laughter, and un-Civility. Mayor Aronsohn the so called champion of civility showed his true colors proving once again the whole ‘civility ” issues was nothing more than an attempt to silence dissent. Why it feels like Jersey City already in the new Ridgewood .
I am interested to know why you neither stopped nor even reprimanded a speaker at the March 23 Village Council meeting who referred to some members of the public as “fornicators.” The use of this pejorative certainly would not fit in with anyone’s definition of “civility in public discourse,” and as the self-proclaimed champion of such civility it is shocking that you allowed this speaker to continue. This is particularly surprising since you reprimanded me a couple of weeks ago for laughing, yes laughing, during a meeting. I look forward to hearing your explanation as to why foul language is acceptable and laughter is reprimand-worthy in a meeting of which you are the chair.
Anne LaGrange Loving
Mr. Aronsohn, when the first speaker at last night’s long council meeting, recent and questionable recipient of a good citizen award, began to pontificate about people he disagreed with, his voice growing louder, and going so far as to call those who had distributed a flier about the garage some time ago “fornicators”–to audible gasps from the crowd–why didn’t you stop him?
Is cursing at one’s fellow residents not uncivil? Did this not begin the proceedings on a very low note? Is it not your responsibility to keep council meetings cordial?
You have not hesitated to chastise other residents for doing far less. Had someone on “the other side” said anything remotely like this, that person would surely have been reprimanded and possibly ejected from the room–appropriately.
Ridgewood NJ, Former Assemblyman Paul DiGaetano will officially be challenging current Bergen County Republican Organization Chairman Bob Yudin. DiGaetano mailed a letter the members of the BCRO on Wednesday morning announcing his intentions to run during the party’s mid-June election.
DiGaetano said “After many discussions with County Committee members and leaders throughout the County, it has become clear that there is a strong desire to change the direction in which our beloved party is heading here in Bergen County,” DiGaetano said in the announcement. “Republicans across the County have wasted far too much energy on infighting, and the Democrats have capitalized on our disarray with increasingly regular wins and with increasing margins of victory. We need to come together and stop the bleeding now, before it is too late.”
Rumors had swirled and DiGaetano had previously made it clear that he was looking to pursue the chairmanship of the troubled BCRO. With Wednesday’s announcement he officially submited his candidacy.
Previously, the race for BCRO chairman was poised to become a three-person race between Yudin, DiGaetano and Wyckoff Mayor Kevin Rooney. Rooney dropped out of the race earlier this month and backed Yudin claiming that the party needed to be united in the face of a strong Democratic opposition and not waste energy on a race for chairman leaving just DiGaetano as the prime candidate to replace the often controversial Bob Yudin.
The challenge to Yudin’s chairmanship and leadership comes after a series of set backs and unsuccessful elections for Bergen County’s Republicans. Last year, Republicans failed to pick up any seats on the county’s freeholder board and lost in LD38, initially seen as one of the most competitive districts in the state . Earlier this year Bergen County Sheriff Michael Saudino, rocked party officials defecting to the Democrats . Yudin’s leadership has been under strain for years and to many the statesman like DiGaetano may be the one to right the ship and turn things around for the Bergen GOP.
After years of discussion and months of only preliminary progress, the Gateway Tunnel under the Hudson River took a big step forward Wednesday when officials announced $70 million in new funding for preliminary engineering work, plus a framework establishing who has decision-making power over the project.
BY HERB JACKSON
WASHINGTON CORRESPONDENT |
THE RECORD
U.S. Rep. Scott Garrett said Wednesday that his position on gay candidates running for Congress is being distorted by his political opponents, and that the media are letting it happen.
In an interview in his Washington office, Garrett said he was not, as some critics have said, opposed to gay people seeking office. That is “everyone’s right,” he said.
