SEPTEMBER 1, 2015 LAST UPDATED: TUESDAY, SEPTEMBER 1, 2015, 11:22 AM
BY MARK KRULISH
STAFF WRITER |
THE RIDGEWOOD NEWS
A treatment program currently being implemented by Ridgewood Water designed to combat the levels of lead found in testing samples taken in 2012 should be completed by the third quarter of next year.
Utility officials have made recent appearances in Ridgewood, Glen Rock and Midland Park to educate residents on the subject. The utility also serves Wyckoff.
Testing done three years ago by Ridgewood Water revealed 11 cases where the water contained more than .015 milligrams per liter of lead, which triggered the need for public education and a course of action to remediate the situation, as mandated by the Department of Environmental Protection.
Lead leached into the water from lead service lines was listed as the cause for the exceedance of the action level. Officials have said the water itself is lead-free.
Lead can cause serious health problems if too much enters a person’s body, and the effects are especially harmful to young children, infants and pregnant women. Lead is stored in the bones and can be released after building up for several years, causing brain and kidney damage.
SEPTEMBER 1, 2015 LAST UPDATED: TUESDAY, SEPTEMBER 1, 2015, 11:40 AM
BY MATTHEW SCHNEIDER
STAFF WRITER |
THE RIDGEWOOD NEWS
With the 2015-16 school year right around the corner, students and district staff members are gearing up for another year of learning.
Improvements and new options will be awaiting students when school begins on Sept. 2.
A number of donations to the Ridgewood Board of Education (BOE) have made many building upgrades possible, such as a $30,000 contribution for new science classrooms at George Washington Middle School and a $4,222 gift to pay for new auditorium chairs for Hawes Elementary School. The donations were made by the Home and School associations for the respective schools.
Other buildings have been revamped utilizing funds already in the Board of Education’s budget.
“We have many different facility improvements at our schools,” said Superintendent Daniel Fishbein. “They vary from painting and re-flooring classrooms district wide, to the new cutout at BF to some paving at Travell.”
George Washington and Benjamin Franklin middle schools will be included this year in the district’s 1:1 Chromebook initiative. The district will be providing all students at the middle schools and Ridgewood High School (RHS) with Chromebook laptops for use during lessons to familiarize them with technology while streamlining their work.
“Death cross” patterns continue to spread through the stock market like an epidemic, even infecting market segments believed to be more insulated from overseas turmoil.
The Russell 2000 index RUT, -2.71% of small-capitalization stocks became the latest victim among the major market indexes. The index’s 50-day moving average fell to 1,222.95 in midday trade Tuesday, crossing below the 200-day moving average (MA), which slipped to 1,224.11, according to FactSet.
Many chart watchers believe a death cross, when the 50-day MA crosses below the 200-day MA, indicates that a shorter-term decline has developed into a longer-term downtrend.
The Russell 2000’s last death cross appeared on Sept. 22, 2014. The index fell another 7.1% in the three weeks after that before bottoming at a one-year low.
That follows the death cross that appeared in the S&P MidCap 400 Index MID, -2.83% on Monday.
State Department releases thousands of Clinton emails, 125 contain classified information
Published September 01, 2015
FoxNews.com
The State Department released thousands of pages of Hillary Clinton’s emails Monday night that a department spokesman said contained 125 messages with material now considered classified.
State Department spokesman Mark Toner said the emails in question were “subsequently upgraded” to classified. He stressed that none of the emails was considered classified at the time.
However, the sheer number of emails that have been redacted stands as the latest example of how much sensitive material was contained in Clinton’s email transactions. The FBI is conducting an investigation into whether classified information that passed through Clinton’s so-called “homebrew” server was mishandled. Clinton, the Democratic presidential front-runner, has repeatedly denied any wrongdoing.
The emails with redacted sections discussed global issues in countries from Haiti to China to Sudan.
One April 2010 email from Clinton’s top aide Huma Abedin containing a report from then-ambassador to China Jon Huntsman was redacted entirely, while a message from that September about “calls” Clinton said she was willing to make regarding trilateral talks over Sudan was likewise blacked out.
Other classified emails contain discussions about a potential presidential election in Haiti, meetings between U.S. and Cuban officials regarding aid to Haiti in the aftermath of a devastating earthquake in that country, discussions of a conversation between the Russian and American ambassadors to the United Nations, and elections for the presidency of the International Development Bank,
In all, the State Department said that 7,121 pages of emails from the former secretary of state’s personal email server had been made public — the largest such release to date.
“We’re producing more documents this month than we have produced in the previous three releases,” Toner had said earlier Monday.
The billionaire businessman and reality TV star cemented his standing as the GOP frontrunner in August, kicking off the month with a feisty and unapologetic debate performance and closing it out with direct attacks to Jeb Bush.
He heads into the fall with momentum after having orchestrated what Republicans are describing as a months-long clinic in the race for the presidential nomination.
Trump is leading in the polls; blanketing the airwaves; relishing the role of attack dog against his opponents and the media, and forcing the other candidates to adapt to a race that’s being run on his terms.
He has perfected a style and message that resonates with the conservative base’s long-simmering frustration with party leadership. And he’s owned the hot-button issue of immigration, successfully driving the policy discussion to the right.
While Trump finished the month of July atop the polls nationally, few political watchers took his rise seriously.
RIDGEWOOD SCHOOL BOARD MEETS ON SEPTEMBER 21, 2015
The Ridgewood Board of Education will hold a Regular Public Meeting on Monday, September 21, 2015 at 7:30 p.m.
The public is invited to attend the meeting at the Ed Center, 49 Cottage Place, Floor 3. The meeting will be aired live on FiOS channel 33 and Optimum channel 77. Or it may be viewed live via the district website at www.ridgewood.k12.nj.us using the “Link in Live” tab.
Click here to view the agenda and addendum for the August 24, 2015 Regular Public Meeting.
Any child under the age of 8 years old and a height of 57 inches shall be secured as follows in the rear seat of a motor vehicle:
a. A child under the age of 2 years and 30 pounds shall be secured in a rear-facing seat equipped with a 5-point harness.
b. A child under the age of 4 years and 40 pounds shall be secured as described in (a) until they reach the upper limits of the rear-facing seat, then in a forward-facing child restraint equipped with a 5-point harness.
c. A child under the age of 8 and a height of 57 inches shall be secured as described in (a) or (b) until they reach the upper limits of the rear-facing or forwardfacing seat, then in a belt positioning booster seat.
d. A child over 8 years of age or 57 inches in height must be properly secured by a seat belt.
If there are no rear seats, the child shall be secured as described above in the front seat except that no child shall be secured in a rear-facing seat in the front seat of any vehicle that is equipped with an active passenger-side airbag. The aforementioned is acceptable if the airbag is de-activated.
The Ridgewood Police Department is accepting applications for School Crossing Guard Positions. Applications are Available at the Police Desk located at 131 North Maple Avenue Ridgewood NJ. P/T position, 10 hours per week (2 hours per day) starting at $17.49/hr. Send application to Police Chief John Ward, Ridgewood Police Dept, 131 N. Maple Ave., Ridgewood, NJ 07450 or return the application to the Police Records Room. The Village of Ridgewood is an EOE and civil service community.
Ridgewood NJ, the 2015 winner of the coveted Ashby Award is Ann Brown, George Washington Middle School Library Media Specialist. Ann, who has been the Library Media Specialist since 2001,holds a Masters Degree in Library and Information Science from the Palmer School of Library and Information Science at Long Island University.
The Ashby Award was established in 1966 to honor former Superintendent Lloyd Ashby and his wife, Lois, for their distinguished service to the community. The recipient is selected from nominees submitted by staff members and is someone who, in the opinion of his or her peers, has upheld the Ashby tradition of service and contribution. This is the highest award that can be bestowed upon a Ridgewood staff member.
The 2015 Tradition of Excellence Award for Support Staff was presented to Pat Kowalczyk, Administrative Assistant in the Office of Special Programs.
The Ridgewood Board of Education established the Tradition of Excellence Award in 2014 to honor a member of the support staff, who in the opinion of their peers has made an outstanding contribution to the excellence of the Ridgewood Public Schools
The 25 mph speed limit is more dangerous than 35mph.
The rate of travel is so slow that your mind wanders.
You are lulled by the slow rate of speed to think you are able to safely perform other tasks – like texting – you feel confident in your ability to perform these tasks due to the slow rate of travel.
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A 35mph (or even 30mph) speed limit is inherently safer since it requires more concentration by the driver but is still well within the capabilities of virtually every driver (unlike say a 100mph speed limit which requires even more concentration, knowledge and reactions but is beyond the capabilities of many drivers).
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The village wide 25mph edict is another wrong headed politically correct decision that has the reverse results of its intent – making our streets more dangerous rather than safer
The hot weather and limited rainfall has led to a big increase in water use for irrigating. At the same time, the rainfall and groundwater status as monitored by NJDEP has recently been downgraded from “near normal” to “moderately dry.” Stage I restrictions have not moderated the water demand enough to maintain reserves for firefighting and other emergencies, so Ridgewood Water is implementing Stage II restrictions. Stage II limits the use of water for irrigation to two days per week. If your street address is an odd number, you may irrigate on Tuesdays and Saturdays only. If your street address is an even number, you may irrigate on Wednesdays and Sundays only. A hand held hose may be used at any time. No irrigation is allowed on Mondays, Thursdays, or Fridays except for a hand held hose.
We appreciate your cooperation in conserving this vital, shared resource.
*Please DISREGARD the notice published in the Village Calendar about Water restrictions ending in September. Stage II Water Restrictions remain until further notice.
Ridgewood NJ, Yes. Believe it or not, the crybabies on Clinton Avenue got their way again.
The street was recently repaved, but without the concrete curbs and concrete driveway cuts that were promised.
Village Engineer Christopher Rutishauser had told Village Council members concrete curbs and driveway cuts would be including in the repaving project so that the street would be “sidewalk ready.”
Reportedly, residents on the street did not want the concrete and told the Village Manager so.
By Larry Higgs | NJ Advance Media for NJ.com
Email the author | Follow on Twitter
on August 26, 2015 at 8:00 AM, updated August 26, 2015 at 12:10 PM
Why are you almost always late for dinner or constantly missing your kids soccer games last year? Well, New Jersey residents wasted almost two work weeks in 2014 just sitting in traffic.
It’s not just your family and social life that suffered. Traffic in the New Jersey-New York region caused commuters to burn 35 more gallons of gas they wouldn’t have if traffic was flowing freely. And drivers paid $1,739 in fuel costs and wasted time for the privilege of staring at someone else’s brake lights in 2014.
The bad news was delivered in the 2015 Urban Mobility Scorecard, released Wednesday by the Texas A&M Transportation Institute and INRIX, a supplier of travel time data.
Commuters driving in the New Jersey-New York-Connecticut region have the fourth-worst commute out of the 15 largest urban areas for delays. But we spend more money than any other region in the amount of gas we burn to schlep to and from work, the report said.
Don’t feel too smug if you commute elsewhere in the state, because two other New Jersey regions also made the list for crummy commutes in the report.
Three-fourths of NJ sheriffs double-dip, led by 25-year ‘retiree’
By Mark Lagerkvist / August 30, 2015 / 6 Comments
For the past quarter century, Armando Fontoura has been looting a New Jersey state pension fund. But it won’t do any good to call the cops.
Fontoura is sheriff of Essex County. A dean among double-dippers, he draws $207,289 a year from public coffers – $144,896 in salary plus $62,393 from pension as a retiree of his own office.
Today is the 25th anniversary of Fontoura’s faux retirement. So far, he has collected $1.35 million in retirement cash without ever giving up his full-time county paycheck
On Friday, Aug. 31, 1990, Fontoura retired as county undersheriff at age 47. The following Monday, he returned to work at Essex County with the same salary and duties, but a different title – sheriff’s officer chief. One year later, he took charge as sheriff, a post he’s held ever since.
“Does it look bad? Yes,” admitted Fontoura. “No question about it, it looks bad. Was it legal? Yes.”
Worse for taxpayers, three-fourths of New Jersey’s county sheriffs – plus hundreds of other public officials – are taking advantage of pension loopholes to collect dual incomes.
A continuing New Jersey Watchdog investigation found the sheriffs in 16 of the state’s 21 counties are double-dippers. In addition, the sheriffs also employ 37 undersheriffs who returned to work after retiring as local, county or state law enforcement officials at relatively young ages.
In total, the 53 officers collect nearly $10 million a year from public coffers – $5.7 million in salaries plus $4.1 million in retirement pay – according to payroll and pension records.
By order of annual incomes, the double-dipping posse includes:
Bergen County Sheriff Michael Saudino (R), $267,987 – $138,000 salary + $129,987 pension as an Emerson Borough police retiree
Passaic County Sheriff Richard H. Berdnik (D), $253,957 – $151,887 salary + $102,070 pension as a Clifton police retiree
Ocean County Sheriff Michael Mastronardy (R), $231,315 – $107,250 salary + $124,065 pension as a Toms River Township police retiree
Mercer County Sheriff John Kemler (D), $227,330 – $142,499 salary + $84,831 pension as a Mercer County sheriff’s office retiree
Camden County Sheriff Charles J. Billingham (D), $219,232 – $144,753 salary + $74,479 pension as a Washington Township police retiree
Somerset County Sheriff Frank J. Provenzano (R), $208,576 – $132,555 salary + $76,021 pension as Bridgewater Township police retiree
Warren County Sheriff David P. Gallant (R), $208,432 – $125,945 salary + $82,487 pension as a State Police retiree
Morris County Sheriff Edward V. Rochford (R), $200,838 – $139,203 salary + $61,545 pension as a Morris Township police retiree
Middlesex County Sheriff Mildred S. Scott (D), $200,796 – $139,455 salary + $61,341 pension as a retiree of the Middlesex County sheriff’s office
Hunterdon County Sheriff Frederick W. Brown (R), $197,796 – $115,868 salary + $81,928 pension as a retiree of Raritan Township police
Salem County Sheriff Charles M. Miller, $195,452 (R) – $119,386 salary + $76,066 pension as a retiree of the Salem County prosecutor’s office
Gloucester County Sheriff Carmel M. Morina (D), $191,996 – $128,547 salary + $63,449 pension as a Greenwich Township police retiree
Sussex County Sheriff Michael Strada (R), $170,124 – $121,212 salary + $46,973 pension as Mount Olive Township police retiree
Cumberland County Sheriff Robert Austino (D), $166,938 – $107,250 salary + $59,688 pension as a Vineland police retiree
Cape May County Sheriff Gary Schaffer (R), $161,654 – $107,500 salary + $54,154 pension as an Ocean City police retiree.
Click here for the complete list of sheriffs and undersheriffs who collect pensions plus salaries.
New Jersey Watchdog began tracking double-dipping by sheriffs in 2011. The initial report found 16 sheriffs and 28 undersheriffs collecting a total of $8 million a year – $3.25 million from pensions plus $4.75 million in salaries.
Four years later, the tally has increased by nine undersheriffs and $1.8 million a year in total pay.
The investigative news site has also reported extensively on double-dipping by state legislators, administration officials, school superintendents, state police and the staffs of the attorney general and county prosecutors.
RELATED: ‘Seven deadly sins’ of New Jersey pensions
The millions being drained from retirement funds through double-dipping epitomize the woes of a pension system that faces $170 billion in underfunding – a point noted earlier this year by Gov. Christie’s blue-ribbon, bi-partisan Pension and Health Benefit Study Commission.
“It has great symbolic importance…as the double-dippers have become the ‘face’ of a dysfunctional public pension system,” the study concluded, citing New Jersey Watchdog’s reporting. “For this reason, the task force should consider ways to further limit this practice.”
Yet Gov. Chris Christie and the State Legislature have done little to halt the abuses that have profited well-connected Democrats and Republicans over the years.
One of the bigger beneficiaries is Sen. Fred Madden, D-Washington, a triple-dipper who receives nearly a quarter-million dollars a year – $85,272 from his state police pension, $113,810 as dean of law and justice of Rowan College at Gloucester County and $49,000 as a part-time state legislator.
“Obviously I don’t have a problem with people doing it,” Madden said in an interview with New Jersey Watchdog three years ago. “I’ve accepted that in my own personal life. I don’t have a problem with it at all.”
A bill co-sponsored by Sen. Jennifer Beck, R-Red Bank, would stop most double-dipping. It would suspend pension payments to retirees who return to public jobs paying more than $15,000 a year. The retirement benefits would resume when they permanently leave public employment.
“The pension system is intended to support you at a time you are no longer working,” said Beck. “So when you are an active employee, you should not be able to tap into both.”
The reform proposal has gone nowhere since it was first introduced in 2011 by Beck and Sen. Steven Oroho, R-Sparta. Its current incarnations – S-883 and A-114 – are trapped in legislative committees, unable to get enough support to reach the Senate or Assembly floors for votes.
Meanwhile, Fontoura is a heavy favorite to win re-election as sheriff in a Democratic stronghold that includes Newark. A victory would enable him to continue his double-dipping ways in Essex County for at least three more years.
“I retired, I collect my pension, and I am your sheriff,” Fontoura told NBC 4 New York, which partnered with New Jersey Watchdog for a report in 2012.
County personnel records show the retiring and rehiring of Fontoura had been plotted in advance. Then-sheriff Thomas D’Alessio approved the move on Aug. 7, 1990, more than three weeks before the switch.
“I said, as long as I can do this legally without breaking any law – and I can collect my pension and augment it with a salary — that’s fine, I will do this,” Fontoura recalled.
The sheriff’s office did not respond to a new request from New Jersey Watchdog for additional comment
Hawthorne NJ, At approximately 2:45 PM on Monday, 08/31, Hawthorne PD received a 911 telephone call reporting that a 1-year old had fallen into a swimming pool located in the rear of 225 Washington Avenue.
The caller further reported that the infant was not breathing. The infant’s mother began CPR and first arriving Hawthorne PD officers deployed a defibrillator. The child was transported by a Hawthorne EMS ambulance to St. Joseph’s Regional Medical Center in Paterson with assistance from a paramedic unit based at the Medical Center. The ambulance was escorted to the hospital by a marked Hawthorne PD unit.
An investigation into the nature of the incident is now underway. The victim’s current condition is unknow
