We live in the Hawes district but on the other side of Rt 17N. The school is so crowded that our new neighbors have been told that their Kindergarten daughter cannot go to Hawes but will be bussed to yet another school. If Ridgewood is so overcrowded WITHOUT those apartments, what will happen when they come in? And the school children inventory was not done in any of the garden apartments in town, just the one high rise on Maple. We all know the reason for that!
Taking a population count in the garden apartments would prove that the builder’s have no idea how many children would live in the new apartments, as a good number live in the garden apartments. I really don’t understand why our Planning Board, and now our Council, have not bothered to make our town Planner do something other than” the devil is in the details.”
THE RIDGEWOOD VILLAGE COUNCIL’S
PUBLIC WORKSHOP AGENDA
AUGUST 5, 2015
1. 7:30 pm – Call to Order – Mayor
2. Statement of Compliance with Open Public Meeting Act
Mayor: “Adequate notice of this meeting has been provided by a posting on the bulletin board in Village Hall, by mail to the Ridgewood News, The Record, and by submission to all persons entitled to same as provided by law of a schedule including the date and time of this meeting.”
3. Roll Call – Village Clerk
4. Flag Salute/Moment of Silence
5. Public Comments (Not to Exceed 5 Minutes per Person)
6. Presentations
a. Senior Citizen Needs Assessment Survey
b. June Year-to-Date Financial Review
7. Discussion
a. Parking
1. Hudson Street Parking Garage Update
2. Proposed 15 Minute Parking Spot
b. Budget
1. Capital Ordinance – Funding for Grant – Handicap Ramp at Graydon Pool
2. Award Contract – F150 Pickup for Parking Enforcement
3. Award of Contract Under State Contract – Purchase & Servicing of Firefighting Equipment and Supplies
4. Award Contract Under State Contract – Snow Plows
5. Award Partial Contract – Siding Repairs to Traffic and Signal Building
6. Award Contract – Maintenance Agreement for SCADA System and Software Support
7. Authorize Change Order – Emergency Service Repair to Water Pollution Control Facility SCADA System
8. Authorize Change Order – Benjamin Franklin Middle School Drop-Off
9. Award Contract – Printing Services – Ridgewood Water
10. Award Contract – Consulting Engineering Services – Ridgewood Water
11. Award Contract – Emergency Laboratory Services – Water Department
b. Budget (continued)
12. Award Contract – Lead and Copper and Water Quality Parameter Testing & Compliance Services – Ridgewood Water
13. Award Contract – Groundwater Under the Direct Influence of Surface Water – Ridgewood Water
14. Award Contract – Emergency Repairs of Graydon Pool Well
15. Approve Agreement with Washington Township – Paving and Curbs – Hampshire Road and Standish Road
16. Approve Shared Services Agreement – Fuel – Ridgewood Board of Education
c. Operations
1. 2016 Village Council Meeting Dates
2. Establish Deposit Fees for Use of Village Barricades
d. Policy
1. Discussion of Schedler Property and House
2. Middlesex Regional Education Services Commission Cooperative Pricing Agreement
3. Green Business Recognition Program
8. Review of August 12, 2015 Public Meeting Agenda
9. Manager’s Report
10. Council Reports
11. Public Comments (Not to Exceed 5 Minutes per Person)
12. Resolution to go into Closed Session
13. Closed Session
A. Legal – Valley Hospital
B. Personnel – Human Resources Position
14. Adjournment
Posted by Matt Rooney On August 03, 2015 11 Comments
By Matt Rooney | The Save Jersey Blog
Governor Chris Christie’s CNN interview continues to elicit strong reactions, Save Jerseyans, and the problem with this controversy, as with similar incidents, is that most folks are focusing on the style points. It’s among the regrettable byproducts of our presidential politics, cultural decline, and hyper-politicization of the education industry. But those are topics for another post…
What about the substance?
Let’s revisit, briefly, what these teachers’ unions are all about and objectively decide whether they deserve to exist (I’m not pulling any punches):
10) The union establishment’s demands are as unrealistic as they’ve been fiscally ruinous. NJEA members will donate $126,000 to pension and health benefits over 30 years but stand to collect $2.4 million in return. Who thought this was a good idea??? Are all of the calculators broken in Trenton? Of course not. It’s all part of an elaborate, decades-old double-whammy of vote buying and problem avoidance. Instead of hating Chris Christie, teachers should direct their ire to the politicians on their own union’s campaign season payroll. They did it.
9) Their chosen tactics are disgusting. Wisconsin’s recent experienceswere horrific, and the physical/verbal violence perpetrated by Big Labor’s storm troopers was 100% one-sided.
8) The system these unions ferociously protect is failing our country’s most vulnerable children, especially those students living in poorer, minority-concentrated school districts. Click here to check out my lengthy run-down of Camden High School’s plight (catalyzed by a give-and-take with my liberal friend of Inky fame Kevin Riordan) for the uncomfortable truth.
7) American Teachers’ unions = Democrat Party affiliates. After self-preservation, the teacher union establishment is primarily concerned with protecting the Democrats whose policies protect their power. A good faith union would avoid colluding with one political party or the other, pursuing and prioritizing the best interests of its membership and their children. Not the teacher’s unions; in this state and most others, and certainly nationally as Chris Christie pointed out, they function as a Democrat Super PAC. The American Federation of Teachers has already endorsed Hillary Clinton before either party held its first debate!
6) Dues tied up in waste and hypocrisy… so teachers lose, too: The NJEA collects a 9-figure annual sum in teachers’ taxpayer paycheck-derived dues; its regular and political arms spend many millions more in lobbying and both direct and indirect campaigning activity to influence public police. What do its members have to show for it???
5) Therefore, these unions have a financial incentive to protect bad dues-paying teachers at the expense of the education system. Much has been written on this topic but John Stossel did a particularly good job of illustrating how difficult it is to purge the suck; it’s a crisis that’s turned even hardened union veterans against the tenure-centric system.
AUGUST 3, 2015 LAST UPDATED: MONDAY, AUGUST 3, 2015, 11:10 AM
BY MATTHEW SCHNEIDER
STAFF WRITER |
THE RIDGEWOOD NEWS
Al Annunziata, district representative from the New Jersey School Boards Association, presented his findings last month on a self-evaluation that Ridgewood Board of Education members undertook earlier this year.
The evaluation, which takes place once a year, includes categories like superintendent relations and board-staff relationships, with scores ranging from zero to a possible high of four. Any score below a 3.0 warrants extra attention, as that is an area that is clearly struggling, Annunziata said.
A look at Ridgewood’s scores showed that almost all of them were very high, exhibiting the high regard the board members have for the school system, and demonstrating their satisfaction with current arrangements, he said.
Pascack Valley hospital in Westwood seeks to move ER
JULY 2, 2015 LAST UPDATED: THURSDAY, JULY 2, 2015, 12:30 AM
BY SARAH NOLAN
MANAGING EDITOR |
PASCACK VALLEY COMMUNITY LIFE
Two years after reopening its doors as Hackensack University Medical Center (HUMC) at Pascack Valley, the hospital is before the Westwood Planning Board with an application to relocate its emergency room.
During a June 25 public hearing, hospital chief executive officer (CEO) Emily Holliman said the updates are part of HUMC at Pascack Valley’s “long-range plan to expand,” and will include relocating the emergency department from the rear of the building, to the front, which she said will “provide for a much-enhanced department for patients” with better access.
The plans also call for dedicated, separate entrances for emergency medical vehicles and walk-in patients or visitors, a security vestibule and bereavement room, as well as a drop-off area for patients or visitors, and continued valet parking, a service the hospital currently offers.
The new location will essentially double the square footage of the emergency department to 22,000 square feet, Holliman said, and provide 25 private patient rooms, including five pediatric treatment rooms, which the hospital does not currently have.
It will allow for direct access to several other departments, from the emergency department, improving the flow of the department.
Holliman said that while the hospital currently sees six or seven inbound ambulances per 24 hours, she anticipates with the new department it will be able to handle 14 a day, and double annual Emergency Room visits from 18,000 a year to 37,000. The new emergency department will be located in an area of the hospital that is not currently being utilized – the old obstetrics unit, Holliman said.
“This new department will allow us to grow and expand in the future and continue to provide high quality, efficient service,” she said.
ObamaCare enrollees are less satisfied with their plans than people with other types of health insurance, according to a new poll.
The poll from the Deloitte Center for Health Solutions, the research arm of the consulting firm, finds that 30 percent of people with insurance through ObamaCare’s marketplaces are satisfied with their plans.
That compares with 42 percent satisfaction from people with employer-sponsored plans, 48 percent with Medicaid and 58 percent with Medicare.
Cost is the most common reason cited for the dissatisfaction with ObamaCare. Republicans have attacked the high deductibles and other out-of-pocket expenses under the system.
An analysis from the consulting firm HealthPocket found that last year the average deductible for a silver-level ObamaCare plan was $2,907, more than twice as much as the average deductible in an employer-sponsored plan.
The Ridgewood Guild Presents 2015 Movies in the Park Schedule
All movies are on Wednesdays and start at sundown (approximately 9pm in June and July and 8:30pm in August). In case of rain movies will be shown the following day (Thursday). Follow-us on Facebook for the latest information.
June 10: Star Wars
June 24: Citizen Kane
July 8: Ferris Bueller’s Day Off
July 22: Momma Mia!*
August 5: Murder on the Orient Express
August 19: Harry Potter and the Sorcer’s Stone*
Ride-sharing app, which just closed a funding round, reaches mark faster than Facebook
By
DOUGLAS MACMILLAN and TELIS DEMOS
Updated July 31, 2015 8:50 p.m. ET
Uber Technologies Inc. has completed a new round of funding that values the five-year-old ride-hailing company at close to $51 billion, according to people familiar with the matter, equaling Facebook Inc.’s record for a private, venture-backed startup.
Uber raised close to $1 billion in the round, one of the people said, bringing the San Francisco company’s total funding to more than $5 billion. Uber had briefed investors on a plan to raise between $1.5 billion and $2 billion in the round, The Wall Street Journal reported in May.
Fussy eating in children signals a higher chance they will go on to suffer from mental health problems such as anxiety and depression, research suggests
By Laura Donnelly, Health Editor
6:00AM BST 03 Aug 2015
Picky eating in small children may be a sign of serious mental problems that should not be ignored, say experts.
Parents and doctors who view food fussiness as a passing phase could be making a grave mistake, a study suggests.
Even “moderate” pickiness was associated with significantly increased levels of depression and anxiety in a population of more than 3,000 children aged two to six.
Those with highly selective eating habits were more than twice as likely as normal eaters to have a diagnosis of depression.
Lead researcher Dr Nancy Zucker, director of the Duke Centre for Eating Disorders in the US, said: “The question for many parents and physicians is: when is picky eating truly a problem?
“The children we’re talking about are not just misbehaving kids who refuse to eat their broccoli.”
AUGUST 2, 2015 LAST UPDATED: SUNDAY, AUGUST 2, 2015, 9:43 AM
BY CHRIS HARRIS
STAFF WRITER |
THE RECORD
RIDGEWOOD — Open-water swimming sensation Charlotte Samuels has been having a truly memorable summer.
The record-setting 17-year-old attended a summer camp for poets in Minnesota some weeks ago. She’s also fresh from a young women’s writing workshop at Smith College in Massachusetts.
Plus, in a matter of weeks, Samuels will be back in the swell, doing what she loves most: traversing massive expanses of undulating water in awe-inspiring fashion.
Samuels became the youngest person to complete her sport’s Triple Crown when she made quick work of the English Channel in September, after swims around Manhattan and off the coast of California. Since April, she has been training for her next aquatic feat – a 12-hour swim between Long Island and the Jersey Shore. “I’m excited for this swim, which will cap what has been such a great summer,” Samuels said. “I can’t wait for this swim.”
Samuels began plotting her next big swim soon after making history in England last summer.
Fallen tree blocks busy through street in Ridgewood
August 03,2015
Boyd A. Loving
Ridgewood NJ, Tree crews from the Village of Ridgewood Parks Department work to remove a fallen tree that completely blocked Lincoln Avenue in Ridgewood on Monday morning, 08/03. The fallen tree was reported at approximately 8:15 AM and affected the roadway between Rock Road and Highland Avenue.
No injuries were reported, nor were there any reported disruptions to utility services in the area. The roadway was reopened for traffic at approximately 9:45 AM. Uniformed patrol officers from Ridgewood and Glen Rock provided traffic control while crews were busy at work.
Valley is a disgrace to Ridgewood with their actions. Why would anyone support Valley in this town anymore? I believe Hackensack is Top 5 in the country. The 10 minute extra drive is now worth it for me. This town has so many issues. A 3-2 Council, we’re the minority on this.
High Density housing, unreasonable size units we’re given. A 15 Million dollar parking garage? Are you insane? How much did the Town Hall cost in the flood zone. How many studies have we paid for? Let’s do another study. Steel beams and concrete..$15 million dollars, only in RichWood. Town is a disgrace and moving in the wrong direction. I just heard, needs to be confirmed, the Engineer is asking taxpayers sidewalks to be repaired? Take a look at the sidewalks in the CDB. Hint, the red bricks meeting concrete. Don’t ask others to do when you don’t! True
the staff of the Ridgewood blogRidgewood NJ, Imagine owning a shop that is so good , you get a Davidoff cigar special addition named after you ? The store is Tobacco Shop of Ridgewood, celebrates its 35th anniversary this year. Through the Davidoff Retailer Anniversary program, the company offers its Davidoff appointed merchants a chance at having a special cigar made for major anniversaries. Each year, the company creates a variety of blends in a specific size and lets the interested retailers choose which blend they would like. Last year, four stores participated in the program.
And here it is the Davidoff Tobacconist of Ridgewood 35th Anniversary is a 6 x 52 toro with a Dominican wrapper, Ecuadorian Connecticut binder and Dominican fillers including San Vicente visos and piloto seco from different regions.The cigar was released on June 10. Pricing is set at $22 per cigar and the cigar will be limited to 300 boxes of 10.
Tobacco Shop of Ridgewood is also a Davidoff lounge and is owned by Barbara and Gary Kolesaire.Last year they opened a new cigar lounge on the third floor.
It is a private space for members only, the lounge is open Monday through Friday until 10 p.m.; Saturdays from 10 a.m. to 5:30 p.m., Sunday from 12:30 to 7:30 p.m. A host or hostess is always on the premises to open the door to the lounge, which has a separate entrance from the shop.
This year marked the second year in arow that Gary received an industry service award at Davidoff’s Golden Band Awards.
The Tobacco Shop of Ridgewood, 10 Chestnut Street, Ridgewood, New Jersey 07450
Phone: 201-447-2204 | Email: [email protected]
Hours: Monday – Saturday 10:00AM – 5:30PM and Thursday Night 6:30PM – 8:30PM
I really hope the mediator that has been appointed in the Valley lawsuit concludes that Valley, through their own doing over the years, has become much more of a liability to this town and it’s residents than an asset. Nice to have it, but in no way really needed, especially when you factor in their ridiculous expansion plans, as well as their attitude towards the financial obligations they should have operating in a town that has helped make them extremely profitable. Make a ton of money and don’t pay taxes on a good portion of your assets. What a gig.
we have six to seven police officers retiring this year and are any of them being replaced soon. all across this town we lost so many workers in the last five years, and they come back and say the village don’t have the money to replace workers, but in the school ‘s they get over a 100,mill. this is not right. something needs to be done. because down the road ,o we are at the end of the road now. we are in big trouble as in work force.
They’re retiring this year because they get 65% of their final comp if they retire by 2016… it’s not because the Village hasn’t been hiring new officers, that’s BS. PFRS member’s special retirement benefit after 2016 will be 60% of final compensation, plus 1% of final compensation multiplied by the number of years of creditable service over 25 but not over 30, instead of the current benefit of 65% of final compensation plus 1% for each year of service over 25 but not over 30. That’s for anyone who didn’t have 20 years of service as of 2011, so it’s in their interest to retire now.
