Author: James

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Shop Ridgewood : Summer Sidewalk Sale Days

RidgewoodSidewalkSale the Ridgewood blog

Summer Sidewalk Sale Days
Thu, August 06, 2015 – Sat, August 08, 2015
Time: 10:00 AM – 6:00 PM
Location: Downtown Ridgewood, E Ridgewood Ave., Ridgewood, NJ 07450
Event Description

Participating Stores:
Alex and Ani 134 E. Ridgewood Ave
Anik 119 E. Ridgewood Ave
Beauty Plus Salon 25 E. Ridgewood Ave
Bookends 211 E. Ridgewood Ave
Brain Balance Allendale
B Witching 130 1/2 E. Ridgewood Ave
DoubleTake Consignment 189 E. Ridgewood Ave
Duxiana 63 E. Ridgewood Ave
Femmebot 203 E. Ridgewood Ave
Fusion Academy Englewood-In front of the Park
Goldfish Swim School
Gypsy Warrior 125 E. Ridgewood Ave
Huntington Learning Center- In front of Park
Just Our Shoes/Mephisto 16 N. Walnut St
kate spade 202 E. Ridgewood Ave
Learning Express 111 E. Ridgewood Ave
Loft 41 Jewelry Studio 41 E. Ridgewood Ave
Orange Leaf Frozen Yogurt 171 E. Ridgewood Ave
Panico Salon & Spa 144 E. Ridgewood Ave
P. Smith & Co. 65 E. Ridgewood Ave
Park West Tavern
Pink Bungalow 185 E. Ridgewood Ave
RACEFASTER 211 E. Ridgewood Ave
Red Velvet Luxe 59 E Ridgewood Ave
Ridgewood Bootery 200 E. Ridgewood Ave
Storm Guard Restoration
Town & Country Apothecary 60 E. Ridgewood Ave

VINYASA YOGA BY EQUINOX
Equinox Paramus, the leaders in luxury fitness, bring you Vinyasa yoga with one of our renowned instructors before you hit the Ridgewood Sidewalk Sale. Participate in a more athletic approach to yoga characterized by flowing poses and sequences that are linked to the breath. Mats will be provided and all levels are welcome.
Van Neste Square
August 8
10 a.m. to 11 a.m.
RSVP to [email protected]

For more details, please call us at 201-445-2600 or email [email protected] www.experienceridgewood.com

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Did the Village Council violate the Village Code by hiring Matthews prior to creating the position?

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file photo by Boyd Loving
There are two questions. 1. Was an HR director necessary when the Village Manager is supposed to manage this function as part of her $150K salary? 2. Did the Village Council violate the Village Code by hiring Matthews prior to creating the position.

The answer to (1) is open for debate. Some agree. Others don’t.
The answer to (2) is unequivocal – the code was violated, and the VC was well aware that they barreled ahead without following the letter of the law.

Yes, Paul, the system is broken. And you deliberately broke it.

The question is WHY? What was the big hurry? Why not get things straight before hiring someone? Why all the subterfuge?

Thank you Mike Sedon and Susan Knudsen for standing up to your law-breaking colleagues on the Council. At least we can be proud that 40% of our elected officials follow the laws they were hired to observe.

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Readers say Village hiring rules broken

Village_Manager_Roberta_Sonenfeld_theridgewoodblog
file photo by Boyd Loving

“The intent of the ordinance,” Sonenfeld said, was to clean up the language in the code “to reflect what is and has been reality.”

What a load of BS. Clean up the lanugage in the code? Come on, Roberta, do you think that we concerned citizens of this town are stupid? You hired for a position that did not exist. The Council knew you were doing this, and two objected. You did not care, because you had the vote of the threesome in your pocket, so you knew that the hiring would go through. Your “clean up” statement is clearly intended to imply that this was along-standing discrepancy, instead of a very recent discrepancy that you intentionally created in order to hire Ms. Matthews.

Paul – The system is not broken, I agree with you on this.. The system is fine. You and your buddies bent the rules, broke them in half. But the system that is in place is fine. If only you and Albert and Gwenn and Roberta had respect for the law.

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Ridgewood library studying $5M renovation project

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JULY 24, 2015, 4:42 PM    LAST UPDATED: FRIDAY, JULY 24, 2015, 4:51 PM
BY CHRIS HARRIS
STAFF WRITER |
THE RECORD

RIDGEWOOD — The village library’s interior is being studied for a makeover that could cost an estimated $5 million.

The Ridgewood Library’s Board of Trustees has met with three architects this month to discuss potential upgrades to the high-traffic facility, according to the library’s director, Nancy Greene.

“We hope to make the library building more bright and welcoming in the busy central circulation area,” Greene said.

Any plans would “open up more inviting areas throughout the library, especially for teens and adult reading, study group projects and discussions,” she said.

The board also wants to expand the teen center at the library, and provide additional “reader seats with natural light,” Green said.

The Ridgewood Library’s trustees hope to have initial designs for the interior update this fall, along with concrete cost projections.

A recent estimate put the project’s potential cost at $5 million, to be paid for with a mix of private and public funding.

https://www.northjersey.com/news/ridgewood-library-studying-5m-renovation-project-1.1380609

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VILLAGE OF RIDGEWOOD RESIDENTIAL PERMIT AMNESTY PROGRAM ENDS AUGUST 21st

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VILLAGE OF RIDGEWOOD RESIDENTIAL PERMIT AMNESTY PROGRAM – Ends August 21, 2015

PERMIT AMNESTY PROGRAM

The Building Department is offering an amnesty program for residential work that has been previously completed without the required permits from the Village of Ridgewood.

The purpose of the amnesty program is to ensure that any work that was completed without permits does not cause a safety hazard to our residents. The program will also give Village homeowners the opportunity to apply for these permits before they are subject to administrative action.

Construction permits are required for, but not limited to, decks, interior renovations, pools, mechanical equipment installations, generators, fire/burglar systems, electrical services and subpanels, additional light fixtures or receptacles and water and gas piping. The program requires that homeowners apply for all permits and securing all the necessary inspections during the amnesty period. A comprehensive list of permitted items can be found on the Village’s website at www.ridgewoodnj.net under The Department of Community Services.

To participate in the amnesty program, you must apply for the proper permits prior to any discovery by our inspectors. Violations will not be issued to any owner occupied dwelling provided the homeowner takes advantage of the amnesty program while the program is in effect from April 20, 2015 until the close of business on August 21, 2015.

Residents doing work without a permit and who do not take advantage of this program will be subjected to the normal administrative procedures mandated by the New Jersey Uniform Construction Code. Please note that if your property has zoning non-conformities, you will be required to obtain the proper zoning approval. This is an opportunity to ensure that should you consider selling your home, all the necessary paperwork will be in order and you will avoid any last minute delays.

The amnesty program does not exempt any zoning, engineering or any other required prior approval issues which must be satisfied prior to the issuance of any permits. Also, some work may have an impact on your property taxes.

Contractors and commercial properties are not eligible for the amnesty program.

Should you have any questions, please contact the Construction Department at 201-670-5500 extension 506.

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Sanders Surges, Clinton Sags in U.S. Favorability

Bernie Sanders

by Lydia Saad

PRINCETON, N.J. — Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders’ favorable rating among Americans has doubled since Gallup’s initial reading in March, rising to 24% from 12% as he has become better known. Hillary Clinton’s rating has slipped to 43% from 48% in April. At the same time, Clinton’s unfavorable rating increased to 46%, tilting her image negative and producing her worst net favorable score since December 2007.

Sanders’ increased favorability reflects the broader increase in the public’s familiarity with him since March. Overall, 44% of Americans are able to rate him today, up from 24% in March. Not only has the percentage viewing him favorably increased, but also the percentage viewing him unfavorably has risen, up eight percentage points to 20%.

Clinton’s Inauspicious Rivals

Clinton maintains a higher absolute favorable rating from Americans than any of her official rivals for the 2016 Democratic nomination. In contrast to the relative prominence of numerous candidates on the Republican side, she remains the only Democratic candidate known well enough by a majority of Americans for them to rate her, which helps Clinton maintain a higher overall favorable score.

Sanders is still an unknown to a majority of Americans, with just 44% able to rate him compared with Clinton’s 89%. Total familiarity drops still further among the other three announced Democratic candidates: to 23% for former Virginia Sen. Jim Webb at 23%, former Maryland Gov. Martin O’Malley at 22% and former Rhode Island Gov. Lincoln Chafee at 17%. With slightly more Americans viewing each of these candidates unfavorably than favorably, their favorable scores reach no more than 11%.

https://www.gallup.com/poll/184346/sanders-surges-clinton-sags-favorability.aspx

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Obama collecting personal data for a secret race database

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By Paul Sperry

July 18, 2015

A key part of President Obama’s legacy will be the fed’s unprecedented collection of sensitive data on Americans by race. The government is prying into our most personal information at the most local levels, all for the purpose of “racial and economic justice.”

Unbeknown to most Americans, Obama’s racial bean counters are furiously mining data on their health, home loans, credit cards, places of work, neighborhoods, even how their kids are disciplined in school — all to document “inequalities” between minorities and whites.

This Orwellian-style stockpile of statistics includes a vast and permanent network of discrimination databases, which Obama already is using to make “disparate impact” cases against: banks that don’t make enough prime loans to minorities; schools that suspend too many blacks; cities that don’t offer enough Section 8 and other low-income housing for minorities; and employers who turn down African-Americans for jobs due to criminal backgrounds.

Big Brother Barack wants the databases operational before he leaves office, and much of the data in them will be posted online.

So civil-rights attorneys and urban activist groups will be able to exploit them to show patterns of “racial disparities” and “segregation,” even if no other evidence of discrimination exists.

https://nypost.com/2015/07/18/obama-has-been-collecting-personal-data-for-a-secret-race-database/

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New Fascism: The Wisconsin Targets Tell Their Story

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After victory in court, conservative activists talk on the record for the first time about their 21-month ordeal.

By
COLLIN LEVY
July 22, 2015 7:46 p.m. ET

The John Doe investigation of Wisconsin conservatives collapsed last week with a powerful decision from the Wisconsin Supreme Court that called state prosecutors’ theory of campaign-finance law “unconstitutional” and “unsupported in either reason or law.” But the legal exoneration shouldn’t pass without noting the hardship the secret probe imposed on its targets and on political debate in Wisconsin.

For the past few days, I’ve been talking to the targets of the task force of Milwaukee Democratic prosecutors, the Wisconsin Government Accountability Board and Special Prosecutor Francis Schmitz. Their experiences, on the record here for the first time, reveal the nasty political sweep of an investigation that invaded privacy with surveillance of email accounts, raided homes with armed law enforcement, and swarmed individuals with subpoenas demanding tens of thousands of documents while insisting on secrecy.

One target did speak up in public in real time— Eric O’Keefe, who went on the record in limited ways with me not long after he was subpoenaed in October 2013 as part of the prosecutors’ investigation of conservative speech during the Wisconsin recall elections. The director of the Wisconsin Club for Growth knew that violating the gag order put him at personal risk, but he told me then that he had to fight because it was an assault on basic constitutional freedoms and “we have done nothing illegal.” A Journal editorial exposed the extent and dubious legal basis of the Doe investigation for the first time.

 

https://www.wsj.com/articles/the-wisconsin-targets-tell-their-story-1437608811

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Sen. Lankford on Religious Liberty: ‘We Cannot Have a Group Say, If You Don’t Agree with Me, I Will Silence You’

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By Lauretta Brown | July 23, 2015 | 3:32 PM EDT

(CNSNews.com) – “In America we cannot have a group say, if you don’t agree with me, I will silence you and make sure you cannot operate,” Senator James Lankford (R-Okla.) said on Tuesday in reference to preserving religious liberty for faith-based groups in light of the Supreme Court’s decision to legalize homosexual marriage.

“In a private institution, if you remove tax-exempt status and you remove the opportunity to have student loans and you remove the Pell grants, you’ve shut down that institution and it was a volitional act to say: you disagree with me, I will close you down,” Lankford said.

“That is something we’ve got to be able to guard against, to say, can people have religious belief?” said the senator.  “That affects how they hire and what they do.”

https://www.cnsnews.com/news/article/lauretta-brown/sen-lankford-religious-liberty-we-cannot-have-group-say-if-you-dont?utm_source=facebook&utm_medium=cns&utm_term=facebook&utm_content=facebook&utm_campaign=n-lankford-religious-liberty

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Despite All the Panic, Millennial Teens Have Much Less Sex Than Their Elders Did

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Parents stay calm teenagers are not having sex …anymore 

Elizabeth Nolan Brown|Jul. 23, 2015 3:15 pm

According to popular culture, today’s teens are a bunch of “hookup”-scarred heathens, trapped in a sordid world of casual flings with one another and exploitation at the hands of online predators. In reality, teenagers today are having less sex than they have for decades. New data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and the National Center for Health Statistics shows that the number of (unmarried) 15- to 19-year-olds who’ve had sex dropped by 14 percent for girls and 22 percent for boys in the period between 1988 and 2013.

As of 2011-2013, 44 percent of teen girls surveyed and 47 percent of teen boys said they had sexual intercourse—compared to 51 and 60 percent, respectively, of their 1988 counterparts. Or, to put it another way, 4.3 million millennial girls and 4.8 million boys, compared to 5 million and around 6.15 million in the late ’80s. Congratulations, last of the Gen X’ers: you are better than the youngest of the millennial cohort at getting laid.

But kids these days are better about practicing safe sex: 79 percent of the girls surveyed and 84 percent of the boys said they had used some sort of contraceptive method the first time they had sex, with condoms ranking the most popular. In 1988, only 71 percent of male teens and 69 percent of female teens used contraception when they first had sex.

After condoms, the birth control pill and the pull-out method are now the most popular teen contraception choices. Fifty-four percent of 15- to 19-year-old girls surveyed said they had at some point been on the pill, which is similar to the 2002 rate; the rates of contraceptive-implant use (2 percent) and intrauterine device, or IUD, use (3 percent) were also relatively stable.

https://reason.com/blog/2015/07/23/despite-all-the-panic-millennial-teens-h

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For the 4th Day in a Row Power problems derail NJT Commute

Ridgewood_Train_station_train-_is_coming_theridgewoodblog

July 24,2015
the staff of the Ridgewood blog

Ridgewood NJ, Summer heat and Amtrak power problems are once again causing delays for Amtrak and NJ Transit riders.NLT was reporting 30 min delays on trains in/out of Penn Station .

NJT ticket customers at NWK: can use the center platform fare gates for cross honoring with NJ PATH Trains.

NJT: Trains into/out of Penn Station New York are subject to delays up to 30 minutes due to Amtrak overhead power problems. NJT rail passes/tickets will be cross-honored with NJT and private carrier buses, PATH at 33rd, Hoboken, Newark and NY Waterway in South Ferry at Hoboken Terminal.

Amtrak claims it’s experiencing overhead wire problems in New York City.. Commuters were justifiable frustrated  and took to the twitterverse  “This is the third (or is it fourth?) time this week”: ,” if there are any lawyers out there, I’d be in for a class action law suit against NJT and Amtrak. We we are done with this.” , ” I’m tired of “Amtrak overhead wire problems”. Keep me interested…crew manipulation, ice patrol, something.”

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Feds renew N.J. waiver of No Child Left Behind law for 3 years

BOE_theridgewoodblog

JULY 23, 2015, 10:33 PM    LAST UPDATED: THURSDAY, JULY 23, 2015, 10:36 PM
BY HANNAN ADELY
STAFF WRITER |
THE RECORD

New Jersey received a three-year pass to continue education programs and reforms put in place by the Christie administration, including a new educator evaluation system despised by the teachers union.

The U.S. Department of Education told seven states on Thursday that they had renewed their waivers, letting them continue practices that vary from the federal No Child Left Behind law.

New Jersey’s three-year waiver, approved without conditions, was described by state officials as an “affirmation” that what they’re doing is working.

“New Jersey can take pride knowing that our efforts are leading to real improvements in student learning,” New Jersey Education Commissioner David Hespe said in a news release.

State officials say education reforms are helping to close the achievement gap and give quality educational opportunities to all students. But the state’s largest teachers union, which has publicly sparred with the administration on such issues as pension, evaluations and testing, said the renewal was “pro-forma” and doesn’t mean schools are getting better.

 

https://www.northjersey.com/news/feds-renew-n-j-waiver-of-no-child-left-behind-law-for-3-years-1.1379842

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Hiring process for HR position is broken

Village_Hall_flood_theridgewoodblog

JULY 24, 2015    LAST UPDATED: FRIDAY, JULY 24, 2015, 12:30 AM
THE RIDGEWOOD NEWS
Print

Process for HR position ‘broken’

To the Editor:

At a recent council meeting, Councilman Mike Sedon was chastised for saying that he was misled in the budget process because he had not received any information regarding a part-time HR position becoming a full-time one and that it was not brought to the council level for discussion and/or a vote as required by our own village code. Now we find that the title of this newly instituted position is confidential secretary.

Disregarding the notion that this sounds like a job right out of “Mad Men,” it seems that this title was a way to circumvent the Civil Service guidelines. Confidential secretary is not a competitive position and therefore need not be appropriately advertised, applicants tested and rated accordingly.

Two members of the council have further questioned the process and have publicly said that they had no opportunity to debate or to vote on this hiring. If 40 percent of our council was left out of the loop on purpose or inadvertently, then the process is broken as has been charged. Rather than an acknowledgement of this scenario from the village manager and/or the mayor, Mr. Sedon and Councilwoman Susan Knudsen have been treated with disrespect for voicing their concerns.

It now appears that the entire HR hiring was not in accordance with current village code, hence all the resolutions to change it (notably after the fact).

Some will say, “What’s the big deal, we needed an HR director.” The big deal is that this will be a permanent position with a salary of approximately $100,000. Council members vote on vehicle purchases, upgrades, etc., but not a newly created department head?

Also, we didn’t get an HR director, we got a confidential secretary.

Guidelines are in effect to protect the process and the people involved. They were not followed and now there is doubt about the integrity of our village hiring practices. This did not have to happen.

Linda McNamara

Ridgewood

https://www.northjersey.com/opinion/opinion-letters-to-the-editor/letter-to-the-editor-hiring-process-for-hr-position-is-broken-1.1379854

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HR director job should be reposted through Civil Service

captin+morgan1-300x225

file photo By Boyd Loving

JULY 24, 2015    LAST UPDATED: FRIDAY, JULY 24, 2015, 12:31 AM
THE RIDGEWOOD NEWS

HR director job should be posted with Civil Service

To the Editor:

I attended the Ridgewood Council meeting on July 15, 2015, to hear the discussion regarding the changes in village government. I was most interested in the newly formed HR director position.

I am in agreement that an HR position is warranted. I am in disagreement with the process of hiring the current HR assistant and elevating her to a director without a change in job description. No one on the Village Council, as well as the village manager, could explain how this position goes from an assistant – actual title per Civil Service “Confidential Secretary to the Village Manager” — to a director without a change in the responsibilities. It is also being elevated to a full-time position with an enormous salary increase plus benefits.

The job was posted as an assistant position, which limited the pool of applicants looking for full-time work and with the credentials of director. If this position is now going to be a full-time director position, it should be reposted through Civil Service for all eligible applicants throughout the state to apply.

Bernadette Walsh

Ridgewood

https://www.northjersey.com/opinion/opinion-letters-to-the-editor/letter-to-the-editor-hr-director-job-should-be-reposted-through-civil-service-1.1379970