file photo by ArtChick
Music in the Night sponsored by the Ridgewood Guild.
Music in the Night sponsored by the Ridgewood Guild. Here’s tonight’s performing line up [weather permitting]:
Dominic – Raymond’s
Banished to the Basement – MacMurphy’s
Young Monroe – The Daily Treat
George Shabet – Ridgewood Coffee
Bryan Laiks – Starbuck’s
Phil P. and the Viva Vallenato Badass Accordion Band – Ben & Jerry’s
Chris Ferrante – East Coast Burger
MARK YOU CALENDARS NOW – July 4, 2014
Fri, July 04, 2014
Time: 9:00 AM – 11:00 PM
All around the Village of Ridgewood
Here is the 4th of July schedule in Ridgewood.
Alternate date for evening events July 5th.
9am – Flag Raising at Wilsey Square
10am Parade begins at Godwin Ave & Monroe St.
(rain or shine)
6pm Veteran’s Field gates open for entertainment
6:30pm Entertainment begins
8pm Skydivers (weather permitting)
Dusk Fireworks begin.
for more info [email protected]
Ridgewood Farmers Market is Back
Two NJ Farmers
delicious baker, pickles, jams, mozzarella
Fresh every week.
Join us every Sunday, 9-3pm on the westside of the NJ Transit Ridgewood train station.
call for more information 201-445-2600.
see you there…bring the family.
Bike lane still presents dangers
JUNE 12, 2014 LAST UPDATED: THURSDAY, JUNE 12, 2014, 5:41 PM
Dave Slomin
I am writing as father of two young boys and as leader of Ridgewood’s Pack 44 Cub Scouts, with responsibility and concern for the safety of 100 boys. As such, I am very troubled by the dangers I see inherent in the design of the new underpass bike lane.
I applaud the Village Council for making changes to correct issues in the plans and process of the Garber and Wilsey Square Underpass Roadwork Project. While I continue to question the overall design and ultimate necessity of this project, I believe that narrowing the median to create a “contingency plan,” whereby the two lost traffic lanes can be restored if traffic problems occur, is important and appreciated. But, unfortunately, we can’t stop there.
The same good leadership that went into correcting the median now needs to be applied to an unfettered look at the safety issues of the bike lane. Your June 6 article (“Vote on changes prompted by protests,” The Ridgewood News, A1) quoted me as saying: “there are some good parts to the project, but the bike lane is not one of them.” A clear explanation of this bike lane’s dangers is important. As an avid cyclist myself, I am all for “bike lanes.” Just not this one. Here’s why:
– See more at: https://www.northjersey.com/opinion/opinion-letters-to-the-editor/letter-bike-lane-still-presents-dangers-1.1034644#sthash.H9D17B1r.dpu
Common sense should dictate board’s vote
June 12, 2014 Last updated: Thursday, June 12, 2014, 5:40 PM
John Hersperger
To the editor:
Residents might argue the merits of Valley Hospital’s master plan amendment request, but can’t we all agree that when our Planning Board deliberates on the expansion next Tuesday, it should consider its potential effect on the Ridgewood we know and love? Some members may envision changes that are mostly detrimental, others may see more benefits. This might all sound so obvious you are probably asking why I’m even writing this, but at the close of Wednesday’s Planning Board meeting, what seemed obvious came into question.
In what may have been a legal threat, Valley attorney Jon Drill argued that the Board would be “in error” if it uses existing conditions as the baseline for evaluating the marginal benefits and detriments of the 2013 proposal. Instead, he claims the board can debate only whether the 2013 amendment is superior to the 2010 version, which our Village Council unanimously declined to codify in 2011. And because the current plan is somewhat smaller in scope than its predecessor, Mr. Drill says the board can’t legally say “no” to it. So according to Mr. Drill, the board can’t consider how the new plan might affect existing conditions such light, space, traffic or quality of life, and moreover, must consent to Valley’s new plan. Does any Ridgewood resident believe we have ceded our zoning power to Valley?
– See more at: https://www.northjersey.com/opinion/opinion-letters-to-the-editor/letter-board-should-use-common-sense-when-making-decisions-1.1034642#sthash.mBPEzMcD.dpuf
Planning Board members have much to consider
JUNE 12, 2014 LAST UPDATED: THURSDAY, JUNE 12, 2014, 5:42 PM
Lisa Baney
Let me start by saying I could never be a Planning Board member, but if I were, I would be so tired. Over the past 14 months, they have had to attend 26 sometimes very long hearings, and listen to and dissect thousands of pages of testimony focusing on details and information that any normal human could scarcely nail down. All in response to a prestigious applicant, Valley Hospital, and its application for a master plan amendment that would allow its near-doubling of size at its location at South Van Dien Avenue next to the Benjamin Franklin Middle School.
It has become evident through this process that there are many different ways to slice and dice the data. By that, I mean a litany of measurements such as square footage, lot coverage, floor area ratios, shadow lines, changes of buffers, heights and setbacks at various sections of the buildings and property. Moreover, the board members have needed to distinguish each of these measures according to the current 2014 expansion proposal, the former 2010 proposal and what exists today. Add differing testimony on hospital beds needed, numbers and types of trucks during specific years and stages of construction, possible impact on child safety and schools, and a magnitude of other information – most importantly village character.
If I were a Planning Board member, I would see three things through all these nights.
1. Land use is primary as the basis of a master plan change.
2. As a key burden of proof, the applicant for the master plan change has not substantiated why it is absolutely necessary to conduct this degree of expansion on its main hospital campus. Valley affirms that this scale of expansion, at its current location, is the only way to well serve both our village and region, and that it is cost-prohibitive to relocate additional services, re-think its bed counts here, or follow other paths to modernize – based on elements of a business plan that it chooses not to make clear.
3. There is more than enough reason to believe that the detriments of this permanent change to our village outweigh the positives, and that the hospital has not made a convincing case to the contrary.
– See more at: https://www.northjersey.com/opinion/opinion-letters-to-the-editor/letter-planning-board-members-have-much-to-consider-1.1034646#sthash.6Qg61KBE.dpuf
Hospital officials are misleading
JUNE 12, 2014 LAST UPDATED: THURSDAY, JUNE 12, 2014, 5:43 PM
Melinda Wagner
When my husband and I began attending Planning Board meetings years ago, we were deeply annoyed with Valley Hospital, whose officials had already drawn up elaborate plans to double in size while neglecting to consult the taxpayers who would have to endure years of construction, and its permanent aftermath (to date, residents have yet to be consulted).
More than eight years later – after countless meetings, thousands of dollars, and numerous, stressful hours, my family is no longer annoyed. We are furious!
Valley wants to place a structure the size of Paramus Park Mall in the middle of a neighborhood of single-family homes, three schools, and playing fields – an area traversed by many hundreds of children daily. In order to get their way, Valley officials have spun, sliced and diced the “facts,” treated residents with disrespect, and have consistently failed to address the matter at hand. It is this last point that I find most infuriating. Indeed, every single argument in support of this gargantuan project has been specious, beside the point, and misleading – no matter how compelling, heartwarming or dire.
Ridgewood approves changes to Garber Square project
JUNE 12, 2014 LAST UPDATED: THURSDAY, JUNE 12, 2014, 5:20 PM
BY LAURA HERZOG
STAFF WRITER
The Ridgewood Council has approved a modified road improvement plan for Wilsey and Garber squares that reduces the size of a controversial median island, allowing the village to return to two lanes in both directions if traffic congestion becomes an issue.
Despite the council’s changes, the ire of many residents was amplified and expressed on social media on Tuesday and Wednesday this week, after residents found themselves sitting in traffic in Garber Square. On a Ridgewood parent Facebook page, one resident said she waited 11 minutes in traffic to get out of the train station parking lot. The remark sparked a torrent of commiserating replies.
But at Wednesday night’s meeting, Village Manager Roberta Sonenfeld said residents mistakenly blamed that traffic jam on the Garber Square construction. Instead, “it had to do with emergency work” by Verizon, she said, adding that she was told a clay tile conduit had collapsed, completely unrelated to the construction project.
“We haven’t even touched that area of road,” she told The Ridgewood News after the meeting.
The road improvement project, which began May 7, still includes the addition of bike lanes in both directions, the reduction of traffic lanes from two lanes to one lane and a median island, as well as paving work on Ridgewood’s west side from Godwin Avenue to Franklin Avenue beneath the New Jersey Transit train trestle.
– See more at: https://www.northjersey.com/news/transportation/council-approves-modified-construction-1.1034627#sthash.Leig4D8P.dpuf
If you remember, Valley started this ambitious push in September 2006
As the June 17 Ridgewood Planning Board meeting about Valley’s proposed Master Plan changes approaches, it is worth considering what this fight is really about and what Ridgewood has already been through.
If you remember, Valley started this ambitious push in September 2006, with bold move to get what they wanted through a change to the Village’s Master Plan. It was clear then that Valley had been developing their strategy years before this 2006. Having been thwarted by the Ridgewood Council in 1983, the highly paid Valley legal team decided to do an “end-around”; by passing the elected council by using a tactic that more commonly used by developers on the Jersey Shore to push through high-rise developments.
Also in 2006 Valley believed that they had a sympathetic Major in the person on David Pfund, who had a long history of family connections with the hospital. Many members of the Council and the Planning Board chaired by David Nicholson were also tainted by Valley through, work, family or membership of the elite Valley Foundation social club. Even the members of the Ridgewood BOE seemed to be sympathetic to Valley, refusing to take a stand against Valley’s proposal on behalf school children and their teachers through their spokesperson Sheila Broga, first in 2009 and again in 2013. Instead the BOE took the attitude that the development was going to be approved so the school community needs to adapt!
All would have gone according to Valley’s plan, except for some Ridgewood Residents who noticed that there were some unusual proceedings occurring on at Council and the Planning Board.
Once Valley tactics became known, people from all over Ridgewood began to organize against the plans for mega hospital. The gang of three, that later become known as the Valley Girls (Meyers, Frazer and Goldfischer) hastily went it damage control. Do you remember the newsletter and cards we all received in the mailbox from Valley? It was a campaign that was built on a perceived personality cult centered on Audrey Meyers. In the fliers Mrs Meyers was photographed perpetually sporting a fixed smile under a thick fringe of black hair, “Its alright, trust me…trust Valley what could we possibly do to hurt the Village?”
Of course the forced folksy facade was exposed when the first public hearings started in September 2007. More and more of the monstrous facts emerged and within a short time Mrs Meyers stopped attending the public meetings. We can assume that she was advised not attend as she drew too much heat. Instead the residents of the Village sat through weeks of hearings watching the spectacle of Frazer and Goldfischer in the audience chatting and laughing during many, many sincere and heart felt speeches against the Valley’s plans.
Then there was Mr Collins the local legal hack for Valley who’s only job seemed to be to disrupt proceedings as much as possible.
Despite Valley’s attempts at intimidation, stalling, legal maneuverings and costly PR campaign the opposition to the Mega Hospital continued. All sorts of tactics were used. Valley supporters formed a front-group to try and convince Ridgewood people that there was also a grass roots organization that supported Valley. It was seen for what it was. Donations to the BOE from Valley increased and Mrs Frazer, VP of Marketing of Communications for Valley, became a director of the Ridgewood Chamber of Commerce; a strange situation as the chamber was formed to support Ridgewood’s small businesses.
After hearings that dragged on for years, the planning board approved the Master Plan amendment in favor of Valley at a tumultuous meeting held in August 2010 at GW middle School. Three police districts were in attendance to control the crowd that could not fit into the building and there as an attempt by a Valley supporter to prevent people parking at the adjacent church.
While the Ridgewood Council finally decided not to approve the ordinances that would be needed support the Master Plan, it still left the Master Plan in place. It then took the Concerned Residents of Ridgewood CRR to take Valley to court try and remove the time-bomb of the altered Master Plan that still remained supporting Valley’s Mega hospital.
Thanks to court proceedings won by CRR, the residents and village have had to spend more time before the Planning Board through the last 12 months.
Now 8 years from 2006 when Valley first tried to tamper with Ridgewood Master Plan, the Planning Board will again look at the Master Plan. Since 2006 Audrey Myers the CEO of the non-profit Valley Hospital has seen her salary rise by over one million dollars from $787,000 (2007) to $1,988,369 (2013). The highly paid driving force behind 8 years of turmoil in Ridgewood. Meanwhile CRR and its supporters have had to spend well over $100,000 to defend the Village against Valley.
Hopefully next week and for the last time the Ridgewood Planning Board will finally put an end to this madness.
Disheartened N.J. veterans, families wonder if the sacrifice in Iraq, Afghanistan was worth it
JUNE 12, 2014, 6:30 PM LAST UPDATED: THURSDAY, JUNE 12, 2014, 11:45 PM
BY MATTHEW MCGRATH, JIM NORMAN AND ABBOTT KOLOFF
STAFF WRITERS
THE RECORD
Discouragement. Sadness. Renewed heartache for lives lost. Resignation: that feeling of having known from the start how it would end.
And all of it profoundly felt.
The full-blown Islamist offensive in Iraq is sparking those feelings, and more, in North Jersey veterans and families who sacrificed time and blood to a sense of patriotic duty in the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. They are keeping close watch on the situation — and are wholly disappointed with the failure of American-trained and -equipped government forces.
Related: Obama: US will send fresh help to beleaguered Iraq
“This is a prime example of what failing to complete a mission looks like, and this is what Afghanistan will look like in the future,” said Matt Bombace, a former Marine infantry sergeant who fought in Iraq in 2005 and at 27 is the youngest man to serve as commander of the Washington Elm VFW Post 192 in Ridgewood.
But more to the emotional point for many was the reaction of John Walter Wroblewski of Jefferson, who has visited the spot in Iraq where his Marine son, John Thomas, was fatally shot in 2004.
“Did our sons die in vain?” Wroblewski, the longtime athletic director at Palisades Park High School, wondered. “I am extremely proud of my son. I am proud of what he did. All the blood that was spilled just in taking Ramadi, and here we are giving it back. It’s just disheartening.”
Related: Iraq Sunni militant group vows to march on Baghdad
Dozens of North Jersey men died between the invasion of Iraq in March 2003 and the U.S. departure in 2011. Thousands of New Jerseyans in active duty, reserve and National Guard units fought there, in Afghanistan or both. The largest combat deployment of the state’s National Guard since World War II — 2,900 from the “Jersey Blues” 50th Infantry Brigade Combat team — was in Iraq in 2008.
– See more at: https://www.northjersey.com/news/disheartened-n-j-veterans-families-wonder-if-the-sacrifice-in-iraq-afghani
Iraq crisis: Baghdad prepares for the worst as Islamist militants vow to capture the capital
PATRICK COCKBURN
Friday 13 June 2014
Iraq is breaking up. The Kurds have taken the northern oil city of Kirkuk that they have long claimed as their capital. Sunni fundamentalist fighters vow to capture Baghdad and the Shia holy cities further south.
Government rule over the Sunni Arab heartlands of north and central Iraq is evaporating as its 900,000-strong army disintegrates. Government aircraft have fired missiles at insurgent targets in Mosul, captured by Isis on Monday, but the Iraqi army has otherwise shown no sign of launching a counter-attack.
The nine-year Shia dominance over Iraq, established after the US, Britain and other allies overthrew Saddam Hussein, may be coming to an end. The Shia may continue to hold the capital and the Shia-majority provinces further south, but they will have great difficulty in re-establishing their authority over Sunni provinces from which their army has fled.
https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/middle-east/iraq-crisis-islamist-militants-warn-battle-will-rage-after-seizing-mosul-and-tikrit-9530899.html
Group questions Christie’s tax breaks for business
Bloomberg reported “Since February 2010, New Jersey companies have regained 125,700 jobs, about half the number lost during the slump. New York got back all the jobs it shed by 2012.” The report said eight of New Jersey’s 10 largest subsidies have come since 2010, including $210.8 million for Newark-based Prudential Financial Inc. to build a new office a few blocks away from its old one. Panasonic Corp. was awarded $102.4 million to move its North American headquarters to Newark from Secaucus after the company threatened to leave New Jersey. (Ingle/The Asbury Park Press)
https://www.app.com/story/news/
NJT NEW, EXPRESS, ONE-SEAT SUMMER SHORE RAIL SERVICE LAUNCHES JUNE 28
Dual-powered locomotives to transport customers between New York Penn Station and the Jersey Shore
June 10, 2014
NEWARK, NJ — In conjunction with the Christie Administration’s continued commitment to the recovery and continued revitalization of the Jersey Shore, NJ TRANSIT today announced the launch of new, weekend rail service from New York Penn Station and northern New Jersey cities to shore communities along the North Jersey Coast Line.
The new shore service will begin on June 28, utilizing NJ TRANSIT’s new, dual-powered locomotives to provide a one-seat ride.
“NJ TRANSIT looks forward to placing our new dual-powered locomotives into service on the North Jersey Coast Line, which will entice more visitors, provide greater customer convenience and make the trip down the shore faster and easier than ever before,” said NJ TRANSIT Executive Director Veronique “Ronnie” Hakim.
Starting June 28 and continuing through September 1, four new, roundtrip express trains will be launched on Saturdays, Sundays and holidays between New York Penn Station and Bay Head. Two of these new roundtrips will be geared to beach travelers, with the additional two roundtrips providing service during the early morning and late night timeframes.
The new express service will serve New York Penn Station, Secaucus Junction, Newark Penn Station, Elizabeth, Rahway, Aberdeen-Matawan, Red Bank, Long Branch, Asbury Park, and then all station stops to Bay Head, without having to change trains in Long Branch. A travel time savings of approximately 25 minutes is expected from the normal travel time between New York and stations such as Belmar, Manasquan and Point Pleasant.
Seating will be limited aboard the new express service, with customers strongly encouraged to purchase round trip tickets or beach packages (a savings of $6.50 off the cost of rail service and beach admission) prior to the start of their trip. NJ TRANSIT tickets and beach packages are available at ticket windows and ticket vending machines. Customers can also purchase NJ TRANSIT tickets using MyTix mobile ticketing.
Express trains will supplement NJ TRANSIT’s regular hourly rail shuttle service between Long Branch and Bay Head, and will operate using the statewide transportation agency’s new ALP-45 dual-powered locomotives. These specialized trains will operate in electric mode between New York and Long Branch and will switch to diesel operation for travel between Long Branch and Bay Head – allowing for the one-seat ride.
The announcement follows the May 15, 2014 endorsement of the new service by the North Jersey Transportation Planning Authority (NJTPA), which authorized a $270,000 allocation through the federal Congestion Mitigation and Air Quality Improvement Program (CMAQ) to fund the new service.
Detailed schedules will be available June 17 on njtransit.com.
If You’re Worried About School Shootings, This Ingenious Invention Could Make Our Kids a Bit Safer
After the tragedy at Sandy Hook, Steven Walker decided something need to be done to better protect our kids. He created a blanket made from military grade, bullet-resistant fabric.
The potentially life-saving invention acts as a shield to an estimated 90% of weapons used in school shootings, and can even absorb the impact of some debris from tornadoes or earthquakes.
According to its producers, the Bodyguard Blanket is very user-friendly, and can easily be fastened around a child or teacher.
https://www.ijreview.com/2014/06/142771-wake-tragic-school-shootings-father-invents-life-saving-blanket/
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