Political battle may delay pothole fixes in Ridgewood
MAY 26, 2014 LAST UPDATED: MONDAY, MAY 26, 2014, 1:21 AM BY CHRIS HARRIS STAFF WRITER THE RECORD
RIDGEWOOD — A battle over the capital budget could stall an effort by the new manager to pave more than 30 roads in the village.
The council last week voted 3-2 to introduce a $1.5 million bond ordinance at Wednesday’s meeting that will need at least four votes to pass.
Similarly, the village’s capital budget needs four votes for approval. It remains in flux following last month’s 3-2 split.
The capital budget had called for $1.5 million for paving, but Village Manager Roberta Sonenfeld pulled it from the annual spending plan, opting instead to introduce it for separate consideration by the council.
Last week’s meeting served as a prelude to the council’s upcoming work session on Wednesday, with Councilman Thomas Riche and Councilwoman Bernadette Walsh casting the opposing votes.
Both Riche and Walsh recently voted against the introduction of the municipal budget, which proposes to keep taxes flat for a second straight year.
After last week’s vote, Mayor Paul Aronsohn halted the meeting to ask Riche and Walsh — both outgoing council members — if the governing body “will move forward with” the paving plan when it votes on the measure in less than two weeks.
Riche said he would “go over the facts” first, then share his decision on Wednesday, while Walsh opposed Sonenfeld’s tactic, saying “you can’t take a group of things and then, to try to make it pass, start pulling things out so they are approved.”
– See more at: https://www.northjersey.com/news/political-battle-may-delay-pothole-fixes-in-ridgewood-1.1023500#sthash.MtaZ35eS.dpuf
the 39th Annual Fred D’Elia Ridgewood Run will be held in Ridgewood on Memorial Day, Monday May 26. Events will start at Veterans Memorial field on maple Avenue. Hotline – 973/333-4837 or www.NJMasters.com/RidgewoodRun
Ridgewood Police Note : The race course for the Memorial Day run has been posted with no parking signs. Vehicles parked along the course after 7:30am on Monday 5/26/14 will be ticketed and towed.
IMPORTANT SAFETY PROTOCOLS FOR THE RIDGEWOOD RUN
The Ridgewood Police Department asks all participants to cooperate with the following:
Volunteers arriving at Veteran’s Field for the Ridgewood Run on Monday, May 26th are asked to park in the lot on the corner of Linwood Ave and Northern Parkway ACROSS from Graydon Pool. All participants are encouraged to leave any purses, bags, backpacks, etc. at home. If you must bring personal items, please check them at the Baggage Tent next to the baseball backstop. No bags will be permitted along the race course or near the finish line. Any vehicle on the course or on the field must display an “OFFICIAL RACE VEHICLE” placard. If you anticipate needing vehicular access to these areas, please contact Cheryl Moses, Race Director, for an ACCESS APPLICATION. [email protected] or 551-427-2505.
Booker preparing for fight to keep his Senate seat
MAY 25, 2014, 10:45 PM LAST UPDATED: SUNDAY, MAY 25, 2014, 10:46 PM BY HERB JACKSON RECORD COLUMNIST THE RECORD
Maybe it’s the positive thoughts he pushes out at least daily on Facebook and Twitter, but Sen. Cory Booker says he’s more optimistic about finding bipartisan solutions in Washington than he was when he arrived seven months ago.
“I came down here with low expectations and my experience is better and better and better,” Booker said in an interview last week, ticking off bipartisan bills to expand apprenticeships and study year-round schools, and touting his solo plan that could lead to other states’ contributing toward future New Jersey highway projects.
But while Booker’s enthusiasm grew for his new job, the rock-star image he built in his previous job as the mayor who turned Newark around is taking a hit.
This month’s intensely competitive campaign to choose his replacement as Newark mayor highlighted a $30 million shortfall in the city budget Booker left. The winner of that campaign, Ras Baraka, was a city councilman and public school principal who frequently criticized the Booker school reform plan that attracted a $100 million donation from Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg, but produced questionable results.
Booker also touted his ability to bring down crime in the city, and in 2008, the city murder rate had dropped to 67. But budget cuts after that then reduced the size of the police force to 1,038 from 1,317 last year. And there were 111 murders last year, the most in 23 years.
The state comptroller also issued a damning report in March saying that the city government was inattentive to corruption and patronage at the independent Newark Watershed Conservation and Development Corp., which had managed the city’s water delivery and reservoirs in Morris, Passaic and Sussex counties.
Among the findings referred to state prosecutors were that a Booker ally serving as the agency’s director wrote herself unauthorized payroll checks, handed out no-bid contracts to close personal associates, and made surreptitious risky investments that lost $500,000.
“I don’t think my legacy needs defending,” Booker said when asked about the bashing he has been taking. He said that he got Baraka’s endorsement for senator in the October election to fill the remainder of the late Sen. Frank Lautenberg’s term, and won 90 percent of the votes cast in Newark against Republican Steve Lonegan.
Poland’s Walesa says the US no longer world leader
WARSAW, Poland (AP) — Poland’s former president and Nobel Peace laureate, Lech Walesa, said Friday he plans to urge President Barack Obama to take a more active world leadership role when he visits Poland in June.
Speaking to The Associated Press, Walesa said “the world is disorganized and the superpower is not taking the lead. I am displeased..
The former Solidarity leader said that when he meets Obama in Warsaw, he wants to tell him that the U.S. should inspire and encourage the world into positive action.
“The point is not in having the States fix problems for us or fight somewhere, no,” Walesa said. “The States should organize us, encourage us and offer programs, while we, the world, should do the rest. This kind of leadership is needed.”
VA healthcare scandal dominates Sunday political discussions
By Keith Laing – 05/25/14 01:22 PM EDT
The scandal involving a potential cover up of medical mistreatment of military veterans by the Department of Veterans Affairs dominated discussion on the Sunday morning political talk shows.
Lawmakers from both parties appeared on every channel to discuss the still-emerging VA scandal, calling for responses ranging from a Department of Justice investigation to the firing of VA Secretary Eric Shinseki.
Even Democrats said the scandal was unlikely to go away anytime soon.
“We’re talking now about…credible and specific evidence of criminal wrongdoing across the country in more than 30 places,” Sen. Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.) said during an appearance on CBS’s “Face The Nation.”
Blumenthal said the Obama administration should allow the Department of Justice to conduct a separate investigation of the complaints against the VA.
“I believe that the Department of Justice has to be involved,” Blumenthal said. “I urged [VA] Secretary [Eric] Shinseki privately and in fact publicly to request and involve the Department of Justice.
God Bless Those Who Have Fallen In Defense of Our Freedom
Dear Friend,
This week I voted in the House to give the Congressional Gold Medal to a number of military heroes. The bills I supported, among others, include H.R. 1726 to honor the 65th Infantry Regiment, known as the Borinqueneers; H.R. 1209 to honor the Doolittle Tokyo Raiders; and H.R. 685 to honor the American Fighter Aces. As you may know, the American Fighter Aces are an elite group of combat pilots that destroyed at least five hostile aircraft in air to air combat. Interestingly, New Jersey’s Fifth District serves as the home to three of these distinguished pilots, Major Thomas Buchanan McGuire of Ridgewood, Colonel Edward Stanley Popek of Hackensack and Captain Richard Dike Faxon of Haworth.
Though we can often get caught up in the parades and barbeques, this Memorial Day I urge you to truly reflect on what we hold so dear and who we have to thank for those blessings. We are a nation of free people because of those who never wavered in their commitment to liberty and democracy. As President Reagan said in his first inaugural address, “we must realize that no arsenal, or no weapon in the arsenals of the world, is so formidable as the will and moral courage of free men and women.” To all the soldiers, sailors, airmen, marines and coast guardsmen who paid the ultimate price for our freedom, thank you.
On this Memorial Day, may God bless the families who grieve for their loved ones, and may God bless all those who have fallen in defense of the United States of America.
Owen Smith of Ridgewood Boys lacrosse nets 100th career goal
By Chris Ryan/For The Star-Ledger on May 24, 2014 5:25 p.m.
Owen Smith scored four goals inRidgewood’s 10-4 victory against Morristown in the North Jersey, Group 3 final on Saturday, putting over the 100-goal mark for his career.
Smith second goal put him at the milestone. For his career, Smith now stands at 102 goals
Count Down to The 39th Annual Fred D’Elia Ridgewood Run 2014
Memorial Day – Monday – May 26th, 2014 Veterans Memorial Field Ridgewood, NJ
The premier road race in northern New Jersey. One of the longest running races in the tri-state area. There is something for everyone: 10K, 5K, Road Mile, Fun Run – the must-run event for all! This video is a recap of the 2012 race:
IMPORTANT SAFETY PROTOCOLS FOR THE RIDGEWOOD RUN
The Ridgewood Police Department asks all participants to cooperate with the following:
Volunteers arriving at Veteran’s Field for the Ridgewood Run on Monday, May 26th are asked to park in the lot on the corner of Linwood Ave and Northern Parkway ACROSS from Graydon Pool. All participants are encouraged to leave any purses, bags, backpacks, etc. at home. If you must bring personal items, please check them at the Baggage Tent next to the baseball backstop. No bags will be permitted along the race course or near the finish line. Any vehicle on the course or on the field must display an “OFFICIAL RACE VEHICLE” placard. If you anticipate needing vehicular access to these areas, please contact Cheryl Moses, Race Director, for an ACCESS APPLICATION. [email protected] or 551-427-2505
Photo credit: Boyd A. Loving Driver hits utility pole in Ridgewood after falling asleep at wheel
May 25,2014
Boyd A. Loving
10:28 AM
Ridgewood NJ, Grove Street in Ridgewood between Stevens and South Van Dien Avenues was closed following a 6:44 AM, Sunday, 05/25 crash in which a Pennsylvania driver fell asleep at the wheel of his vehicle and hit a utility pole in front of 539 Grove Street. Ridgewood police officers at the scene of the incident reported that the driver was uninjured in the crash, but his vehicle was heavily damaged and had to be towed from the scene. Electricity was cut to two (2) homes in the area as a result of the crash. Crews from PSE&G estimated that Grove Street would remain closed until at least 6:00 PM on Sunday, 05/25 due to the extensive amount of work required to replace the pole and related services.
Graydon Pool Memberships – Available to All Are Now on Sale
The Village Council and the Ridgewood Department of Parks and Recreation are excited to announce memberships are now on sale for the upcoming summer season and all are invited to join the Graydon Pool facility as season members for the 2014 summer season. Come enjoy fun in the sun so close to home! Opening day is Saturday, May 31st.
Pool features include a shaded playground, water play fountains, shade kites, Adirondack chairs, picnic area, sheltered pavilion, charcoal grills, and The Water’s Edge Café. Additional amenities include a lending library of reading books, volleyball, basketball, ping-pong tables, shuffleboard, four-squares and hop-scotch. Special programs include “Storytime Under a Tree” for the little ones and swim instruction for children and adults, as well as an adaptive swim class. The Graydon Swim Team welcomes youth members, ages 8 to 14.
Resident fees are $120 per adult, $110 per child (ages 2 through 15) and $30 for seniors. Non-resident adults will be charged $200 and children, ages 2 through 15, will be charged $175 for the13 week season.
Badges are now on sale and can be purchased from the comfort of home on Community Pass at www.ridgewoodnj.net/communitypass (Visa and MasterCard are accepted). In person registration assistance will be available Saturdays, May 10 and May 17, 10:00 am to 12 noon, at the Graydon Pool Badge Office (onsite at the pool), 259 North Maple Avenue. Badges may be purchased daily throughout the operating season, May 31st through Septemer 1st.
Details are available at www.ridgewoodnj.net/graydon or you may call the Recreation Office at 201-670-5560 with any questions or if special accommodations are needed.
MAY 23, 2014 LAST UPDATED: FRIDAY, MAY 23, 2014, 1:58 PM
Logic questioned on eliminating traffic lane David Slomin
To the editor:As a resident involved in the efforts to limit excessive apartment density increases pushed upon us by overzealous developers, I planned to write a letter of kudos to Ridgewood’s citizens for their great turnout and overwhelming vote of solidarity to Save Our Village in last week’s election. But then something came up.
I was made aware, only on the eve of construction, that Ridgewood was permanently closing lanes under the Franklin Avenue underpass, limiting traffic to one lane each way, while adding a dangerous bike lane.
While I thoroughly applaud efforts to improve safety, I question the logic and process by which this was approved. No clear notice or information was provided to residents and nobody reached out for input. Ridgewood’s website ignores it. Furthermore, while I’m told Engineering did careful reviews of this location, no village-wide traffic study was done to see how this might impact neighboring streets. And … this is right where they are proposing rezoning for more than 100 apartments!
MAY 23, 2014 LAST UPDATED: FRIDAY, MAY 23, 2014, 1:52 PM
Losing lane will lead to disaster Ellen McNamara
To the Editor:
Has anyone noticed the recent construction on the approach to the train underpass, heading east toward Franklin Avenue, and wondered how Ridgewood might be improving this dangerous, always crowded curve that is an eyesore in the village? It was just brought to my attention that this road is going to be altered from a two-lane road on each side, to one lane in each direction. This is going to be a disaster.
Our new village manager responded to my friends’ and neighbors’ concerns via email, but this is clearly a done deal. She outlined the plans for the underpass approach, and while I agree a median with trees will improve the look of the road, and a larger corner at Broad and Franklin will improve pedestrian safety there, the traffic that will result from slowing the flow of vehicles into and out of the underpass will surely create a backup of cars in every direction.
Traffic is already awful. Pedestrians are not safe, as drivers circle, looking for parking, or attempt to beat the traffic through town to their daily activities. Traffic backing up on both sides of the underpass will surely lead to road rage.
Apparently, the point of this plan is to create bike lanes. If I were to ride my bike under the train trestle using one of these lanes, what would I do when I reached the other side? Take my life in my hands, that’s what.
Village of Ridgewood to hoist Honor and Remember flag
MAY 25, 2014 LAST UPDATED: SUNDAY, MAY 25, 2014, 1:21 AM THE RECORD
RIDGEWOOD — A new flag will be hoisted into the air above Memorial Park at Van Neste Square on Monday morning.
It is a civilian symbol of remembrance, honoring American soldiers killed in combat.
The village’s Memorial Day ceremonies will commence at 11 a.m. at Van Neste Square, with the Honor and Remember flag being raised to join the Stars and Stripes.
Featuring a red and white background, gold star and flame design in the center, along with additional patriotic elements, the flag was developed by the father of a soldier who died while fighting in Afghanistan.
Only 19 states officially recognize the flag, and Ridgewood is one of a handful of towns in New Jersey to embrace the flag.
A movement is afoot to have the flag adopted as the nation’s official remembrance flag; opponents claim the U.S. flag suffices.
Village of Ridgewood Memorial Day Service – May 26
American Legion Post 53 will conduct a Memorial Day service at 11am, Monday, May 26 at Memorial Park at Van Neste Square. All residents are invited to attend. Please bring a chair or blanket.
Memorial Day – May 26th Village Hall Closed
Memorial Day is Monday, May 26, 2014. In Ridgewood, this holiday will be observed by the closing of Village Hall and The Stable offices on that day. There will be no sanitation or recycling collection.
Memorial Day History
Three years after the Civil War ended, on May 5, 1868, the head of an organization of Union veterans — the Grand Army of the Republic (GAR) — established Decoration Day as a time for the nation to decorate the graves of the war dead with flowers. Maj. Gen. John A. Logan declared that Decoration Day should be observed on May 30. It is believed that date was chosen because flowers would be in bloom all over the country.
The first large observance was held that year at Arlington National Cemetery, across the Potomac River from Washington, D.C.
The ceremonies centered around the mourning-draped veranda of the Arlington mansion, once the home of Gen. Robert E. Lee. Various Washington officials, including Gen. and Mrs. Ulysses S. Grant, presided over the ceremonies. After speeches, children from the Soldiers’ and Sailors’ Orphan Home and members of the GAR made their way through the cemetery, strewing flowers on both Union and Confederate graves, reciting prayers and singing hymns.
Local Observances Claim To Be First Local springtime tributes to the Civil War dead already had been held in various places. One of the first occurred in Columbus, Miss., April 25, 1866, when a group of women visited a cemetery to decorate the graves of Confederate soldiers who had fallen in battle at Shiloh. Nearby were the graves of Union soldiers, neglected because they were the enemy. Disturbed at the sight of the bare graves, the women placed some of their flowers on those graves, as well.
Today, cities in the North and the South claim to be the birthplace of Memorial Day in 1866. Both Macon and Columbus, Ga., claim the title, as well as Richmond, Va. The village of Boalsburg, Pa., claims it began there two years earlier. A stone in a Carbondale, Ill., cemetery carries the statement that the first Decoration Day ceremony took place there on April 29, 1866. Carbondale was the wartime home of Gen. Logan. Approximately 25 places have been named in connection with the origin of Memorial Day, many of them in the South where most of the war dead were buried.
Official Birthplace Declared In 1966, Congress and President Lyndon Johnson declared Waterloo, N.Y., the “birthplace” of Memorial Day. There, a ceremony on May 5, 1866, honored local veterans who had fought in the Civil War. Businesses closed and residents flew flags at half-staff. Supporters of Waterloo’s claim say earlier observances in other places were either informal, not community-wide or one-time events.
By the end of the 19th century, Memorial Day ceremonies were being held on May 30 throughout the nation. State legislatures passed proclamations designating the day, and the Army and Navy adopted regulations for proper observance at their facilities.
It was not until after World War I, however, that the day was expanded to honor those who have died in all American wars. In 1971, Memorial Day was declared a national holiday by an act of Congress, though it is still often called Decoration Day. It was then also placed on the last Monday in May, as were some other federal holidays.
Some States Have Confederate Observances Many Southern states also have their own days for honoring the Confederate dead. Mississippi celebrates Confederate Memorial Day on the last Monday of April, Alabama on the fourth Monday of April, and Georgia on April 26. North and South Carolina observe it on May 10, Louisiana on June 3 and Tennessee calls that date Confederate Decoration Day. Texas celebrates Confederate Heroes Day January 19 and Virginia calls the last Monday in May Confederate Memorial Day.
Gen. Logan’s order for his posts to decorate graves in 1868 “with the choicest flowers of springtime” urged: “We should guard their graves with sacred vigilance. … Let pleasant paths invite the coming and going of reverent visitors and fond mourners. Let no neglect, no ravages of time, testify to the present or to the coming generations that we have forgotten as a people the cost of a free and undivided republic.”
The crowd attending the first Memorial Day ceremony at Arlington National Cemetery was approximately the same size as those that attend today’s observance, about 5,000 people. Then, as now, small American flags were placed on each grave — a tradition followed at many national cemeteries today. In recent years, the custom has grown in many families to decorate the graves of all departed loved ones.
The origins of special services to honor those who die in war can be found in antiquity. The Athenian leader Pericles offered a tribute to the fallen heroes of the Peloponnesian War over 24 centuries ago that could be applied today to the 1.1 million Americans who have died in the nation’s wars: “Not only are they commemorated by columns and inscriptions, but there dwells also an unwritten memorial of them, graven not on stone but in the hearts of men.”
To ensure the sacrifices of America ’s fallen heroes are never forgotten, in December 2000, the U.S. Congress passed and the president signed into law “The National Moment of Remembrance Act,” P.L. 106-579, creating the White House Commission on the National Moment of Remembrance. The commission’s charter is to “encourage the people of the United States to give something back to their country, which provides them so much freedom and opportunity” by encouraging and coordinating commemorations in the United States of Memorial Day and the National Moment of Remembrance.
The National Moment of Remembrance encourages all Americans to pause wherever they are at 3 p.m. local time on Memorial Day for a minute of silence to remember and honor those who have died in service to the nation. As Moment of Remembrance founder Carmella LaSpada states: “It’s a way we can all help put the memorial back in Memorial Day.”
Senate Dems block amendment to restore veteran benefits by closing illegal immigrant welfare loophole
Amid the growing outrage over corruption and bureaucratic incompetence at the Veterans Administration, the House of Representatives passed legislation 390 to 33 making it easier to fire career bureaucrats at the VA. (The 33 “No” votes were all Democrats.) Senator Marco Rubio (F-FL) tried to bring the bill up for a vote in Senate yesterday, but Democrats objected. That’s not the first time Senate Democrats dissed our vets. In December they voted keep a welfare loophole for illegal aliens rather than stop cuts to veterans benefits. Remember In November!
