Author: James

Rebid – Coffee Concession Area Improvements at Village Train Station Building

Sealed bid proposals will be received by the Village of Ridgewood, in the Level Three Conference Room at the Village Hall, 131 North Maple Avenue, Ridgewood, New Jersey 07451 on Wednesday, July 31, 2013 at 10:00 a.m. prevailing time, and then publicly opened and read aloud for following project:

“Rebid Coffee Concession Area Improvements at the Village Train Station Building”

The principal work of the contract shall consist of providing and installing: A stainless steel triple compartment sink; a stainless steel single compartment sink; sink faucets, a FRP sink backsplash, five (4) 20 amp 110 volt GFIC duplex outlets with individual circuit breakers at various locations wired to the existing circuit panel; replacement of an existing rolling door with locks; a 6,000 BTU window air conditioning unit, including all necessary appurtenances and connections at the Village Train Station in the area designated for the Coffee Concession Service.

Specifications and bid forms may be obtained by mail from the office of the Engineering Division, Department of Public Works, 131 North Maple Avenue, Ridgewood, New Jersey 07451, telephone (201) 670-5500, extension 238, for a non-refundable fee of $10.00, per set of bid documents. Documents may be examined or picked up in person between the hours of 8:30 a.m. and 4:30 p.m. at the Engineering Division, Department of Public Works, Village Hall, 131 North Maple Avenue, Ridgewood, New Jersey 07451, Monday through Friday. Prospective bidders requesting bid documents be mailed to them shall be responsible for providing their own postage/delivery service remuneration. No Specifications and/or Proposal forms shall be given out after 4:30 p.m. on Monday, July 29, 2013.

Prices quoted must be net and exclusive of all federal, state and local sales and excise taxes. Bids may be submitted in person or by mail. Mailed bids shall be addressed to the Office of the Village Clerk. The Village assumes no responsibility for loss or non-delivery of any bid to the bid opening location sent to it prior to the Bid opening.

The contractual obligation of the Village of Ridgewood under this Contract for these Items is contingent upon the availability of appropriate funds from which payment for this Contract can be made.

Each bid must be enclosed in a sealed envelope with the name of the bidder thereon and endorsed, “Rebid Coffee Concession Area Improvements at the Village Train Station Building” and must be accompanied by the following: either a certified check, cashier’s check, or Bid Bond (Schedule B), drawn to the order of the Village of Ridgewood for $1,000; a Consent of Surety (Schedule A); a Corporation or Partnership Statement (Schedule C); a Non-Collusion Affidavit (Schedule D); and a Statement of Responsibility (Schedule E). Any award or awards may be made at a later or subsequent time or meeting of the Village Council. All required schedules, that is Schedule A, B, C, D, and E, are required to be submitted on the forms enclosed in the bid documents. No other forms will be accepted.

All contractors, their subcontractors, and material suppliers shall comply with all applicable provisions of the Contractor Business Registration Program, pursuant to Public Law 2004 Chapter 57. Evidence of satisfactory registration(s) shall be submitted at the time of the bid. All bids submitted shall contain a copy of the bidder’s New Jersey Business Registration Certificate.

The successful bidder shall furnish and deliver to the Village of Ridgewood a performance and payment bond in the amount of $3,000.00 as security for the faithful performance of the Contract. Additionally, the successful bidder shall furnish policies or Certificates of Insurance required by the Contract. In default thereof, said checks and/or bid bond and the amount represented thereby shall be forfeited to the Village of Ridgewood as liquidated damages, not as a penalty.

Proposals submitted by Bidders and/or Bidder’s Insurance Company(ies) not chartered in the State of New Jersey, must be accompanied by proper certificate(s) from the Secretary of State, indicating that such Bidders, Bidder’s Insurance Company(ies), and/or Surety Company(ies)’s is (are) authorized to do business in the State of New Jersey. The Village of Ridgewood reserves the right to reject any or all bids, to waive any informalities or to accept a bid which, in its judgment best serves the interest of the Village. No bids may be withdrawn for a period of sixty (60) days after the date and time set for the opening of bids.

“BIDDERS ARE REQUIRED TO COMPLY WITH THE REQUIREMENTS OF N.J.S.A. 10:5-31 et seq. and N.J.A.C. 17:27. A complete statement as to these requirements is included in the specifications.”

Ridgewood Blog: https://www.northjersey.com/news/opinions/162313346_Letter__Tea_Party_does_not_belong_in_Ridgewood_parade.html?c=y&page=1

Take TV’s and other Electronic Waste to Recycling Center – No TV Pick Up at the Curb

Electronic Waste Must be Recycled! No TV Pick Up at Curb

New Jersey has significantly revised its regulations to enact a disposal ban on electronics as solid waste. Effective January 1, 2011, the Electronic Waste Management Act (NJSA 13:1E-99.94 et seq.) requires that all “used covered electronic devices” be recycled. The law defines a “used covered electronic device” as a desktop or personal computer, computer monitor, portable computer, or television sold to a consumer.

Electronic equipment is accepted at the Ridgewood Recycling Center at 205 East Glen Avenue. The computer and electronic recycling program provided at the Recycling Center, is at no cost to the Village, and provides an easy option for residents to recycle their computers and electronics. Upon arrival at the Recycling Center, each resident may place their computer components and electronic devices into our convenient walk-in container.

Accepted items (which must NOT be setout for curbside pickup, nor placed in household trash) include:

• Computers (Desktop or Portable) • Printers
• Televisions • Keyboards
• Monitors • Scanners
• Fax Machines • Keyboards
• Televisions • Speakers
• Stereo Equipment • Modems
• Electronic Mouse • Cell Phones
• Desktop Copy Machines • Power Sources
• Hard Drives • VCRs
• DVD players • Video Game Consoles

The Recycling Center at 205 East Glen Avenue has the following, convenient hours:

Monday – Saturday 8:00 AM – 3:00 PM

Ridgewood residents have always embraced recycling for its cost avoidance and environmental benefits. As a result, Ridgewood has enjoyed a savings of over $12.8 million, since New Jersey mandated recycling in 1987. As a community, may all continue to work together towards the goal of responsible environmental practices and greater reductions in solid waste.

Snowden revelations stir up anti-US sentiment
By Geoff Dyer in Washington

Holed up in Moscow airport for the past three weeks, Edward Snowden has only had a limited impact on the political debate about surveillance in the US that he wanted to ignite.

Yet the self-confessed National Security Agency leaker has managed to orchestrate a very different political phenomenon: the biggest bout of anti-Americanism since the Iraq war.

When he first revealed his identity a month ago while in Hong Kong, Mr Snowden used selective disclosures about US global surveillance to rally public opinion in China and Russia. Since then, he has managed to create uproar in Europe with information about the bugging of EU offices and over the past week he has created a new international stir in Latin America.

According to reports this week in the Brazilian newspaper O Globo based on documents provided by the 30-year-old former NSA contractor, the US has been using telecoms infrastructure in Brazil to absorb huge volumes of communications and to spy on governments in the region.

With the US economy looking robust for the first time since the financial crisis, the US is again being seen as an over-weaning superpower that brushes aside smaller nations.

https://www.ft.com/intl/cms/s/0/0ee001a0-eb13-11e2-bfdb-00144feabdc0.html#axzz2Z0cOaj8B

Despite Media’s Best  efforts George Zimmerman found not guilty of murder in Trayvon Martin’s death
By Greg Botelho and Holly Yan, CNN
updated 2:53 AM EDT, Sun July 14, 2013

(CNN) — George Zimmerman never denied shooting Trayvon Martin, but he said he did so in self defense. Late Saturday night, a Florida jury found him not guilty in the teenager’s death.

The verdict caps a case that has inflamed passions for well over a year, much of it focused on race and gun rights.

The six jurors — all of them women — deliberated for 16½ hours. Five of the women are white; one is a minority.

When he heard his fate, Zimmerman had little visible reaction. He turned and shook the hand of one of his attorneys before sitting back down, smiling only after court was adjourned.

Martin’s parents, Tracy Martin and Sybrina Fulton, were not in the courtroom when the decision was announced. But they shared their emotions on Twitter shortly afterward.

https://www.cnn.com/2013/07/13/justice/zimmerman-trial/index.html

Feeding Stray Cats In Radnor Could Leave You Responsible For Their Health
July 12, 2013 9:56 AM

By Jim Melwert

PHILADELPHIA (CBS) – A proposed law in a town along the Main Line could punish people who feed stray cats. The new law would dictate if you feed it, you own it.

And if you own it, you’re responsible for its vaccinations, says the proposal here in Radnor Township.

In introducing the changes to current law here earlier this week, president of Radnor Township’s Board of Commissioners, Elaine Schaeffer says it’s not a feeding ban, instead it’s designed to protect against rabies.

“It requires those who choose to feed feral cats with a very minimum modicum standard of care.”

Violation of the ordinance could carry a $300 to $1,000 fine.

https://philadelphia.cbslocal.com/2013/07/12/feeding-stray-cats-in-radnor-could-leave-you-responsible-for-their-health/

Ridgewood Raiders capture District 4 Little League title
Friday July 12, 2013, 4:42 PM
BY  RON FOX
CORRESPONDENT
The Ridgewood News

RIDGEWOOD – Double-elimination tournaments are designed to give teams that lose a second chance. So far, the definition is meaningless to the Ridgewood Raiders, who defeated all four of their opponents convincingly for their second straight District 4 Little League championship in 10-and-under play.

In order, they topped River Edge, 16-7, Paramus, 7-5, Washington Township, 13-1, and then downed Ramsey, 12-9, on July 2 for the title.

“They were never in trouble,” Ridgewood manager Guy Darienzo said on Tuesday. “They were never in the losers’ bracket, which makes it easier. When you’re in the losers’ bracket, you have more games, and you have to worry about pitch counts. But they kept winning.”

– See more at: https://www.northjersey.com/sports/215286421_Ridgewood_Raiders_capture_District_4_Little_League_title.html#sthash.wXz

Microsoft helped NSA, FBI access user info: Guardian
SAN FRANCISCO | Thu Jul 11, 2013 5:38pm EDT

(Reuters) – Microsoft Corp worked closely with U.S. intelligence services to help them intercept users’ communications, including letting the National Security Agency circumvent email encryption, the Guardian reported on Thursday.

Citing top-secret documents provided by former U.S. spy contractor Edward Snowden, the UK newspaper said Microsoft worked with the Federal Bureau of Investigations and the NSA to ease access via Prism – an intelligence-gathering program uncovered by the Guardian last month – to cloud storage service SkyDrive.

Microsoft also helped the Prism program collect video and audio of conversations conducted via Skype, Microsoft’s online chat service, the newspaper added.

Microsoft had previously said it did not provide the NSA direct access to users’ information. On Thursday, it repeated that it provides customer data only in response to lawful government requests.

“To be clear, Microsoft does not provide any government with blanket or direct access to SkyDrive, Outlook.com, Skype or any Microsoft product,” the company said in a statement on its website.

https://www.reuters.com/article/2013/07/11/us-usa-cybersecurity-microsoft-idUSBRE96A11R20130711

(https://www.yelp.com/biz_photos/due-ridgewood?select=VGa9h0ZFBX3geXRHZA8vQg#VGa9h0ZFBX3geXRHZA8vQg)

Due in Ridgewood
Thursday, July 11, 2013    Last updated: Thursday July 11, 2013, 3:14 PM
BY  JOYCE VENEZIA SUSS
SPECIAL TO THE RECORD
The Record

When Chris Tarta signed a lease on a vacant Ridgewood storefront for his second Italian restaurant, he and his wife started informally calling it “due” – the number two in Italian. And when it came time to select a name for that restaurant, Tarta said, it seemed fitting to keep due — besides Ridgewood was “due” for a new restaurant with fresh Italian flavors.

Tarta, owner and executive chef, developed a menu with chef Sean Norris that “is actually different from any of the other Italian menus in Ridgewood,” he said. “Our menu is more Northern Italian, with minimal ingredients cooked on a wood-burning grill, so it’s natural, sweet, authentic Italian cuisine, not overloaded with flavors.”

– See more at: https://www.northjersey.com/food_dining/215026211_Starters__Due_in_Ridgewood.html#sthash.qTXBf430.dpuf

Due
18 E Ridgewood Ave
Ridgewood, NJ 07450

Raising the Minimum Wage: Bad Ideas Have Consequences
By James Sherk

James Sherk is a senior policy analyst in labor economics at The Heritage Foundation.

Liberals argue that raising the minimum wage boosts the economy without costing jobs. To which conservatives often respond: then why not really hike it and see what happens?

Venture capitalist Nick Hanauer appears to have taken this rhetorical point literally. He recently proposed raising the minimum wage to $15 an hour. Hanauer predicts this would raise consumption by $450 billion, growing businesses and creating jobs. If only. America has already tried this — and the results were not pretty.

Congress gradually applied the 2007 minimum wage increase to American Samoa, a territory with per-capita income just one-fifth the U.S. average. This equates to a minimum wage of $20 an hour in the continental U.S.

Super-sizing Samoa’s minimum wage did not boost consumer spending, stimulate the economy, or create jobs. It did not even boost pay. Instead, after just three of ten scheduled increases, Samoan unemployment septupled from 5 percent to 36 percent. One of the islands’ two tuna canneries cut benefits and hours while laying off workers and freezing hiring. The other closed entirely. Real wages fell 11 percent as inflation outstripped pay growth. The GAO documented the devastation.

American Samoa’s Democratic Governor harshly criticized this report — for “not adequately, succinctly or clearly convey[ing] the magnitude of the worsening economic disaster in American Samoa.” He begged Congress to call off the minimum wage hikes:

We are watching our economy burn down. We know what to do to stop it. We need to bring the aggressive wage costs decreed by the Federal Government under control. But we are ordered not to interfere. Our job market is being torched. Our businesses are being depressed. Our hope for growth has been driven away. . . .

How much does our government expect us to suffer, until we have to stand up for our survival … American Samoa could be left substantially without a private sector economic base except for some limited visitor industry and fisheries activities.

There is no such thing as a free lunch. The money to fund a minimum-wage hike comes from elsewhere in the economy. It provides no net stimulus. And businesses will not pay workers more than the value they create — at least not if they want to remain in business. Minimum-wage hikes cannot raise workers’ pay above their productivity. They simply prohibit less productive employees from working. Good intentions do not change this reality.

https://www.heritage.org/research/commentary/2013/7/raising-the-minimum-wage-bad-ideas-have-consequences?utm_source=Email&utm_medium=Newsletter&utm_campaign=FreeMarketFocus

Can You Opt Out of Your Union Dues?

Michael Cirrotti is currently a member of the Young Leaders Program at The Heritage Foundation

I joined the United Food and Commercial Workers Union Local 1245 as a high school student in New Jersey. Having to pay union dues in high school surprised me. But I was working to save money for college and did not investigate further. I did not know that I didn’t have to give the union that much money.

Workers at unionized companies have the right to opt out of some or all union dues. The Supreme Court ruled in Communication Workers of America vs. Beck (1988) that unions cannot force workers to fund their political activities. I could have kept that portion of these dues.

Employees in right-to-work states can forgo all union dues. Workers with religious objections to their unions’ activities—such as the American Federation of Teachers’ support for abortion—can send their dues to a charity instead. The National Right to Work Legal Defense Foundation provides a quick and easy overview of workers’ rights on its website.

Many workers do not know these rights. I certainly didn’t, especially as a teenager. Many also do not know that alternative professional organizations provide many of the same services as unions (such as professional development and liability insurance) at a lower cost.

Thankfully, over 60 organizations, including The Heritage Foundation, joined together last week to educate workers about their rights during National Employee Freedom Week.

Some workers believe their unions do not serve them well. They can opt out of some or all of their dues. Other workers believe they get value for their dues—they have the right to keep paying, too. But even employees who support their unions’ politics may want to keep a little more of each paycheck for their families’ needs. They have that right.

Consider Jeff Richmond, a unionized truck driver in West Virginia. He refused to fund his union’s political action committee. So the union had him fired—only to wind up in court. Richmond won over $10,000 in dues refunds and back pay.

Employees do not have to let their unions spend their money on causes the employees don’t support.

https://blog.heritage.org/2013/07/02/national-employee-freedom-week-workers-have-options-union-dues/?utm_source=Email&utm_medium=Newsletter&utm_campaign=FreeMarketFocus

Former Virginia Governor Jim Gilmore: Internet Sales Tax Hurts Small Businesses
Jack Minor and Curtis Dubay
July 7, 2013 at 7:41 am

The misnamed Marketplace Fairness Act (MFA), commonly called the Internet sales tax, recently passed the Senate and awaits action in the House. If it becomes law, it would force online retailers to collect sales taxes from residents in states in which the businesses have no attachment. It would overturn the physical presence standard that has long determined whether businesses need to collect sales taxes in certain states.

In a recent article, former Governor of Virginia Jim Gilmore wrote about the MFA:

In the American marketplace, businesses large and small compete for customers and revenue based on the value proposition that they offer the consumer. Hopefully, they do so in the context of a fair, transparent and predictable tax code that doesn’t pick winners and losers. The Marketplace Fairness Act distorts these principles at the expense of small businesses and for the benefit of large corporations.

A recent survey of consumers by Endicia, an online software company, found that 44 percent of voters indicated they would buy fewer products online because of the Internet sales tax bill. If this bill would cause online business to lose revenue, then why would some of the nation’s largest online retailers like Amazon, Barnes and Noble, and Best Buy all support the bill?

Simple: because the Internet sales tax is what Gilmore calls “an effort by large established companies to erect barriers to entry for the next generation of emerging small business competitors.” These large companies were once start-up businesses just like the ones they are trying to hinder.

The largest 100 online sellers represent 83 percent of all online sales, and most of them also are brick-and-mortar institutions that already have a physical presence in these areas, so they are already complying with the tax codes. The Internet sales tax won’t affect them, but it will badly hurt their smaller competition. No wonder they are in favor of it.

Small businesses will face an enormous compliance burden if they are subjected to the tax codes of 9,646 different jurisdictions. And if they fail to adequately comply with the continuously changing tax laws from all those jurisdictions, they could face audits by 46 states.

The Internet sales tax is bad policy. It would be better for small businesses, the economy, and online shoppers if the House doesn’t follow the Senate’s poor example.

https://blog.heritage.org/2013/07/07/former-virginia-governor-jim-gilmore-internet-sales-tax-hurts-small-businesses/?utm_source=Email&utm_medium=Newsletter&utm_campaign=FreeMarketFocus

Obama, Holder meet on press probe guidelines  
By JENNIFER EPSTEIN |
7/12/13 1:27 PM EDT

Attorney General Eric Holder met with President Barack Obama on Friday to deliver the Justice Department’s report detailing guidelines for criminal investigations involving members of the media.

White House press secretary Jay Carney said the two met in the Oval Office and that the president “accepted the report” from Holder.

Carney wouldn’t reveal the president’s views on the report’s suggestions before its release, which he said he “believes” will happen on Friday afternoon.

https://www.politico.com/politico44/2013/07/obama-holder-meet-on-press-probe-guidelines-168175.html