Planning Board Special Public Meeting Readers Recap
Excellent analysis and great points. Some of my favorite moments were:
1) when the architect was forced to acknowledge that their repeated reference to the 70′ height of the North Building would actually be 94′ with rooftop mechanicals (the gasp from the audience was palpable), and
2)when a resident asked the planner if he felt that a 50,000 sq ft total reduction of visible bulk was a compromise, and he said “no, but…”, and
3)when a resident asked if there could be an addition column added to their presentation slides to compare the current hospital dimensions to the 2010 MPA allowances and 2013 application request, but was turned down as irrelevant.
Please come to the next meeting on April 16th at George Washington Middle School at 7:30pm. Let’s see how the Geo-technical expert explains that by not de-watering a 1000′ radius around the hospital and potentially cracking home foundations, that this is their idea of compromise. Now they will only be de-watering at a rate of 280,000 gallons per day vs 500,000. Whew! I’m so relieved!
Here We Go Again : Obama administration pushes banks to make home loans to people with weaker credit
By Zachary A. Goldfarb, Published: April 2
The Obama administration is engaged in a broad push to make more home loans available to people with weaker credit, an effort that officials say will help power the economic recovery but that skeptics say could open the door to the risky lending that caused the housing crash in the first place.
President Obama’s economic advisers and outside experts say the nation’s much-celebrated housing rebound is leaving too many people behind, including young people looking to buy their first homes and individuals with credit records weakened by the recession.
Ridgewood Art Institute ( RAI ) – 61st Annual Sponsors Show
April 14–May 2nd, 2013
This remarkably original, eminently successful show features paintings given to the Institute by member artists. The Sponsors are the first of a limited number of people who contribute $275. On the last night of the show, as their names are drawn, the Sponsors select their favorite painting to take home. https://www.ridgewoodartinstitute.org/sponsor_email.html
Sponsor Show Gallery : https://www.ridgewoodartinstitute.org/sponsor/sponsor_gallery.html
Purchase Your Sponsorship Online Now!
Reception: Sunday April 14th 2-4pm
Drawing: Friday, May 3rd (8:00 pm)
Chairpersons: Janet Cunniffe-Chieffo and Kate Hall
Show Treasurer: Julie Fornaci
Photo credit: Boyd A. Loving Driver Loses Control of Car in Village Parking Lot
April 3,2013
Boyd A. Loving
12:59 PM
Ridgewood NJ, The driver of a Toyota Corolla lost control of her vehicle in the Ridgewood Village Hall/Public Library parking lot on Wednesday morning and crashed into a unoccupied parked pickup truck, sending the truck up an embankment and into a chain link fence. The Toyota driver was uninjured, but her vehicle was towed from the scene by a flatbed tow truck due to heavy front end damage.
Ridgewood Fire Department personnel responded to contain a minor fluid spill from the Toyota. The accident was investigated by Ridgewood PD Patrol Officer Steven Shortway. One summons was issued to the Toyota’s driver.
Blogger Kelly Oxford at Bookends April 3rd
Wednesday, April 3rd @ 7:00pm ,Twitter & Blogger sensation, Kelly Oxford, will sign here new book: Everything is Perfect when you’re a Liar
WWE’s Booker T at Bookends April 5th
Friday, April 5th @ 4:30pm**New Time
WWE Smackdown Manager, Booker T, will sign his new book: Booker T
Appearing authors will only autograph books purchased at Bookends and must have valid Bookends Receipt. Availability & pricing for all autographed books subject to change. Bookends cannot guarantee that the books that are Autographed will always be First Printings. Autographed books purchased at Bookends are non-returnable.
While we try to insure that all customers coming to Bookends’ signings will meet authors and get their books signed, we cannot guarantee that all attendees will meet the author or that all books will be signed. We cannot control inclement weather, author travel schedules or authors who leave prematurely.
Bookends, 211 E. Ridgewood Avenue, Ridgewood, NJ 07450 201-445-0726
Ridgewood NJ, This week provided the first real taste of spring, but for those with seasonal allergies, spring has literally been “in the air” for some time. In fact, people with spring allergies are most likely already experiencing sneezing, watery eyes and fatigue because of tree pollen.
“Our area of the country typically experiences high tree pollen levels from March through May,” said Marjorie Slankard, M.D., Director of Allergy and Immunology at The Valley Hospital. This year’s colder weather may have delayed the process a bit, but once the warmer weather hits pollen levels will shoot up.
According to the American College of Allergy, Asthma and Immunology (ACAAI), more than 40 million Americans suffer from seasonal allergies, and this is expected to be one of the worst seasons we have seen for tree pollen.
But there are ways to help control your allergy symptoms and reduce your suffering. Dr. Slankard and the ACAAI offer the following tips to help keep seasonal allergy symptoms under control:
Know your triggers. Make sure you know what is causing your symptoms – it may turn out that pollen is not the culprit. Speak to your primary care doctor, who may recommend you see an allergist who can identify the source of your symptoms.
Treat before you sneeze. Don’t wait for allergy symptoms to hit before you take your medication. Allergists recommend you begin taking your over-the-counter or prescription allergy medication one to two weeks before symptoms typically hit.
Monitor pollen and mold counts —many media sources report this information during allergy seasons.
Keep indoor air clean. Use air conditioning and keep windows and doors shut at home, and in your car during allergy season.
Stay inside as much as you can from 6 to 10 a.m. and 4 to 6 p.m. when pollen counts are highest.
Take a shower, wash hair and change clothing after being outdoors working or playing.
If you can, delegate outdoor chores like mowing the lawn. If you can’t delegate the chores, consider wearing a mask to cut down on your exposure to outdoor allergens. An allergist can help you find the type of mask that works best.
When home and over-the-counter remedies aren’t enough, see your doctor. For many people, avoiding allergens and taking over-the-counter medications is enough to ease symptoms. But if your seasonal allergies are still bothersome, don’t give up. A number of other treatments are available. For some people, allergy shots, called allergy immunotherapy, can be a good option. The treatment involves regular injections containing tiny amounts of the substances that cause your allergies. Over time, these injections reduce the immune system reaction that causes symptoms.
To find a Valley Hospital allergist near you, please call 1-800-VALLEY 1, or visit www.ValleyMedicalStaff.com to search by specialty.
Reader says , The truth behind Valley’s fantasy is the massive structure is simply already too big to expand any further
I am glad the Bergen article used the correct measure — the Hospital is going to severely expand, not reduce. Valley tried to get through the night talking about “reductions” in its expansion plans. The truth behind Valley’s fantasy is the massive structure is simply already too big to expand any further, and certainly not on the obese scale presented at last night’s meeting.
From what Valley said last night: The buildings and parking garage will be expanded with a 90% increase in density to what is there now, nearly double the current size. Maximum height will go up to almost 100 feet, further dwarfing surrounding properties. The plan still calls for the same number of parking spaces (2000) so it seems school children and other pedestrians will still face the same amount of increased traffic, despite the claim that certain operations will be conducted elsewhere. There will still be massive excavations impacting our underground water streams, requiring the destruction of bedrock and requiring hundreds of thousands of trips through town by dump trucks carrying off debris. Linwood avenue will be expanded in order to allow for the increased traffic and construction vehicles. (Does this mean the taking of private property from Linwood homeowners?) Today’s technology, we are told, requires larger, single occupancy rooms, yet we are not assured tomorrow’s technology and profit seeking won’t mean large singles are turned into double or triples (and maybe that’s the real reason for the increased number of parking spots.) The loading zone for trucks, with their noise, exhaust, etc., are all being moved down next to BF middle school and the playing fields.
All in all, Valley made it clear that to remain on par with other regional hospitals serving the NorthEast, it needed to expand even if the expansion did not otherwise fit within its space or the neighborhood. Once again, we are being asked to sacrifice our the Village so Valley can remain economically profitable with other major hospitals.
The Mayor asked a very interesting question: last time a prime justification for doubling the Hospital’s size was that overnight hospital beds were needed because of the shrinking number of hospitals. Why then, the Mayor asked, does Valley need the same number of beds as identified in the last expansion plans when Pascack Valley has re-opened down the road. Valley’s answer this time was that it wanted what it wanted. A particularly galling response when one considers Valley uses its financial might (relying on Ridgewood resident donations and funding of Valley’s tax-free status) to fund litigation opposing entities like Pascack Valley from administering to the sick.
I thought one of the most interesting points was not articulated well enough and Valley skirted away from it. Their opening presentation noted that other options, such as moving the entire baby birthing and care operations to another location, was not “feasible.” Valley later explained it was too costly, but it absolutely refused to provide any support for this saying the issue was “private.” In other words, Valley is asking the Village to change its way of public life, while saying the reasons are “private.” Hopefully the Planning Board will see through Valley’s thinly veiled reasons for wanting to expand. I would like to see the Board return to that at the next meeting, and if Valley won’t justify or explain this as one of the reasons for expanding, then the Board should refuse to consider the unavailability of other locations as a reason for expansion.
All in all, a good night for Ridgewood residents who respectfully presented question after question to Valley’s hired guns who sounded absolutely charming, but by the end of the night revealed that, as with the past plan, “these are the things that Valley wants” and that, in and of itself, is the reason the Village should cave and give it to them.
This sounds SO MUCH like Ridgewood. They built a new city hall, a parking garage, some sort of entertainment complex……and their biggest financial burden was to the pensions of the police and firefighters.
We are going directly down this path, and the current council has the pedal to the metal getting us to bankruptcy as fast as they can.
VOTE NO TO THE SCHOOL BUDGET. Ask your neighbors to do the same, ignoring the fact that the two people running for the school board are incumbents.
Then watch the council let the budget go through anyway, as happened last time it was voted down. There is little down side .Still a good thing to do. Schools have been bludgeoning parents and kids for years about this. They need to shut it down.
Any Ridgewood resident who is a registered voter may cast a ballot in the Annual School Election on April 16.
Any registered voter may cast a mail-in ballot. Mail-in ballots must be completed and returned to the County Clerk by the close of polls on Tuesday, April 16.
Reader says What would be fair is if the Village enacted an ordinance requiring “CO” inspections at the time of a property sale
The tax ‘rate’ goes up so its simply divided among the taxpayers. What would be fair is if the Village enacted an ordinance requiring “CO” inspections at the time of a sale. That way, homeowners who ‘sneak in’ improvements such as extra baths, fixed up basements etc will be properly assessed.
It should also have a penalty for these tax cheats.Another meaningful enforcement would be to have an investigator from the Police dept assigned to the board of ed to weed out the non-resident students.
I have heard that many rented apartments are ‘shared addresses’ so out-of-towners can mooch a Ridgewood education for their children. They should be hit up with a fine, that is double the ‘tuition’ bill.
Our taxes are high enough and we need to stop these cheats.
Architect says Valley Hospital plan addresses issues residents still skeptical of proposal
Tuesday, April 2, 2013 Last updated: Tuesday April 2, 2013, 11:26 PM
BY MARY JO LAYTON
STAFF WRITER
The Record
Experts for The Valley Hospital presented details of a proposal Tuesday night that would expand the hospital significantly, allow for all-private rooms, create larger treatment areas and relocate selected outpatient services to cut down on traffic and patient volume.
The hospital’s floor space would grow by nearly two-thirds — to 910,000 square feet from 562,000 — but would be 22 percent smaller than under an expansion plan that the Village Council rejected in 2011.
An architect representing Valley, Steve Evers, told the Ridgewood Planning Board that the proposal addressed several concerns that residents and council members had raised about the earlier plan, which the hospital called “Renewal.” An entire below-ground floor was removed from the proposed north building, a fifth floor was eliminated from the proposed west/south buildings, and outpatient services — including breast care and some cardiac services — would be relocated off-campus to decrease patient and traffic volume, Evers said.
https://www.northjersey.com/news/Valley_Hospital_experts_present_details_of_revised_expansion_plan.html
State Sen. Malcolm Smith, city Councilman Halloran arrested in ‘bribery plot’ to rig mayor race
Part of far bigger nation wide problem ?
* Dem Smith schemed to run as GOPer * Faces rap with Republican Halloran
By JOSH MARGOLIN, LORENA MONGELLI AND ERIN CALABRESE
State Sen. Malcolm Smith and city Councilman Dan Halloran were arrested this morning on charges they were plotting to rig this year’s mayoral election through fraud and bribes.
The pols allegedly formed an alliance built on cash payments and fraud to get Smith — one of the state’s top Democrats — placed on the GOP mayoral ballot, sources said.
FBI agents arrested them both at their Queens homes shortly after 6 a.m.
“I have no idea,” Halloran, in handcuffs, told a Post reporter when asked if he knew why he was being arrested.
https://www.nypost.com/p/news/local
New Jersey has provided more corporate tax breaks in the past three years than it did in the last 10, but the state’s economy still continues to lag, according to a report released on Monday.
The state has awarded $2.1 billion in subsidies — compared to $1.25 billion for the previous 10 years, since Gov. Chris Christie took office in 2010, according to a report by New Jersey Policy Perspective, the liberal think tank. (Jordan/APP)
DeSimone named top business administrator in New Jersey
Monday April 1, 2013, 1:39 PM
BY LAURA HERZOG
STAFF WRITER
The Ridgewood News
Assistant Superintendent of Business Angelo DeSimone, who will retire this summer after eight years of district service, has been named the New Jersey Business Administrator of the Year by the New Jersey School Boards Association.
The announcement was made at last week’s Board of Education (BOE) meeting by Superintendent Daniel Fishbein, who noted that the award comes with a $2,000 college scholarship for a student.
This year, the New Jersey School Association of School Business Officials also honored DeSimone with the Distinguished Service Award for northern New Jersey.
This is the first time DeSimone has been named New Jersey Business Administrator of the Year, an award that is the result of a county nomination and state committee selection. He was also recommended by Fishbein.
“Congratulations, Angelo. Well-deserved,” BOE President Sheila Brogan said last week. “Does this mean you’re staying?”
Sandy-hit Shore homeowners ask: “Where is the money?”
Despite all the BIG talk and photo opts from politicians no money yet
Underwater doesn’t even begin to get at the heart of Maurice Corkery’s predicament.
“This was my summer home,” the Delaware County plant manager said of his little rancher on Third Street in Ocean City, N.J., flooded with its foundation cracked – totalled, really – by Sandy. (Rosenberg/Inquirer)
