Proposal seeks to keep steady count of Ridgewood trees
Wednesday January 23, 2013, 11:45 AM
BY DARIUS AMOS
STAFF WRITER
The Ridgewood News
Constructive feedback from residents has helped the Ridgewood Environmental Advisory Committee (REAC) reshape a quickly evolving shade tree proposal.
The committee is recommending that developers who remove trees from the property for the sake of their project either replant new ones elsewhere at the site or pay into a special tree endowment account. The stipulation also applies to homeowners who wish to build an addition to their house.
A previous draft would have required all developers and homeowners, including those who simply remove a dead tree from their land, to replant.
“We want to get the parameters set for developers,” said Councilwoman Bernadette Walsh.
Walsh, who serves as REAC liaison, referenced a Ridgewood property along Route 17, where a developer last year clear-cut dozens of trees without repercussion. The land is currently empty.
“The developer had every right to [cut down the trees]; there’s nothing on the books. We want to have that part of it on the books. If they’re going to be removing them, they’ll have the obligation to replace trees,” she said. “If they’re not going to replace them on the site, then they have to pay into that tree fund.”
The exact amount of the fee has not been determined, but Walsh indicated that the total will likely resemble the price of a new tree.
Gov. Hugh Carey of New York, center, in 1975, during meetings on the New York City financial crisis. With him were Judah Gribetz, left, counsel to the governor, and Victor Marrero, assistant counsel to the governor.
Tiger Team makes recommendations: Establish a Financial Oversight Board (FOB)
Our work on this Committee has convinced us that there is a need for continued citizen involvement, oversight and leadership in Ridgewood’s financial matters in conjunction with the Village Council and Village management. The first and most important recommendation of our committee is that a permanent Financial Oversight Board (FOB) comprised of citizens be established by March 31, 2013, to facilitate evaluation and/or implementation of recommendation within this report, particularly those related to the 2013 budget process. The committee is aware that the Faulkner Act form of government in Ridgewood gives the Village Manager executive power over each department in the Village. However, we believe that the Village Council cedes too much autonomy to Village management. The Village Manager is the “day to day” CEO. But, the Village Council is the “Board of Directors”, to which the Village Manager is accountable. They are responsible for the funding of all Village operations and are, ultimately, responsible for the budget and Village governance. Unfortunately, the Village Council members do not have the time necessary to develop sufficient expertise in many areas of Village management, particularly with complex financial and budgetary issues. As a result the Village Council often relies on brief summaries and recommendations from the Village Manager to inform their decisions, and may not gain sufficient understanding of the implications of their decisions or what questions to ask. Our sense is that Village management perpetuates this dynamic in some instances. We expect that some Village Council members will learn about some details of the Village’s finances, for the first time, through the information contained in this report. Our opinion is that the Village Council has an obligation to establish clear directives for Village management take a more proactive oversight role.
Thus, the main purpose of the FOB would be to augment the financial expertise of both the Village management and the Village Council. Similar to the Planning Board, the FOB would provide expertise and continuity across election cycles and serve as a valuable resource for the Village Council, particularly for newly elected Council members. FOB members should have significant financial management, budget management ,and senior executive commercial or governmental management experience. The important recommendations in this report, as well as , areas identified for further study require that there be a group of citizens to support and audit the work being done by the Village. Because Village taxpayers bear the full burden of the Village and BOE budgets, and the BOE share of property taxes is approximately twice that of the Village share, we hope that the FOB would eventually also provide support and oversight to the BOE. This would also serve to facilitate synergies between the Village and the BOE that do not exist today.
Village of Ridgewood Village Council ,Boards and Meetings
01/23/13 7:30PM Planning Board Special Public Meeting
01/29/13 7:30PM Board of Adjustment Public Work Session
01/30/13 7:30PM Village Council Public Work Session
02/05/13 7:30PM Planning Board Public Meeting
02/06/13 7:30PM Village Council Public Work Session
02/11/13 7:30PM Planning Board Special Public Meeting
02/12/13 7:30PM Board of Adjustment Public Meeting
02/13/13 8:00PM Village Council Public Meeting
Ridgewood NJ, Used baseball equipment — especially cleats, gloves and batting gloves — is being collected by Ridgewood residents for a father/son social service trip to the Dominican Republic at the end of January.
The group will help build a baseball field at a batay, which is a workers’ village, and will do painting and plastering at a school. The boys will also play in a baseball tournament.
The group will also take as much equipment as they can carry to donate to the children of the workers at the batay.
You can donate in either one of two ways: E-mail Larry Mondi at [email protected] with your address and leave the donation in a bag on your front stoop or driveway to be picked up. Or, you can leave it on the Mondi front porch at 374 Manchester Road. Donations are appreciated through Wednesday evening, January 30.
Congratulations to several Ridgewood High School art students for their outstanding accomplishments in art. The following received awards for artwork submitted to the 2013 Scholastic Art Northern New Jersey Regional Awards:
· Samuel Kendrick (12) Honorable Mention – Art Portfolio (8 works)
· Minha Lee (9): Honorable Mention (2) – (2) Paintings
· Hannah (Hyejin) Park (11): Silver Key – Painting
· Youjin Park (10): Silver Key – Sculpture
The process of jurying the artwork included professional artists, curators, and arts educators reviewing 3400 works of arts submitted by over 900 individual student artists from across northern New Jersey. A reception for Gold and Silver Key recipients and their teachers will take place at the Montclair Art Museum on February 12.
Allegations fly over alleged racial comment in incident between Ridgewood resident and sanitation worker
Tuesday January 22, 2013, 9:19 PM
BY CHRIS HARRIS
STAFF WRITER
The Record
RIDGEWOOD — A village employee has filed a formal criminal complaint alleging a 68-year-old Alanon Road resident made a racist remark aimed at him in late December. But a judge on Tuesday found there was enough cause for a counter claim against the employee.
On Monday, Ridgewood Police Capt. Jacqueline Luthcke said others allegedly overheard Eugene Koret use a racial slur when referring to a village sanitation worker on the morning of Dec. 26. The village employee, Wallace Hancock, alleges that he called him a racially insensitive name.
Reader : Developers have no interest in keeping Ridgewood the lovely town it is
The developers have no interest in keeping Ridgewood the lovely town it is. They want to maximize their profits and run away. If they buy a piece of property knowing that it must be rezoned to be profitable and the town is against it, that really should be their tough luck.
What use are zoning laws and master plans if all the developers are able to get around them? I personally can’t believe that anyone who could afford a luxury condo would want to live next to a commuter train line!
Go to the Planning Board meeting Wednesday, January 23, 4th floor Village Hall at 7:30 and voice your opinion. These developers are telling the board everything they want to hear instead of the truth. The board must hear from the citizens and how they feel. Time is of the essence. They will be voting soon. Don’t sit back and do nothing.
Ridgewood considers keeping work on waterways flowing
Tuesday January 22, 2013, 9:42 AM
BY DARIUS AMOS
STAFF WRITER
The Ridgewood News
Hoping to stay one step ahead of Mother Nature, Ridgewood officials will consider making maintenance along two naturally occurring waterways a regular project.
Contractors recently completed major repairs and restoration in and around the Ho-Ho-Kus-Brook and Saddle River, waterways that have become notorious in recent years for their flooding tendencies. The two last breached in 2011 during Hurricane Irene, when floodwaters divided the village into thirds and caused widespread damage to private and public properties.
The work marked the first time in more than a decade that the village authorized a large-scope project in those areas.
Village council members can approach future restoration work at the brook and river in the same manner as other capital projects, according to Ridgewood Engineer Chris Rutishauser.
2002 photo shows the eastbound Atlantic City Expressway https://www.phillyroads.com/roads/atlantic-city/
Toll cheats on the Atlantic City Expressway could lose registrations
January 23, 2013
the staff of the Ridgewood blog
Ridgewood NJ , Visitors to Atlantic City beware, the South Jersey Transportation Authority has sent letters to 147 people and companies with $200 or more of unpaid tolls warning them that the deadline to settle up is Feb. 7. Toll scofflaws on the Atlantic City Expressway will lose their vehicle registrations if they fail to pay.
The South Jersey Transportation Authority said they sent out warnings last year that dead beats could lose their registrations. A similar crack down was done by the New Jersey Turnpike Authority to encourage toll evaders to pay up.
Not everyone faces the same consequences,the Press of Atlantic City reports the out-of-state drivers will not have their registrations taken away.
I can tell from my correspondence that there are a lot of people in America who believe that the gun control measures President Obama is asking for are reasonable and will be effective in curbing gun violence in this nation, even though they come nowhere near addressing the root of the problem.
There are also a lot who approve his “paying their fair share” policies and applaud the tax increases on citizens earning over four hundred thousand dollars a year, even though these measures are not a drop in the bucket in attacking the ridiculous mountain of debt America has foolishly accumulated.
There are those who see his efforts at a “comprehensive immigration” policy as a humanitarian gesture, even though it will add millions to the entitlement roles and to the Democratic Party electorate.
Then there are those like me who wouldn’t trust the executive, legislative or judicial branches of government as far as we could throw a fully loaded Greyhound bus.
We have been sold out by all of them and they have given us little valid reason to believe anything they say, or to trust any action they take.
Our entire federal government has turned into a corrupt, self-proliferating, defunct debating society which sits in their ivory towers and pontificates, telling America how they are going to solve our problems, are but more concerned with how they are perceived by the public on the Sunday morning news shows than doing anything meaningful.
The reason so many people are not willing to go along with any kind of gun legislation in America is not because they don’t want to see the gun violence ended, it’s because they know that those pushing it are the “give us an inch and we’ll take a mile” kind of people and the legislation they want passed is only the first increment in the disarming of America.
If gun legislation was passed, there is no telling what would be hidden in the fine print that you would never know about until you broke a federal law you were not even aware of.
Just like the tax increases that were just passed are only the first installment of raises.
Next, they’ll tell us that increasing the taxes of people making four hundred thousand dollars a year doesn’t produce enough revenue and it needs to be increased to include a lower income bracket, and then another until there are increases on every productive citizen in America.
If they get their first round of gun control proposals, they’ll be back and say that the first round didn’t go far enough and other calibers and types of guns and ammunition need to be banned
The upshot is that we can’t trust our elected officials to do what they say. They have betrayed our trust and America knows that if you grant them an ounce they will find a way to take the whole bucketful.
When I write an article like this, I usually have people ask me what we can do.
I’ll be honest; I’m not sure if we haven’t had our last chance for a long time to do anything about the direction Washington is taking, as the entitlement society grows exponentially by the day and will soon become the biggest voting block in the nation.
But one thing is for certain; America cannot continue to exist the way it’s going. The scale will eventually tip; all the dominos will fall and I only hope America has the strength left to pick up the pieces.
Readers Respond to Tiger Team Report : The real issue is health care and no one wants to attack the problem at the top.
The village is not broke it has a 98% collected tax levy. I call your attention to the tiger team report where they ( the team ) suggests replacing regular police officers with class 2 specials so that less money goes to the officers and more goes to the town coffers who gets hurt here ? certainly no one other than the police officer.
The “team” doesn’t explain those costs are not overtime but a separate contractor rate paid for by the contractor not out of taxpayer coffers. You stated in your post employees are receiving excessive compensation, by whose standards, a self heralded group of resident who have a problem with how much public employees make?
The real issue is health care and no one wants to attack the problem at the top. Try regulating how much health care companies can charge, but no it’s easier to come after the working man and reduce his benefits or making him contribute more out of his compensation.
Options for controlling your kids’ cellphone use
Tuesday, January 22, 2013
BY MARY DIDUCH
STAFF WRITER
The Record
Children are getting their first cellphones and smartphones at younger ages, raising concerns among parents about their security.
Many parents would like to inspect their kids’ devices at the end of each day, yet want to maintain their children’s sense of responsibility. Parents now can install applications – from both wireless providers and third parties — to control and monitor how, when and how long their kids use their phones.
While wireless providers provide a host of bundled applications to ensure phone safety, safe driving, proper phone usage and spending limits, here is a breakdown of some other options on the market:
Mayor Paul Aronsohn and the Village Council vote to put Teachers over Students for RHS Parking
Change to parking setup at Ridgewood High School is introduced
Village Council tosses out students
Ridgewood Teachers get coveted parking spaces
What about Resident parking on Heermance place?
Do it for the childern?
Taxpayers get the shaft
Tuesday January 22, 2013, 9:54 AM
BY DARIUS AMOS
STAFF WRITER
The Ridgewood News
With Village Council permission, the Board of Education is planning to take parking spots away from Ridgewood High School (RHS) students, but thus far, the young drivers who will be directly impacted have not publicly discussed their potential loss.
At the urging of resident Boyd Loving, Mayor Paul Aronsohn said last week that reaching out to high school students and encouraging them to speak “is a good idea” when the governing body votes next month on an ordinance to change Heermance Street parking.
By a 3-to-2 vote, council members introduced an ordinance to designate the 23 parking spaces on Heermance as permit-only spots from 8 a.m. to 3 p.m. on school days. The Board of Education intends to limit the permits to RHS faculty and staff.
Parking on Heermance, a village-owned street located between RHS and Stadium Field, is currently available to students and staff on a first come first serve basis. For drivers who cannot find parking spots on the RHS campus, overflow parking is available at the Graydon South lot.
“Minimal impact” on the Village ,where have we heard that before
January 22,2013
the staff of the Ridgewood blog
Ridgewood NJ, Looks like all these large developments, from the Valley Hospital expansion to any of the developers looking to add multifamily housing to the Central Business District all manage to find consultants to support the notion of “minimal impact” .
The impact that a 137,000-square-foot, four-story mixed use development at Franklin Avenue and Chestnut Street will have on Central Business District (CBD) traffic and already crowded Ridgewood schools is minimal, according to experts hired by project developer Dinallo |Construction. ( https://www.northjersey.com/news/187344371_Planner__Proposed_Ridgewood_development_would_have_minimal_impact.html )
Frankly even if it were true no one would believe it anyway .Best advise is to be truthful about the impact and design accordingly .
Readers point out “I checked the Ridgewood high school directory. There are 110 children from three different apartment buildings in town. That doesn’t include Gw middle school or Ridge/Orchard school that all fall into the downtown district.
So if we just guessed and added another 110 kids in those 4 schools that comes out to 55 kids per school or two more 27 child classes per school on the west side and the high school. Willard seems to be out of the apt/address. ”
Folks there is no way a 114-unit luxury apartment building. in the shadow of the the Ridgewood Train station , with over 7,000 square feet for retail and 166 parking spaces is going to have , “minimal impact” .That statement is ridiculous .
Construction, traffic, commuting , pedestrian safety, police, fire, water and schools will all be impacted, now lets get serious and face reality and design this thing to fit the needs of the Village .
Readers Continue to Respond to the Tiger Team Report :The village council should act quickly to implement these suggestions
The report makes it pretty clear that the village is broke and taxes will continue to go up at an unacceptable rate. It doesn’t strike me that the report is “trying to hurt” village workers, at all. I think the report even states that the employees are not to blame for the agreements between the village and the unions. But, the contract obligations are obviously the biggest expense. And, according to the data shown in the report, some village employee groups are receiving excessive compensation, which has compounded through multiple increases year after year.
To ignore this would lead to ineffective solutions. That has been the problem in the past. I am sure the union leadership will fight any change. However, the report claims that starting salaries are higher and the pay schedules and bonuses proposed in the report look pretty attractive (the merit bonuses are up to $15,000 per year). If an employee making $100,000 gets just a $7,500 merit bonus, that is the same as a $7.5% increase for the year…that is more than any contract increase that would ever be approved and it is in the employee’s control. The only employees who may not like the changes are those, who don’t think they will qualify for merit bonuses, which is exactly how the system should work.
I think these suggestions are great. Hopefully, the village council acts quickly to implement them.
