Radio communications upgrade approved for Ridgewood and Glen Rock
TUESDAY OCTOBER 23, 2012, 11:00 AM
BY DARIUS AMOS
STAFF WRITER
THE RIDGEWOOD NEWS
The village is moving forward with a much-discussed radio communications upgrade for its emergency services, approving a total of $1,067,935 for the project.
The passage of the ordinance appropriating the money came without discussion from members of the public and the Ridgewood governing body last Wednesday, a change from the special meetings and sessions that filled the council’s calendar for the greater portion of this year. By approving the expense and putting the plan in place, Ridgewood will now comply with the Federal Communications Commission’s narrowband directive.
Ridgewood’s communications improvements will include three separate projects. For the first portion, which became known as Part A Option 1, the village will purchase and install radio upgrades for a sum of $693,750. That total includes all the material and work needed for installation as well as overall infrastructure improvements.
Valley is No. 1 in New Jersey for Cardiac Care, Cardiac Surgery, and Coronary Interventional Procedures
October 23, 2012 – Valley was ranked No.1 in New Jersey in three cardiac clinical areas today by Healthgrades, the leading provider of information to help consumers make an informed decision about a physician or hospital. The findings are part of American Hospital Quality Outcomes 2013: Healthgrades Report to the Nation, which evaluates the performance of approximately 4,500 hospitals nationwide across nearly 30 of the most common conditions and procedures.
In addition to the recognitions for excellence in cardiac care, Healthgrades gave The Valley Hospital high marks in several other clinical areas, including orthopedics, neurosurgery and general surgery. For a detailed listing of Valley’s recent Healthgrades recognitions, please visit www.ValleyHealth.com/Awards.
“I am very proud that Valley has received these distinguished recognitions,” said Audrey Meyers, President and CEO of The Valley Hospital and Valley Health System. “We understand that patients today have options when it comes to choosing a healthcare provider and it is our goal to be the hospital of choice for the communities we serve. These outstanding recognitions are testament to the priority Valley staff and physicians place on achieving the highest-quality clinical outcomes, while delivering the most compassionate care.”
Patient outcomes are important to consumers making choices today about hospitals. According to new research conducted by Harris Interactive for Healthgrades, 86 percent of Americans in 27 top designated market areas agree they would be more likely to choose—or not choose—a hospital if they could learn ahead of time the complication and mortality rates for a certain procedure.
For its 2013 hospital quality outcomes analysis, Healthgrades evaluated approximately 40 million Medicare hospitalization records for services performed from 2009 through 2011 at approximately 4,500 short-term, acute care hospitals nationwide. Healthgrades independently measures hospitals based on data that hospitals submit to the federal government. No hospital can opt in or out of being measured, and no hospital pays to be measured. Mortality and complication rates are risk adjusted, which takes into account each hospital’s unique population (demographics and severity of illness).
Star Ledger: Kyrillos on U.S. Senate bid: “I felt a sense of duty to run”
State Sen. Joe Kyrillos (R – Monmouth), the Republican challenger to incumbent U.S. Sen. Robert Menendez (D-NJ), made a campaign stop in a North Jersey sporting goods store earlier this month that sums up his campaign.
Inside Birkenmeier Sport Shop on Main Street in Hackensack, a store that caters to soccer lovers, Kyrillos was speaking to Hubert Birkenmeier and Andranik Eskandarian, two 1970s-era New York Cosmos professional soccer stars and good friends, who run the store together. According to the two teammates and small businessmen, one hard fact of New Jersey economic life could run them into the ground.
“Taxes are killing us,” Birkenmeier, 63, of Wyckoff, said, a reference to New Jersey’s high property taxes, the highest in the nation. “The [Democrats] don’t make things affordable. Everything is going up – health care, insurance, everything. We want to stay alive. We want to keep business going.”
“[The Democrats] talk about millionaires and billionaires, but there’s just a couple of millionaires and billionaires. They’re going to raise taxes on you,” Kyrillos, 52, of Middletown, said in response. “This is the kind of small business that we’re talking about.”
Kyrillos and his rival Menendez are now traveling Main Streets across the Garden State in the final weeks of the campaign. They are waging rhetorical war over who will best represent New Jersey’s middle class and small business people, beleaguered by a troubled national economy and New Jersey’s onerous property taxes.
As he campaigned for the Senate seat that would take him to Washington, D.C., Kyrillos outlined why he thinks he is the better man for the job, and why he wants to change jobs at all.
According to Kyrillos , “The Corzine economic strategy pursued by Bob Menendez has led to higher gas prices, higher unemployment, and declining incomes,” said Kyrillos Campaign Manager Chapin Fay. “By contrast, Joe has worked with Governor Christie in a bipartisan way to bring New Jersey back from the brink as it was left nearly bankrupt by those same policies. They have passed balanced budgets, instituted teacher tenure reform, and made our pension systems viable for the future. Joe faced our toughest challenges head on. Now it’s time to let him do the same in Washington.”
New Jersey police eye possible link between Autumn Pasquale’s death and recent rash of abduction attempts
By Cristina Corbin
Published October 23, 2012
FoxNews.com
Police in northern New Jersey are probing a possible link between a recent string of abduction attempts and the death of 12-year-old Autumn Pasquale, whose body was found stuffed inside a recycling container in the southern part of the state.
Pasquale, of Clayton, was last seen riding her bike away from her father’s home on Saturday afternoon. After an extensive search of the area, investigators found the girl’s body at 10 p.m. Monday night inside a recycling container not far from the home. An autopsy is still under way to determine the cause of death.
The grisly discovery comes as police in northern New Jersey hunt for a suspect or suspects responsible for at least eight kidnapping attempts in Bergen County. Authorities there say they are investigating a possible connection between Pasquale’s death and the reported incidents in Westwood, Oradell, Hawthorne, New Milford, Maywood, Hackensack, Fair Lawn and Ridgewood.
“We are absolutely investigating whether there is a link,” Westwood Police Chief Frank Regino told FoxNews.com. “There certainly is a possibility and only time will tell. We’re looking into every possible angle that we can.”
Investigators say the abduction attempts in Bergen County all involve the luring of young girls by a stranger described as a middle-aged man with white hair.
In the Westood case, a 13-year-old girl said she was approached by a man while walking alone to school at around 7:10 a.m. on Thursday. She said the suspect, whom she described as a white middle-age male with a crew cut and receding hairline, pulled up next to her in a gray four-door hatchback. The girl reported seeing an NYPD sticker on the left-front windshield, Regino said.
The most brazen kidnapping attempt occurred last week in Hawthorne, where a man tried to drag a 13-year-old girl off a crowded soccer field and into a nearby woods. The girl managed to escape by kicking and screaming, authorities said. The suspect was dressed in a dark hooded sweatshirt and jeans.
Police are unsure whether the same man is involved in all the kidnapping attempts in Bergen County. They said it’s possible the suspect could be disguising himself or switching vehicles.
Westwood is about 120 miles from where Pasquale lived in Clayton. The 12-year-old girl was last seen pedaling her white BMX bicycle away from the home where she lived with her father, her two siblings, her father’s girlfriend and the girlfriend’s children.
Bergen County Prosecutor John Molinelli told FoxNews.com that it would be a “real reach” to connect Pasquale to the abduction attempts in northern New Jersey until more information is known. It’s not clear whether Pasquale was lured by a stranger, he said.
Ridgewood’s Jessica Greco breakfast Giants with Eli Manning
October 23,2012
the staff of the Rdigewood blog
Ridgewood NJ , Last month, Dunkin’ Donuts conducted a Facebook sweepstakes where 10 lucky fans would have the once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to have breakfast with New York Giants Superstar Eli Manning. One of those lucky winners is Jessica Greco of Ridgewood, NJ.
Tuesday, October 23rd Jessica and her guest headed to MetLife Stadium to meet and have breakfast at the Legacy Room with Eli Manning.
In addition, Jessica will also decorate donuts with Eli during the breakfast.
Summer is over, but Graydon Pool hours are on Ridgewood Council agenda
TUESDAY OCTOBER 23, 2012, 11:07 AM
BY DARIUS AMOS
STAFF WRITER
THE RIDGEWOOD NEWS
The Ridgewood Council will discuss Graydon Pool’s hours of operation, specifically focusing on the facility’s start time for the first and last three weeks of the swimming season.
During Wednesday’s public work session, council members are expected to weigh the pros and cons of opening the pool at 10 a.m. during the first three weeks of June, while village schools are still in progress. They will also evaluate a 10 a.m. start time for the closing weeks of August.
Prior to the 2012 swim season, council members opted to open the pool at 10 a.m. instead of the usual noon for the first three weeks of June. Because attendance during that time was deemed adequate, officials voted to keep the 10 a.m. start time for the final three weeks of the season.
Village officials deemed this past season as a test run, and council members plan to open the discussion for 2013 this week.
“We want to get this done early so we can have it on the [village] calendar,” Mayor Paul Aronsohn said earlier this month. “My personal view is that [the 10 a.m. start] is money well spent.”
Tim Cronin, director of the Parks and Recreation Department, said final head counts and financial reports would be ready for the work session on Wednesday. He previously indicated to the council that the head count ranged between zero to 19 pool patrons from 10 a.m. to noon during the first three weeks of June.
Pay gap between government, private sector widens to 34 percent
Friday – 10/19/2012, 6:42pm EDT
By Jack Moore
More Reports
The gap in pay between federal employees and private-sector workers has jumped 8 percentage points since last year, according to new data presented at a Federal Salary Council meeting Friday.
On average, federal employees earn 34 percent less than their private-sector counterparts, according to the council’s analysis.
The pay gap, which is calculated using data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics based on pay in 34 locality pay areas, was 26 percent last year.
The council, which is made up of labor representatives and pay experts, makes recommendations on federal pay to the President’s Pay Agent.
Over the last several years, the council’s analysis has shown the pay gap increasingly widening.
Still, two years after President Barack Obama proposed a two-year pay freeze for civilian government employees, the issue of whether and how much feds are underpaid remains contentious.
A Congressional Budget Office study released in January found, overall, federal employees actually earn about 2 percent more in wages compared to private-sector workers, with wider differences based on education level.
But a June 2011 report from the the American Enterprise Institute, a conservative think tank, indicated government pay outstripped private-sector pay by 14 percent.
In reviewing various statistics on federal pay, the Government Accountability Office said the widely divergent results were due to the different methodologies the various studies used. Attempting to compare or extrapolate from them would be “potentially problematic,” GAO auditors said.
U.S. Government’s Foreign Debt Now $47,495 Per Household
By Terence P. Jeffrey
October 22, 2012
(CNSNews.com) – The debt that the U.S. government owes to foreign interests now equals approximately $47,495 for each household in the United States, according to the latest data released by the U.S. Treasury and the Census Bureau.
The portion of the U.S. government’s foreign debt now owed to interests in Mainland China is about $10,090 per household.
At the end of August, the latest period reported by the U.S. Treasury, foreign interests held a total of $5,430,000,000,000 in U.S. government debt. According to the Census Bureau’s latest estimate (which was for June 2012) there were 114,328,000 households in the United States. Therefore, the total U.S. government debt held by foreign interests was about $47,494.93 per household.
Obama Supporters Continue Threats To Riot, Assassinate Romney
Secret Service attention fails to dampen violent Twitter comments
Paul Joseph Watson
Infowars.com
October 23, 2012
Despite the issue garnering a significant amount of media interest as well as the attention of the Secret Service, Obama supporters continued their threats to riot and assassinate Mitt Romney if Obama loses in the aftermath of last night’s presidential debate.
As we reported last week, Twitter has been flooded recently with violent comments from Obama supporters. The increase in volume of the comments seemed to coincide with Romney’s poll numbers edging higher against Obama.
Not only have Obama voters been making open threats that they will riot and cause mayhem, they have also been caught making direct threats to assassinate Mitt Romney, prompting the Secret Service to announce that it was “aware” of the threats and would “conduct appropriate follow up if necessary.”
Despite the fact that the media reported extensively on threats made against Obama prior to the 2008 election, their silence on the threats made against Romney has been deafening. Indeed, the act of a few old guys hanging up empty chairs in reference to Clint Eastwood’s RNC speech garnered substantially more coverage and concern from the press compared to hundreds if not thousands of tweets threatening violence against Mitt Romney.
Americans who simply display political signs expressing opposition to Obama’s policies have been treated as potential violent threats by authorities in the past, and yet not a single Twitter user has faced retribution for making direct and sometimes graphic death threats against Romney.
Leftists routinely cry foul and attempt to demonize conservatives as violent extremists whenever online rhetoric gets heated, and yet when their own engage in even worse conduct, their behavior is absolved and the media is disinterested.
Romney Peacenik
Tuesday, October 23, 2012
https://johnbatchelorshow.com/blog/2012/10/romney-peacenik
Group : Mona Charen, Mary Kissel, Salena Zito, Lara Brown, David Drucker, Brett Arends, Bill Roggio, Arif Rafiq, John Fund, Gordon Chang, Reza Kahlili, Kori Schake, Gene Countrymen
In the final presidential debate the general opinion was the Mr. Romney presented a careful, measured, quiet, pacific demeanor in comparison to Mr. Obama’s strident, accusatory, argumentative, sometimes slashing style.
Why did Mr. Obama choose to go on the offensive? An answer that is repeated elsewhere of weight is that Mr. Obama knows he is trailing in the polls and sinking in the Electoral College, and he knows to make up ground he must rock his opponent.
Neither candidate said anything new tonight; both repeated campaign lines and criticisms they had made of each other before. And yet Mr. Obama aimed at Mr. Romney as if he could knock him from the field with barbs and disdain.
Mr. Romney arrived with a strategy of passive aggression: he aimed to present himself as plausible and peaceable. The mistake he aimed to avoid was to appear or sound warlike in any fashion that would allow Mr. Obama to connect Romney to the Bush administration, 2001-2009. Romney not only achieved his modest aim — Mitt Romney Peacenik — but also he presented pieces of the economic vision for his candidacy — twelve million jobs, reducing deficits to avoid becoming like Greece –that the president has not yet answered with the Obama second term vision.
Foreign policy does not change votes unless you make a foreign policy mistake that undermines credibility or suggests instability. Mr. Romney avoided mistakes and overstatements.
Cleverly, Mr. Romney moved some of the conversation back to the domestic economy where he believes Mr. Obama is losing his mandate; however Mr. Romney chattered about the disappointment of the last four years in a sober, pensive, resigned way, not ever sounding accusatory to the president.
The evening displayed the magic of role reversal. I asked all my guests, “Who is the challenger?” and routinely they answered, “The president.” World turned upside down.
PLEASE ATTEND THE COUNCIL MEETING THIS WED OCT 24 AT 7:30!!
(131 North Maple Ave, Ridgewood)
As a result of the three meetings held on the Schedler property, the Open Space Committee will make a presentation to the Mayor & Council that will set the stage for the future design of one of the last open spaces in the Village.
Many of you attended the three meetings and voiced your opinions. Some of you talked about safety, the importance of “true” open spaces, balance between sports facilities and park-like settings. Most importantly, nobody spoke against the demolition of the Zabriskie-Schedler house, the 1820’s Dutch wood frame farm house that greets all of us who exit Route 17 and enter West Saddle River Road. The demolition of this home should be prevented because it is one of the last remaining wood structures connected to our past.
We already have a group interested in using the house. Such group, the Bergen Museum of Art & Science is proposing to house some of its antique collections in the Zabriskie-Schedler House. This opportunity will further enhance the Village’s cultural assets.
Save the 190 year old Zabriskie – Schedler House from being demolished. Your help is needed!
A grass roots group has been formed to save the Zabriskie-Schedler House from being torn down. The house is one of the last early 19th century Dutch wood frame houses still standing in Bergen County.
The house was built in 1823 by John A. L. Zabriskie. It is located at 460 West Saddle River Road, about 100 yards from the Old Paramus Reformed Church which was built in 1735.
The Zabriskie-Schedler house is situated on 7 acres of land that was purchased by the Village of Ridgewood in Dec 2009. These 7 acres are the last open-space parcel of land left in the Village and the Council plans to build a multi-purpose sports field there.
Where the house is situated does NOT intefere with the plans for the sports field or parking lot. (Please see proposed design of the sports field above). We support the building of a sports field, but we oppose the unnecessary destruction of this 190 year old house.
The east side of Ridgewood that surrounds the Saddle River is the oldest section of the Village. This area was the “Main Street” before the train station was built and before East Ridgewood Ave existed. This is where the Village of Ridgewood began.
Please join our efforts to save the Zabriskie-Schedler House by liking our page and staying informed of how you can help. To join our email list, please email Chris Peters at [email protected] or Isabella Altano at [email protected].
Ridgewood School District details state HIB report
Monday October 22, 2012, 2:06 PM
BY LAURA HERZOG
STAFF WRITER
The Ridgewood News
Despite a slight increase in harassment, bullying and intimidation (HIB) incidents in district schools, Ridgewood High School Assistant Principal Basil Pizzuto said there doesn’t seem to be any reason for alarm.
Less than one percent of the roughly 6,000 students in Ridgewood schools – 51 students – were involved in the incidents, he said.
About 10 more HIB incidents were recorded in the annual School Violence, Vandalism and Substance Abuse Report than last year, but the rest of the numbers were roughly the same, according to Pizzuto. He mainly attributed this to the increased “focus” on HIB in the past year, as well as a new, broader state definition of what constitutes a HIB incident.
Effective September 2011, the state specified that a single incident of harm can constitute a HIB report. Another change to the definition is the demonstration of a created “hostile educational environment” that interferes with a student’s education or “severely or pervasively caus[es] physical or emotional harm” to him or her.
“These [incidents], in the past, may have just been handled at the school level … Now we do a report,” Pizzuto said. He noted that in past years, an incident of bullying may have been handled by telling a student not to act in that way again, followed by a phone call to a parent.
Each annual report is broken down into two components – July 1 through Dec. 30 and Jan. 1 through June 30.
Commissioner takes NJ Transit directors to the woodshed
When the boss talks, employees had better listen.
State Transportation Commissioner James Simpson verbally took NJ Transit senior staff to the woodshed last week, for not following up on items he asked for reports on – some of which had been brought up by the public. And he gave them homework assignments.
“A couple of the speakers spoke about the fact that this agency has not gotten back to them or the board … I apologize,” Simpson said. “I guess I’ve been spoiled at the other agencies I chair. Typically, when I ask for something on the record, usually at the next meeting, I get an answer the next month.”
Simpson is chairman of the New Jersey Turnpike Authority board, the South Jersey Transportation Authority and the state Transportation Trust Fund Authority, in his role as transportation commissioner. (Higgs, Asbury Park Press)
The Ridgewood BOE opted not to move elections to November
Move to Nov. has major effect on N.J. school races
New Jersey school board candidates, who typically spend just a few hundred dollars per election, are finding it’s a different world this year.
Instead of being at the top of the ballot in an April school-only election, most now find themselves in obscure corners of ballots that include Mitt Romney and President Obama, a couple of guys spending hundreds of millions of dollars on their campaigns.
One board candidate says the challenge now is not getting people to the polls; it’s getting those who do go to remember their local elections.
Join Scott Kolesaire, AVO Brand Manager
at Davidoff of Geneva, in an AVO tasting
Taste 3 unbanded AVO cigars
paired with 3 great wines
Plus great gifts with purchase
Thursday, November 1, 2012
6:30-8:30 PM
$20.00 per person
Limited Space Available
Purchase your ticket now!
~Gary, Barbara and Collin
The Tobacco Shop of Ridgewood | 10 Chestnut Street | Ridgewood, New Jersey 07450
Phone: 201-447-2204 | Email: [email protected]
Hours: Monday – Saturday 10:00AM – 5:30PM and Thursday Night 6:30PM – 8:30PM
