the staff of the Ridgewood blog
Ridgewood NJ, Critical issues remain before the BCIA can be engaged on this new, unknown plan. The village and residents have much hard work still to do. The November vote, and the mandate to borrow applied to a plan that is no longer is on the table.
This garage will be operate under different circumstances due to the county funding, the out of town commuting load will likely be higher than the village has detailed. Our outdated and antiquated traffic signals cannot handle traffic as it is. Has the village shown any financial information to residents for this funding? The village and county will be asking us to be investors in this multi-million dollar project and we would like more information on all aspects. The village still has a ways to go on the items it has promised. The residents need time to make a smart investment decision with our tax money on this new and unknown plan.
Even though the council hasn’t answered the question, I understand that the additional cost by going through the BCIA rather than using our own AAA credit rating (the best available and higher than the US Govt at one point) will cost the town an additional 1.5-2%.
Everyone who has likely shopped their mortgage around when buying their home in order to eliminate .5 point. This council, who likely did the same for their own home purchase, is apparently willing to throw away 3-4x that amount of our money rather than have a discussion about a more appropriate solution. We could then finance ourselves and have no input from a county authority that would expect something in return for the privilege of using their inferior cost of capital!
I’m not sure how that qualifies as a rational decision in anyone’s book.
The 3 amigos have decided that although the proposed bond was not approved by the super majority that they would do an end run and get the money from the bcia. Worse than the extra fees involved in getting money from these outside place (and no way is this extra cost netting out to $2,200) is the fact that Ridgewood will lose control and be forced to open up the garage to outside commuters. While I’m all for helping our neighboring towns, Ridgewood commuters must come first. If we have unused commuter spaces fine let others park here. Bergen County as well and NJ transit has it’s own agenda and that agenda isn’t in the best interest of Ridgewood. It is a major mistake to take any money from these outside agencies.
Where the hell is their Fiduciary responsibilities to the taxpayers..we are not asses ignorant to this end run..so how do we stop this. ??
8:26am. I think this is mis information. The Village Manager clearly indicated yesterday that we will be able to trick Bergen County, and through an external consultant report (walker), we can limit the commuter spots in the new garage. Since we can limit the number of total commuter spots, we will not have to give too many passes to Bergen County commuters. That will be our way to control the garage. Although I don’t know how will this affect RIdgewood commuters, but we can definitely limit the discounted passes to Bergen County residents (non ridgewood), but restricting total commuter spots in the garage. May be ridgewood resident commuters will have to go and park at glen rock or mahwah, but we definitely have a plan to trick the county, and we approved a third party study last night to stamp on our plan.
This garage and the entire process for funding is becoming a disaster. A garage is not needed just put up a second deck on available lots for less money and be done with it.
Did any of them actually offer a substantive reason as to why they think the BCIA is the better way? They made sure we all knew they would play ball and keep it in house if it was 5-0 with no questions. Every time they went back to threatening with the BCIA, they would remember to add a vague plug at the end of the sentence about how it would probably be the better way – but never a real or supported argument.
Bizarre…
The deputy mayor stated that change orders and soft costs of 5-10% are normal for a project, so lets not worry about them. It seems highly irresponsible to issue work orders, knowingly that in 2 weeks there may be a change order to that work order. Knowingly that we may loose in 6 figures with each change order – when the time difference in getting final details is just 2 weeks away. They knowingly issued marching orders to the design firm to create the construction documents on Plan A in early Oct, when public was being invited to provide feedback on design, and they knew it can change. Now the deputy mayor is saying we will complete the formalities of bond with BCIA, but we can change our mind until the first money is drawn. This will mean that if we switch to Ridgewood funded bond, we will loose over 200,000 in initial fixed costs of bonding through BCIA. Councilwoman Knudeson is asking for 2 weeks to go and talk to the neighbors and show them the design to be able to vote on this bond through Ridgewood, and deputy mayor wants to throw away our 200K+ as part of 5-10% soft cost.
If these type of known wasted money money are acceptable, why not clean up the North Walnut Site for 800K, that’s also 5-8% ‘soft cost’ of a 10M-12M garage?
The BCIA is only the “better way” because it requires a 3-2 vote.
Looks like we will incur additional fees (certain),
Will no longer be able to charge out of town commuters a higher rate (certain)
The projected savings on the interest rate may never materialize.
With interest rates near zero the spread between Ridgewood rates and BCIA rates may never materialize.
None of that matters. As Gwenn said it previously. They WON!
Thats it John V ” Bizarre…” Maybe you would want to add more to you post to clarify what you mean by “Bizarre…”
12:24pm-
Haha, sure. While I haven’t watched all of last night’s council mtg, they seem to have reached a reasonable compromise design that I imagine could get 4 votes from the council and addresses the bulk of peoples concerns about the old plans. So why continue with the BCIA funding process? Why not just finish the new design, get comment, and then vote on it again? Going to the BCIA without another attempt to get 4 votes is “bizarre” to me…
John V 2:23pm.
1. Big Ego
2. Wants to please county democrats.
3. Doesn’t make own decisions – goes with the flow.
Thank John V.
Too important to get those shovels in the (frozen) ground so he can say he kept his promises to the developers, building owners, and construction unions that fund him.
https://www.northjersey.com/news/from-the-archives-local-towns-paying-heavily-for-bergen-county-loan-program-meant-to-save-time-money-1.1243384
Why on earth would we leap into bed with these people????
10:58 nailed it, the “change orders” have already started before a shovel even hits the ground. The Village couldn’t fold a paper airplane without cost overruns from these insidious “change orders” plus project delays. For Albert to say 5-10% “soft costs” are normal for a project is irresponsible. Ask to CBD business owners to pay for all of the “soft costs” incurred if he thinks they’re “normal”, at least they might pay attention to the amounts being charged unlike this Council and Village Manager.