Category: Village of Ridgewood

>Village of Ridgewood : Village Christmas Tree

>WikiLeaks cables: Barack Obama is a bigger danger

WikiLeaks harms the US. But the president’s refusal to acknowledge the threats we face is a bigger danger

John Bolton
guardian.co.uk, Sunday 5 December 2010 20.00 GMT

WikiLeaks has yet again flooded the internet with thousands of classified American documents, this time state department cables. More troubling than WikiLeaks’ latest revelation of US secrets, however, is the Obama administration’s weak, wrong-headed and erratic response. Unfortunately, the administration has acted consistently with its demonstrated unwillingness to assert and defend US interests across a wide range of threats, such as Iran and North Korea, which, ironically, the leaked cables amply document

more: https://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/cifamerica/2010/dec/05/obama-us-security-danger-threats

>Port Authority’s new budget hold line on tolls

Motorists won’t face higher tolls at Port Authority bridges and tunnels in the coming year. However, they may find it frustrating entering the Lincoln Tunnel in New Jersey. (The Associated Press)

https://online.wsj.com/article/AP0e8ef33d538943a6b7d6408db74df118.html

>NJ taxpayers, businesses hit hard by unfair valuations

Inaccurate property records that fuel New Jersey’s nearly $25 billion property tax juggernaut cost landowners an estimated $1.6 billion in additional taxes every year. (Schnaars, Asbury Park Press)

https://www.app.com/article/20101208/NEWS/312070005/NJ-taxpayers-businesses-hit-hard-by-unfair-valuations

>Lightgate: Despite numerous requests by neighbors of Ridgewood High School (RHS), the Board of Education will not ask the Planning Board for another courtesy review of the lighting plan


Ridgewood BOE will not seek another review of field lights
Tuesday, December 7, 2010
BY KELLY EBBELS
THE RIDGEWOOD NEWS
Staff Writer

Despite numerous requests by neighbors of Ridgewood High School (RHS), the Board of Education will not ask the Planning Board for another courtesy review of the lighting plan for the school’s two athletic fields, first approved in July.

“We’ve been there, done that, thank you very much,” said Bob Hutton, a Board of Education (BOE) trustee, who introduced the motion at Monday’s BOE meeting to close the discussion. BOE members voted unanimously on the motion.

With nearly 20 residents in attendance, many detailed the indignities brought by the bright lights and increased field usage, particularly at Stevens Field, including unauthorized use by out-of-towners, urination by football players in the Ho-Ho-Kus Brook, parking issues, and garbage, among others.

Jim Morgan, a Beverly Road resident who has spearheaded discussions on the lights and helped launch the RHS Neighborhood Association, also underscored that Superintendent Daniel Fishbein misled the Planning Board at its Oct. 5 courtesy review of the field lights, when Mayor Keith Killion asked Fishbein if he had alerted the residents about the meeting.

more:https://www.northjersey.com/news/111474144_Ridgewood_BOE_will_not_seek_another_review_of_field_lights.html

>Assemblyman Michael Patrick Carroll and Assemblywoman Alison Littell McHose introduced A3147, a bill to repeal the Global Warming Response Act of 2007

RGGI – New Jersey’s Cap & Trade

Since 2008, New Jersey has been a part of the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative (RGGI), which has driven up electricity prices, transferred more than $66 million from the private to public sector and has contributed to the toxic business environment here in the Garden State.

Assemblyman Michael Patrick Carroll and Assemblywoman Alison Littell McHose introduced A3147, a bill to repeal the Global Warming Response Act of 2007. This is an important first step toward restoring New Jersey’s prosperity. Contact your State Representatives and ask them to support A3147.

Find your Legislator: https://www.njleg.state.nj.us/members/legsearch.asp

Read the Bill: https://www.njleg.state.nj.us/2010/Bills/A3500/3147_I1.HTM

>Teens in U.S. Rank 25th Globally on Math Test, Trail in Science, Reading

By John Hechinger – Dec 7, 2010

Fifteen-year-old students in the U.S. ranked 25th of 34 countries on an international math test and scored in the middle of the pack in science and reading, raising concerns the U.S. isn’t prepared to succeed in the global economy.

Teenagers from South Korea and Finland led in almost all academic categories on the 2009 Program for International Student Assessment, according to the Paris-based Organization of Economic Cooperation and Development, which represents 34 countries. U.S. students ranked 17th in science and 14th in reading. The U.S. government considers the OECD test one of the most comprehensive measures of international achievement.

The results show that U.S. students must improve to compete in a global economy, Education Secretary Arne Duncan said yesterday in a telephone interview. The Obama administration is promoting national curriculum standards and a revamping of teacher pay that stresses performance, rather than credentials and seniority.

“The brutal fact here is there are many countries that are far ahead of us and improving more rapidly than we are,” Duncan said. “This should be a massive wakeup call to the entire country.”

The OECD’s international test, first administered in 2000 and given every three years, aims to measure skills achieved near the end of compulsory schooling. In the U.S., 165 public and private schools and 5,233 students participated in the two- hour paper-and-pencil assessment, given in September and November 2009. It consisted of multiple-choice and open-response questions.

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/2010-12-07/teens-in-u-s-rank-25th-on-math-test-trail-in-science-reading.html

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Pearl Harbor attack remembered 69 years later

PEARL HARBOR, Hawaii – Pearl Harbor survivors are hearing reassurances their sacrifice would be remembered by future generations as they gather to mark the 69th anniversary of the attack.
National Park Service Director Jonathan Jarvis on Tuesday told about 120 survivors who traveled to Hawaii from around the country that the park service “will still be here telling their story” long after the last veteran of the war is gone.

Jarvis spoke before the dedication of a new $56 million visitors center for people paying their respects at the memorial for the USS Arizona, which was sunk during the attack and where the remains of nearly 1,000 sailors and Marines are entombed.

The event is being held across the harbor from the USS Arizona. Survivors are taking a boat out to the memorial that sits on top of the battleship.

MORE:https://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20101207/ap_on_re_us/us_pearl_harbor_anniversary_3

>Ground Zero : St. Nicholas Church begins legal action against port authority

The leaders of St. Nicholas Church, the small whitewashed Greek Orthodox Church destroyed by falling debris on Sept. 11, 2001, have begun legal action against the Port Authority demanding that the church be rebuilt under the terms of a deal worked out several years ago. (Barbanel, The Wall Street Journal)

https://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748704156304576003673355689308.html?KEYWORDS=jersey

>Civil service rules are one of the biggest impediments for New Jersey towns looking to share services

Mayors urge change to civil service

Civil service rules are one of the biggest impediments for New Jersey towns looking to share services to save money, Community Affairs Commissioner Lori Grifa told lawmakers Monday. (DeFalco, The Philadelphia Inquirer)

https://www.philly.com/inquirer/local/nj/20101207_Mayors_urge_change_to_civil_service.html#ixzz17QCuhqrG

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Irine Fokine

September 20, 1922–December 5, 2010

Visitation: Tuesday, Dec. 7, 6–8 PM
Funeral service: Wednesday, Dec. 8, 11 AM
Both at: C. C. Van Emburgh Funeral Home
306 E. Ridgewood Ave., Ridgewood
(corner of Maple Ave.)
https://vanemburgh.com/obituary_view/77345

Ridgewood dance icon Irine Fokine, ballet school founder and owner, ballet teacher, choreographer, great-grandmother, and Graydon fan, died on Sunday.

The Irine Fokine School of Ballet was a Chestnut Street fixture for 60 years.

Swimming at Graydon twice a day was a cherished part of Irine’s summer routine. Her Graydon friends will remember her favored wardrobe not as a leotard or tutu but as a bathing suit, white bathing cap or large sun hat, and sweeping white robe.

Irine fervently supported the Coalition’s fight to preserve Graydon. In the summer of 2009, at the height of the Graydon uproar, she took a moment while introducing her ballet troupe’s annual performance at the Kasschau Shell (its last, as it happened) to repudiate the very idea of replacing Graydon’s sand with concrete.

Marcia Ringel and Alan Seiden
Co-Chairs, The Preserve Graydon Coalition
info@preservegraydon.org
www.preservegraydon.org
It’s clear—we love Graydon

>PSE&G to Lower Residential Natural Gas Bills by Additional 5 Percent
Reduction is on top of 5 percent decrease in July and 6.8 percent decrease in September

Gas bills down 31 percent – or about $500 annually – since Jan. 2009

(December 6, 2010 – Newark, NJ) – PSE&G announced today that it has lowered residential gas bills by an additional 5 percent, or nearly $10 per month for the typical residential customer. This latest reduction for supply costs follows a 5 percent reduction in July and a 6.8 percent reduction in September for residential gas customers.

Including this most recent reduction, PSE&G has lowered gas bills a total of approximately 31 percent – or about $500 annually — since January 2009, when wholesale prices started to drop. PSE&G customers today are paying the same supply rate per therm of gas as they did in January 2003.

Under the new gas supply rates, a residential gas heating customer who uses 160 therms in a winter month, or 1,050 therms per year, will see a bill decrease of $64.68 on an annual basis, for a total bill of $1,221.08. This customer’s monthly winter bill will be $184.91, or $9.86 less.

PSE&G makes no profit on the sale of natural gas and passes along what it pays to customers. If the price of natural gas increases, the New Jersey Board of Public Utilities allows the state’s natural gas utilities, including PSE&G, to recover those costs. Conversely, reductions in the gas supply price may be implemented at any time if market conditions warrant

>Christie goes after super pay at town hall

PARSIPPANY – This afternoon, Gov. Chris Christie headed to the center of the storm and in his unique style, he took on all comers.

The confrontation-comfortable Sicilian-Irish governor is trending higher than Tom Brady’s hair right now, and he had several interchanges today that could turn the upward curve vertical.

His school superintendent pay cap is a hot issue in town – a few speakers spoke passionately about the issue – but it the last man in a long line of questioners that riled the governor up to the point that he called the man on stage to give him a what-for over municipal aid

more : https://www.politickernj.com/43279/christie-goes-after-super-pay-town-hall

>Municipal jobs, raises at risk in New Jersey when tax cap takes effect Jan. 1

The demand for resignations stands at one each for Cumberland County Republican and Democratic officials. (Spahr, Press of Atlantic City)

https://www.pressofatlanticcity.com/news/top_three/article_5eccbb90-0024-11e0-85b6-001cc4c03286.html

>NJ school boards overflowing with conflicts of interest

New Jersey is a state where routine business would be viewed as serious conflicts of interests elsewhere, and nowhere is it more apparent than in local government, especially the school boards — of which there are about 600, and which have a big say in how much property taxes are paid. (Ingle, Daily Record)

https://www.dailyrecord.com/article/20101205/OPINION03/101203119/1005/NEWS01/NJ+school+boards+overflowing+with+conflicts+of+interest