Category: Village of Ridgewood

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>Bankruptcy of U.S. is ‘Mathematical Certainty,’ Says Former CEO of Nation’s 10th Largest Bank

Thursday, November 04, 2010
By Terence P. Jeffrey

https://www.cnsnews.com/news/article/former-bbt-ceo-bankruptcy-us-mathematica

(CNSNews.com) – John Allison, who for two decades served as chairman and CEO of BB&T, the nation’s 10th largest bank, told CNSNews.com it is a “mathematical certainty” that the United States government will go bankrupt unless it dramatically changes its fiscal direction.

Allison likened what he sees as the predictable future bankruptcy of the United States to the problems at Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, whose insolvency he also said was foreseeable to those who studied their business practices and financial situation.

“I think the first thing we have to realize is where we’re going and to face it objectively,” Allison told CNSNews.com, when asked about the trillion-dollar-plus deficits the federal government has run for three straight years, the more than $13 trillion in federal debt, and the $61.9 trillion long-term shortfall the government faces (according to the analysis of the Peter G. Peterson Foundation) if the government is to pay all the benefits it has promised through entitlement programs.

“If you run the numbers, on all those numbers that you just talked about, which I think are accurate, very accurate, in 20 or 25 years, the United States goes bankrupt,” said Allison. “It’s a mathematical certainty.

“It reminds me very much of that story I told you about Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae,” said Allison. “We were running the numbers, and Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae went bankrupt, and we got there. In 20 or 25 years, the United States goes bankrupt.

https://www.cnsnews.com/news/article/former-bbt-ceo-bankruptcy-us-mathematica

>Christie moves to block school districts from circumventing his cap

While Gov. Chris Christie has made noise about demanding new salary caps for school superintendents, Englewood is reportedly negotiating a salary for its new superintendent of around $200,000. Somerville hired a new one at $175,000. Both exceed the caps for comparably sized districts. (Mooney, NJ Spotlight)

https://www.njspotlight.com/stories/10/1105/0022/

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The questionable,”Open Letter to Ridgewood Residents from Doug Dittrick & Lindsey D. Barclay”

Many of you have read the letter in support of Valley Hospital that was sent to Village residents from Lindsay Barclay and her father Doug Dittrick? Dated on September 13th .

This letter is misleading in that the stationary says “From the desks of” but the return address is 223 N. Van Dien Avenue. 223 N. Van Dien happens to be surprisingly Valley Hospital.

Do the Dittricks live at 223 N. Van Dien? No, I doubt they live at Valley Hospital. What also stood out was the tone, spirit and format of the letter that suggests that the letter writers sent this on their own but in fact it appears that postage was paid for by Valley.

As one reader said , “ Overall, I laughed at the letter. I don’t take national political advice from rock stars or actors. I am not going to take local political advice from real estate agents. “

the Staff of the Ridgewood blog

>Do you think Facebook should be allowed in school? Is it a tool or a distriction? Should we take time from our school day to teach kids how to be a good digital citizen?

Last Spring a Ridgewood NJ principal urged parents to not let their children have Facebook pages. His district bans social media (as does mine).

https://plethoratech.blogspot.com/2010/09/last-spring-ridgewood-nj-principal.html

Here is a push-back I found , shown as an overlay on an ABC news interview with the principal.

Do you think Facebook should be allowed in school? Is it a tool or a distriction? Should we take time from our school day to teach kids how to be a good digital citizen?

see video:
https://plethoratech.blogspot.com/2010/09/last-spring-ridgewood-nj-principal.html

>Cooperative Nursery School of Ridgewood Expands Kindergarten Enrichment Program

The Cooperative Nursery School of Ridgewood is adding a morning class to its new Kindergarten Enrichment Program. Classes are set to begin October 4th.

The program supports all the major district initiatives including Handwriting Without Tears, Envision Math and Words Their Way. Classes meet twice per week. There is no co-op requirement for parents who enroll their children in the kindergarten enrichment class. Students can also participate in our extended day programs.

A nonsectarian school, The Co-op also offers morning and afternoon classes for 2, 3 and 4-year-olds, as well as Mommy & Me classes. Setting the school apart from other nursery schools, The Co-op is organized and run by the parents, which enables the parents to actively participate in their child’s early learning experience. Music, physical education, field trips, indoor and outdoor play time and an in-house library are just a few of the experiences to which the children are exposed as supplements to the daily education plans.

Please call the school at (201) 447-6232 for more information or to schedule a visit to the school. The school is located at 100 Dayton Street in the center of Ridgewood.

>More people moved out of New Jersey than all but four other states between 2000 to 2008, underscoring broader demographic shifts and, some say, a decline in the state’s attractiveness.

Many in New Jersey taking an exit

Friday, September 17, 2010
By Leslie Kwoh
Star-Ledger staff

https://www.nj.com/gloucester/index.ssf?/base/news-6/128471192669340.xml&coll=8

More people moved out of New Jersey than all but four other states between 2000 to 2008, underscoring broader demographic shifts and, some say, a decline in the state’s attractiveness.

Even with a constant influx of newcomers, the Garden State had a net loss of nearly 304,000 residents throughout the eight-year-period, who took combined annual incomes of $12.3 billion with them to other states, according to figures accessed through a database launched Thursday by the Tax Foundation, a policy research group in Washington, D.C. that advocates for lower taxes.

The data confirms residents are leaving for states like Florida, New York, Pennsylvania and the Carolinas faster than they are being replaced Ð a phenomenon that economists attribute to factors such as climate, high taxes and a lack of job opportunities.

“People are being pulled out, and they’re being pushed out,” said Joseph Seneca, a Rutgers University economics professor who studies migration. “They’re pulled because of retirement and climate reasons. They’re pushed by taxes and costs and Ð through this decade Ð a relative lack of economic opportunities in terms of job growth.”

New Jersey trails only New York, California, Illinois and Michigan for outmigration, according to the database, which tracks domestic movement by tax returns filed with the Internal Revenue Service. The number of residents moving were calculated based on tax exemptions, and incomes were adjusted for inflation.

Because one state’s loss is another’s gain, New Jersey’s outward trickle is troubling, Seneca said. And while departures appear to have waned in the last few years after peaking in the middle of the decade, he said it is most likely a temporary lull brought on by the recession.

Read more:
https://www.nj.com/gloucester/index.ssf?/base/news-6/128471192669340.xml&coll=8

https://mytaxburden.org/migration/

>The head of security at Ridgewood High School (RHS) was bumped by a car Thursday morning while directing traffic in the high school parking lot

The head of security at Ridgewood High School (RHS) was bumped by a car Thursday morning while directing traffic in the high school parking lot, according to RHS Principal Jack Lorenz.

https://privateofficerbreakingnews.blogspot.com/2010/09/nj-school-security-chief-struck-by.html

Carlos Pinto, the chief of security at Ridgewood High School (RHS), did not have serious injuries but was taken to a hospital to be checked, Lorenz said…

The high school sent an email to parents several hours after the 7:30 a.m. incident, urging those who witnessed the incident to contact RHS secretary Lynne David at 201-670-2800, ext. 20531 or the Ridgewood Police Department at 201-652-3900…

full story:
https://privateofficerbreakingnews.blogspot.com/2010/09/nj-school-security-chief-struck-by.html

>Village Council Elections :Increasing ratables does not lower property taxes, it just spreads the pain around

Increasing ratables does not lower property taxes, it just spreads the pain around. To actually lower the required revenues will take cost cutting.

Significant cost cutting must come from the School budget and the Unions. “taking on” the Unions is not the way I would put it, but I think we are both talking about the same thing. Employee costs must come down. I run a small business and I have to deal with a lot of the same issues – health insurance, benefits, compensation. There are reasonable solutions…I for one want to investigate using a Professional Employer Organization.

A PEO is an arrangement where a company’s employees are actually employed by the PEO rather than the company itself. That’s good because when it’s time to go shopping for insurance or benefits the PEO does it on behalf of all of their customer’s employees. My 5 person IT firm gets better insurance rates because the PEO negotiates as a single 50,000 employee group.

The Unions would of course have to agree to it, but it’s been done before. The Village might even be able to offer the Union employees a better deal than the Union does.

Oliver Train
[email protected]

>Constitution Day, a Time to Reflect

Ayn Rand ‎”Today, when a concerted effort is made to obliterate this point, it cannot be repeated too often that the Constitution is a limitation on the government, not on private individuals–that it does not prescribe the conduct of private individuals, only the conduct of the government–that it is not a charter for government power, but a charter of the citizens’ protection against the government.”

Sept. 17 marks the 223rd anniversary of the ratification of the U.S. Constitution. (Sept. 17, 1787).

https://www.usconstitution.net/const.html

https://www.archives.gov/exhibits/charters/constitution_zoom_1.html

>NJ Assembly probes ‘pay-to-play’ fees at schools

TRENTON — Pay-to-participate was the hot topic before the Assembly Education Committee Thursday, as educators and education advocates appeared before the panel to discuss the effect of activity fees on student programs and busing. (Bradshaw, NJ Press Media)
https://www.dailyrecord.com/article/20100917/COMMUNITIES/100916097/1005/NEWS01/NJ-Assembly-probes–pay-to-participate–student-fees-at-schools

>Ridgewood Chamber of Commerce asks Village Council to move the tree lighting ceremony back to the train station

Chamber asks to move tree back to train station
Friday, September 17, 2010
BY MICHAEL SEDON
The Ridgewood News
STAFF WRITER

https://www.northjersey.com/news/103113484_Chamber_asks_to_move_tree_back_to_train_station.html

Members of the Ridgewood Chamber of Commerce have asked the Village Council to move the tree lighting ceremony back to the train station, sparking questions from one council member and prompting the mayor to call for resident input.

Chamber officials said they raised about $7,500 in three hours Wednesday afternoon to finance the expenses associated with cutting down, transporting and putting up a large evergreen tree in the original spot at the train station, where the tree lighting took place up until two years ago. In 2008, the council made the decision to plant a live tree near the back of Van Neste Square Memorial Park and use that for the annual holiday celebration.

“This year marks the 25th anniversary of the Chamber of Commerce tree lighting ceremony,” said Paul Vagianos, a Chamber board of directors member and business owner speaking as the “voice” of the issue. “As you know, for more than two decades the tree had been located at the train station. We think it’s a good idea to bring the tree home.”

The council would have to include the item on the agenda for its next work session on Sept. 22, and Mayor Keith Killion asked anyone interested in voicing their opinion to contact council members.

“If anybody is listening, please e-mail us … what you feel, because we need the input,” Killion said. “I don’t know any other way of doing it other than sending an e-mail to all of us at the village website so we can get the public reaction.”

The village website, which lists e-mail addresses for council members, is ridgewoodnj.net.

more:
http://www.northjersey.com/news/103113484_Chamber_asks_to_move_tree_back_to_train_station.html

Keith D. Killion [email protected]
Thomas M. Riche [email protected]
Paul Aronsohn [email protected]
Bernadette Walsh [email protected]

Contact Information:
Phone: (201) 670-5510
Fax: (201) 652-7623

>Like it or not, in our Village the school and budgets are separate from the Municipal one. Different groups of people work out each of them (in theory anyway). The only check-and-balance in the process is after the voters disapprove.

The school budget is clearly the target if we want to get the total tax bill down. One of the things that frustrated me the most this year was a coffee I attended with the BOE members. I really did not get the feeling that they were as interested as the spectators were in taking on the Union and being aggressive in there approach to cost savings. According to the people who spoke, they have already outsourced what can be outsourced, cut operational costs where they can, etc, etc. So the next cuts really will have to be in places that were not done before. Dr. Fishbein actually said that voting down the budget would not send a message to anyone. I wonder what the message will be next year when there is again no State aid, and again a 4.5% raise for the teachers.

 I really think it is a unique point in time in New Jersey and municipalities who step up and push back on the Unions will get support from the State and be able to get somewhere. One Superintendent will be first – why not ours? I am a big believer in merit pay, tenure only for people that deserve it, and benefits reform. It has to happen or nobody will be able to afford living here.

As for the open space issues, I think I am going to drift away from the crowd on this one. I don’t think they should be sold. Open space is a finite thing. Once it’s gone you never get it back. Maybe we don’t have a good use for those properties now but we will in the future, it would be a shame to see them cut up into townhouses. That being said…we should find SOMETHING to do with them.

Oliver Train
[email protected]