Category: Village of Ridgewood

>It is definitely the driver’s fault. That is a busy area where the kid was hit yesterday and cars should be travelling very slowly and drivers should be watching closely. And yes, the more people complain about the lousy drivers the better. Maybe all the complaining will make some people slow down when driving where pedestrian traffic is likely. INCLUDING THE MINISTER WHO ANNOUNCED THAT SHE WAS GOING TO CONTEST THE CHARGE THAT SHE HIT A CHILD IN A STROLLER IN A CROSSWALK. You should hear the scuttlebut about her at her church and and our church which is next door. People like her who blame the victim are part of the problem. A big part of the problem.

>I am all for addressing legitimate concerns and obviously our tax dollars should be spent wisely but in this blog post I haven’t seen any legitimate concerns – as yet. I see someone saying special ed parents howl and someone else saying they are easily offended. Most folks don’t understand the issues enough to express legitimate concerns. They hear from a neighbor that we are spending too much on special ed and then they start beating the drum. I attended a meeting last year regarding overcrowding (in certain grades) at Somerville where a parent suggested that all Ridgewood special ed children rotate from school to school based on whichever school had the most room that year. A couple folks actually agreed. Does it make sense to have the children who have the most issues and the hardest time adjusting and making friends to be moved from school to school each year to save money? That would be hard on any child. When I hear ridiculous comments like this I am going to get offended and I am going to howl. I won’t keep quiet for fear of being branded an oversensitive special-ed parent. I am more concerned with the welfare of my children than what other parents think. I am also not afraid to sign my name to my opinions.

Al Donohue

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>”anne zusy said…

Hi James. Once again (ad infinitum; ad nauseum), you have got it wrong. If it’s your intention to Drill Baby Drill then you go. But by the way: You’ve got it wrong, and I’m too incensed to bother trying to correct. Happy holidays to those who still have a soul amid your otherness nastiness. Annie”

An absolutely pathetic attempt at damage control on Ms. Zusy’s part.

Councilwoman Zusy: Yes or no; is the Planning Board, of which you are a member, recommending that the Village’s ENTIRE affordable housing obligation be satisfied by constructing a multiple story housing facility on South Broad Street, at the former site of Brogan Cadillac? Will the Village Council be voting on this plan tonight? Yes or no Ann, please.

Thank you.

>have a mix of special needs and non-special needs in my family. The truth is that it’s more expensive to send sped kids out of district than to keep them in district.

Some sped kids really do need a special program, but just because they’re getting shipped a half hour away doesn’t mean we’re not still paying for it. Sped is paid for by the sending district, not the receiving district.

That’s true for all districts, not just Ridgewood. Special ed is simply a fact of life. There’s no getting away from it. Let’s remember that all the sped kids we DO see–because they’re in-district–are saving us money.

We do need to be realistic, however, about sped expenditures. Just like everyone else, I don’t want my regular kids to miss out because too much is going to special ed.

How about if us sped parents stop getting offended when non-sped parents express legitimate concern? Geesh.

>Thursday, December 18, 2008
Last updated: Thursday December 18, 2008, 7:34 AM

BY MICHAEL GARTLAND

STAFF WRITER

The Bergen County Freeholder Board lent their support Wednesday night to Hackensack University Medical Center’s proposal to reopen the former Pascack Valley Hospital.

The decision took place before a crowd in Hackensack that numbered more than 150, who came out to voice both support and criticism of the plan. The resolution to back HUMC passed 6-0, with one abstention.

Thom Misciagna, the president of the Bergen County Building and Construction Trades Council, said the plan would be a boon for laborers facing a tough economy in the coming year.

“We want the hospital to go ahead for a number of reasons — certainly jobs,” he said, then gestured toward the crowd. “That’s why these guys are here. … They’re frightened.”

Misciagna estimated that proceeding with the proposal would create about 200 construction jobs, as well as permanent positions for nurses, doctors, technicians and maintenance people.

But not everyone in attendance was there to support HUMC’s plan to reopen the Westwood hospital. Representatives from The Valley Hospital in Ridgewood and Englewood Hospital and Medical Center said that the proposal would add more hospital beds to an area that already has an excess.

Jeff Lieto, the vice president for The Valley Hospital, said that the issue is not about “the health-care industry against organized labor. The issue is about the regulation of the health-care industry through a fair process.”

Lieto cited state-commissioned reports that said there were too many beds in Pascack Valley Hospital when it was in operation.

“The beds that it held were not necessary,” he said.

Tony Orlando, the CFO of Englewood Hospital, said that an excess of beds makes it more difficult for a health-care facility to cover costs. A new hospital would add even more beds to a region that has an abundance, he said.

“Taking away patients makes us inefficient,” he said.

Leaders from the communities around the now-shuttered Pascack Valley Hospital offered support for the Hackensack Medical Center extension as well.

Westwood Mayor John Birkner Jr. described HUMC’s plan as a “vision.” He noted that businesses around the facility have closed and jobs have been lost as a result.

“This particular hospital can survive, and Hackensack has presented the plan to make it happen,” he said.

E-mail: [email protected]

>WINTER STORM ANNOUNCEMENT: RIDGEWOOD PUBLIC SCHOOLS ARE CLOSED TODAY, FRIDAY, DECEMBER 19. ALL BEFORE-SCHOOL, AFTERNOON AND EVENING PROGRAMS ARE ALSO CANCELLED.

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Issued by The National Weather Service
New York City, NY
5:24 am EST, Fri., Dec. 19, 2008

… WINTER STORM WARNING REMAINS IN EFFECT FROM 8 AM THIS MORNING TO MIDNIGHT EST TONIGHT…

A WINTER STORM WARNING REMAINS IN EFFECT FROM 8 AM THIS MORNING TO MIDNIGHT EST TONIGHT.

SNOW IS EXPECTED TO OVERSPREAD THE REGION THIS MORNING… AND WILL BECOME HEAVY AT TIMES IN THE AFTERNOON. THE SNOW WILL MIX WITH SLEET… ESPECIALLY NEAR THE COAST. TOTAL SNOW ACCUMULATION OF 5 TO 8 INCHES CAN BE EXPECTED BY THE TIME THE SNOW ENDS LATER TONIGHT… WITH THE HIGHEST AMOUNTS FURTHEST FROM THE COAST.

THERE MAY BE A VERY SHARP DIFFERENCE IN SNOWFALL AMOUNTS OVER A SHORT DISTANCE..ESPECIALLY WHERE SLEET MIXES WITH SNOW.

A WINTER STORM WARNING MEANS SIGNIFICANT AMOUNTS OF SNOW… SLEET… AND ICE ARE EXPECTED OR OCCURRING. STRONG WINDS ARE ALSO POSSIBLE. THIS WILL MAKE TRAVEL VERY HAZARDOUS OR IMPOSSIBLE.

More Information

… WINTER STORM TO IMPACT THE TRI-STATE AREA TODAY…

.LOW PRESSURE OVER THE MIDWEST THIS MORNING WILL RACE EASTWARD… TAKING A TRACK ACROSS THE OHIO VALLEY EARLY THIS AFTERNOON AND THEN PASSING JUST SOUTH OF LONG ISLAND THIS EVENING. AT THE SAME TIME… POLAR HIGH PRESSURE OVER THE NORTHEAST WILL GRADUALLY LIFT TO THE NORTH AND EAST TODAY. THIS TRACK COMBINED WITH THE COLD AIR IN PLACE WILL BRING SIGNIFICANT AMOUNTS OF SNOW TO PORTIONS OF THE TRI-STATE ARea

https://www.weather.com/weather/alerts/localalerts/USNJ0442?phenomena=WS&significance=W&areaid=NJZ003&office=KOKX&etn=0004&from=36hr_winterWarn_golf

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>REMINDER: Village Council Will Vote Friday on Plan for 90 New Affordable Housing Units in Orchard School District

Date: December 19th

Day: Friday

Time: 5:00 PM (closed session followed by Open Public Meeting)

Location: Village Hall, 131 North Maple Avenue, Sydney V. Stoldt, Jr. Courtroom

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The Capitol Christmas tree in Washington, D.C., is decorated with 3,000
ornaments that are the handiwork of U.S. schoolchildren. Encircling
evergreens in the ‘Pathway of Peace’ represent the 50 U.S. states.

>Department of Community Affairs (DCA) Director Joe Dorea has refused a request from hundreds of New Jersey small town mayors to extend the deadline to submit their plans to build over 100,000 Low Income Housing Units, due January first. Governor Corzine’s Council on Affordable Housing has mandated an additional 100,000 units be added to the already massive mandate. With almost 90,000 units mandated still not built, the new total of Low income Housing Units that towns across New Jersey will be required to build to meet the Central Planners demands is almost One Hundred and Ninety Thousand (190,000).

Elected Mayors and councils across the state are requesting an extension from the unelected bureaucrats in Trenton of the January 1 deadline for having their plans submitted. Joe Dorea, the DCA Director, has refused to grant the request, which even Democrat State Senator Ray Lesniak has called reasonable. The decision to override Dorea’s heavy handed bureaucratic response now lands on the Governor’s desk. Only Jon Corzine or immediate action by the legislature can stop this train wreck.

Please email Governor Corzine and your legislators NOW and tell them to end the COAH threat.

Who’s This Housing Really For?

Proponents of the Council on Affordable Housing (COAH) mandates state this housing claim it will provide for police and teachers who want to live in their communities. They claim it is for our young people who want to stay in the state. This sounds nice, if you want your child graduating college and moving into a government housing unit, alongside those described on page 15 of the 2006 Housing Report.

A careful examination of this Report reveals that police and teachers are never mentioned except in a paragraph that tells about below market mortgages available through the Police and Firefighters Retirement System (PFRS), mainly because police and teachers earn well above the median average for their communities. No where does this report call for providing such housing. The report does, however, outline who the housing is for. Page 15 is clear.

Ex-offenders leaving Northern State Prison will be “mainstreamed” into your neighborhood. Youth aging out of juvenile detention are another targeted market. But the most disturbing are persons called “hard to house”.

A reality check. The state places sex offenders and pedophiles in housing units. Visit the State police website at https://www.njsp.org/ and find out how many of these individuals are in your community. Under this mandate, there are lots more to come. Tom’s River, for example, currently is home to 102 known sex offenders. Hoboken, the home of Governor Jon Corzine and one of New Jersey’s largest cities, is home to 5. Tom’s River is mandated to build 4,386 Low Income Units. The number of convicted sex offenders moving into Tom’s River and other suburban communities can be expected to rise significantly.

The Trenton planners will be experimenting with our neighborhoods to find out if their social engineering schemes work. You and I will suffer the consequences, but they don’t care. We are just guinea pigs.

In 1911, when “Trenton Makes-the World Takes” was adopted as Trenton’s official slogan and the famous sign built on the approach to Trenton, 10% of America’s population lived within 75 miles of Trenton. The free market met the demands of a growing and diverse population with innovations like Sears’s homes, row housing, mansions and Cape Cod homes and more. Now, with New Jersey experiencing increased outward migration, the Trenton planners want to step in and second guess our needs and wants, replacing the success than made New Jersey an economic powerhouse with massive entitlement housing projects.

Please call your legislator. Tell them to stop threatening our neighborhoods with Trenton’s radical experiments.

>From the latest rps.eNews:

During Monday evening’s BOE meeting, BOE member Laurie Goodman reported from the Fields Committee that athletic groups are supposed to be paying a fee of 20% of gross revenue to use the fields and most are not. That policy will be reviewed to see if it should stay the same or change.

>The Ridgewood Village Council will hold a Special Public Meeting on Friday, December 19, 2008 beginning at 5:30 PM in the Sydney V. Stoldt, Jr. Courtroom of Village Hall.

There is neither a meeting notice nor agenda posted on the Village’s official web site for this meeting.

https://www.ridgewoodnj.net/agenda.cfm

Reportedly, the main topic of discussion will be options for the construction of affordable housing to meet COAH requirements.