Category: Village of Ridgewood

>July 14, 2010

PSE&G Proposes to Lower Residential Natural Gas Bills by 6.8 Percent, On Top of 4 Percent Reduction Implemented July 9

Changes would be effective in time for winter heating season
(July 14, 2010 – Newark, NJ) – Citing the continuing decrease in the wholesale cost of natural gas, PSE&G has proposed to lower residential gas bills this fall by an additional 6.8 percent, or about $14 per month for the typical residential customer. The company’s annual filing with the New Jersey Board of Public Utilities (BPU) today would follow a net 4 percent reduction PSE&G implemented on July 9 for residential gas customers.

A customer’s gas bill is composed of two parts: delivery, which includes the cost of maintaining and upgrading the gas distribution system, and supply, which reflects the cost of the natural gas PSE&G purchases on behalf of its customers.

• On June 18, the BPU approved a modest 0.9 percent increase in residential gas bills to resolve the utility’s request to increase gas delivery rates. The new delivery rates took effect on July 9.

• At the same time, PSE&G lowered residential bills by 5 percent because of lower supply charges, which more than offset the increase in delivery charges. This decrease also took effect July 9, for a net reduction of 4 percent.

If approved by the BPU, today’s filing would lower gas bills even further heading into the winter heating season. Under the proposed new gas supply rates, a residential gas heating customer who uses 160 therms in a winter month, or 1,050 therms per year, would see a decrease of $94 on an annual basis. This customer’s monthly winter bill would be $194.13, a decline of $14.26.

Including the reduction this coming fall, PSE&G will have lowered gas bills for supply a total of approximately 28 percent since January 2009, when wholesale prices started to drop. 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.

>Tech Notes : Email Security & Data Loss Prevention
On July 13, 2010.

Email has become the lifeblood of the modern business. E-mail is a powerful communication tool and must be protected as part of your backup strategy.

As dependence on email and its use have grown, so has the governmental and legal scrutiny regarding email. Email is now just as admissible in court, and just as critical for any business to maintain, as are its paper-based records.

However, e-mail has been proven to be a very insecure means of communication. This causes great concern when an e-mail message contains confidential information, such as PHI. When used recklessly it can open the provider up to several potential legal and ethical dilemmas.

Ask yourself if a client/patient makes a claim and you need to refer to a written email record from two years ego, can you find this email?

Lost email is a very common occurrence, with companies struggling each day to restore key messages, attached files, and entire correspondence threads. Hours are spent performing restores and searching for the right email messages.

Having the ability to quickly and easily retrieve email records in your original format is essential for any business. It also gives companies a competitive edge in customer satisfaction and employee effectiveness.

Management needs to be assured that their correspondence is safe and easily retrieved. You need to make sure that your business email is available regardless of the failure of any system and right now is the right time to take care of it.

>Monmouth Poll: voters like cap, but preferred a hard cap

Although many state residents approve of a 2 percent property tax agreement, more wanted a hard cap over a soft one, and a majority say a cap won’t fix the structural problems that cause high property taxes, according to a Monmouth University/Gannett New Jersey Press Media Poll released this morning. Among a group of 3-in-4 New Jerseyans who say they are familiar with the special session, 48% approve of the deal reached by the governor and legislature compared to 31% who disapprove. However, it is not clear that these residents are actually aware of the plan’s details. Asked about specifics regarding the 2 percent cap with exemptions for health care, pension, and debt payments that Gov. Chris Christie will sign into law this afternoon, only 35% of New Jerseyans say they favor this type of cap versus 45% who oppose. By comparison, a majority of 54% favor a hard 2.5% cap like the one the governor originally proposed, with 31% opposed. (Pizarro, PolitickerNJ)

https://www.politickernj.com/monmouth-poll-voters-cap-preferred-hard-cap

>The NEA has sent Robert “Jersey Shores” Bonazzi to South Carolina to politicize teachers for out-of-state union bosses.

https://www.voiceforschoolchoice.com/2010/05/28/nj-union-thug-moves-south-to-scea/

What is the political agenda sought by public teachers in South Carolina?

Do they seek a pay scheme that rewards them based on their classroom success?

Do they want a reduction of the administrative bureaucracy that siphons their time and money away from the classroom?

Or do they aspire to achieve broader policy aims, such as the elimination of far-reaching inequalities in student access to great classrooms?

If schools exist (and are funded) to provide children with appropriate and effective instruction, then it stands to reason that teachers’ unions ought to support policies proven to promote those goals.

But that is not always the case. More often, union bosses exploit the political naivete of well-meaning teachers by using so-called “education associations” to promote an agenda strikingly at odds with the public interest.

These political hacks, far-removed from the classroom, leech resources away from the classrooms, defend persistent school failures and mislead the teachers they claim to serve. Their ultimate political objective is a massive and perpetual growth in government spending on schools – the lions share of which goes to politically connected contractors, consultants and career bureaucrats.

Now, the National Education Association (NEA), America’s largest and most controversial teachers’ union, has sent one of its henchmen here to South Carolina to do just that.

Robert A. Bonazzi has been “appointed” by the DC-based NEA to take over the South Carolina Education Association (SCEA). The SCEA has, despite its role in the stimulus debate, experienced a major decline in membership and political clout in recent years. All the while the ultra-political administrators’ union (SCASA) and the school boards’ union (SCSBA) have rushed in to fill the controversial “advocacy role” once envisioned for the SCEA.

Bonazzi’s most recent post for the NEA was in New Jersey, where he served a leader of the New Jersey Education Association – nationally recognized as one of the most politically noxious and anti-parent NEA affiliates in the country.

In New Jeresy, Robert Bonazzi fought hard against home-rule and even homeowners who wanted to limit the growth of property taxes – bizarrely calling property taxpayers “different from other folks.” Bonazzi threatened moderate Republican Governor Christina Todd Whitman with “electoral consequences” when she proposed a plan to halt public subsidies for teachers’ pensions.

He was also part of a NEA plan to setup a “social welfare” front group that channeled teachers’ dues and NEA political contributions into a shell organization with greater scope, fewer legal restrictions, and fewer critics, than the beleaguered NEA.

The group took in over $4 million from the NEA to run attack ads during the 2004 election cycle.

Bonazzi’s “total war” approach to political organizing of public school teachers remains legendary in the Garden State.

“The [NJ] teachers union makes the Teamsters look like pussycats,” said Alan R. Geisenheimer, one-time president of the Bergen County School Boards Legislative Committee. “The question I would ask, is there any legislation the NJEA has asked for that they haven’t gotten? I don’t know of any.”

And it worked well for the union:

“To some of my colleagues in the Senate, the [NJ] teachers union is tangible and the general public is not,” said Sen. Gerald Cardinale, R-Demarest. “The teachers union is a monolithic force; the public is not.”

Things did not work out so well for the students though – but that is not how NEA quantifies success.

https://www.voiceforschoolchoice.com/2010/05/28/nj-union-thug-moves-south-to-scea/

>Steve Lonegan: Will Cap 2.0 Solve New Jersey’s Property Tax Problem?

Politicians in Trenton are patting one another on the back after passing the “compromise” Cap 2.0 proposal yesterday.

Trendy sounding Cap 2.0 purports to limit property tax hikes at 2% with several exceptions, including exemptions for “pension costs, health care costs, debt payments and states of emergencies.” Towns could exceed the 2% cap by putting the proposal up for referendum and receiving a majority vote.

But will Cap 2.0 work? Do New Jersey homeowners, who are subject to the nation’s worst property taxes, have reason for optimism?
If history is any judge, then the answer is a resounding NO.
In 1976, New Jersey taxpayers were promised relief when the state enacted an income tax with a corresponding cap. Funds from the income tax were dedicated to the “Property Tax Relief Fund” to be returned to municipalities in the way of municipal aid, school aid, and property tax rebates. But as Columnist Paul Mulshine pointed out in a Star-Ledger article last week, towns began to circumvent the cap and avoid referendum – instead issuing bonds and accruing debt.

In that year, voters were told the new cap would have several exemptions and that an increase in excess of that cap would have to go before the voters. That’s right-this law has been on the books for 34 years!
Since 1976, different permutations of the cap have been enacted during the administrations of various governors including Jim McGreevey and Jon Corzine. Yet, New Jersey’s property taxes have continued to escalate.
Now, New Jersey property tax payers are being told once again that a cap is the answer. That this time it will be different and finally we will be able to resolve our state’s intractable property taxes.

But the fact of the matter is New Jersey’s property tax problem will not be resolved with the mere passage of another cap scheme – let alone new political posturing that does not stop the runaway spending in Trenton. Massive, bloated state government is subject to no such cap, and it is big government in Trenton that is the problem, not the solution.

Abbott District funding, state mandates, COAH requirements, Project Labor Agreements, and binding arbitration are the driving forces behind high property taxes.

The property tax problem is one of Trenton’s making. Until the Governor and the Legislature address these issues head on, property taxes will remain on the rise in New Jersey and Cap 2.0 will do nothing to stop it.

Steve Lonegan

>Who Joins Zoning Boards?

What kind of person would volunteer to serve on a zoning board? It’s not exactly a lucrative position. So it’s perhaps unsurprising that a new study by Jerry L. Anderson, Aaron Brees, and Emily Renninger finds that most zoning board members have something to gain from their positions: “[C]ertain types of professional occupations — business, real estate, law, bankers, planners, and architects — are disproportionately represented. In some cities, the majority of board members have some direct or indirect interest in the development process.” The authors argue that this disproportionate representation may lead to predictable building patterns — the prevalence of urban sprawl and gated communities or why “high-impact land uses are located most often in poorer sections of town.” In Norway, there’s a quota for women on corporate boards, which seems to be working out well; is there a corollary to consider for U.S. zoning boards? (11)

>This is what happens when you have weak form of local government. The Faulknarian, non-partisan, village charter is proving our undoing. There is no counter balance or opposing parties to keep the other in check. While this Utopian set-up worked for many decades, due to the fact that we were in essence a one party village, in the past few years it has made governing all but impossible.

Without political parties to provide support to elected officials and a counter weight to the other, a void of political courage arises in times of trouble and hence no one takes responsibility for anything.

In the meantime, a hired hand runs our village. We have effectively, removed our representatives from governing us and placed our fate in bureaucrats. Our model of local government is a relic of days gone by and should be replaced with one which fosters the competition of ideas. The Rockwellian world of Ridgewood being a sleepy little commuter town is a thing of the past. We need real leadership in this day and age and our form of government prohibits such.

>This was in the Record as an editorial.

As the institution that provides parking for events at George Washington Middle School in Ridgewood, the West Side Presbyterian Church is used to large events there. The recent Planning Board meeting at George Washington was peculiar and seemed, to the church management, to be set up for confrontation and anger.

Why was the meeting suddenly (from our perspective) moved from the larger venue with parking to the smaller venue without parking? Since it would be providing parking, why wasn’t the church informed? We read about it in the paper on Monday morning, then scrambled to make as much parking as possible available. Two events were scheduled at the church that night, so we could not have accommodated the overflow from George Washington.

We asked the village for police help to direct traffic, which would have maximized our parking and assured safety. Our request was refused. For a meeting of this sort, would not police support just be a given? It should have been in the plan from the beginning to have village police there, without having to call in police from other agencies in such a dramatic fashion.

We have never before seen a crowd not allowed into the George Washington School. There are massive meetings at George Washington requiring use of the entire parking lot and the field below our Youth Barn in addition to neighborhood parking.

For the June 21 meeting, was it not possible to televise the meeting in the dining hall so people could be inside? Any attempt at accommodation could have worked wonders in defusing an ugly situation. Creating a crowd outside, as happened June 21, invited a riot.

From the church’s perspective across the street, the whole thing seemed to be designed to be confrontational. This is probably not the case, but we are curious why this was so different from every other large event.

Kent Smith

Ridgewood, June 28

The writer is a pastor at the West Side Presbyterian Church in Ridgewood.

>I am a bit confused though, as last Wednesday after the polls had closed, your website showed the below poll results, showing A Mano had won with 22% of the vote and 74 votes. Did the voting reopen ?

>Elderly man get struck by car

Ingrid

>New Jersey Governor Defies Political Expectations

A momentous deal to cap property taxes was all but done, but Gov. Chris Christie was taking no chances, barnstorming the state to commiserate with squeezed homeowners and keep pressure on the Legislature. Outside a farmhouse here in central New Jersey last week, buttoned up in a dark suit despite the triple-digit heat, Mr. Christie promised to tackle rising pension costs, transportation financing, municipal spending — all while poking fun at his opponents, the news media and, mostly, himself. (Perez-Pena, The New York Times)

https://www.nytimes.com/2010/07/12/nyregion/12christie.html?src=mv

>”renaissance” of Graydon Pool.

The Record: Everyone in the pool
Sunday, July 11, 2010
Last updated: Sunday July 11, 2010, 10:50 AM
The Record

https://www.northjersey.com/news/opinions/98186909_Everyone_in_the_pool.html

THESE STEAMY, hot summer days are tiring and tough to get through. Good thing there’s Graydon Pool.

The number of members is up an astounding 37 percent after seasons of decline, thanks to the tireless lobbying of a core group of citizens that helped clean and preserve Ridgewood’s century-old jewel.
 Set in a 7-acre park, historic Graydon is a nearly all-natural swimming experience, complete with minnows and the occasional duck. It was created in 1918 by damming the Ho-Ho-Kus Brook, expanded in 1936 and filled with eager swimmers for decades.

But in recent years, the 2.8 acre “plake” was losing its luster and revenues as its reputation shifted from relaxing to dirty. A $13 million plan to replace it with four concrete, chlorinated pools emerged. Thankfully, Graydon fans lobbied against that plan and pushed for improvements.

Waters are clearer now that they are being aerated by new diffusers and treated with natural chemicals. Workers are covering rafts with tarps and employing border collies to chase geese away.

The results are good. Some 3,410 badges have been sold this year, compared to 2,426 last year, according to the parks department. Along with more visitors and revenues, activities are coming back too, with a lending library and story times for children. The redevelopment plan appears dead, since recent municipal elections brought more plake supporters to the Village Council.

Credit the Great Recession for keeping families closer to home. Credit the blistering heat for sending them into the water. But especially, credit the fact that citizens cared, that volunteers rallied, that voters supported a cause.

Whatever the reasons, the push and the pull both, we’re heartened to see more interest, and more swimming, in Graydon Pool.

https://www.northjersey.com/news/opinions/98186909_Everyone_in_the_pool.html

>

New Jersey would close its centralized car inspection lanes and motorists would pay for their own emissions tests under a sweeping set of recommendations set to be released by the Christie administration today.

State parks, psychiatric hospitals and even turnpike toll booths could also be run by private operators, according to the 57-page report on privatization obtained by The Star-Ledger. Preschool classrooms would no longer be built at public expense, state employees would pay for parking and private vendors would dish out food, deliver health care and run education programs behind prison walls.
All told, the report says, New Jersey could save at least $210 million a year by delivering an array of services through private hands.

“The question has to be, ‘Why do you continue to operate in a manner that’s more costly and less effective?’ rather than, ‘Why change?’ ” said Richard Zimmer, the former Republican congressman who chaired the task force.

It is unclear how many of the recommendations will be adopted by Governor Christie, who commissioned the report in March. Christie’s spokesman declined comment Thursday.
But the car inspection proposal is sure to stir up controversy in a state with a tortured history of privatizing emissions testing.

The report says that beginning next July, “New Jersey should withdraw entirely from direct participation in the vehicle inspection process.” Before then, the state would develop a plan to certify service stations and other shops “to make the transition seamless for motorists and assure that private inspection fees will be transparent and reasonable.”

The state would then sell the land where its facilities now operate.
The proposal would require breaking the state’s contract with Parsons Corp., which is two years into a five-year, $276 million deal to do emissions and mechanical inspections. The mechanical inspections were already phased out under the budget that went into effect July 1.

The state conducts more than 1.94 million initial inspections a year and pays for all of them. Drivers pay only if they fail the inspections and have to make repairs.

Zimmer pointed out that motorists are already paying for the system through their tax dollars.
Critics said Christie is returning to dangerous territory after Parsons’ early years of managing the inspection program were steeped in controversy. When the inspection network was opened in December 1999, it was plagued by computer malfunctions and frozen equipment that left drivers fuming in lines four hours long.
Hetty Rosenstein, New Jersey director of the Communications Workers of America state workers union, said the plans outlined in the report would create “bad service” and “less safety” while failing to save the state money.

But Zimmer stressed “stringent” controls will be put in place.
Despite past predictions that up to 2,000 public employees could lose their jobs to privatization, the report does not specify the number of layoffs to come. But its impact could be felt from parks — where private recreation firms would run concessions, operate facilities and perhaps collect a fee — to preschools.
The report says the state should end public funding to construct preschools and change rules to make it easier for private providers to run them.

David Sciarra, an attorney and advocate for children in the poorest districts where the state Supreme Court has mandated the preschool program, said the report is “misleading and erroneous” in claiming the private sector is being crowded out.

“If anything, the collaboration between districts and providers … has grown stronger, and the private sector is an integral part of the program,” he said. “They should go back to the drawing board on this one.”
E-mail: cheininger@starledger.com

https://www.northjersey.com/news/politics/070910_Christie_looks_to_privatize_motor_vehicle_inspections.html

>For those of you complaining about the “monstrosity of a water tank” on Valley View…

If you recall, the new water tank on Valley View (which replaced an obsolete and much less attractive tank) is significantly smaller than what the village proposed as “necessary to serve the residents demand for water.” The new tank has improved landscaping and (I believe) has less visible height above ground than the old tank, even though it is slightly larger. It was NIMBYs in the area (who formed a steady “parade of protestors” at the microphone at public meetings), letters to the Editor of RN and posters on this blog, who pressured the village to compromise on a large reduction in the storage capacity of the tank, in the interest os aesthetics.

Eliminating the water tank is not an option. But, perhaps if you had listened to the people, who actually understand the facts and argued for the larger tank, we would not be facing stage 4 water restrictions now, and most likely, every summer in the future.

WAY TO GO, MORONS!

It was a mistake to reduce the size of the tank. We should have built the tank that was most appropriate for our future needs, as proposed by the village. It just goes to show that residents should be careful to understand the consequences of their demands. Does this sound similar to another current debate in town???

>Huge clearance sale to make way for new arrivals!

Promotion applies while supplies last. Quantities are limited.

The Tobacco Shop of Ridgewood | 10 Chestnut Street | Ridgewood, New Jersey 07450
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