The Ridgewood Blog Brings a Free Market Laissez-faire Point of View to Local, New Jersey State and National Issues.
>Raising Taxes :
the average property tax in Ridgewood is $13,805
and the 2004- 2008 % of change is 21.2 %
the average property tax in Tenafly is $16,669
and the 2004- 2008 % of change is 33.7 %
the average property tax in Hackensack is $6,932
and the 2004- 2008 % of change is 32.4 %
Regional inflation rate 2004-2008 16%
*thursday august 27 2009 bergen record
>“FYI–
The Council voted down a similar proposal for a group home here in Ridgewood. The proposal was presented by West Bergen Mental Health.
Why not in Ridgewood??
I am also surprised by Councilman Aronsohn’s “no” vote as he presents himself as an advocate for the disabled.”
Disabled build skills at group home
Sunday, August 23, 2009
Last updated: Sunday August 23, 2009, 12:02 PM
BY DONNA ROLANDO
The Record
SPECIAL TO THE RECORD
There are giggles in the air as Nicole Jadotte teaches Linda Davies how to make baked chicken while other members of the “family” watch.
Davies, in her wheelchair, is able to toss in Mrs. Dash and other spices. She’s able to stir the mix, and so she smiles the smile of one who feels she has contributed.
One might find helping hands in any kitchen, but this Westwood home stands out for bringing together six adults with developmental disabilities — most, like Davies, using wheelchairs — but under 24-hour staffing that provides safety along with their independence.
“Every day is an adventure and I couldn’t imagine doing anything else,” said Anita Novoa-Baggett, program director for the non-profit Spectrum for Living in River Vale, which runs the Westwood Group Home. “Sometimes it’s difficult, but seeing the residents’ smiles every day makes it worth it.”
Despite their disabilities, Davies, originally of Westwood, and the other five resident members of what they like to call a family, are the lucky ones.
Pam Ronan, public information officer for the state Department of Human Services, reports that more than 8,000 wait on a list for supportive housing such as this in New Jersey, and 4,950 of these are on the “priority” section of the list because their parents or caretakers are both over the age of 55.
The state Division of Development Disabilities (DDD) already funds roughly 7,000 people with disabilities in community residences — everything from condos to apartments. That includes close to 4,500 residents of group homes like Spectrum’s, for which the state provides funding, Ronan said.
As seen from these statistics, she said, “there is a demand for homes for people with developmental disabilities particularly as family members are getting older.”
Robert Jugan, whose sister Linda lives at Westwood, states the plight of these families with a simple question: “Where would these people go?” if homes like Spectrum’s did not exist. Jugan is the guardian for Linda, who needs help even to get dressed, and her care became a priority as their parents aged.
Jugan is happy Linda made it off the waiting list. “This is a family setting,” he said. “They have six people in a home and they have workers who take care of them.”
Margaret Nassan’s 36-year-old son, Brian, is the newest member of the Westwood family. Nassan, who is 70, said Brian’s placement “was the right thing to do” considering her age. She finds the home “fantastic” and gains comfort in that even after she’s gone, “I know that they will take care of him forever.”
Besides the baked chicken, the Westwood home was glowing with other family activities during a recent visit. Everyone knew it was time for “Oprah,” and Karen Yates was all smiles as she took her customary position in front. She used hand gestures and signs to tell how she had recently pursued her other passion — shopping.
This is leisure time, but during the day, Yates goes to the Teaneck Adult Training Program for arts and crafts and a chance to make money with work at her skill level. The other residents also have daytime programs to maximize their skills. On weekends, families come to visit and their participation is encouraged. Visits to restaurants, like their favorite Red Lobster, and other recreation are also part of life here.
Although one resident talked about wanting to go home more, Tina Adkins, director of residential services, said, “For the most part residents are happy. They take ownership in that this is their home. It’s almost like going to college. You’re out on your own, but the families are very involved here.”
Spectrum was founded in 1978 after a group of parents joined together to bring about independent living for their disabled adult children, said Mark Michelson, senior vice president of operations. Their dream was not only realized but contagious, and today Spectrum has 15 group homes and five apartments to serve those with disabilities.
“Everything is directed toward providing residents with independence. We want to integrate them into the community to the fullest degree possible,” Michelson said, from parties to church service, banking to shopping.
E-mail: rolando@northjersey.com
>Saturday, August 29 8:00 am – 1:00 pm; desks, beds, bikes, clothing, kids items – Multi Family @ 4 Brookside Avenue, Ridgewood
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Date: 9/1/2009 Opening Day for Teachers
Date: 9/2/2009 Opening Day for Students
Date: 9/7/2009 Labor Day: Schools Closed
Date: 9/14/2009 (7:30 PM) The Ridgewood Board of Education will hold a regular public meeting on Monday, September 14. The Board meets on floor 3 of the Education Center, 49 Cottage Place, at 7:30 p.m.
Date: 9/21/2009 (7:30 PM) The Ridgewood Board of Education will hold a regular public meeting on Monday, September 21, at 7:30 p.m. The Board meets on floor 3 of the Education Center, 49 Cottage Place.
>REMINDER – GRAYDON POOL END OF SEASON SCHEDULE
Safety and proper supervision have always been of great importance, and the top priority of the Department of Parks and Recreation staff at the Graydon Pool facility. Their regard for the safety of Village residents they serve is the reason that the Graydon Pool complex will be closed Monday, August 31st to Friday, September 4th, 2009.
This is due to the fact that the majority of college staff (lifeguards, security and maintenance) have already returned to their schools, and the Ridgewood school district is scheduled to open on Wednesday, September 2nd, prior to Labor Day. This results in extremely limited staff to operate the Graydon Pool facility safely and properly, per the NJ State Sanitary Code, Chapter IX, Public Recreational Bathing.
There have been several requests to open Graydon Pool from August 31 through September 4 after school hours, from 3:30 to 7:30 p.m. Many of the high school students who are lifeguards already have school commitments, such as interscholastic athletics, marching band, peer counseling and theater. In addition, the Certified Pool Operator of Graydon Pool has determined that it cannot operate safely with a limited number of lifeguards available for that extended time period.
Please be assured that the Graydon Pool facility will be properly maintained, the water quality will be monitored, and the staff and facility will be in premium condition for the end of the season on Labor Day weekend, Saturday, September 5th through Monday, September 7th.
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I’ve put together a chart of annual parking costs in various Bergen towns which also includes the # of available spots. Sources are available upon request (web pages and phone calls to town offices). Sadly I discovered that our beloved town is the only one on this list that forces its commuters to use COINS to pay for parking. Everyone else adopts either a permit or card based system. Feel free to post this on your site, but if you do I’d appreciate credit. Thanks.
thanks
Jimmie Yoo
>As someone who recently spent some time in valley in the past year- 2 ER visits for myself, one for my 6 week old, and maternity for myself, all i have to say is the quality of care has gone down so much and i have been so dissapointed by valley this past year. In the past i have had exceptional care and the utmost trust in the hospital. All that has faded for me now and I question if I would choose to return if given the choice.
That said, my question is, how can they even begin to think about expanding when they cannot fix the many issues i encountered each time i was there this year. Let’s not kid anyone, Valley is a business, and like any business they should fix their internal issues before they think about expanding and creating further issues.
>
FYI
Drill ,Drill, Drill
The U.S. is going to lend billions of dollars to Brazil’s state-owned oil company, Petrobras, to finance exploration of the huge offshore discovery in Brazil’s Tupi oil field in the Santos Basin near Rio de Janeiro. Brazil’s planning minister confirmed that White House National Security Adviser James Jones met this month with Brazilian officials to talk about the loan.
George Soros, major Obama backer and a long time democratic donor and financier of many liberal left-wing organizations, had previously invested $811 million this year in Petrobras. Soros’ investment in the Brazilian company is his largest single investment which represents approximately 22 percent of his total portfolio.
>Life is full of risks and danger. The only way to ensure that no one drowns is to not have a pool. It is just as likely that some fool could break their neck diving into a cement bottom pool as it is that someone might drown in a blue/green pond. Already, what, 5 or 6 people have drowned off the beaches of Long Island.
The RPP wants a cement bottom pool for only one reason, the swim team at RHS. This would be a moot point if the village had built a pool at the high school 10 years ago. But as I remember, it was the Ridgewood YMCA that lobbied hardest against it and got the bond referendum defeated.
Our BOE, having the political acumen of Attila the Hun, failed to include a larger constituency when they put the bond to a vote. Once they repackaged the referendum to include elementary schools the bond passed. Of course, by that time they had to take out the pool due to political damage done by the YMCA.
Had they been more politically savvy, they would have included all the elementary schools the first time around, thus guaranteeing the votes for passage of a bond that included a HS swimming pool.
Now that the YMCA has booted the RHS swim team from its facilities, the team must go out of town to practice and hold meets. And it wasn’t like the Y was making it easy for the team when they did swim there. They got crappy times slots. I blame this directly on the self serving interests of the YMCA. At the time, they wanted the rent from the BOE so worked overtime to kill the RHS pool. Now they don’t. This leaves parents wanting a place for the RHS swim team to practice and hold meets here in Ridgewood.
Trust me on this, once an Olympic size lap pool is built at Graydon, which is stand alone from the pictures I saw, the next item on the RPP’s agenda will be to cover it with a bubble so that it cab be used year around.
Ask Mrs. Morales if she thinks a bubble might be a good idea once the pool is built. Afterall, her children are/where members of the RHS swim team?
>Friday, July 24, 2009
Last updated: Friday July 24, 2009, 12:13 PM
BY MICHAEL GIARDINA
The Ridgewood News
STAFF WRITER
https://www.northjersey.com/news/crime_courts/court_rulings/District_absolved_of_blame.html
A judge dismissed a 2007 discrimination lawsuit filed against the district and a former top administrator, the Ridgewood Board of Education (BOE) announced in a July 21 press release.
The decision by U.S. District Court Judge Dickinson R. Debevoise was finalized on May 13, according to the judge’s office. The ruling sums up a more than five-year dispute between the district and the Alvaro family of Ridgewood.
The complaint, which was originally filed two years ago, lists the BOE, and Dr. John Porter, the school district’s previous superintendent, for indirectly or substantially aiding and abetting in the discrimination of the minor by continuing to allow Ridgewood Biddy Basketball to use district-owned gyms. Biddy Basketball is a not-for-profit sports association that has been in the village since 1976. It pays to rent school gyms for league games.
In 2004, Joseph Alvaro asked for his daughter, Caitlin, who was then 12, to play for the fifth and sixth grade boys Biddy Basketball team. His stated intention was to place his daughter among better competition. As previously reported in The Ridgewood News, Caitlin was denied the opportunity to play in the boys games.
In November of that year, Alvaro filed a formal complaint against the league with the New Jersey Division on Civil Rights (NJDCR). Roughly 10 months later, a settlement agreement allowed Caitlin to play on the boys team.
Alvaro filed a lawsuit on March 12, 2007 over the period prior to the settlement, in which he alleged that his daughter was allowed to suit up for and practice with the boys team, but did not get playing time during the three-month season. Alvaro sought unspecified monetary compensation for his daughter’s “emotional distress, psychological injury, humiliation, pain and suffering” while watching those games from the bench.
Debevoise’s 22-page opinion stated that under the New Jersey Law Against Discrimination (NLAD), the district and the BOE cannot be held liable “directly or indirectly to refuse, withhold or deny to any person” the accommodation to play.
“It is undisputed that it was &hellip not the Board of Education or Dr. Porter who refused to let [the minor] play on the boys’ team,” nor did the parties “provide ‘substantial assistance’ to Biddy in its alleged discrimination,” Debevoise ruled.
BOE President Joseph Vallerini said Wednesday that the board was relieved and happy with Debevoise’s decision.
“It’s been a long time, and you know it was a long and difficult process,” said Vallerini. “It worked its way reasonably through the processes and procedures of the legal system, and how could I not be happy that the end result was definitely in our favor in all counts.”
“The district was sued and defended itself and we filed for summary judgment and so did the other party,” added Superintendent of Schools Dr. Daniel Fishbein. “And they found for us and did not take their summary judgment.”
Reached for comment on the ruling, Caitlin’s mother, Frances Edwards, said she was happy that her daughter was given the same liberties as any other child in Ridgewood. She did not address the May decision.
“Caitlin very much appreciated that she received an apology from the district, personally delivered by [then] interim Superintendent Paul Arilotta and Board Attorney Phillip Stern,” Edwards said Wednesday. “They also apologized to us, but it was very important for Caitlin to hear this directly from across the table.”
Board Attorney Erin E. McLaughlin, who represented the BOE and the district along with Stern, said “Judge Debevoise found that the board and Dr. Porter worked with the family and Biddy to foster and encourage a resolution of their dispute.”
Vallerini said the BOE will look toward preventing such incidents from happening again in the future.
“It was very unfortunate that it happened in the first place, but I was extremely pleased that the board and district really had no culpability in the matter as presented to them,” he said. “I am delighted to move on and move forward, and hope that we’ve learned from this and don’t have such repetition of these types of incidents again.”
Calls to attorneys representing Edwards and Alvaro, and Biddy Basketball, were not returned at press time.
E-mail: giardina@northjersey.com
https://www.northjersey.com/news/crime_courts/court_rulings/District_absolved_of_blame.html
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“I agree with “concerned and inquiring mind”… PJ, please make it easier to post a new topic on this blog directly from the site rather than sending an e-mail. It is the greatest deficiency of this blog and raises questions about the the veracity and diversity of original posts. Why not eliminate these questions and open up the blog, as it should be?”
Once again lets clear up a few misunderstandings : first this is a free market oriented blog ,neither the democrats or republicans in this state almost ever get it right ,thus the mess we are in. We support some politicians because we like there stand on issues. To us New Jersey is more like a one party system ,the party of tax and waste .
Second this blog reserves the right to publish what ever it feels like …period! Sorry to break it to you but what newspaper or website doesn’t ? As I have stated on all to numerous occasions we hold back on police business ,because we don’t want to inadvertently interfere , we will publish some stupid comments,because we want you to know what some of your neighbors are thinking ,or they are funny ,clever just not the same poster or silly flogger repeating the same comment over and over to every post on this blog for 3 years. We don’t publish all the irresponsible its Bush’s fault because I got a parking ticket nonsense,you have national TV for that .
We try not to publish partisan or even non partisan misinformation ,misscharacterization or just plain lying from people with secret agendas trying to intentionally mislead people. There are not only many blogs,local flogs and websites for that but much of the mainstream media seems to embrace it.
We are a local blog ,that’s why its called “the Ridgewood blog” ,its about the Village of Ridgewood. National Issues are debated in the context of how they effect all of us .
We generally don’t publish “wife or husband cheating stories ” even though we recieve many. We will publish criticism ,complaints and policy debates about local issues ,get over yourself its called DEMOCRACY you don’t have to like it its the price you pay living in a free country. Questioning policies is not being negative its called thinking ,try it you might like it.
And finally ,bring your sense of humor to the table a lot of the comments on here are just busting ,you know who you are and you know who you are not. The Fly column has over 25 regular contributors and believe it or not I don’t always fully embrace everything they say either ,but they took the time to put together a coherent point of view . Don’t like it write one yourself and send it in .If you want to get it published on here stick to the point ,don’t blame some distant imaginary adversary ,have something coherent to say and don’t lie in such an obvious disingenuous manner .
And for those of you who occasionally get offended or find this blog a bit to controversial or feel its destructive ,remember one thing and smile ,you should see the posts we don’t publish they are far nastier ,more revealing and far more compromising than anything that goes live. Like the Ridgewood Blog or not people seem to tell us everything and I mean EVERYTHING.
So learn to laugh ,embrace your neighbors ,speak up ,have a little fun we all want the same things; good schools and a safe positive environment for our children .Don’t forget to say Hi when you seeing wandering around the Village .
thank you again
PJ Blogger
If you looking to run ads or get in touch with the Ridgewood Blog please send all correspondence to onlyonesmallvoice@gmail.com
>If winning means that Republicans have to parrot the failed policies of the Democrats …then what might we actually win?
In that case moving might be a more viable alternative to winning.
More of the same is simple no longer an option.
>
Thursday, March 05, 2009
The Ridgewood Blog presents an Exclusive Interview with Gubernatorial Candidate Steve Lonegan
So after a little phone tag I finally had an opportunity to sit down with Steve Lonegan and talk the campaign ,Chris Christie ,Governor Corzine and the New Jersey Supreme Court .What stuck me the most is that behind the visions of a tough veteran campaigner is a very passionate man that cares a lot about people .Our interview in the midst of a long day on the campaign trail was only interrupted by a call from his mom.
So I started with something that always bugs me How can a guy running against government subsidies ,take matching funds to run a political campaign ? You see ,he said and i paraphrase ,Corzine can reach into his pocket and take out $60 million bucks but my own mother can only give me around $3400 so either you have to lift the limits or I would be at a huge disadvantage in not taking the matching funds.
I pressed him on why he thought he could really cut state spending and he assured me that cutting down and consolidating the number of departments in the state was very doable . He also reminded me that Pennsylvania one of the states New Jersey residents have been fleeing to ,has a flat tax so there was no reason we couldn’t do it here. He pointed me to his record running Bogota and how he enacted similar cuts .The difference being on a state level you had to add more zeros .
This moved our conversation to Bogota and that it had only 8000 residents and I wondered if he thought that was a fair comparison to Trenton ? Again he reminded me and I know this to be true from running this blog ,that in Trenton you have a lot of room to hide but at a local level you are looking people in the eye everyday who you might be dramatically effecting their lives.
This moved us to an other issue it seems Steve has his work cut out for him not only does he have to compete against the deep pockets of Jon Corzine and the Democratic machine but he also has to fight the “chosen one” every Republicans favorite son Chris Christie and the extremely liberal Republican party in this state .
Abbott and COAH were next on the table for discussion and changing the extremely redistributive almost socialistic NJ Supreme Court (my words ). Steve once again reminded me that as Governor he will have the opportunity to appoint 4 new justices and he assured me that the there is a pool of traditional constitutional defending judges.
Finally he stated that he is far more optimistic in the future than I and that the chief threat to New Jersey’s economy are the policies of Jon Corzine and in particular the very destructive policies of Barack Obama .
PJ Blogger
contact : onlyonesmallvoice@gmail.com
>BLEND IS NOW OPEN FOR BUSINESS! The restaurant, bar, and night club are open and looking forward to seeing everyone at our new beautifully renovated facility…
Here is the upcoming schedule.
Tonight and tomorrow(Fri and Sat May 29th and 30th) DJ Dance Party. Then as follows:
Thur June 4th – DJ Dance Party
Fri June 5th – Slap Andy – www.myspace.com/SlapAndy
Sat June 6th – DJ Dance Party
Thur June 11th – DJ Dance Party
Fri June 12th – Soul Finger – www.myspace.com/SoulFingerLive
Sat June 13th – DJ Dance Party
Sun June 14th – Benefit
Monday June 15th – GRAND OPENING (Invitation ONLY)
Tue June 16th – DJ Bryan Sean 70’s & 80’s Night
Wed June 17th – DJ Rich Rez Dance Party
Thur June 18th – Gypsy Trap – www.myspace.com/GypsyTrap
Fri June 19th – Trippin Carla – www.myspace.com/TrippinCarla
Sat June 20th – Lip Service – www.LipServiceMusic.com
Tue June 23rd – DJ Bryan Sean 70’s & 80’s Night
Wed June 24th – DJ Rich Rez Dance Party
Thur June 25th – Monte & The All Stars – www.MonteAndTheAllStars.com
Fri June 26th – The Rythm Shop – www.TheRythmShopBand.com
Fri June 27th – Total Eclipse – ww w.TheTotalEclipse.com
Tue June 30th – DJ Bryan Sean 70’s & 80’s Night
