RIDGEWOOD REC WINTER SESSION – RETURNING FAVORITES AND NEW PROGRAMS AT THE STABLE
Registration is underway for Winter Session with Ridgewood Parks and Recreation at the Stable, 259 N. Maple Avenue.
Several classes return with fun new projects while a few new enrichment classes are added.
Preschool offerings include Garden Arts for Kids, Mini Doodler and My First Art.
Elementary enrichment programs include Drawing and/or Acrylics with Mrs. C, 3D Sculpture with Abrakadoodle, “Let’s Go Green” with Explore Science Inc., Creative Cooking with Education Explorers and Tech Titans with Education Explorers.
Adult classes include Watercolors and Acrylics. (Information/details for adult and senior programs at the Community Center to follow).
Visit the Recreation Homepage at www.ridgewoodnj.net/recreation where you will find all program details and registration forms which may be
downloaded. You will also be able to link to Community Pass for online registration.
Please call the Stable Recreation Office at 201-670-5560 with any questions or if special accommodations are needed. New program suggestions are always welcome.
Please be sure to bookmark the Recreation homepage on your computer for easy access to updated program and special event information.
Request for proposals will be received by the Village of Ridgewood’s Department of Parks and Recreation, up to 3:00 p.m. prevailing time on Wednesday, January 28, 2015, at The Stable, 259 North Maple Avenue, Ridgewood, NJ 07450, for the following:
GARDEN MAINTENANCE – PARKS AND RECREATION DEPARTMENT
Proposal instructions may be obtained from the Department of Parks and Recreation, 259 North Maple Avenue, Ridgewood, NJ 07450, Monday through Friday, 8:30 a.m. through 4:30 p.m., telephone 201-670-5560, by
Email request to [email protected]. Prospective professional responders requesting proposal documents be mailed to them shall be responsible for providing their own postage/delivery service remuneration.
Prices quoted must be net and exclusive of all Federal, State and Local Sales and Excise Taxes. Proposals may be submitted prior to the due date in person or by mail, addressed to the Department of Parks and Recreation. The Village assumes no responsibility for loss or non-delivery of any proposal sent to it prior to the proposal opening.
Each proposal must be enclosed in a sealed envelope with the name of the responder thereon and endorsed, “Garden Maintenance – Parks and Recreation Department”.
All professional service responders are required to comply with the requirements of N.J.S.A. 52:32-44 (Business Registration of Public Contractors), N.J.S.A. 10:5-31 et seq. and N.J.A.C. 17:27 et seq. (Contract Compliance and Equal Employment Opportunities in Public Contracts).
The Village of Ridgewood reserves the right to reject any or all proposals, to waive any informalities or to accept a proposal which, in its judgment best serves the interest of the Village. No proposal may be withdrawn for a period of sixty-days (60) after the date and time set for the opening of bids.
“Professional Responders are required to comply with the requirements of P.L.1975, C. 127. (NJAC 17:27) regarding Affirmative Action, and Executive Order No. 11246 regarding equal employment opportunity, as amended”.
This Ridgewood chef lived homeless, on the streets of Paterson
DECEMBER 31, 2014 LAST UPDATED: WEDNESDAY, DECEMBER 31, 2014, 1:21 AM
BY STEVE JANOSKI
STAFF WRITER |
THE RECORD
Vaughn Crenshaw always loved to cook. It is in his blood, he said — everyone in his family knows how to “put flavors together.” But from the moment he saw Emeril Lagasse’s cooking show at age 9, he knew the kitchen was his calling.
Four years later, however, he was living on the streets of Paterson, sleeping in an abandoned Volkswagen hatchback on Van Houten Street, hustling and selling drugs just to get by.
“It was a little two-door wagon, a blue joint,” he said. “I remember that like it was yesterday. It was hard to stay clean, my clothes were extremely dirty, and I became very upset with anybody who looked at me wrong. I became very aggressive. I felt like nobody wanted me.”
His future — if there was to be one — was bleak.
Things are different today. Sporting a shaved head and perfectly coiffed goatee, Crenshaw, 29, is the executive chef at Pearl Restaurant in Ridgewood. He lives in Hackensack with his wife of three months, Erica, and listens to jazz and plays basketball. He teaches conversions — how to use math the way a chef does — at the Paterson Adult and Continuing Education school, and is often involved in food drives in his old hometown.
N.J.’s incentives to Mercedes couldn’t offset cost of doing business
JANUARY 6, 2015, 11:21 PM LAST UPDATED: TUESDAY, JANUARY 6, 2015, 11:28 PM
BY HUGH R. MORLEY AND LINDA MOSS
STAFF WRITERS |
THE RECORD
New Jersey “worked tirelessly” for months to persuade Mercedes-Benz USA to stay in Montvale, the car company said Tuesday, including several meetings and calls between Governor Christie and company CEO Stephen Cannon and a last-ditch offer three days ago.
The state wielded an arsenal of incentive programs that were revamped just over a year ago to enable New Jersey to award more generous tax breaks that would counter the high cost of doing business in the state.
Yet the state’s effort fell short, rebuffed by the reality that even the heavily fortified programs – which enabled New Jersey in 2014 to award about $2 billion in breaks – couldn’t negate the high cost of doing business in the state, and the lure of Atlanta, where the company said Tuesday it will move its heaN.J.’s incentives to Mercedes couldn’t offset cost of doing business
JAdquarters.
While critics immediately suggested that the German car giant’s departure announcement showed the redundancy of the state’s strategy of offering big-dollar tax breaks, state officials dismissed that suggestion.
Michael Drewniak, a spokesman for Christie, said the governor “took a direct role in trying to keep Mercedes-Benz USA in New Jersey.”
Readers debate long term sustainability on the Village Budget of employee wages, pensions and healthcare
Lets focus on the numbers , the problem and the solutions , not attacking unions or employees
When less than a 100 current employees and retirees consume over 50% of the Village’s annual budget in wages, pensions and healthcare, you have to question whether that’s an appropriate trade-off in a Village with only 25,000 people ? The BoE is similar, why should under 1,000 teachers and administrators (less than 4% of our Village population) consume 65% of our annual property taxes? It’s only going to get worse.
I was able to find a copy of the Village Budget Newsletter for the 2014 budget at the following link.
According to this document, which is provided by our Village Manager, the Village has a combined total annual budget of $46.2 million. Out of the $46.2 Million, the Police Department budget expenses are $9.6 Million (20.78%) and the Fire Department is $8.2 Million (17.5%). Combined, Public Safety amounts to $17.8 Million dollars or 38.529% of the annual budget. I can’t help but wonder why you chose to exclude the Debt Service of $4.8 Million from your calculations. By doing so you create the illusion that the overall costs for Public Safety are higher than they actually are in reality.
If you’d read the Budget Newsletter you would have noticed that, excluding the $4.8mn in debt service which we have to pay as a Village in 2014, police, fire and emergency service wages & benefits consumes $19mn of what’s left of the Village budget, or half of the budget… spent on less than 100 active employees plus retirees. The Village municipal employees and retirees number far more than just public safety employees and retirees, and yet Public safety contractual salary increases represent more than half of total salary increases of $900K+ in 2014, and that doesn’t include unfunded liabilities (future retirement payouts to police & fire) of $7.1M (against a reserve of $479K). We had to lay off 10% of the Village workforce in 2010 just to keep feeding this beast, and that has led to a reduction in Village services for all Villagers. That’s a poor trend for Villagers
Ridgewood church anxious for answers about gunfire damage
JANUARY 7, 2015 LAST UPDATED: WEDNESDAY, JANUARY 7, 2015, 1:21 AM
BY CHRIS HARRIS
STAFF WRITER |
THE RECORD
RIDGEWOOD — The congregation of Old Paramus Reformed Church is still reeling from the discovery more than a week ago that 30 shots were fired into their house of worship.
“The congregation is frightened, but the police are doing their due diligence and will find someone soon,” the church pastor, the Rev. Robert Miller, said Tuesday.
“The police have been working well with us, adding more patrols of the area to keep us safe,” Miller said.
The East Glen Avenue church, built during the 1800s on the site of a Revolutionary War battle, is listed on the National Register of Historic Places.
Because of that historic designation, Miller said, repairs to the church could add up, especially if materials need to be replaced in kind.
“We’re getting bids on the repair work, and in the next few weeks, we will be working on a plan for that,” Miller said, adding he has no cost estimates yet. “The police are working to see if they can catch the person responsible, which will happen sooner or later.”
Miller said the slate roof was damaged by the shots, as were several windows.
Reader says the town recycled these Christmas trees and make into mulch?
Christmas Tree pick-ups.
Today on Fairfield Ave. between Glen and Meadowbrook, sanitation did their usual, take my garbage out of the can, proceed to throw the cover on the ground and let today’s beautiful snow fall into my now empty trash can.
While piling up garbage bags on the curb, sanitation proceeded to amass a pile of Christmas ( sorry.. Holiday) trees near the pile of garbage.
When the truck showed, they proceeded to combine both the garbage and trees into the hopper.
I thought the town recycled these trees and make into mulch? We have our own giant mulcher.
So, if these trees actually went to the dump, we have to pay more “tipping” fees to the dump.
Tax Foundation : In 2012, the top 50 percent of all taxpayers (68 million filers) paid 96.7 percent of all income taxes
The Tax Foundation’s annual summary of the latest federal income tax data broken down by income percentile.
This summary is a nicely formatted version of the 2012 data that the IRS released just before the holidays and is available as a PDF and Excel spreadsheet. Each year, this is one of our most popular resources for reporters, lawmakers, tax lawyers, etc.
Here are some of the highlights:
In 2012, 136.1 million taxpayers reported earning $9.04 trillion in adjusted gross income and paid $1.1 trillion in income taxes.
All income groups increased their income and taxes paid over the previous year.
The top 1 percent of taxpayers earned their largest share of income since 2007 at 21.9 percent of total AGI and paid their largest share of the income tax burden since the same year at 38.1 percent of total income taxes.
In 2012, the top 50 percent of all taxpayers (68 million filers) paid 96.7 percent of all income taxes while the bottom 50 percent paid the remaining 3.3 percent.
The top 1 percent (1.3 million filers) paid a greater share of income taxes (38.1 percent) than the bottom 90 percent (122.4 million filers) combined (29.8 percent).
The top 1 percent of taxpayers paid a higher effective income tax rate than any other group at 22.8 percent, which is nearly 7 times higher than taxpayers in the bottom 50 percent (3.28 percent).
Democrats should take note: Religious belief is strong in the U.S., and it cuts across party lines.
By
WILLIAM A. GALSTON
Dec. 30, 2014 6:57 p.m. ET
In this year-end holiday season, it is timely to reflect on American exceptionalism. Although this phrase is much abused in partisan polemics, it should not be discarded. The United States does continue to differ from most other developed democratic countries. And the heart of that difference is religion. The durability of American religious belief refutes the once-canonical thesis that modernization and secularization necessarily go hand in hand.
This is all the more remarkable because our Founders drafted a deliberately secular constitution. In 20 quietly revolutionary words, Article VI declares that “[N]o religious Test shall ever be required as a Qualification to any Office or public Trust under the United States.” Consistent with that prohibition, newly elected officials—from the president on down—may choose either to “swear” (that is, to take a religious oath) or simply to “affirm” their loyalty to the Constitution.
In 1789, this secular national constitution perched uneasily atop a Christian population residing in states the majority of which had established an official religion. These establishments have disappeared. But despite the enormous growth in the nation’s diversity over the past 225 years, Christian conviction remains pervasive.
People are fleeing N.J. faster than any other state, moving company says
By Jeff Goldman | NJ Advance Media for NJ.com
on January 05, 2015 at 1:30 PM, updated January 05, 2015 at 4:56 PM
Nearly two of every three families making an interstate move involving New Jersey last year were leaving the Garden State, the highest rate in the country.
New Jersey had the greatest percentage of outbound moves of any state nationally last year with almost 65 percent departing, according to a company which bills itself as the largest transporter of household goods in the country.
The Garden State has led the nation in outward migration for the fourth time in five years.
In all, United said it tracked 4,003 moves out of New Jersey in 2014 compared to 2,169 inbound.
Nearly half of those leaving New Jersey were bound for Florida (15 percent), California (14), Texas (9) and North Carolina (7.5), spokeswoman Melissa Sullivan told NJ Advance Media.
Retirement and jobs were the top reasons to leave the state last year, according to a United Survey of departing New Jerseyans.
About 42 percent reported leaving for a new job or company transfer. Forty-one percent attributed their move to retirement. More than half (56 percent) of people leaving New Jersey were over the age of 55, with 22 percent older than 65.
In their classic work, Free to Choose, Milton and Rose Friedman described four basic ways of spending money. People can either spend their own money or someone else’s money, and they can either spend it on themselves or on someone else. The Friedmans argued that people generally have a stronger incentive to economize when spending their own money than when spending someone else’s money. Likewise, people generally have a stronger incentive to maximize value when spending money on themselves than when spending on someone else.
The lack of incentive to reduce costs or maximize value is particularly acute when the spender does not know whose money he is spending or on whom he is spending it. For instance, a person is more likely to purchase a lavish dinner with a corporate expense account than when a close friend is paying. Likewise, someone is less likely to maximize value when buying a gift for the office holiday gift exchange than when buying a gift for a significant other. In the latter scenario, the spender’s knowledge of what would provide the greatest value is also considerably higher when he knows the recipient well.
Public-school officials, like all government bureaucrats, primarily engage in the worst kind of spending: They spend other people’s money on children who are not their own. As competent and well-meaning as they may be, their incentives to economize and maximize value are simply not as strong as those of parents spending their own money on their own children…
If traditional public-school systems work by spending someone else’s money on someone else’s children, taxpayer-funded vouchers allow parents to spend taxpayer money on their own children. Parents have a strong incentive to maximize the educational value that their children receive from the voucher, but since a traditional voucher must be spent in a lump sum, there is no incentive to economize below the value of the voucher.
Though Education Savings Accounts are still taxpayer funded, the way they are structured makes for a dynamic closer to the one involved in spending your own money on your own children: Parents still insist on the best quality education but have more incentive to find a bargain. ESAs are not the equivalent of cash because the funds are restricted to approved categories of educational expenses, but they do provide families with much greater flexibility in how to spend (or save) the funds than vouchers do. As a result, parents have the ability and incentive to economize in a manner that more closely resembles their spending of their own money — with both economy and value in mind — which in turn fosters the development of a real education market
Village of Ridgewood 2015 Meeting Schedule What ,Where and When
Parking Changes in Ridgewood – January 1, 2015
Effective January 1, 2015 there will be Parking Changes in Ridgewood – including metered street and lot parking; Ridgewood Parking Permits and Central Business District Employee Parking.
Click Here
We are making a major effort to share this important information with all who park in Ridgewood on a regular basis. Please share these facts with your friends, neighbors and co-workers. ***Parking Program DETAILS can be found by clicking the PARKING button section at the top of the Ridgewood Homepage
01/06/15 7:30PM Planning Board Public Meeting 01/07/15 7:30PM Village Council Public Work Session 01/13/15 7:30PM Board of Adjustment Public Meeting 01/14/15 8:00PM Village Council Public Meeting 01/20/15 7:30PM Planning Board Pubblic Meeting 01/27/15 7:30PM Board of Adjustment Work Session 01/28/15 7:30PM Village Council Public Work Session
Planning Board Meetings – January 6, 13, 29, 2015
PLANNING BOARD
AMENDMENT TO MEETING SCHEDULE
Special Public Meeting: January 6, 2015, January 13, 2015, January 29, 2015
Change of Date and Location
In accordance with the provisions of the “Open Public Meetings Act,” please be advised that the Planning Board has scheduled a special public meeting and work session for:
• TUESDAY, JANUARY 6, 2015, in the RIDGEWOOD HIGH SCHOOL STUDENT CENTER, 627 E. RIDGEWOOD AVENUE, RIDGEWOOD, NJ beginning AT 7:30 p.m.
• TUESDAY, JANUARY 13, 2015, in the RIDGEWOOD HIGH SCHOOL STUDENT CENTER, 627 E. RIDGEWOOD AVENUE, RIDGEWOOD, NJ beginning AT 7:30 p.m.
• THURSDAY, JANUARY 29, 2015, in the RIDGEWOOD HIGH SCHOOL STUDENT CENTER, 627 E. RIDGEWOOD AVENUE, RIDGEWOOD, NJ beginning AT 7:30 p.m.
The Board may take official action during this Special Public Meeting at which time the Board will continue the public hearing concerning a proposed amendment to the Land Use Plan Element of the Master Plan which would recommend changes in zone district classifications and boundaries within the Central Business District and surrounding area, creating the AH-2, B-3-R, and C-R Zone Districts and amending the existing C Zone District.
All meetings of the Ridgewood Planning Board (i.e., official public meetings, work session meetings, pre-meeting assemblies and special meetings) are public meetings which are always open to members of the general public.
Civility Roundtable – January 20th – All are Welcome!
Mayor Paul Aronsohn will be holding a Roundtable meeting to discuss related to more civility in our public discourse. The meeting will be held on Tuesday, January 20th at 7:30pm in the Senior Lounge at Village Hall.
Rev. Jan Phillips will lead the discussion. We will drill down on ways to take the civility conversation forward.
Religious Freedom Meeting Tuesday Jan 6 Knights of Columbus Oakland
Happy New Year to all. I hope everyone had a great Christmas and will have a Happy New Year this Thursday.
The K of C Hall has been reserved so we can have our monthly Religious freedom meeting this Tuesday night, January 6, at 7:30. While the country has been immersed in the Christmas season, a lot of things have been happening regarding religious freedom. Among them are the following:
1. Unreasonable restrictions placed on Christian chaplains at the VA.
2. Unjust punishment meted out to an Army Lieutenant Colonel for running afoul of the Administration’s Don’t Ask Don’t Tell policy.
3. Foreign students legally admitted to the US to attend a religious training school now told they may be deported.
4. An Army Chaplain punished for mentioning his faith in a lecture to troops on handling depression.
5. A Catholic University (Marquette university) suspended a professor for defending a student’s right to state the Church’s position on homosexuality.
6. A recent GAO report that Obamacare is subsidizing abortions, contrary to Obama’s promise made to the contrary.
7. Information that Muslims are exempted from Obamacare because insurance violates Muslim doctrine.
8 Movie Faith Freedom Foundation (Christian/Muslim Issues)
While everyone has been absorbed in the holidays, militant secularism never takes a break. These and other things will be discussed at our meeting. If you know of any other incidents or examples come share them with us.
Well, I hope to see everyone on Tuesday night.
Have a happy and safe New Year
Joe Kuhns
Knights of Columbus Oakland
7 Court House Place, Oakland, NJ 07436
(201) 337-7539
Village Manager Roberta Sonenfeld says NO Lead in the Drinking Water
January 5th 2015
Dear E-Notice Residents,
It has come to our attention that the public education notice regarding lead test results has created concern among some of the residents in our service area. Please be aware that the language in the notice is prescribed by regulation and may cause undue concern.
The water supplied by Ridgewood Water does not have lead in it. A small number of homes in the Ridgewood Water service territory have plumbing materials that can leach lead into the water which caused an exceedance of the Maximum Contaminant Level (MCL) for lead during routine testing in 2012. Regulatory agencies require that water utilities test for lead by setting up “worst-case-scenarios” at locations at increased risk such as those known to have lead service lines. Additionally, the samples taken for testing must be water that has been undisturbed and in contact with the household plumbing for at least 6 hours. These samples are usually taken in the morning before any water has been used including the flushing of toilets. Therefore, samples are usually collected by residents. Each participating resident received the test results for their specific location.
Additionally, virtually every faucet has brass components that contain a percentage of lead. This is why it is prudent to let a faucet run for several seconds before using the water for cooking and drinking, especially if the faucet has not been used for several hours. If your service line is made of lead, run the water for a longer period to clear all of the water from the service line. Please call 201-670-3372 if you are unsure of your service line material.
Ridgewood Water will start using a phosphate-based additive later this year that will also address this issue by coating the lines and faucets effectively stopping the leaching of lead into the water.
There will be a presentation at the Council Meeting this Wednesday that will provide a forum for additional questions and answers. You may also watch it on TV. You are invited to attend and voice your concerns at that point or you may call Ridgewood Water at201-670-5500 ext. 273 or 275.
January 5, 2015 Last updated: Monday, January 5, 2015, 9:45 AM
By Darius Amos
Staff Writer |
The Ridgewood News
In October 2011, developers publicly detailed an application to rezone a prominent Ridgewood property to allow for an extensive multifamily apartment complex. Originally presented as an individual proposal dubbed The Dayton, those plans today make up a portion of a larger request from multiple developers.
That request has been the source of controversy and debate throughout the past 12 months, pitting neighbor against neighbor, resident versus developer, and past against the future.
For those reasons, the ongoing public hearing on the master plan amendment to rezone parts of the Central Business District (CBD), thus permitting high-density multifamily housing, is The Ridgewood News’ 2014 story of the year.
