Category: Uncategorized

Reader Reports Overnight, Has The Valley Hospital Becomes Ridgewood’s Largest Taxpayer?‏

Overnight, Has The Valley Hospital Becomes Ridgewood’s Largest Taxpayer?‏

It is being widely reported that The Valley Hospital became Ridgewood’s largest taxpayer overnight as a result of their recent purchase of 1200 East Ridgewood Avenue from the Hartz Mountain Corporation.

The reported purchase price was $25 million; possibly 30% down, the rest to be financed.

The property in question last sold in 2004 for $25 million. It is currently assessed at $23 million.

Property taxes in 2012 were $558,935.94.

The multi-tenant office building, built in 1985, sits on just over 6 acres.

It is believed that The Valley has no plans for the property other than to continue leasing space out to physicians and other medical service providers.

Valley Rendering by Z. Putnins and C. Benson
Reader Says dont drink the Valley kool-aid.

Renewal 2 is The same as renewal 1. The hospital has clearly not listened to the council and the residents. They still want a 94 ft tall building which will overshadow the whole neighborhood. They didn’t decrease the size of the north building by 1 foot. They also did not decrease the number of beds by even 1. Anyone who believes an increase of approximately 90% over the current size is a compromise has been drinking the Valley kool-aid.

Valley Supporter says You chose your home location poorly and now your crying

You anti Valley meatheads just don’t get it. No one else cares what you want. You try and try to make this a town wide issue but all your doing is making yourself look stupid. No one cares that you are going to be inconvenienced by the construction.

You chose your home location poorly and now your crying, well there is a name for that, they call stupid tax and your going to pay it.

Ridgewood Art Institute ( RAI ) – 61st Annual Sponsors Show
April 14–May 2nd, 2013

This remarkably original, eminently successful show features paintings given to the Institute by member artists. The Sponsors are the first of a limited number of people who contribute $275. On the last night of the show, as their names are drawn, the Sponsors select their favorite painting to take home. https://www.ridgewoodartinstitute.org/sponsor_email.html

Sponsor Show Gallery : https://www.ridgewoodartinstitute.org/sponsor/sponsor_gallery.html

Purchase Your Sponsorship Online Now!

Reception: Sunday April 14th 2-4pm

Drawing: Friday, May 3rd (8:00 pm)

Chairpersons: Janet Cunniffe-Chieffo and Kate Hall
Show Treasurer: Julie Fornaci

Photo by Boyd Loving

Reader says Village Headed for Bankruptcy

This sounds SO MUCH like Ridgewood. They built a new city hall, a parking garage, some sort of entertainment complex……and their biggest financial burden was to the pensions of the police and firefighters.

We are going directly down this path, and the current council has the pedal to the metal getting us to bankruptcy as fast as they can.

Re: Big Government ends where it always does in  bankruptcy
Judge rules Stockton, Calif., to enter bankruptcy
https://theridgewoodblog.net/big-government-end-where-it-always-does-in-bankruptcy/

Reader says What would be fair is if the Village enacted an ordinance requiring “CO” inspections at the time of a property sale

The tax ‘rate’ goes up so its simply divided among the taxpayers. What would be fair is if the Village enacted an ordinance requiring “CO” inspections at the time of a sale. That way, homeowners who ‘sneak in’ improvements such as extra baths, fixed up basements etc will be properly assessed.

It should also have a penalty for these tax cheats.Another meaningful enforcement would be to have an investigator from the Police dept assigned to the board of ed to weed out the non-resident students.

I have heard that many rented apartments are ‘shared addresses’ so out-of-towners can mooch a Ridgewood education for their children. They should be hit up with a fine, that is double the ‘tuition’ bill.

Our taxes are high enough and we need to stop these cheats.

CONSTRUCTION/TRAFFIC ALERT

Starting April 1, 2013 PSE&G will begin replacing telephone poles on Harristown Rd. at Rodney St. towards Maple Ave. They will then continue on Maple Ave to the Ridgewood border.

Work is expected to last 3 to 4 months. Expect delays, detours and periodic road closures.

Work will normally begin at 8:30 am and end around 4:00 pm, Monday through Friday but some weekend hours are expected. The GRPD will do its best to keep traffic interuptions to a minimum, but plan alternate routes if possible.

County Executive Donovan focuses on JOBS
March 27,2013
the staff of the Ridgewood blog

Ridgewood NJ , County Executive Donovan made the rounds at the recent county sponsored job fair at Bergen Community college .

Key fair organizers were Bergen Community college’s Tracy Micelli and Bergen County’s Deputy Chief of Staff Peter Incardone.

Donovan greeted recruiters as well as job seekers alike . Its seems about time that politicians move away from focusing on silly laws like seat belts for dogs and concentrate on the seriousness of the employment picture in New Jersey , with is by all account a total disaster .

file Photo by Boyd Loving

New Obama administration tax adds 9 cents a gallon to your gas

EPA taking aim at auto emissions, sulfur in gas
By DINA CAPPIELLO | Associated Press

WASHINGTON (AP) — Reducing sulfur in gasoline and tightening emissions standards on cars beginning in 2017, as the Obama administration is proposing, would come with costs as well as rewards. The cost at the pump for cleaner air across the country could be less than a penny or as high as 9 cents a gallon, depending on who is providing the estimate.

An oil industry study says the proposed rule being unveiled Friday by the administration could increase gasoline prices by 6 cents to 9 cents a gallon. The Environmental Protection Agency estimates an increase of less than a penny and an additional $130 to the cost of a vehicle in 2025.

https://news.yahoo.com/epa-taking-aim-auto-emissions-sulfur-gas-071021486–finance.html

Photo by Boyd Loving

Ridgewood Public Schools seemed to have prepared him very well for a rigorous university curriculum

I was not a lover of Ridgewood Public Schools until my son (who was just about the 50 percentile at RHS Class of ’12) took the SATs and ACTs and scored extremely well; well enough to get him into some of very competitive engineering schools and liberal arts colleges. Ridgewood is still looked upon very favorably by most universities. His 3.6 RHS GPA went alot further than I thought it would have. Some might say that Ridgewood is relying on its’ old reputation but I do not. I am happy to say that he excelling at his freshman courses (calc 2, physics, writing, etc) at a very good engineering college. Ridgewood Public Schools seemed to have prepared him very well for a rigorous university curriculum.

Just my two cents worth.

RHS senior Heesung Son has received the Congressional Award Silver Medal for his voluntary public services

Ridgewood NJ , RHS senior Heesung Son has received the Congressional Award Silver Medal for his voluntary public services. To earn the award, Heesung completed over 200 hours of public service by playing his violin for the elderly in nursing homes and spending time with physically disabled children at Camp Sunshine.

He also completed physical fitness and exploration goals. Congressman McGarrity presented the award at a ceremony at The Little Theatre on March 27.

Student loan write-offs hit $3 billion in first two months of year
Elvina Nawaguna Reuters
6:13 p.m. CDT, March 25, 2013

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – Banks wrote off $3 billion of student loan debt in the first two months of 2013, up more than 36 percent from the year-ago period, as many graduates remain jobless, underemployed or cash-strapped in a slow U.S. economic recovery, an Equifax study showed.

The credit reporting agency also said Monday that student lending has grown from last year because more people are going back to school and the cost of higher education has risen.

“Continued weakness in labor markets is limiting work options once people graduate or quit their programs, leading to a steady rise in delinquencies and loan write-offs,” Equifax Chief Economist Amy Crews Cutts said in a statement.

Equifax analyzes data from more than 500 million consumers to track financial trends.

U.S. student loan debt reform has become a more pressing issue since the U.S. Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) reported in March 2012 that the total surpassed $1 trillion by the end of 2011 and as interest rates on subsidized Stafford loan rates are set to double in July.

https://www.chicagotribune.com/business/sns-rt-us-usa-studentloans-delinquencybre92o11k-20130325,0,6746534.story

Playing the Blues in the suburbs

Poverty Hits America’s Suburbs : This is becoming a common story

This is becoming a common story. Many people who once held well paying jobs are now in transition or underemployed out of necessity.

The unemployment figures are not accurate. There are a lot of people hurting and or just trying to get by. A lot of the jobs lost were due to “restructuring,” i.e. position elimination, outsourcing or company relocation’s and not because employees did anything wrong.

For those who are doing well, it is important to support local food banks and donate your gently used clothing and shoes to thrift shops where people in these unfortunate circumstances shop.

Reader says No matter how much lipstick the developers put on these pig Projects, they are still going to be pigs

Sure, the developers are more than willing to put up one way signs and / or traffic lights in front of the new Projects so the hundreds of cars passing in and out of the Projects each day will be able to speed along their way through the rest of the Village. The problem is that Ridgewood Ave, Prospect, Linwood, Glen, etc, are all going to be more busy than they were before, and the Villagers are going to bear the expense of more traffic, reduced home values, road work, and all the other things that go along with city streets. The proposals under consideration are simply going to push traffic through the rest of town, meaning more traffic on our over-burdened roads from the 1.000′s of additional car trips generated by any where from 400 to 800 more cars owned by the new families in the Projects.

No matter how much lipstick the developers put on these pig Projects, they are still going to be pigs. Some may be mislead by a bit of make-up, however, so we need to keep speaking up before our officials are fooled into kissing these porcine projects.

Could it happen Here ?

Cyprus reaches last-minute deal on 10 billion euro bailout
By Jan Strupczewski and Michele Kambas
BRUSSELS/NICOSIA | Mon Mar 25, 2013 9:09am EDT

(Reuters) – Cyprus clinched a last-ditch deal with international lenders to shut down its second-largest bank and inflict heavy losses on uninsured depositors, including wealthy Russians, in return for a 10 billion euro ($13 billion) bailout.

The agreement came hours before a deadline to avert a collapse of the banking system in fraught negotiations between President Nicos Anastasiades and heads of the European Union, the European Central Bank and the International Monetary Fund.

Without a deal, Cyprus’s banking system would have collapsed and the country could have become the first to crash out of the European single currency.

Swiftly backed by euro zone finance ministers, the plan will spare the Mediterranean island a financial meltdown by winding down the largely state-owned Popular Bank of Cyprus, also known as Laiki, and shifting deposits below 100,000 euros to the Bank of Cyprus to create a “good bank

https://www.reuters.com/article/2013/03/25/us-cyprus-parliament-idUSBRE92G03I20130325