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Category: Village of Ridgewood
>Mickelson applauds Ridgewood
>Tuesday, July 22, 2008
BY BRENDAN PRUNTY
Star-Ledger Staff
After playing Ridgewood Country Club a number of times in preparation for The Barclays next month, Phil Mickelson believes the FedEx Cup will be getting off to a great start.
“I’ve done a couple of outings out there, so I’ve had a chance to see the golf course and play it,” Mickelson said yesterday while making an appearance in Jersey City. “With it being our first FedEx Cup event, it’s important to get off to a good start.”
Tiger Woods is out for the rest of this year after having surgery on his left knee last month, meaning Mickelson will be the top draw when the first event of the PGA Tour’s four-tournament playoff comes to New Jersey next month. With The Barclays moving from its longtime home at Westchester (N.Y.) Country Club to Ridgewood in Paramus last winter, players have expressed their enthusiasm for the classic course.
“It’s interesting. They’re both wonderful, historic sights,” Mickelson said. “But I think Ridgewood has a little bit more with the Ryder Cup (held there in 1935), as well as (other) championships. I think it will be a cool site.”
It’s a site Mickelson will be more familiar with because of his practice rounds at the course. With its tricky greens, thick rough and oak tree-lined fairways, Ridgewood will be a unique test for the field.
“I’m familiar with how the course will be set up, how the rough and the greens will be set up,” Mickelson said. “I did that because I hadn’t really played the course before.”
The Barclays, which will be played Aug. 21-24, will be the first professional tournament Mickelson will play in the Garden State since he won the 2005 PGA Championship at Baltusrol. He said he’s enthused to get back to playing in front of the crowds that supported him during that major win three summers ago.
“I can’t wait,” he said. “This is going to be a key tournament for the end of the year.”
Mickelson, on his way home from the British Open, where he finished tied for 19th at 14 over par, was at the Liberty Science Center with his wife Amy for the fourth annual Mickelson/ExxonMobil Teachers Academy. The program was developed to give teachers the opportunity to expand math and science skills.
It’s been a whirlwind 36 hours for Mickelson, who flew to New York after his final round at the British Open and then arrived in Jersey City. This morning, he and Amy will be in Washington testifying before the House Education and Labor Committee about the importance of math and science education.
Brendan Prunty may be reached at [email protected].
>Ask not, "for whom the bell tolls, it tolls for thee."
>Monday, July 21, 2008
Editorial
The Star-Ledger
A testing standard that says getting 33 percent of the questions right is a passing grade teaches all the wrong lessons to the kids — and to those who are supposed to be educating them.
Yet New Jersey has been setting the mark as low as that for the tests that are used to judge student proficiency and school performance under the federal No Child Left Behind program.
Fortunately, that is about to change.
Last week, the state Department of Education took a step toward setting the bar higher. We hope the move sends a signal that the focus of educational testing is not about the rank of a school or a district or the state.
The focus must be on finding all the students who need help, not “dumbing down” the tests in order to hide the numbers who are floundering. Mississippi and some other states have been accused of doing that. Who knew New Jersey was in that company?
For students in grades 5 through 8, getting 33 to 46 percent of the questions right has been enough to earn the label “proficient” in math or language arts in New Jersey.
Now students must get 50 to 56 percent right — which is still not much to ask. The state plans to gradually enact higher standards for all grades. Why should any be lower than 50 percent?
The change may cost some schools their bragging rights about student performance, because the overall pass rates are expected to go down. Currently 76 percent of kids statewide pass the sixth-grade language arts examination. That is expected to drop to 54 percent. That will be a shocker.
The standards were approved last week, but will be used to grade tests that were taken in the spring. There will be howls from schools that say the retroactive application is unfair. In fact it is the best way to get an objective comparison of the old and the new.
The state Department of Education must to do a good job of explaining its changes and reinforcing the idea that true learning, not hollow test scores, is the only acceptable goal. If parents are not well prepared, they will be angry and confused as their children slide out of what was assumed to be the educational safety zone, even if the grading system made it a false assumption. Educators will be angry and frustrated, particularly those who have confused keeping up appearances with the obligation to teach children what they need to know.
Could this change put more schools in line for No Child Left Behind sanctions, from mandatory tutoring to a forced reorganization of some schools? That is a possibility, although expectations of harsh sanctions have so far proven more myth than reality.
If the ultimate goal is learning, as it must be, test scores should be used as a tool to help the students by identifying individual strengths and weaknesses and addressing them before those students enter the harsh reality of the world beyond 12th grade.
Schools should fear failing that mission more than they fear test scores or No Child Left Behind.
©2008 Star Ledger
© 2008 NJ.com All Rights Reserved.
Drowning spurs look at pool procedures
>Friday, July 18, 2008
Last updated: Friday July 18, 2008, EDT 6:14 AMBY EVONNE COUTROSSTAFF
WRITERRIDGEWOOD – Village officials are questioning how to improve procedures at Graydon Pool after learning that a teenager who drowned in 12 feet of water did not take a test required for swimming in the deep end.
“I’m going to challenge my staff to make every use of any technology available that can assist us in our efforts to improve our procedures, our signage and our lifesaving efforts,” said Village Manager James Ten Hoeve.
After entering the pool from the shallow section, the 14-year-old swam under a rope to the deeper waters, officials said.
There are signs posted throughout the 3-acre pool area that specify swimming rules. The pool office staff is also available to answer questions, officials said.
“He entered at the shallow end of the pool where the swim test is not required … and swam towards the deep end … where the lifeguard would never see that he did not have the proper sticker or wristband,” Ten Hoeve said.
To go into the deep water at the spring-fed pond, children and teenagers must pass a swim test, Ten Hoeve said.
“They are then given a sticker which goes on their badge, and if they are on a day pass, the date of the swim test is written on the wristlet that they receive,” Ten Hoeve said.
The teen – in the United States from South Korea for only two days and staying with family in Ridgewood – did not take a test, Ten Hoeve said.
If a lifeguard sees a swimmer in the deep-water section of the pool without that sticker or marked wristband, he or she is sent to the pool office to take the test before returning to the deep water, Ten Hoeve said.
“I don’t know what should have been done,” Ten Hoeve said.
“We are going to hold a staff meeting to look at our procedures and, based on the occurrences in this situation, see if they can be improved in any way. Our policy is that if you are a non-adult, you need a swim test.”
The teen swam to the deep end of the pool and was trying to reach a diving platform.
“I can’t breathe,” he yelled in Korean on Tuesday afternoon to his 12- and 14-year-old swimming partners, already on the platform.
The 12-year-old jumped into the water to save his friend but lost sight of him after he dived in.
The teen’s 10-year-old sister was swimming in shallow water nearby and raced to shore to alert her parents that she could not find her brother.
Lifeguards were summoned, a 911 call was made, and a sweeping search of the pool, its facilities, and nearby buildings was conducted.
The 14-year-old’s body was recovered in 12 feet of water about 40 minutes after he went missing by divers from the Ridgewood Fire Department.
Emergency workers conducted resuscitative procedures on the shoreline of the pool before transporting the teen to The Valley Hospital, where he was pronounced dead 68 minutes after the initial 911 call.
The death has been ruled an accidental drowning. Officials have declined to release the name of the 14-year-old.
E-mail: [email protected]
UPDATE: Drowned teen shouldn’t have been in deep end, authorities say
>Thursday, July 17, 2008
Last updated: Thursday July 17, 2008, EDT 10:26 PMBY EVONNE COUTROSSTAFF WRITER
Ridgewood officials are questioning how to improve procedures at Graydon Pool after learning that a teenager who drowned in 12 feet of water did not take a test required for swimming in the deep end.
“I’m going to challenge my staff to make every use of any technology available that can assist us in our efforts to improve our procedures, our signage and our lifesaving efforts,” said Village Manager James Ten Hoeve.
After entering the pool from the shallow section, the 14-year-old swam under a rope to the deeper waters, official said.
There are signs posted throughout the 3-acre pool area that specify swimming rules. The pool office staff is also available to answer questions, officials said.
“He entered at the shallow end of the pool where the swim test is not required &hellip and swam towards the deep end &hellip where the lifeguard would never see that he did not have the proper sticker or wristband,” Ten Hoeve said.
To go into the deep water at the spring-fed pond, children and teenagers must pass a swim test, Ten Hoeve said.
“They are then given a sticker which goes on their badge, and if they are on a day pass, the date of the swim test is written on the wristlet that they receive,” Ten Hoeve said.
The teen – in the United States from South Korea for only two days and staying with family in Ridgewood – did not take a test, Ten Hoeve said.
If a lifeguard sees a swimmer in the deep-water section of the pool without that sticker or marked wristband, he or she is sent told to go and take the test before returning to the deep water, Ten Hoeve said.
“I don’t know what should have been done,” Ten Hoeve said. “We are going to hold a staff meeting to look at our procedures and, based on the occurrences in this situation, see if they can be improved in any way. Our policy is that if you are a non-adult, you need a swim test.”
The teen swam to the deep end of the pool and was trying to reach a diving platform.
“I can’t breathe,” he yelled in Korean on Tuesday afternoon to his 12- and 14-year-old swimming partners, already on the platform.
The 12-year-old jumped into the water to save his friend but lost sight of him after he dove dived in.
The teen’s 10-year-old sister was swimming in shallow water nearby and raced to shore to alert her parents that she could not find her brother.
Lifeguards were summoned, a 911 call was made and a sweeping search of the pool, its facilities, and nearby buildings was conducted.
The 14-year-old’s body was recovered in 12 feet of water about 40 minutes after he went missing by divers from the Ridgewood Fire Department.
Emergency workers conducted resuscitative procedures on the shoreline of the pool before transporting the teen to The Valley Hospital, where he was pronounced dead 68 minutes after the initial 911 call.
The death has been ruled an accidental drowning. Officials have declined to release the name of the 14-year-old.
E-mail: [email protected]
>N.J. raises bar for pupil test scores
>N.J. raises bar for pupil test scores
State Board of Education admits change could surprise parents
Thursday, July 17, 2008
BY JOHN MOONEY
Star-Ledger Staff
New Jersey made it harder yesterday for public school students to prove their proficiency on state exams — a change that could cause more schools to run afoul of the federal No Child Left Behind Act.
The action by the state Board of Education, which approved raising the scores for reading and math tests in grades 5 through 8, highlights how remarkably low the threshold for the scores had been. Students scoring as low as 33 percent correct had been deemed proficient.
The change raised the so-called “cut scores” for proficiency to at least 50 percent in the four affected grades, and also raised the requirements to be considered “advanced proficient.”
The new cut scores will be used to grade tests given last spring. Officials said similar moves are envisioned in the coming years for other grades’ tests, including the state’s high school exit exam. Some of those tests still have cut scores in the 30s.
“What we don’t want to do is mask our weaknesses,” said state Education Commissioner Lucille Davy. “The incentive may be to have the lowest standard we can, but that doesn’t serve the kids.”
Davy stressed that student performance still appeared to improve last spring in most of the tests. But with the changes, passing rates are likely to drop in a majority of tests, markedly in some cases, she said.
In sixth grade, for example, state estimates show the language arts passing rate would have risen from 76 percent to 80 percent this year using the old cut scores, but instead will drop to 54 percent.
For parents and teachers, it could be a jolt to see a child no longer deemed proficient or advanced, and officials acknowledged that the onus will be on the state and districts to explain the change in the coming months as final scores go out.
“Parents will need to understand we have raised the standards and their children may need more help,” said deputy commissioner Willa Spicer. “There are parents who will be surprised.”
In New Jersey and many other states, cut scores have been set notoriously low with the advent of increased testing, and especially No Child Left Behind, which requires schools to reach proficiency targets in reading and math or face possible sanctions.
To provide districts some short-term protection against the predicted drop in passage rates, state officials plan to reduce the proficiency requirements considered by No Child — but set by the state.
State board members yesterday were largely supportive of the change, but some voiced concern about how schools and teachers will react, noting it may further drive a “test prep” trend over which some educators are agonizing.
The detailed process of setting the cut scores had been quietly churning forward for almost a year with the advent of new, longer tests in grades 5 through 8.
“I know that when you start the year, you have a certain standard … and to change the standard at the very end is not the way to do it,” said member Kathleen Dietz, the lone dissenting vote. “There needs to be some warning.”
But all agreed the benchmark needed to be raised for students and schools, with one member citing his own fifth-grade child who took the tests last year.
“I realize this could impact where he’s placed,” said Arcelio Aponte, the board’s vice president. “But as a parent, I’d want to know if he’s not responding correctly.”
John Mooney may be reached at [email protected] or (973) 392-1548
The Fly wants to know what you think Mrs. Botsford (head of testing) will do now that NJ has “raised” its standards. Any suggestions for her?
>The doors CAN be opened on both sides of the trains from Hoboken!
>When they put in ramps for the disabled at buildings, they don’t take away the doors. Not the ones nearest the ramp. Not the ones fartherest from the ramp.
Let’s be clear. There is nothing in any of the laws, regulations, or court decisions requiring that access be made harder for the abled in order to make it easier for the disabled.
To quote from the ADA Web site:
“Public entities do not necessarily have to make each of their existing facilities accessible. They may provide program accessibility by a number of methods including alteration of existing facilities, acquisition or construction of additional facilities, relocation of a service or program to an accessible facility, or provision of services at alternate accessible sites.”
You’ll notice that nowhere does it say the disabled and abled have to have the same access. So NJ Transit’s position is bogus when it comes to legal requirements.
The next claim, that opening doors on both sides would slow down operations, is equally suspect. Opening both doors clears the cars faster and, by allowing the abled to file out one side, actually leaves the disabled with better access on the other!
Ridgewood should not cave in on this issue.
>Accused kidnappers caught
>Monday, July 14, 2008
Last updated: Monday July 14, 2008, EDT 5:03 PM
BY KIPP CLARK AND MIKE DALY
THE RIDGEWOOD NEWS
Local police arrested two Allendale men accused of kidnapping, robbing and assaulting an acquaintance from Ridgewood.
The 41-year-old man victim was found injured on the side of a road in Harriman State Park in Rockland County, N.Y. yesterday. New York State Park Police said he told them he’d been assaulted by acquaintances who broke into his apartment., said Ridgewood Detective William Hemmer.
The intruders got in through a window after climbing a fire escape, police said.
The man told police they pulled him from his bed, took cash and then led him down the stairs and out into the parking lot. They then forced him into a car, drove him a remote area of the park and led him to a wooded section where he was beaten and threatened, he said.
Several departments combined to investigate the case — among them, Ridgewood Police, New York State Park Police, the Bergen County Sheriff’s Department and Allendale Police.
After interviewing him, detectives obtained arrest warrants for Cullen Schlesiona, 31, and Matthew Staudt, 24, and then arrested them last night at an apartment they share.
Schlesiona and Staudt are being held on $500,000 cash bail each at the Bergen County Jail, charged with kidnapping, robbery, burglary, terroristic threats and criminal restraint.
The alleged victim was treated at a Rockland County hospital for minor injuries to his face and arms and released, police said.
An investigation is continuing and additional charges could follow, police said.
>It is time for a change of leadership at the Stable.
>The lack of fields (if one choses to believe this line)or amount of use has no baring on whether one cleans up the debris from the fireworks or fills in holes on pitcher’s mounds or orders new benches does it?
This is really simple stuff here. Nothing complicated and nothing out of the ordinary.
It has nothing to do with man power, use of fields or any thing else other than laziness and incompetence on the part of Parks & Rec. from top down.
As for the budget you would have to ask each sports organization what they contribute in addition to the Parks Dept. budget for fields.
For instance, in the Spring, the RBSA spends more than 30k per year to ready the fields. And in past years as much as $52,000.00.
This amount from the RBSA is used for all of our fields, including the High School fields for Baseball and Softball, regardless of whether they are owned by the BOE or Village.
It is real simple, we pay high taxes and get poor results when it comes to the Parks & Rec. services.
>We were there! Many people took photos of our 1975 white Buick, but we never got any!
>
Thanks again to the Fourth of July Celebration Committee for coordinating a great parade. The Veterans of Foreign Wars (VFW) Post 192 of Ridgewood/Ho-Ho-Kus has reinitiated participation in the last several parades and we enjoy it very much. While this year my son, Major Erik Kober, an Apache/Longbow helicopter pilot, is back in Iraq for his second tour, this time for 15 months, after being in Bosnia and Afghanistan, and Iraq on 12 month tours, he was not able to participate with us. We did however, have veterans who were from WWII, Korea, and Vietnam. Our Ridgewood VFW Post looks forward to having more combat veterans and active duty members join us in the Post and in the future parades. Thank you!
May God continue to Bless America!
Stanley A. Kober
Commander,
Washington Elm VFW Post 192
TEL: 201-445-1121
>Ridgewood will zero in further on accessibility
>Sunday, July 13, 2008
BY EVONNE COUTROS
STAFF WRITERRIDGEWOOD – Village officials are taking measures to establish a panel that would serve as a formal sounding board to address the needs and concerns of the disabled community.
“My sense is that Ridgewood has done a good job, but there is always room for improvement,” said Councilman Paul S. Aronsohn, a proponent of the Ridgewood Committee on Disability Issues.
Aronsohn and Village Manager James Ten Hoeve have invited the public to a meeting Thursday at Village Hall to discuss the need, potential scope, and role of a disability committee.
James Thebery, the director of the county’s Division of Disability Services, will also attend.
“We want to go beyond ADA [the Americans with Disabilities Act] and address emergency preparedness issues and quality of life,” Aronsohn said. “There are day-to-day issues you don’t think about – quality-of-life issues that can impact someone’s life.”
Aronsohn encouraged village residents to attend and offer input in what could be a series of organizational meetings.
“Rather than me decide the parameters, we want to hear from parents, families, caregivers … so that we can see what the scope should be,” he said.
Board of Education and library officials, as well as emergency service personnel, are expected to attend.
The disability community may have issues that range from what to do in a flood or fire to how to commute within the village, Aronsohn said.
“There may be people on oxygen and we may need to know who they are, where they live … we need to get a handle on what we need to do,” Aronsohn said. “And ground transportation. How many people in town have physical limitations? We need to ask if we should have a bus service in town.
“The committee is a sounding board, a platform to start a dialogue and we hope to have a committee up and running by the end of the year,” Aronsohn said.
E-mail: [email protected]
>More 4th of July Parade Photos ..where are you?
>
Photos by
Joseph O’Connor
Terrie O’Connor Realtors
(201)445-4554 ext 59
(201) 315-1421
www.tocr.com
>History of a Village (yes we are a Village)
>
4th of July always gets me thinking ,this is straight from the Village website
History of Ridgewood’s Municipal Government
The Village of Ridgewood wasn’t organized as a separate municipality until 1876. By then, the settlement we call Ridgewood was almost two centuries old. The land that Ridgewood occupies was originally a hunting and fishing ground of the Lenni Lenape Indians that became a part of the Dutch colony of New Amsterdam founded in 1624. Forty years later, the British captured New Amsterdam and renamed it New York.
After New Amsterdam became British, King Charles 2nd gave New Jersey to Sir Carteret and Lord Berkeley, two of his most loyal supporters. In 1674, Lord Berkeley needed money to finish his mansion in London, and sold his half of the colony to two Quakers. New Jersey was then divided into the Province of East Jersey owned by Sir Carteret and the Quaker Province of West Jersey. In 1687, the East Jersey Proprietors granted several hundred acres in Bergen County to Isaac Kingsland. Johannes Van Emburgh bought some of this land in 1698. The area was then known as Hoachas (now Ho Ho Kus) and as Paramus by 1725.
After the Revolution, the settlement had grown to about 20 families and was known as Godwinville, after a war hero. However, Godwinville was never a separate municipality. The entire northwest corner of Bergen County was a large municipality known as Franklin Township formed in 1771 from a section of Saddle River Township. Within Franklin Township, there were numerous unincorporated settlements such as Godwinville.
In 1848, the Patterson and Ramapo Railroad was completed providing Godwinville with easy access to New York City. In 1853, Samuel Dayton bought the Van Emburgh estate and with the idea of establishing a suburb. Cornelia Dayton renamed Godwinville “Ridgewood” to attract buyers from the city. The population exploded from several hundred in 1850 to over 1,200 by the time of the centennial. Ridgewood built its own school but was still a part of Franklin Township. The population doubled again by the turn of the century.
On March 30, 1876, Ridgewood finally became a separate Township. Actually, Ridgewood was fifteen years ahead of the rest of the state. It wasn’t until the early 1890s that New Jersey adopted legislation requiring each municipality to establish a Board of Education and fund all public schools with a municipal-wide property tax. In just a few months in 1894, numerous settlements with schools incorporated as separate municipalities. Twenty-eight municipalities were incorporated in Bergen County alone. Part of Ridgewood Township went to the new Borough of Midland Park and another part went to the new Borough of Glen Rock. At the same time, Ridgewood changed its municipal form of government from a Township to a Village. However, to this day the school system is still officially known as the “Ridgewood Township Board of Education”.
Almost all of the 1894 municipalities were incorporated as Boroughs, the most common plan of municipal government in New Jersey. In a Borough, the governing body consists of six Council Members and a directly elected Mayor who acts as the chief executive.
Ridgewood was one of the few municipalities that incorporated as a “Village.” In this rare form of local government, the public elected five trustees who selected one of their members as Village President to preside over the meetings. There was no Mayor. The Village plan proved unsuccessful because it lacked clearly defined management responsibilities.
During this period, the Trustees organized the village departments and planned a civic center just west of the train station. However, the civic center was defeated in 1909 and the Village built a municipal building and firehouse at Hudson and Broad streets. This remained as the municipal complex until 1955 when the Village purchased the Elk lodge built in 1928 on North Maple Avenue and converted it into the current Village Hall.
In 1911, Ridgewood reorganized for a second time adopting the Commissioner plan of municipal government, but retaining the name “Village”. The municipality was divided into three departments – Public Safety, Finance and Public Works. The voters elected three Commissioners who each had full executive authority over one of the departments. The Commissioners also selected one of their members as Mayor to preside over the meetings, but the Mayor had no executive power other than as a Commissioner of one of the departments. At the time, the Commissioner form was considered as a reform, but today few municipalities retain this plan. Each department tends to become a fiefdom and is too dependent on the management skills of its Commissioner.
In 1970, Ridgewood recognized the need to professionalize municipal management and adopted the more modern Faulkner Act Council-Manager plan. Under this form, the public elects five Council Members who act as a Board of Directors. Their principle responsibility is to hire and oversee a professional Village Manager who has full executive power for all departments. The Council also selects one of its members as Mayor who presides over the meetings but has no executive authority.
Small Business Owner Says Enough Already!
>I own a small retail business in Ridgewood. My daily water usage amounts to one toilet flush and one use of the sink to wash my hands. The sewage tax bill I received amounts to about $1.50 per day – this on top of a water bill that adds up to about $1 per day. You’d think that my plumbing fixtures were made of gold and that sparkling Pellegrino is being pumped through the lines at those prices!
This tax is the last straw that is driving me out of business. Even though business has dropped off significantly in the last few months (once-twice a week I don’t even get any customers through the door, sometimes even on Saturdays!) I’ve been subjected to ever increasing tax bills like this sewage tax. I’m now paying thousands of dollars out of my pocket each month just to pay taxes and bills, and I’m stuck in a lease that may take me years to get out of and could potentially bankrupt me.
It’s no wonder there are so many empty retail spaces on Ridgewood Ave., Broad St., etc. It’s simply too expensive to do business in Ridgewood. Even worse, the residents of this village don’t support local businesses. For all of you complaining about the abundance of banks, when was the last time you purchased something from a local, independently owned store in Ridgewood (and I don’t mean Dunkin Donuts, the Gap or Rite Aid)? Remember, you reap what you sow.
>Deputy Mayor Keith Killion Demands Policy For Loan of Village Equipment
>On September 2, 2006, an electric generator owned by the Village of Ridgewood, and provided by Ridgewood Emergency Services, was used to power all operations of business located in Midland Park for up to 24 hours. This business lost
their primary electric service during the intense storm that ripped through northwest Bergen that day.
Immediately following word of this incident, several Ridgewood residents asked questions about the use of taxpayer purchased equipment outside of Village limits. One key question never answered publicly was: “Who authorized the use of Village owned equipment at a commercial establishment outside of Ridgewood?”
Coincident with Village Council member’s tentative authorization for the purchase of additional generator related equipment, recently elected Deputy Mayor Keith Killion insisted tonight that an official policy be drafted to ensure similar incidents do not occur in the future.
