CHANGE IN LOCATION FOR MARCH 9TH AND MARCH 23RD VILLAGE COUNCIL MEETINGS
The Village Council Meetings of March 9th and March 23rd will be held at the Campus Center of the Ridgewood High School, located at 627 East Ridgewood Avenue. The March 9th Regular Public Meeting will begin at 8:00 p.m., and will be immediately followed by a Work Session, where the results of the impact studies for
multi-family housing will be discussed. The March 23rd Work Session meeting will begin at 7:30 p.m. During the Work Session there will be a Special Public Meeting for the Public Hearings and vote on the multi-family housing ordinances as well as a public hearing and vote on the bond ordinance to appropriate money for the Hudson Street parking deck.
This location is not equiped to broadcast the meetings. The meetings will be filmed and available both on UTube and the Village Public Access Channel (Cablevision 77; Fios 37).
Camp Open House Activities Include Bouncy House, Cotton Candy, Crafts & Games
Ridgewood NJ, YWCA Bergen County invites families to their first Summer Camp Open House to find out more about YWCA’s great camp options! This event will be held from 12:00 pm – 3:00 pm on Saturday, March 12th at YWCA’s Camp Ma-Kee-Ya, located in Darlington County Park at 600 Darlington Avenue, Mahwah, NJ. Parents and kids enjoy free outdoor activities including a bounce house, cotton candy, arts & crafts, carnival games, sports, goodie bags and more! Meet camp staff, ask questions, and take a tour of Camp Ma-Kee-Ya’s beautiful lakeside location. Professionally trained TGA Golf and TGA Tennis instructors will also be on site to provide demonstrations.
The YWCA runs fun and affordable day camps for children ages 5 to 12: Camp Orinda in Dumont and Camp Ma-Kee-Ya in Mahwah. YW camps offer American Red Cross Swim lessons, sports, arts and crafts, nature activities, and more. CIT programs for boys and girls ages 13 to 16 are also available. For more information call 201-444-5600, ext. 352 or visitwww.ywcabergencounty.org.
2015 Ridgewood Guild Film Festival After Party at Park West Tavern with Lynne Clemments, Tony Damiano, Danny Aielo, Dotti Fucito and RJ Konner.— with Anthony Damiano and Dorothy Purwin Fucito.
The 2016 Film Festival
Join us for the The Ridgewood Guild’s 6th Annual Film Festival: April 19, 20, and 21!
Preliminary Schedule (subject to change)
Monday, April 18 – “Cabaret Style” evening at Fish
Ridgwood NJ, March 4th Edition of Ridgewood News features a letter to editor from Bob Hutton who is potentially running for the council in May.
Bob writes “The latest rendition seems to accomplish consensus on many levels – even one level less of a deck”.
This is absolutely WRONG. The plan D, which is currently being pushed by Council Majority is NOT one level less. It’s same as Plan A, with only few inches removed from each level – and is STILL 5 LEVELS. So, overall height is decreased by 3 feet, but a level is NOT reduced.
This type of misinformation is part of the campaign by current council majority and Bob Hutton will be one of them, and he has already proved this from this letter to editor.
LET’S STAY ACQUAINTED WITH COUNCILWOMAN GWENN HAUCK “Have the Talk of a Lifetime” Discussion and journal writing with guidance from David B. Feeney, CFSP, CPC, as you share memories of your life while making a keepsake for your loved ones. Thursday April 7, 2016 12pm Anne Zusy Youth Center – Village Hall, 131 N. Maple Ave. No fee—Pre-registration required.
Editor’s Note – The fourth event of Parlance Chamber Concerts’ ninth season will take place this coming Sunday afternoon, March 6, at 3 p.m. at West Side Presbyterian Church. Michael Parloff, the event’s founder and former flutist with the Metropolitan Opera Orchestra, gives us some background insight into what we can expect on Sunday.
Ridgewood NJ, The Ridgewood Police Department is pleased to announce the 2016 Chief Michael Feeney Jr.Police Academy will be held June 23rd to July 1st at the Benjamin Franklin Middle School. Applications will be available April 1st at the Ridgewood Police desk. The seven day academy sponsored by Ridgewood PBA Local 20 is open to Ridgewood residents entering 6th 7th and 8th grades in the fall of 2016. Visit the Ridgewood Police Website for more information.
Ridgewood NJ, Towns like Summit NJ, have invested money in a downtown improvement plans that are costly and visionary and included ample input from residents. While Ridgewood’s lack of vision seems to be focused on fulfilling the ad hoc wishes of special interests.
The fact is we have no development plan and there is no vision. We are reactionary in everything we do. Our council rejects public input and views the public as obstacles to be overcome. Residents are never treated as if our voices matter by the council majority, they are attacked, threatened and berated .
The group Citizens for a better Ridgewood (CBR ), worked to create a vision.The CBR Facebook page says “We support a lower number of Housing per acre, still higher than the 12 that is currently allowed, but not as high as the 35 proposed. 20-24 would be generous, profitable and would compliment the character of our downtown. 20 -24 units an acre” . The CBR statement on this –https://theridgewoodblog.net/citizens-for-a-better-ridgewood-cbr-calls-for-residents-to-attend-village-councils-public-hearing-on-september-16th-730pm/ , CBR supported 20-24 units per acre because that’s density that could be built over and over (instead of spot zoning for some units).
The CBR group searched for a visionary compromise and but were labeled as racist, a clever tactic by developers to garner support from those who are uninformed. Watching council meetings, everyone who goes to speak in support of the big garage or in support of very high density housing has no specific current facts ,just an over reliance on almost absurd assumptions put forth by developers and their supporters,that amount to nothing more than fantasies from the land of make believe . Their tune is always the same: “anyone asking any question here is nay-sayer”, “now is the time or no one else will do it”, “they don’t want any garage”, “they don’t want any development”.. “loud mouth vocal minority”…NIMBY…yada yada yada.
BY MATTHEW SCHNEIDER
STAFF WRITER |
THE RIDGEWOOD NEWS
RIDGEWOOD – For the first time since 2008, awards will be given to former students by the Ridgewood Alumni Association.
The Distinguished Alumni Award Dinner, the first of its kind, will be honoring a few notable former pupils on the evening of Thursday, March 10. The honorees will be inducted into the Distinguished Alumni Hall of Fame, which was started “a couple a years ago” according to Ridgewood High School Principal Tom Gorman. It is to be run in a similar way to the school’s Athletic Hall of Fame, he added.
“Every other year, the athletic hall of fame inducts athletes,” he said, noting that a panel of judges makes the selections. “In the off-year, we will have this distinguished alumni event.”
The Alumni Association is responsible for deciding what makes a RHS graduate distinguished, according to Siobhan Winograd, a board officer and the group’s secretary.
“We came up with what is distinguished,” she said. “We have a definition. We sent it out there and had people write in [their definitions].”
“Once the alumni association … was able to connect with so many alumni via the website, we had an open enrollment and had a separate committee that decided to induct five people this year,” Winograd said. “We have a working list. People have gone on the website and told us their person’s story.”
For those of you who have watched the 2016 budget work sessions, one of the highlights (or actually lowlights) that was discussed is the state of recycling in Ridgewood today. This is by no means a problem unique to Ridgewood.
Our curbside recycling program began in 1991. We ask our residents to separate their recycling into different streams and to use the beige recycling barrels that we provide to you. We sell our recycling products to processors and in the past have collected enough fees to significantly help in offsetting the expense of running this program. The level of fees is under siege and has actually decreased 18% over the last 3 years from $332,552 to $266,232; a further decline is anticipated in 2016.
This is not a Ridgewood-specific challenge. Based on global issues, predominantly the China crackdown dubbed Green Fence, recycling processors are finding it increasingly difficult to supply China, a major global recycling processing center, with recycling products. China is rejecting containers of waste it deems are contaminated or are not sorted appropriately.
Which brings us back to our challenge in Ridgewood……
Our recycling processor has, with little notice, tightened their standards for the product that we provide to them. We therefore must provide the recycling processor with the most pristine product that we can – this means that it is so very important that we improve the quality of our recyclables.
One particular problem is the inclusion of plastic bags with your recycling – this is not allowed. When mixed in with other recycling, plastic bags get caught in the machinery at the recycling plant at times causing the facility to shut down their sorting equipment to manually remove entangled bags. When the processor has to manually separate this material from our stream, the Village loses revenue and pays for the disposal of the material as garbage. Not intermixing plastic bags with your recycling has always been a rule since the inception of our recycling program but has not been strictly enforced because the market was accepting the product without question. Plastic bags must be placed in your trash or recycled at Stop & Shop, Whole Foods Market and Acme.
Besides not intermixing plastic bags with your recycling, you can help us even more by following good recycling practice which you can find either in the 2016 Green Guide that was mailed to your home earlier this year or on our Recycling Website or by calling us at 201-670-3373.
I have touched on the Ridgewood economic challenges above……but a crucial point is that recycling is good for our world…..this should be reason enough for us to try to do better as a community. We have also challenged our recycling team to come up with new and different ways to enhance our program. As usual, we would love to hear your ideas on this – I know that we have many residents who are passionate about this issue.
We look forward to working with you on this effort.
Best,
Roberta Sonenfeld
Village Manager
201-670-5500, ext. 203
Ridgewood NJ Just a few points about the March 2nd Village meeting:
1. Albert sent an email to a resident during the meeting. This is strictly forbidden according to a resolution that he himself penned, as follows:
Resolution 13-87 (April 24, 2013), item #4 reads as follows:
Telephonic or electronic communication between or among Councilmembers or between a Councilmember and a member of the public during public meetings is prohibited.
As soon as he realized his gaffe, Albert made a big point of saying that this is THE FIRST TIME EVER that he has sent an email during a meeting to a “member of the public” other than his family. Evidently colleagues on the dais and members of his family are not considered to be members of the public. Or, maybe the Deputy Mayor considers himself to be above his own rules.
2. The Deputy Mayor got nasty with a member of the public who questioned the accuracy of one of the renditions of the new garage plan. The resident had not only questioned the depiction, but had also questioned whether this misrepresentation might have been intentional. Mr. Pucciarelli referred to the resident’s email as STUPID and announced that he deleted it immediately. Instead of actually looking at the resident’s suggestions, he just discarded it and then was insulting about it.
3. They voted 5-0 to go forward with bonding in-town, which will be a final hearing on the 23. They voted 2 in favor (Susan and Michael) and 3 opposed to killing the ordinance to bond with the BCIA. Aronsohn made it abundantly clear that he will barrel ahead with the BCIA if the in-town bonding does not go through. So the terrible three are keeping “parallel” tracks open so they can get the garage one way or another.
Ridgewood Nj , Pfund’s folly resurfaces once again to haunt the Village of Ridgewood . We have former Mayor and now appointed local judge Pfund to thank.
Without Ordinance 3066, passed purposely in July 2007 when many residents were down the shore, applications to amend the Master Plan would never have even been considered. Then the developers used an old anchoring by applying for 50 units, only to say they’d “compromised” down to 35.
It is clear to most residents that we need to stop the madness , Village residents need to focus on repeal Ordinance No. 3066 which allows these incongruous projects. No other town in New Jersey has this ordinance which was initially passed to aid the Valley Hospital development.
“Ordinance No. 3066, which sets forth the fees and processes involved in applying for an amendment to the master plan or development regulations, was originally passed in July 2007. The ordinance has become the subject of controversy as many believe it enabled the multiple master plan amendment applications that have dominated the agenda at Planning Board meetings.” https://theridgewoodblog.net/ridgewood-making-changes-to-controversial-ordinance-no-3066-known-by-many-as-pfunds-folly/
Developers then seized the opportunity to propose projects which previously would have been summarily rejected without this ordinance. Essentially if the ordinance is not repealed any “for sale” or “for lease” sign anywhere in town can also include the phrase “All uses considered.” .“More specifically, the law – Ordinance No. 3066 – makes formal the process and fees charged to any interested party should they petition the Planning Board or Village Council for a change.
This gives a huge loophole to developers looking to push massive over development on Ridgewood like the current high density housing . Its is time to close the loophole.
Dana H. Glazer speech from the Wednesday Night Council Meeting
I am here to express my strong belief that the real agenda here is to make Ridgewood into another “Transit Village” like
Hackensack, in which a giant garage is built to primarily serve commuters from out of town; in which the master plan is radically amended to allow for high density housing which will create a large influx of new families into the CBD – thus straining our resources and permanently altering the face of our town.
I believe this is still the case, because on February 23rd the Executive of the County said in his State of the County address “I’m sure you’ve all read our partnership with Ridgewood. They’re looking to partner with the BCIA to fund their parking garage and partner with them.” He went on to describe this proposed garage as “a commuter garage to be used by commuters all day long..”
Now, on February 21st, two days before the State of the County, Mayor Aronsohn wrote to residents an email saying “in the spirit of getting this project done –once and for all – and in the spirit of doing it together as a community, I am willing to re-introduce the January bond ordinance at our March 2 Council meeting. “
If there’s no intention of making Ridgewood into a Transit Village, why was the County Executive announcing this Ridgewood partnership in his big speech two days later? Shouldn’t someone have told him not to include it? It makes no sense.
The only way it makes sense is if making Ridgewood into a Transit Village is still the only plan. Why else wouldn’t our Village Council immediately repeal the County Bond before funding the garage through the town? 1500 residents petitioned loudly against this, in an initiative Ridgewood has not seen in years – if ever, right? Our Council Majority would never let this happen because it would jeopardize the real plan– Ridgewood as a Transit Village.
That is why the “Plan E” garage proposal that Lorraine Reynolds and Gail McCarthy have so passionately worked behind the scenes to put together, having spoken with hundreds of residents, shopkeepers and Mt. Carmel – what is being called the “People’s Garage” – I believe is going to be sabotaged – or ignored completely.
I believe this “People’s Garage” will never see the light of day because the shenanigans will continue, whether they relate to the site plan, the financials, the traffic studies or anything else deemed necessary to do this right; and then on March 23rd, if Councilwoman Knudsen and Councilman Sedon stand up and say “No” the Council Majority or even just table the issue, the Council Majority will turn this against them, loudly proclaiming, “See, they are anti-garage. Now, let’s vote for people who are pro-garage and let’s vote to go to the County because there’s no other way to do this in Ridgewood.”
But here’s the thing: this upcoming election will not be about a garage. It will be about who votes in favor of the upcoming High Density Housing vote later this month. It will ultimately be about who trashed our town and made it into a Transit Village like Hackensack. That’s what’s at stake here.
So, Councilman Sedon and Councilwoman Knudsen, I am encouraging you to listen to the 1500 people who petitioned loudly that WE DON’T WANT A COUNTY GARAGE. I trust you will do anything and everything to keep this from happening.
Ridgewood NJ, $100K checks not being deposited? Free parking on what has traditionally been the busiest weekend night in the CBD? Seven new SUVs for the police department? A brand new fire truck? I guess the Village must be just rolling in dough. Did Tom Rica come into town to give back what he stole? Or does the Village manager have a secret money tree or found a genie in a lamp?
Ridgewood NJ, The blog was mention by our buddy Rurik Halaby, and the council spoke on how uncivil everyone is. The best part was Gwenn who spoke about not believing everything people write on Facebook. I guess she is the only one people should believe ?
Rurik Halaby as we said ,took yet another swipe at The Ridgewood Blog during Wednesday night’s Village Council meeting when, during a public comment period, he publicly announced that he’d been named “Villian of the Year” by The Ridgewood Blog.
Of coarse it was OK for the head of the civility committee to characterize all residents at Village Council meetings as “Grand Standing”.
As for civility you live in a town where the Deputy Mayor makes threats in public meetings more than once, anyone who speaks his mind get harassed, anonymous emails get sent to peoples place of business and do not let us forget a physical assault took place at a council meeting , but yes the meanies on the blog are a tough bunch …
