The Village Council of the Village of Ridgewood shall conduct a Public Hearing in the Sydney V. Stoldt, Jr. Court Room on the fourth floor of the Ridgewood Village Hall, 131 North Maple Ave., Ridgewood, NJ at its October 14, 2015 Regular Public Meeting, which meeting begins at 8:00 p.m.
The purpose of this Public Hearing is for the Village Council to receive comments and suggestions from the public for the Village of Ridgewood’s 2015 Bergen County Open Space Trust Fund Municipal Park Improvement and Development Grant application. The Village has applied for this grant for Phase 1 work on the Schedler Park property, located at 460 West Saddle River Road, Ridgewood, NJ. Phase 1 would encompass basic infrastructure improvements to include: installation of underground utilities (water, electric, sewer); demolition of two-car garage, small shed; capping of inoperable well; selective removal of down, dead, diseased trees; site clean-up; and cut in proposed parking lot driveway entrance.
The coach of the women’s softball team at a Christian college in Rockland County tried to turn his players into porn stars by offering to help them get jobs in the adult entertainment industry — and even invited well-known skin-flick actress Allie Haze to a practice so she could deliver “life counseling sessions,’’ bombshell lawsuits state.
Kurt Ludwigsen, 44, was arrested in April for improper sexual conduct with his Nyack College players. Lawsuits filed Friday by three of them charge he would routinely slap their butts, grab their breasts and make them sit on his lap.
“I am going to ear f–k you. This is your punishment. You are going to stand here and take it,” Ludwigsen told a pitcher after she lost a game in March 2015, according to her Manhattan federal court lawsuit. “Ludwigsen then began to lick [her] ear. When [she] tried to pull away, Ludwigsen held her tighter and said, ‘Stop moving. I told you that you are going to stand here and take it.’ ”
The suits also accuse Ludwigsen of “inviting Haze to practice and directing students to life counselling sessions with her.”
OCTOBER 4, 2015 LAST UPDATED: SUNDAY, OCTOBER 4, 2015, 12:29 AM
BY NICHOLAS PUGLIESE
STAFF WRITER |
THE RECORD
NEW YORK — In the five years since Tyler Clementi committed suicide by jumping off the George Washington Bridge, concerns about online bullying and harassment have only increased as daily interactions are mediated more and more by technology.
Victims of online abuse — in the form of threats, personal data breaches or “revenge pornography” — often feel powerless to hold aggressors accountable, given the anonymity that the Internet provides and an opaque regulatory environment that lags advances in technology.
On Saturday, the New York Law School launched the Tyler Clementi Institute for Internet Safety, the country’s first pro bono clinic at a law school that represents victims of what is commonly known as cyberbullying. The institute, started in coordination with the Tyler Clementi Foundation and run by Celementi’s parents, aims to make lawyers available in all 50 states who will advocate on behalf of victims in schools, corporate settings and courts.
“It’s very encouraging,” said Clementi’s father, Joseph. “The Internet now allows people to make comments, post photographs, do all kinds of things that are in cyberspace forever and can be constantly referred to by anyone who chooses to look at it. The humiliation is amplified.
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Ridgewood NJ, Ridgewood Police report on Sunday September 27, 2015, two incidents of criminal mischief were reported in the area Meadowbrook Avenue and the Public Service & Electric & gas right of way.
Both victims had parked their cars in the area while attending soccer games. While the vehicles were parked someone had scratched their exterior surfaces causing damage to the paint as well as spraying an unidentified liquid inside of them.
On Wednesday September 30, 2015, an employee of the Ridgewood Board of Education reported vandalism at the Steven’s Athletic Field. Unidentified actor/actors had intentionally burned the synthetic turf playing surface in several areas.
Both matters are under investigation by the detective bureau, any witness to the incidents are asked to contact the bureau at (201)251-4537.
Ridgewood NJ, Members of Ridgewood P.B.A. Local 20 in conjunction with the Chiefs Office will be sporting PINK ball caps during the month of October to support breast cancer awareness. “We decided it was time to join the fight” said Peter Youngberg,
PBA president. “When a citizen sees a police officer wearing a pink hat out there it should grab their attention. We hope that it helps raise some awareness throughout the Village. We are also committing $500.00 to the National Breast Cancer Foundation”.
“Unfortunately most of us have family or know someone impacted by breast cancer, so as a department we stand together with the PBA in this effort. In support of breast cancer awareness we have authorized the wearing of Pink hats by department members”.Chief John Ward.
Above Photo: from left to right (Detective Peter Youngberg PBA President, Chief John Ward, Officer Jeff Kay, Captain Forest Lyons, Officer Michael Karcher, Officer Joseph Youngberg, and Detective Douglas Henky PBA Delegate)
Editors note : Great job to the Citizens for a Better Ridgewood but we would like to point out the it is an Elected Officials JOB to listen to their constituents concerns , council members do not need to be thanked because it took 500 screaming residents to show up to a Village Council meeting to pay attention to obvious short comings in their misguided efforts to transform Ridgewood into Hoboken .
Hello Friends and Neighbors!
We would like to thank each and every one of you!
Thank you for sending emails to Village Council members and for showing up at Wednesday night’s meeting. Hundreds and hundreds of concerned residents came to Village Hall! Many of you not only showed up, but you waited on line, spoke at the podium and stayed late into the night. Your comments were thoughtful and heartfelt. We are grateful for your passion and support.
Council Tables The Vote and Orders New Studies
The meeting lasted 5.5 hours and 76 residents took to the podium, almost all in favor of housing but at a lower density level. At 11:00 pm, council members began discussing whether or not to continue the public hearing to another date, as it was already late into the evening. Councilman Michael Sedon made a motion to table the ordinances until a fiscal impact study could be done, which would help determine the effects the new apartment buildings would have on the tax base. Councilwoman Susan Knudsen seconded the motion, and asked that a comprehensive traffic study and school impact study also be completed.
These are three important studies that were never conducted at the Planning Board level. The Planning Board is not allowed to consider fiscal or educational impacts in decision-making. Although this seems unreasonable, it is common practice throughout municipalities everywhere. The financial and school-related considerations are left to elected officials, who have the final word and who are presumably much more in touch with the public at large.
Some traffic studies were conducted at the Planning Board level. However, the studies were specific to each proposed development and only addressed the traffic effects at individual each site. The studies never addressed the cumulative effects that developing all of these sites at the same time, while also adding a parking garage and an assisted living facility, would have on traffic in downtown Ridgewood. Similarly, the analyses that were done at the Planning Board level to estimate the number of school-aged children that may be added to our school district if hundreds of apartments were to be built, were based on data from other towns in the state of NJ, but not towns with school districts comparable to the Ridgewood Public School system.
Mayor Paul Aronsohn agreed with the need for further studies and voted yes with Sedon and Knudsen. Councilwoman Gwen Hauck initially expressed concern about the additional cost and time needed to complete studies, but she ultimately went along and voted to approve the studies. Deputy Mayor Pucciarelli was the only one to vote no at the time, because he was intent on finishing the process of public comment before taking any action. Once public comment was finished, Mr. Pucciarelli appeared supportive of further studies.
Next Steps
The Public Hearings have been continued until Monday, November 9th, with the hope that the new studies will be completed in a timely manner. We are thankful that our Village Council is moving forward with these additional studies, and it appears as if democracy has prevailed. Now it is up to you to continue to show up to the meetings. As the process continues, residents will be able to listen to the experts and question them as well. This is your opportunity to fully participate and have a stake in how our village moves forward. Please continue to stay engaged!
Final Note
We encourage you to reach out to your council members to thank them for hearing us and for agreeing to continue the process with further studies. We continue, as always, to encourage respectful and thoughtful dialogue!
If you know of any one who would like to receive CBR emails and notifications of upcoming meetings, please tell them to email us [email protected] and put “Add me to Email List” in the subject line.
Ridgewood NJ, One (1) adult male was taken into custody by Ridgewood PD officers following an altercation at a 2-family home on Ethelbert Place during which one (1) tenant of the house held a knife to the throat of another tenant.
The victim and alleged perpetrator are not related. The individual taken into custody was transported to Ridgewood PD headquarters for processing.All defendants are considered innocent until found guilty in a court of law.
Ridgewood NJ, Finally, it has become abundantly clear, that the current Council majority totally disrespects the will and wishes of the taxpayers of Ridgewood. The Ridgewood “elite” has woken from their Pinot Noir induced stupor and seen and heard the arrogance of the three worst Council members of all time.
They are, by far, the most self-serving, small minded nit wits ever to grace the dais. The jig is up! Their back room dealing and campaign donor promises, at the expense and pain of the Ridgewood taxpayers, have come to light and people now have seen the three deceitful Council members as they truly are.
Let them know it’s time to pack their “carpet bags” and move on. Al can go back to his day job, Gwenn can get back to her regularly scheduled nail and hair appointments and Paul can move to Washington and help Hillary pack for prison.
By the way October 13 is the last day to Register to Vote in Nov. 3 Election. On Tuesday, October 13 from 8:30am to 4:30pm, voter registration forms are available in the Village Clerk’s Office on the 5th Floor of Village Hall.
On October 13 from 4:30pm to 9:00pm the Village Clerk will be in the Ridgewood Library Lobby with forms to assist residents with voter registration.
Even though it’s probably important to update the code, I shudder at who is doing it. They know nothing–any of them–including and especially Rogers. And I do not trust their motivations whatsoever. With any luck they’ll be too busy to do very much, and then the project can continue after the next council has replaced Rogers and Sonenfeld.
Past bad acts are still past bad acts on behalf of the village manager and council. This does not absolve them from their sins.
“In order to complete the project without an astronomical cost to the village, it was announced by Sonenfeld last week that Rogers would be doing the work free of charge.
“The cost for this would be significant,” said the attorney. “I just felt it was something that should be done, needs to be done and I wanted to get it done. The only way to do it was to donate the time.”
I wonder how much this complete overhaul will cost? I can see some very large bills from outside counsel coming as I don’t expect any of our in-house legal beagles to be up to the task.
Robertas letter to the editor last week: “..when we find an issue or a problem or an ordinance that is outdated, we don’t ignore it – we fix it.”
CORRECTION: when we find an issue or a problem or an ordinance that is outdated, WE IGNORE IT, do whatever the hell we want, and then when Knudsen, Sedon, or a member of the public pints this out we decide to fix it after the fact.
Roberta has done this multiple times in she short train wreck of a tenure with us
Just a small town guy…ya know, one of “us”…Ridgewood NJ, I don’t believe any other mayoral candidate in the history of Ridgewood has received one cent from the Teamsters, United Auto Workers or SEIU…..especially those interested solely in “volunteering” for this “thanksless” job……that’s alot of “thanks” in my book…where’d it go when the coffers slammed shut on the dead campaign’s war chest?
from Paularonsohn.com….
Paul Aronsohn has closed their account and is no longer accepting donations…..but he sure did rack ’em up for awhile!
https://www.fec.gov/press/press2008/20080912murs.shtml
Paul Aronsohn for Congress and Paul Aronsohn acknowledge violation of “testing-the-waters” provisions
In MUR 5693, Paul Aronsohn for Congress, the principal campaign committee for Paul Aronsohn’s 2006 campaign in New Jersey’s 5th Congressional district, and Mr. Aronsohn entered into a conciliation agreement with the FEC regarding violations of reporting requirements in the Federal Election Campaign Act (FECA). During 2005 Paul Aronsohn’s activities crossed the line from testing the waters into candidate status when he sent a solicitation letter indicating he had decided to run for federal office. However, Mr. Aronsohn and his campaign committee failed to register with the FEC and file a year-end financial report in 2005, as required by the FECA. In the conciliation agreement Mr. Aronsohn and the committee agreed to pay a civil penalty of $6,500.
The Mayor received massive campaign contributions from unions :
Paul Aronsohn (D)Political Action Committee Total Contributed
Teamsters Union $10,000.00
Intl Brotherhood of Electrical Workers $10,000.00
United Auto Workers $6,500.00
Carpenters & Joiners Union $5,000.00
American Fedn of St/Cnty/Munic Employees $5,000.00
National Air Traffic Controllers Assn $5,000.00
Sheet Metal Workers Union $5,000.00
Laborers Union $3,500.00
AFL-CIO $2,661.00
American Federation of Teachers $2,500.00
Operating Engineers Local 825 $2,500.00 NJ Plumbers/Pipefitters Union Local 475 $1,000.00
Service Employees International Union $1,000.00
Plumbers/Pipefitters Union Local 274 $1,000.00
Plumbers/Pipefitters Union Local 9 $500.00
https://www.bluejersey.com/tag/NJ5/10
According to an April 14th electronic filing with the FEC, Paul Aronsohn for Congress raised nearly $214,000 in the first quarter of 2006. The filing, which was signed by campaign manager Parisa Sabeti, makes official the contributions which had been rumored in excess of $200,000. After expenditures, the Aronsohn campaign had $135,125.31 cash on-hand.
Paul Aronsohn (D)
Raised: $214,005
Spent: $78,879
Cash on hand: $135,125
Last Report: 3/31/2006
Mayor’s Office Hours for Residents – October 3rd, 2015
Mayor Paul Aronsohn holds office hours for Ridgewood residents on Saturday’s every month. Mayor Aronsohn will meet with residents on Saturday, October 3rd from 9AM to Noon in the Council Chambers (Sydney V. Stoldt, Jr. Court Room) on the fourth floor of Ridgewood Village Hall.
For an appointment to meet with the Mayor, please call the Village Clerk’s Office at 201-670-5500 ext. 206. You may come to the Mayor’s office hours without an appointment, but those with appointments will be given priority.
Every household will be receiving a flyer in the mail with 2015 leaf collection information. If you would like to print the flyer for your reference Click Here
LEAF COLLECTION BEGINS October 19, 2015.
Last year the Village of Ridgewood implemented a pilot program to outsource a portion of our leaf removal service. After reviewing and evaluating input that was provided by you regarding the success of this change, we again will be using the services of a third party contractor in Area B. The combined effort of the Village staff and this contractor will enforce our continuing commitment to improve your Village services.
In accordance with last years’ schedule, residents in Area B will remain the same with the exception of the following streets which will now be considered “Area D” for leaf season only.
Leaves must be placed directly in the street no more than 7 days prior to your scheduled pick up date. Please have your leaves in the street on the first day scheduled for collection. If you employ the services of a landscaper communicate these dates to them. No brush will be collected during leaf season. You may continue to bring leaves as well as brush to the Recycling Center. The hours of operation are Monday through Saturday, 8:00 AM to 3:00 PM. Leaves can also be placed in paper biodegradable bags. Bags will be available at the Recycling Center on a first come, first serve basis. When using bags please place them on the curb area and they will be collected separately.
The most vocal comment heard from residents last year was on properties who did not comply with the schedule. Therefore enforcement will be vital to the Village’s success to improve this service. An enforcement agent will issue a summons to those that violate these guidelines.
As weather is a key component to this operation, if changes become necessary it will be posted on the Village of Ridgewood website. In addition you are encouraged to sign up for e-mail notifications via the Village website and to share this information with your neighbors. As a reminder, use caution when our leaf removal crews are on your block. When possible please take an alternate route to ensure the safety of all. Should you have any questions, please call the Street Division at (201) 670-5585.
SEPTEMBER 30, 2015 LAST UPDATED: WEDNESDAY, SEPTEMBER 30, 2015, 11:51 AM
BY MARK KRULISH
STAFF WRITER |
THE RIDGEWOOD NEWS
Village professionals are undertaking an arduous review of Ridgewood’s entire code book and the ordinances it contains.
The intent of the project is to review each chapter, article and ordinance in the code book to determine its relevancy. Ordinances deemed to be out of date will be presented to the council for a review and discussion of any possible amendments.
Village Manager Roberta Sonenfeld said at the Sept. 16 council meeting that the final product would be an up-to-date code that is consistent with current and best practices to avoid having to amend ordinances as issues reveal themselves.
“It has always been in this spirit that we have done that, and not as a ‘gotcha’ moment,” Sonenfeld said. “But that does cause some discomfort and I am aware of that.”
An example is the ordinance that was recently discussed by the council involving hiring employees at a higher pay rate than the lowest end of the salary range on a case-by-case basis. As Sonenfeld and Village Attorney Matthew Rogers were discussing the idea of reviewing the entire code book, it became apparent that holding off on introducing such a change would be a better way to go.
The ordinance would have been introduced this month, but Sonenfeld had it pulled from the agenda in order to review the entire Civil Service section of the code book as part of the project.
Ridgewood NJ, An individual candidate’s report from the New Jersey Election Law Enforcement Commission’s website reveals that during his 2008 campaign for Village Council, Ridgewood Mayor Paul Aronsohn accepted an “In Kind” contribution of $383.92 from local real estate developer John Saracino. The “In Kind” contribution was made in the form of a candidate’s reception.
An ordinance that would essentially approve Mr. Saraceno’s high density multi-family housing project, “The Enclave,” is currently being considered by Mayor Aronsohn and the Village Council.
Does the acceptance of the noted campaign contribution indicate a conflict of interest exists on Mayor Aronsohn’s part?
