The Ridgewood Blog Brings a Free Market Laissez-faire Point of View to Local, New Jersey State and National Issues.
WESTWOOD – An opportunity for Bergen Republicans to pick up a mayoral seat in Westwood in the aftermath of disturbances among local Democrats can still be gained if the local Westwood GOP puts pen to paper, according to Bergen County Republican Organization (BCRO) Chairman Bob Yudin. (Bonamo/PolitickerNJ)
Online scare keeps many out of school in Westwood
December 27, 2014 Last updated: Saturday, December 27, 2014, 1:21 AM
By HANNAN ADELY
STAFF WRITER |
The Record
A security scare at Westwood Regional Jr./Sr. High School prompted many families to keep their kids home on Tuesday, despite assurances from school officials that there was no actual threat, officials said.
More than 200 students were absent, or about 20 percent of all students, which was an unusually high number even for the day before Christmas vacation, said district Superintendent Raymond Gonzalez on Friday. Some stayed home because of rumors about a threat that was linked to an online book written by a student, officials said.
Gonzalez declined to say what the student wrote or what prompted the scare, but the school did investigate and found “no credible information to support the claims,” he said.
“No specific threats were directed at any of our schools or personnel,” Gonzalez said. “However, local, national and world events have heightened our collective sensitivity to matters of safety in our school.
“As such, the school district takes all matters seriously and works cooperatively with law enforcement to investigate public concerns when they arise to ensure that our schools are safe places for all students.”
Officials declined to identify the student and said that there was no need to discipline the teen.
https://www.northjersey.com/news/education/online-scare-keeps-many-out-of-school-1.1182051
Gov. Christie at Pascack Valley
Rebirth of a hospital: Pascack Valley in Westwood plans to reopen June 1
Last updated: Wednesday March 20, 2013, 10:54 AM
BY LINDY WASHBURN
STAFF WRITER
The Record
Five and a half years after it sank under the weight of bankruptcy, Pascack Valley Hospital in Westwood is set to reopen on June 1 as the county’s first for-profit hospital and the first in the region where every patient will have a private room.
MRI and CT-scan machines have been installed, furniture is in the rooms and television sets have been mounted on the walls at the new Hackensack University Medical Center at Pascack Valley. This week, the phones and computers are being hooked up.
https://www.northjersey.com/news/199097901_Pascack_Valley_Hospital_plans_to_reopen_June_1.html
State police have prepared a composite sketch of the suspect, which was released Thursday afternoon.
Westwood Police investigating possible luring
THURSDAY, OCTOBER 18, 2012 LAST UPDATED: THURSDAY OCTOBER 18, 2012, 8:04 PM
BY REBECCA D. O’BRIEN AND DEENA YELLIN
STAFF WRITERS
THE RECORD
WESTWOOD — Police are investigating a possible luring incident that took place Thursday morning, the latest in a string of reports involving men accosting children on Bergen County streets.
At around 7:10 a.m. Thursday, a 13-year-old junior high school student was walking alone to school on Lafayette Avenue, when a gray four-door hatchback pulled up alongside her, police said.
The driver tried to engage the girl in conversation, Police Captain Frank Durante said.
The driver, described as a white middle-age male with a crew cut and receding hairline, asked the girl if she wanted a ride to or from school, Durante said.
The student continued to school, where she reported the incident to administrators, who called the police.
The perpetrators in recent luring incidents in Maywood, Oradell, Hackensack, Hawthorne and Fair Lawn have also been described as white, middle-age men, police have said. The victim of an Oct. 12 luring in Ridgewood described three young black men who tried to get her into their car, police said. In Oradell and Washington Township, the car described was a small gray car. The car in Hackensack was described as a black Jeep, authorities have said.
>Joy in Westwood, frustration in Ridgewood
WEDNESDAY, MARCH 7, 2012
By JAMES AHEARN
RECORD COLUMNIST
Hackensack UMC at Pascack Valley will be the first for-profit, all-private-room hospital in Bergen County.
NEWS THAT the shuttered Pascack Valley Hospital in Westwood would reopen was greeted locally with jubilation. The mayors and governing bodies of towns served by the hospital had supported the move unanimously.
Residents had planted signs in their front yards demanding “Reopen Our Hospital.” It was hard to find anyone who disagreed. If someone did, chances were that he or she worked at rival Valley Hospital in Ridgewood, six miles away, or had a spouse who did.
The contrast between the two communities was marked.
Valley had recently suffered defeat of a planned reconstruction. It called for doubling the hospital’s floor space, making all patient rooms private. More parking would have been necessary, much of it underground. The walls of the new structures would be 94 feet high, compared to 65 feet at present.
The project encountered determined community opposition. After years of controversy, the Ridgewood Village Council voted three months ago against the hospital’s $750-million proposal, terming it “aggressive overexpansion.”
https://www.northjersey.com/news/opinions/141711983_In_Westwood_joy__Ridgewood_frustration.html
>Business Networking Event March 21 at BiBi’z restaurant in Westwood
BiBi’z restaurant in Westwood on Wednesday March 21 is hosting a business card exchange from 6pm-8pm. If you would like to meet other professionals in the North Jersey area and extend your personal network of people, this event will is for you. The cost to attend is $15 at the door. BiBi’z will offer Happy Hour drink specials and a delicious food buffet. BiBi’z serves Global American food with influences from around the World. Please RSVP to scott.scarpelli@gmacm.com if you can attend and if you will bring a guest so the restaurant can accommodate for enough food
>Christie: reopening hospital in Westwood is ‘the right decision
Wednesday February 29, 2012, 5:46 PM
BY JASON BRAFF
MANAGING EDITOR
Pascack Valley Community Life
Governor Christie called the reopening of the old Pascack Valley Hospital as Hackensack UMC at Pascack Valley “the right decision,” in a town hall meeting held in Westwood on Wednesday, Feb. 29.
Christie drew a thunderous applause from the 350 people who squeezed into the Westwood Community Center that morning when congratulating the community on the news that the state health commissioner issued a certificate of need to HUMC on Monday.
“I’m confident that the level of clinical services will be excellent at this new facility,” Christie said. “Hackensack University Medical Center North will be a place where you’re going to be able to bring your family and feel confident that they’re going to receive the most excellent care you can receive anywhere in America.”
>NJ board votes to recommend reopening Pascack Valley in Westwood
TUESDAY, NOVEMBER 29, 2011
BY LINDY WASHBURN
STAFF WRITER
THE RECORD
The State Health Planning Board has voted to recommend that Pascack Valley Hospital in Westwood be allowed to reopen.
The board voted five to one in favor of sending a recommendation to the state Health Commissioner to approve the project. Mary O’Dowd, the commissioner, has 120 days to make her decision.
Hackensack University Medical Center wants to open a 128-bed hospital at the site. After the vote, Hackensack’s president and CEO, Robert Garrett, said he was “elated.” If the commissioner approves the reopening, he said he hopes Pascack open during the fourth quarter of 2012.
Representatives of Englewood and The Valley Hospital, who have opposed the proposal for years, say they plan to sue the state Health Commissioner for a stay if she approves the project. But Richard Freeman, who has already been named chief executive of the proposed new hospital, said the joint venture will proceed towards an opening next fall.
>Letter: John Birkner, Jr. Mayor of Westwood thanks area residents for support at hospital hearing
THURSDAY, OCTOBER 27, 2011
PASCACK VALLEY COMMUNITY LIFE
Mayor thanks residents for support at hospital hearing
To the Editor:
It has certainly been a long time coming, but the residents of the Pascack and Northern Valleys finally had the opportunity to address the New Jersey State Department of Health and Senior Services Planning Board. The application by Hackensack University Medical Center to open a full service acute care hospital at the site of the former Pascack Valley Hospital is now in the final stages of review. After nearly four years of working to have the hospital reopened, it was great to see that the passion, energy, and resolve of our residents has not diminished one bit, and in fact seems to have grown stronger.
The old saying “actions speak louder than words” could apply no better than to the actions demonstrated by the executive staff from both Valley and Englewood Hospitals, who after accusing the members of the State Department of Health of manipulating the application process, then claimed that they cared about the residents in our community. We expected them to speak out against the opening of our hospital, but we also expected that since they claimed to care about our residents, perhaps they would have stayed at the hearing to listen to our concerns. Instead, after they addressed the panel, their small group got up together and left the building in a display that demonstrated a clear lack of interest in what anyone in attendance has experienced because of the closure of our hospital.
>State reviews Hackensack University Medical Center’s application to reopen Pascack Valley Hospital in Westwood,
SUNDAY, SEPTEMBER 4, 2011
BY LINDY WASHBURN
STAFF WRITER
THE RECORD
The state Health Department is asking questions about Hackensack University Medical Center’s application to reopen Pascack Valley Hospital in Westwood, including whether a new hospital is needed.
Senior staff members reviewed Hackensack’s 2-inch-thick application for “completeness” and fired back two dozen questions.
One asks Hackensack officials whether anyone has died as a result of the increased travel time from Pascack Valley and Northern Valley towns to emergency rooms at other North Jersey hospitals, and if so, to provide proof that the travel time was a factor.
“Document how many patients have expired as a result of the additional travel times to the other area hospitals,” the question says. “Document that it was the additional minutes that led directly to preventable mortality.”
https://www.northjersey.com/news/129205858_State_reviews_hospital_bid.html
>HUMC asks state to consider new hospital in Westwood
Thursday, December 16, 2010
LAST UPDATED: FRIDAY DECEMBER 17, 2010, 10:34 AM
BY LINDY WASHBURN AND MARY JO LAYTON
THE RECORD
STAFF WRITERS
Hackensack University Medical Center opened a new front Thursday in its battle to reopen the old Pascack Valley Hospital in Westwood, asking the state health commissioner to start fresh with a new application to operate a hospital there.
Its previous efforts to extend and transfer Pascack’s original license have been mired in the courts for nearly a year, so Hackensack is hoping that a sympathetic Christie administration will greenlight the project.
The papers filed by the medical center in Trenton late Thursday afternoon will be reviewed by the state Department of Health and Human Services, said its spokeswoman, Donna Leusner. “We could ask for additional information, we could reject the petition or we could accept the petition and publish a notice of call,” she said.
A call would allow organizations to file applications to “open a new acute care hospital” in Westwood. They would have to prove that the region needs more hospital beds and that an additional hospital would not harm nearby hospitals.
The two other Bergen County hospitals that oppose the reopening — The Valley Hospital in Ridgewood and Englewood Hospital and Medical Center — immediately vowed to fight this new effort.
MORE:https://www.northjersey.com/news/health/121610_HUMC_asks_state_to_consider_new_hospital_in_Westwood.html
>
PJ,
Thought your readers might want to know where we Irish Eyes disappeared to.
Here is what is going on at our new bigger store at Irish Eyes Imports.
March 13th – Through out the day – Dancing, Pipers, Irish soda bread, and More
March 17th – 6:00pm – Drawing on our Raffle. Win a trip for two to Ireland.
Sláinte,
Tara and Gene Callaghan
Celtic Pride LLC dba Irish Eyes Imports Ltd
*** New Address***
162 Westwood Avenue
Westwood, NJ 07675
201.445.8585 – Phone
help@celticpride.com
www.celticpride.com
>The mayor of Westwood will lead a walk from Westwood Borough Hall to The Valley Hospital in Ridgewood on Saturday to protest Valley’s efforts to block the reopening of Pascack Valley Hospital.
https://www.northjersey.com/news/health
Westwood mayor plans to protest hospital action
Friday, May 1, 2009
BY LINDY WASHBURN
NorthJersey.com
STAFF WRITER
The mayor of Westwood will lead a walk from Westwood Borough Hall to The Valley Hospital in Ridgewood on Saturday to protest Valley’s efforts to block the reopening of Pascack Valley Hospital.
“I will not sit idly by without bringing attention to what it is they are trying to do,” Mayor John Birkner Jr. said of efforts by Valley and Englewood Hospital and Medical Center to prevent the reopening of the bankrupt former hospital.
Hackensack University Medical Center has applied with a for-profit partner for state permission to reopen the facility as a 128-bed community hospital.
A spokeswoman for Valley said the planned 4 1/2-mile walk “reinforces one of our points” about access to health care services since Pascack Valley closed in November 2007.
Quality health care services “are available close to home,” said Megan Fraser, the spokeswoman. “In fact, they are within walking distance.”
In contrast to an earlier news release from the borough, no demonstration is planned in Ridgewood and no buses will be provided to transport those who can’t walk, Birkner said. He has no plans to disrupt traffic, interrupt access to the hospital or make a speech, he said.
He said he will carry a sign, “People First: Reopen Pascack Valley Hospital.”
“I’m not looking to be confrontational,” said Birkner. “I’m a gentleman.”
Birkner expects fewer than 100 people to participate, but he encouraged “any other like-minded citizens who would like to exercise their First Amendment rights” to join him at 1 p.m.
Next Thursday, U.S. Bankruptcy Judge Rosemary Gambardella is expected to decide whether to approve a deal between Hackensack and the estate of the bankrupt hospital to buy the former hospital’s license for $800,000.
Valley has offered $2 million to buy the license and kill it. Along with Englewood, Valley has argued that the sale to Hackensack should not be approved. Hackensack needs the license to complete its state application.
E-mail: washburn@northjersey.com