the staff of the Ridgewood blog
Ridgewood NJ, the Village of Ridgewood received over 24 million pounds of so-called “free soil,” which an employee indicated was clean and would lead to significant savings for taxpayers. However, an NJDEP investigation revealed the soil is contaminated.
Now, Ridgewood taxpayers are left shouldering the massive burden of moving and safely disposing of this contaminated soil. Estimates suggest this could cost between $1.5 million and over $5 million. This estimate does not include the potential adverse health and environmental impacts that could result from this situation.
Will the so-called “donors” dodge the high costs of properly disposing of hazardous material?
To donate to the Village of Ridgewood, a “gift” requires review and approval. Larger donations, such as millions in soil, must be approved by the Village Administration, Council, and other governing boards. They must consider the potential impact on the community, any costs associated with accepting the gift, and any legal or regulatory implications. Was this process ignored or bypassed?
Why, despite the multimillion-dollar disaster and potential health risks, not a single disciplinary action, charge, or consequence has been brought against the employee(s) or those involved?
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Idiot Festival
You can afford it. Peanuts.
Not to be worried, Keith Kaz Shark will come up with a plan.. It will probably be Insurance Fraud , but it will be a plan
It’s early yet but I think we have our post of the day!
Another vote for removing Mr Calbi, besides the ten years of having tainted water, he is now caught illegally dumping contaminated soil. Chris, enough said he needs to go. Vote no for Paul
As Siobahn Winograd said “Welcome to Expensive”!! Not only was she a self described informant to Peter Primavera the shady consultant, but now she is psychic too.
Not a single disciplinary action, charge, or consequence against those involved because we don’t have an ethical or legit Village Manager or Mayor. #NJDEP
Unlike the citizenry who are complete saints, apparently.
#KeithKazmark, your entire staff is rotted from the head down. Why won’t you listen to the residents, call in the Attorney General and clean things up?
I’m gonna go with “the process was ignored and bypassed” for $1000
Not only the process ignored, rules bypassed.
This is CRIMINAL!
This is an ACT AGAINST THE PUBLIC and Environmental Crime. With the knowledge of municipal officials, charges of illegal dumping and unauthorized disposal of hazardous waste must be pursued.
Keith Kazmark is a BOOB!
New photos have been added to the file of schedler for friends. It’s interesting.
Nobody is that stupid! Sounds like there was collusion between the private source and officials in the municipality to illegally dispose of the contaminated soil.
The Village Manager refusing to involve an outside agency to investigate and take action is suspect. Couldn’t this be obstruction of justice and negligence?
I’m very concerned for the neighbors in that area. What is being done to mitigate their health risks?
Nothing, not a thing. This will be getting interesting.
Dear Keith Kazmark-Village Manager,
If the mishandling of the contaminated soil was due to gross negligence, leading to significant environmental damage or harm to public health, could those responsible (and doing nothing) face charges of criminal negligence?
Paul and the other village idiots don’t understand the process of governing. Shit happens that may or may not be your fault, but you are still responsible, sitting on the dails, to clean up the dirty dirt. Just because you didn’t authorize the dumping, doesn’t have anything to do with contaminated soil. Your village engineer, did dump it and perhaps the former village manager authorized it, lord only knows. He is now sitting around quiet as a church mouse. Paul brought his pal Kaz shark into the village and he has to clean up the mess too. YOU DON”T HAVE A CHOICE and it is your job regardless of when it happened.
Pretty simple if you ask me…Who knew what and when did they know it? If somebody doesn’t get fired over this, then that is a problem.
Not sure any of this rises to the level of a crime, but as taxpayers we shouldn’t put up with incompetence.
If past is present, you have been and you will continue to.
We need the NJ Comptroller to INVESTIGATE! #NJOSC #KevinWalsh
State of New Jersey
Office of the State Comptroller- OSC
Hotline: 1-855-OSC-TIPS (672-8477)
comptrollertips@osc.nj.gov
File a complaint by completing the form below. You can remain anonymous. We need many residents to do this TODAY!
https://nj.gov/comptroller/about/work/investigations/complaint.shtml
This was all orchestrated by the Village Engineer. Yes, the same supervisor of the 850k parking meter heist and other things. He’s holding down 4 jobs, in 4 departments, and has his hand in everything.
Its easy to look for a “scapegoat” , never accuse someone.
hey Einstein. no scapegoat is being sought.Did you not watch Vagianos Law & Order episode. yes amateur given the hours he spent with Matrix, but nonetheless. many of the players were identified. others dumped dirt or allowed it to happen but no-one needs a scapegoat.
The contamination poses a significant risk to public health and safety. Charges of endangerment should be considered, especially because there was a reckless disregard for the potential consequences.
According to Matrix, no one needs to worry? Vagianos posted on 9/5 in the newsletter that “we have been assured by our environmental consultants that the tainted soil poses no threat to the public and there is no reason to limit access. While this Council did not bring the tainted soil to either of these sites, we will do everything necessary – in accordance with NJDEP standards and regulations – to remove ALL of this soil from these properties.” Actually Rutisauser allowed the contaminated soil to be dumped on the property.
24 MILLION POUNDS??!!!! How come no one is paying for this?
It’s so blatant! How can the Village Manager continue to disregard and coverup what’s been done here? #keithkazmark what gives?
Vagianos had his pick axe and shovel in the ground to build this park. People all over Bergen County heard this that he was building this park and fast. Now, in light of everything that has happened, we know why and it is obvious. He was in no way going to do the right thing for anyone-that neighbhorhood or any of the children that would have been playing on that field. Are all of his sports buddies in support of this? That children could have been playing on a field as toxic as the council majority’s plan. Quite shocking and we now know that no faith can be placed in the hands of any of them. It is beyond unethical. We should vote NO for Vagianos if he doesn’t step down, which he should.
We wanna know who is getting paid stipends throughout the village. And why,, and how much are they receiving and are they really deserving this stipend. How can a village engineer and a few others hold multiple positions, this needs to stop.
Estimates suggest this could cost between $1.5 million and over $5 million? This estimate does not include the potential adverse health and environmental impacts that could result from this situation. Why hasn’t the Village Manger and/or Mayor reported this to authorities?
Our Mayor prides on being former Deputy Attorney General with the New Jersey Environmental Prosecution Task Force. He knows exactly what needs to be done here but is intentionally looking the other way.
No such thing as a free lunch. Or a free umpty-ump million pounds of dirt.
Boy that free dirt sure is gonna cost a bucket of dough and Ridgewood better start saving. I think that whole Schedler budget, the one that is funded for the park, is gonna have to go bye bye. Kazmark was gunning to get this remediation underway and moving like a locomotive until he got slowed down and had to stop and the money set aside in the bond reference is not going to be enough, so either they will have to float another bond or take the money out of the park plans to pay for it and raise more later if/when the plans are approved. Why should the taxpayers foot the bill for the unethical gross negligence of village employees. There is a lot that is wrong here and and investigation is a must at this point. If an insurance claim is warranted, residents should be able to review it. Things are going to have to be done in a painstakingly slow and methodical way to ensure that there is any kind of trust built with residents. At this point, it is anyone’s guess what these people are thinking and their judgement is more than impaired.
#trustnoone
He is moving super fast over at Habernickel with a new playground and Pavilion. That should be looked into also
Why so fast and for who?
I have lived in Ridgewood all of my life and have always loved our idyllic village with its traditions and always considered myself lucky. Not so much anymore. stores closing throughout the business district and the village needs a facelift. I have never seen anyting like what is happening now. and in terms of the dirty dirt, apparently there is a serious deficiency where individuals don’t understand right from wrong. People who ran on a platform and focus on things that should not take priority and contaminated soil poses a grave danger to our very human existence whether airborne or ingested or otherwise. It is clear that many people made mistakes, lots of them actually. Where is the accountability or consequences? This will cost millions when all is said and done.
I believe that VM Kazmark is no shrinking violet and is in deep with a situation that is borderline criminal and while he might not have been involved, he has to understand there are elements of gross negligence. Will those neighbors or workers sue the village? Time will tell. Right now Vagianos should step down and say thank you and good bye to his role as mayor. He has done enough damage. Let’s figure this out the right way and make sure that funds from the project are available to clean this up.
This contamination situation is now an epic shitstorm bouncing off the rictor scale. It is reminiscent of one of those binge worthy dark dramas you can stream and residents now are watching in horror as more and more errors and issues become evident. Negligence is at the center of all of this and people are nervous about how much something like this will cost. It is clear that Vagianos originally thought he was going to swoop in and save the day solving the field shortage issue. Only problem is that there was no field shortage issue, and Bigos and andrula could have told him that but they just wanted a new shiny plastic field to play with. Granted it is next to a highway, but sports enthusiasts joked that it would be like going to an away game to have to truck their lot all the way over to the other side of town. Present day, it now looks like their Svengali has turned out to be a Sven Ghooli and those promises for any kind of park development are likely a very long way away from being fulfilled.
ABUSE OF POWER! If this had happened anywhere else, the perpetrators would be prosecuted.
Doesn’t the Village Engineer have a family owned business that helped with the transportation?
Jovan M
Is there any integrity left in our municpal government? We had one person who was capable of independent thinking and decision making. Vagianos, Perron, Weitz and Winograd for the most part always vote together just like One village one vote, which hurt Ridgewood just like their current decisions are hurting Ridgewood. Even if you are an athletic supporter, you really think it is okay for Vagianos to let kids play on toxic soil. If so, you need therapy. Then it is just about getting a field and not one bit about caring about the children who would be there playing sports on a highway no less. it is hard to wrap your mind around how unethical this whole thing is.
The guy who gets up to applaud the mayor and village council on how well they are doing, what say you now? The Village has failed miserable. That fact cannot be disputed. At this point it doesn’t matter who you know, but what you know. Things are not working. Schedler is a complete and total failure. You are on an oxygen machine and yet you taunt residents related to fear mongering with contaminated soil and turf. An environmental impact study was never done. The air we breathe, the water we drink, it affects all of us. It makes sense to go back to the drawing board, start proper planning, do the right thing instead of the popular thing.
you know what the really sad fact is. The people who supported and still support Mayor PFAS Paulie, will stick to their guns. They have drawn a line in the dirty dirt. That shows real character to be on the losing end of something with a lyer and a loser but you are willing to stick with that person and will not fall on your sword. it is truly pathetic. We need the right person who has scruples and is a true leader. I won’t be voting for Vagianos or the Green washing Bee guy who is just another puppet.
Posted this on June 6:
Anonymous
June 6, 2024
Same days dump trucks were removing dirt from the old Ken Smith dealership in town where The Benjamin apartments now stand there were dump trucks delivering dirt to Schindler field. Must be a coincidence though…🤪🤪🤪
5
Reply
Everyone call the news. This is just a start of the shit storm. There are many more locations throughout the village that will come out. The (d e p ) will be informed and they will investigate these locations. And it is amazing how they are trying to go towards an insurance claim, what kind of scam is that. This is not an accident. The village is in a real pickle here thank God they have a AAA bomb rating to borrow money, because definitely gonna be over 1 million and last year they were talking about allowing employees for a week, if they have to pay this bill, guess what there’s going to be a big shortfall in the budget, you’ll be looking at three weeks of furlough for layoffs. Hate to say it but come on in the end. The taxpayer is going to get stuck with us somehow what do you think the insurance company is going to rent a check for a few million without legal department getting involved. they need to clean house immediately. we will love to know who’s conducting the investigation towards the village staffing.
Like Habernickel where kids play everyday. It’s scary
They took dirt from the old Ken Smith dealer, the inspection station site on Chestnut, broken Cadillac on Broad Street, Supposedly dirt from Bergen, community college in Paramus, and who knows where else engineering department knows. They’re probably shredding and burning documents as we speak unless someone is making their own files for blackmail. Like Coin boy did. How else can you steal over $850,000 in cash from government and not a day in jail, can you imagine what he knew .this is more about having a good attorney or paying a little bit of a fine, And yet the insurance company paid a good majority of that. And really there was no documentation that he stole that much. They assumed it think about that. when this all started regarding the dirty dirt, Some of you thought we were nuts. It was all bullshit, we were just stirring the pot guess not. More to come.
worst morale in the village. will a beer and food truck party solve it. inquiring minds want to know. Keith Katz shark to the rescue.
#day410andstlltheyhavenoideawhatsinstore
The REAL VM of Ridgewood will fix it, don’t worry.
#justlovethosepeeps
I love the fact that the village has so delicately named the dirty dirt “Imported Fill Material”. If only the village engineer did his job and actually applied the correct standards and alerted officials that more than just the companies that legally dumped but also those that just dumped and got away with it. There are cameras over there at that property, aren’t there? Why were these people who did not get permission not get caught and fined and also did that then not signal that contamination would be a great probability? No one seems to be accountable, responsible for the health of residents.
I told you all the shit was gonna hit the fan. No one believes me until now, the proof is in the Photos. You know it’s real funny that Mr. engineering got screwed by his own game, he used to ride around and take pictures of everything and everybody, guess what now I have pictures of him doing dirty work and now he’s costing the village millions, gotcha,🫵🏼👨🏻⚕️.
Mustache boy he’s gotta be the biggest ass I’ve ever met in my life. Can’t believe he’s still holding a position in the village. Should send them back to Pennsylvania. It’s amazing House employees go fishing and hunting with this jerk off. You employees should be Ashamed of yourself, kissing his ass, He’ll stab you right in the back. You guys are hypocrites, you know I pick Heavyweight what a back down again, that’s just great
Seems like Knudsen was no “Friend of Schedler”.
The school district and administration with over the top salaries also adding big time to taxes