June 27,2017
the staff of the Ridgewood blog
Ridgewood NJ, After reading the letter former Ridgewood Village Manager Roberta Sonenfeld sent to the Ridgewood news ,readers near Habernickel Park were furious. Many thought she had some nerve complaining about new tax & added fees when she was one of the main people who put a FOR profit business in Habernickel Park.
If you look back at neighbors complaints & concerns which were never considered when they went ahead with the plan to change the gatehouse to recreational & educational space you will better understand what they are talking about.
First off the owner of the business Stacey Antine & Roberta graduated Bergen Leads together even though Roberta denied helping Stacey get her business into Ridgewood everyone found it odd since the class was about 10 students.
Healthbarn only pays $3,700 a month for rent never increasing over her 5 year lease, way below the price of an average rental in Ridgewood. Plus in addition they got 12 parking spots & a garden the size 50 feet X 100 feet. The property tax alone on the size of her garden would be around $10,000.00 a year. The previous renter paid about the same for no extra land & no parking spots.
This business was given 12 parking spots for her employees & patrons yet every other business in town have to pay for meters. Basically she is given about $1,200.00 a month worth of parking for free & displacing parents from parking in the lot for sports practice & games….forcing them to park in the street.
This business is now at the tax payers expense having to under go $20,000.00 worth of construction to the entrance of the gate house to make it handicap accessible for the business. If this was still rented to a family this wouldn’t have had to cost the tax payers $20,000.00 it could of been a simpler fix to the all ready front steps.
This business was also given by the town through tax payers dollars
1. Stadium lights for the parking lot only since her classes go past 9pm on some nights
2. Security camera with direct feed to the police & village hall
3. Fire hydrant was needed because it is a business & a added hose for watering her garden
This business also get full garbage pick up & recycling from the village. No other business in town gets this service they have to use an outside provider.
Parks & rec maintain her property which they didn’t do when it was a rental property. Parks & rec advertises on the website for this business making it seem like this is a partnership & residents benefit from this business. That is NOT true we as tax payers get 0% from her business. The village doesn’t advertise for any other business in town so why must they do for her? When you see the ad on parks & rec it will directly you bring you to Healthbarn so then you can sign up for classes or buy her cookbook which none of it brings in revenue to the village…crazy how much we help her make money all the while residents keep having to pay higher taxes & getting charged fees.
Healthbarn USA offer classes that directly compete with the village classes offered thru parks & rec yet parks & rec continues to advertise for this business….a tad shady!
The present & past business manager ever took the time to punch the numbers he/she would realize the loss of rent the tax payers are incurring. The amount of tax payers dollars already spent to get this business up & running & the continued expenses (mentioned above). Police have been called more because of the added traffic & illegal parking of her buses so that I am sure is an added burden to the police.
The neighborhood got slapped in the face with this business. Neighbors keep sending photos to VC about all the violations to the lease but yet nothing has changed the Village continues to support her financially by advertising for her & giving her full access to parks & rec’s resources.
One would wonder HOW this happened……answer Roberts & her friends. Roberta should be careful what she is complaining about in the paper because her past isn’t perfect.
Roberta Sonenfeld, train wreck extraordinaire
You can’t AirBnB, cut a tree, water your lawn between 10am-6pm but they can allow a commercial business operate in a ‘green acres’ funded, residential neighborhood, and build Shedler Stadium on the highway.
It’s a lie and a scam any way you cut it.
Those neighbors should collectively sue the town. The old council allowed this but the new one hasn’t changed it.
Please Council change the name of the park.
Between the expense of the added lights, camera, water fixtures and now $20,000 in step repair, what are the tax payers out? Over a 100,000$ to get a FOR profit business up and running???
Who is over seeing our tax dollar? Who is benefitting from this aside from healthbarn??!
I live in the neighborhood and have seen chartered buses loading up kids in the middle of hillcrest rd…do the police monitor this? Are the tax payers paying for this police support if in fact they are monitoring the buses to keep the streets safe?
She is a train wreck that pushed favors thru for friends that’s for sure. This business in a park at the tax payers expense. I heard it was a partnership. That must have been a cover up too! Wow. What can be done?
You can’t even rent a home that size in Ridgewood for 3700.00 a month let alone 12 parking spots, free lawn care, and an added price of property ( 100 x 50 ). Jeez that was my first house property size that I paid taxes on for years…not made an income off of
Who is in charge here?
Is the village also paying someone to oversee a business in such a remote area?
Yes 12:09 agreed. The property was sold to Ridgewood…it was not donated!!!
Does Health Barn follow the new highly restrictive irrigation rules?
How about some old fashioned protest signs during business hours???
I remember when the idea was first put forth for this park, the Ridgewood Council assured local residents that there would be no parking on the street. It’s an absolute nightmare to drive by the park whenever there are sports games; as the parked cars block kore than 1/2 a lane. It’s also extremely dangerous as I have witnessed numerous children darting into the street from between parked cars chasing a ball.
Has anyone confronted the “new” VC about this issue and what they’re trying to do about it? This VC seems to be asleep on many issues that they were voted into power for. They can’t even maintain this village which should be a routine, can’t expect them to do anything else.
Any link to the letter she sent?