the staff of the Ridgewood blog
Ridgewood NJ, the March 5 Village Council meeting was anything but ordinary, with residents, officials, and consultants clashing over the fate of the Schedler property—particularly the soil removal, artificial turf concerns, and a hefty $1.5 million taxpayer bill.
Schedler Soil Scandal: What’s Happening?
At the center of the debate is the illegal soil dumping on the property, allegedly overseen by Village “Engineer” Chris Rutishauser. Now, a costly cleanup effort is in motion, with consultants—paid a staggering $200 per hour—confirming that the entire berm and up to two feet of soil must be removed and processed elsewhere.
💰 Taxpayer Cost: $1.5 million
🌳 Environmental Concerns: Tree preservation & impact of deep excavation
⚽ Ultimate Goal: A full-sized artificial turf field for sports teams
Residents vs. Village Officials: Heated Exchanges
Concerned residents didn’t hold back, voicing opposition to the artificial turf and questioning the integrity of the council’s decisions. Words like “shady” and “corrupt” flew across the room, while others raised alarms about the potential loss of trees and environmental damage.
Village Manager Keith Kazmark and the council pushed back, dismissing accusations and calling some residents liars.
Watch the Controversy Unfold
📺 See the scripted discussion between the mayor and the $200-an-hour consultant for yourself:
👉 Watch the Video Here
What are your thoughts? Should taxpayer money fund this project? Is artificial turf the best choice for Schedler Park? Drop your opinions in the comments!
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The absence of a criminal investigation shocks me, as does the fact that not a single employee has been discharged in connection with this mess.
There are class action suits coming.
Ask yourself when the Town first knew there was a potential problem and decided to do nothing (Hmmm…I wonder if there’s a paper trail).
Ask yourself how many VOR employees and residents were on the property after that, and right up until the whistleblowers put an end to the madness.
Get your popcorn ready.
Agree. Between this and a business in Habernickel park that is in direct conflict with green acres by laws. Who is covering up for all this. Not to mention the 4 million dollars that went through this business under the pretense of it being a foundation????
And let’s not forget the Village Manager threatening residents for asking for an
investigation. See Public Meeting Video of #KeithKazmark
https://youtu.be/-kIcpl4n2Fc?t=9150
I always find the scripted question and answer period the most disgusting.
Let the sports groups pay if they want a field there.
They will pay…never an issue with that.
Wino says there is lots of dough. Plus it was never supposed to be a sports complex until this Council tried to pull this scheme.
A field on a highway that is on a historic property is absolute lunacy. Just goes to prove that these non profits have a lot at stake. As some have said, there are 37 fields. How come they can’t figure something out to manage what they have, which is a lot more than most towns in NJ have.
There’s room over at Glen school and the mayor lives right next door. Talk about a nimble. He promised the sports crowd a field, so there you go!
Not a single taxpayer $1 should fund this disaster. The incompetence is beyond belief.
The sports teams slamming table for a turf field on a highway should pay the entire cost.
Why not ask the council why they won’t release the funds that are in the budget for this project. If I remember correctly, it was well over a million dollars, but instead they are going to charge the taxpayers for a situation caused by an engineer, former village manager, Ridgewood water and others. Doesn’t seem fair to the taxpayers who don’t want this project to materialize.
This bad dream has now turned into a nightmare. I suggest that this ballfield plan be abandoned, the site remediated and returned to the original plan, and the least funds possible be spent. We don’t NEED a ballfield. We NEED to better utilize and plan the use of the existing fields.
Town officials caused this debacle. Saying it was caused by the previous administration is not an excuse for escaping accountability. Do some DOGE and use the existing budget to remove the toxic berm. Time to scrap this project and keep as a nature preserve for the community.
No more artificial turf. It is not economically feasible, pollutes the environment and poses serious health risks. The village should know better given its painful experience with this.
Village is in a state of disarray with no sense of priority. Spending money on new lights at Vets Field and a police motorcycle for show are just two examples. And now taxpayer money to bail them out of a hazardous situation they caused. Responsible leadership is desperately needed. Existing fields are underutilized. This proposed field will be like the parking garage. Another waste as few will use it.
And please don’t forget 340,000 thousand dollars at Habernickel for an ugly ass pavilion for Healthbarn
And tax payers paid for this. The village manager pushed it through. Why? Where is the 4 million?
It’s amazing how no one has been fired. how can this be well it must be someone’s or a few people are blackmailing someone. Because this is a multi million dollar screw up. and we still don’t know who’s going to cover the cost. We just can’t see Insurance covering the cost, and if the taxpayers have to pay to remove this contaminated soil, and then you’re asking to spend another million or so on top of that to put down fake plastic grass, you can’t make this shit up. And don’t forget everyone we still don’t know if anyone meaning residence or employees have been contaminated . we do know from our investigation that the state health department and DEP have been notified regarding have a lookout for health issues. Remember, there’s no time limit on this. Once that document has been filed with a DEP guess what everybody that stays like that for a very long time and if someone is contaminated, can you imagine that lawsuit, holy shit .
It seems like it would be fairly fraudulent if, like people have raised and has become evident by Ridgewood water, that spoil piles were dumped, that snow removal with chemicals were also dumped and who knows what else was dumped there illegally. So how could an insurance claim be made without an investigation. More lies, Mr. K?
Never knew how bad the situation is. Village has really backed itself into a corner on this whole fiasco.
Keith KazShark will rescue the Village
I think you meant to write ruin! He doesn’t live here!!! Remember that all
All the soft full of shit it’s amazing. The ex-manager and our current director of engineering and Dpw should be immediately discharged. They knew what was going on and if they didn’t, that makes them even more stupid they were in charge end of the story. It’s in their lap They should be forced into retirement. From what we hear from Mira investigation is that they are playing chess because in the end, the villages liable if the village fires them , then it shows that they were guilty. So they’ll do their usual back steps and place stupid. Back door meeting again let’s see how this rolls out.
The so-called “donors” (Bergen Community College and Ridgewood Water) dodge the high costs of properly disposing of hazardous material?
Yep.
The 42 million pounds of ‘free soil’ obtained from various sources, including Ridgewood Water and Bergen County Community College. Despite public outcry, Ridgewood officials have refused to take action against those responsible.
Activists including the Sierra Club are urging residents to hold officials accountable and demand that the Ridgewood Mayor, New Jersey Attorney General, and NJDEP conduct a full investigation .
Sign petition here :
https://act.sierraclub.org/actions/NewJersey?actionId=AR0474292&id=70131000001Lp1FAAS
About time….call the teevee stations too…
NO PROSECUTION?!!?? 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.
This cost does not include the ongoing adverse health and environmental impacts that will result from this situation.
The dirty dirt contains hazardous substances, including lead, mercury, Benz(a)Anthracene and Benz(a)pyrene and other dangerous chemicals.
Not to worry we will cover up the toxic material that we didn’t check carefully with another toxic turf field… but don’t worry it will all be safe…..
Just put it in the water and the residents will drink it. They’ll whine about it. But they’ll still drink it.
#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?
Don’t forget some of that contaminated soil came from the old Ridgewood inspection site on Chestnut, Ken Smith car dealer on Franklin Avenue, the old broken Cadillac on Broad Street, can you imagine what was leaking into the land at those locations? How can the village engineer and the past Manager looked the other way? they couldn’t be that stupid could they, or there was just a large amount of pay off somehow someway, can you imagine the speech they gave to mayor and council how much money we’re gonna save you. They must’ve received a big big stipend, we wonder and we’re still asking The village mayor and council regarding paid stipends throughout the village. Who’s receiving them, why are they receiving them, how much are they receiving in the paid stipend, who authorized the paid stipend. There’s quite a few individuals receiving them. And they will not share that with the taxpayers of the Village Of Ridgewood Why why are they hiding this, there is a list floating around. We do know that. And they still will not come clean. What a bunch of weasels.
Village Manager Kazmark has probably been brought in by Vagianos to make this all go away, quietly and quickly, but unfortunately that is not going to happen now . Too many people are aware of the misdeeds done to that property. When it was all going down, I would be willing to bet that the engineer, the former village manager, Ridgewood Water head Calbi and others were well aware of what they were doing and the fact that the soil had the high likelihood of being contaminated.. They thought no-one would be the wiser because Paul Vagianos was a council person before becoming Mayor and it is obvious that his number one priority was to cram this field in as fast as he could. Did he tell them that he was going to make this happen like he did to the sports people who got him elected? Well now Paul, this is a fine mess you’ve gotten us into, no joke and despite all of your staged interviews with the soil testing company reps, it ain’t gonna go away as quickly as it was trucked in.
Live performance art theater at village hall. First come, first serve.
$1.5 million to remove contamination then $1.5 million to contaminate with PFAS.
Some people think he might be the magic wand please, just another puppet, like this one guy told me years ago the monkey’s changed, but the suits don’t the ex Village manager, and the current director of engineering and Dpw should be removed immediately. How the hell can the taxpayers of the village condone this. These two they’re all about it. And if they didn’t, then they really should be removed immediately. Automatic discharge on the civil service law. Not becoming a civil servant. Poor performance, and on top of that they could never pass the fit for duty no damn well. Just ridiculous. 💩☠️
Vagianos thought he had this project in the bag and was telling Ridgewood that he was the great and powerful Oz until the NJDEP knocked on Ridgewood’s door. The council telling us about all of the money that they have spent and will be spending is little comfort coming from a group of people (mayor, council members, village attorney, past and present village managers, village engineers and Ridgewood water) who couldn’t care less about the fact that they were never about to open a formal investigation or to test the soil for contamination knowing that kids would play there. This would be a direct cover up of all of the misdeeds that went on and it would have really looked bad. If they actually document what has happened people will need to be help accountable and, they open themselves up to lawsuits and wrongdoing and they know it. This mayor and council are just honing their skills in trying to constantly deceive the public and by obfuscating over and over. The end result will be interesting but the property should be a sanctuary for nature to make amends for the damage these horrible people have caused.