photos courtesy of Boyd Loving
the staff of the Ridgewood Blog
Ridgewood NJ, many years ago, NJ TRANSIT offered to build a large parking garage for free in the Village of Ridgewood. The only proviso was that the garage had to be open to anyone who wanted to use it.
The then Village Council flatly rejected NJ TRANSIT’s offer. Council members didn’t like the fact that the garage would be open to other than Ridgewood residents, and they also wanted to have complete control over the garage’s design.
Fast forward to now – NJ TRANSIT transit recently offered to provide the Village with two (2) free pre-fabricated shelters to replace the bus terminal building that was just demolished. As far as we know, there were no strings attached to the offer.
As you might’ve guessed from our headline, the current Council rejected NJ TRANSIT’s offer. Instead, Council members have requested that members of the Village’s Historic Preservation Commission take the lead in finding a shelter ideally suited for placement in Ridgewood’s historic Central Business District. The selection must also be approved by members of RIdgewood’s Central Business District Advisory Committee.
While the search and approval process are underway, a temporary shelter will be set up at Van Neste Square. The pre-fabricated structure selected for use as the temporary shelter is currently owned by the Village, and is on hand and ready to go.
Selection and approval of the permanent shelter is likely to occur sometime prior to the arrival of summer.
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Sounds right to me
Why would you want some state owned piece of crap
I thought the village was strapped for money. I think they’re full of shit, why wouldn’t you take some help in funds to replace the old bus station. Why should the village pay for it, what are they getting out of it? Nothing let me crazy transit replace it, maintain it, but no, no the village can’t swallow its pride. The historic society, give me a damn break. there’s no historic there now now they’re gonna come up and try to do design a new structure that looks historically correct we get that. Hopefully it will have the proper lighting, seating, heat, ventilation, all the safety precautions, maybe an emergency phone to call the police department Things that other transit hubs have. So I guess the only thing that New Jersey train is going to pay for is there map and scheduling they put on the wall just wonderful this will take two years.😳
Winter will kick alot of taxpayers butts as they inevitably have to wait in the cold windy outdoors example the Rwood train parking spots are well organized esp for family members picking up a partner or family member with a roof over heads in a lighted area safe and station is open from early morning thru mid afternioon or noon as a minimum clean bathroom and a warm or reasonable temp summers
Hey! Aren’t they thinking of moving the bus station to the other side of the tracks? If so, why spend any money at this location. Let NJ TRANSIT put it in for free and then they can move it if necessary.
Spend, spend, spend.
Let NJ TRANSIT do it. If it breaks, is vandalized, or destroyed when a bus hits it, it won’t be up to ridgewood taxpayers to fix or replace it.
We know how long it took those people from historic preservation to create the hold star families memorial. This will be another debacle. As for no money, they’ve got ways to gather funds when they want something….Pavillion at Habernickel for their biz iener pal that will be over 400K when all is said and done with a new bathroom coming. Font let this Council fool you.
And it looks ridiculous and way too big for that small neighborhood park. It’s for the business and the business only. Where do the 4 million go that the business aka foundation ( I call BS) took? Where is it Paul??? Ramon???
I am floored. Why the heck refuse a free bus shelter? It is a functional shelter, not a work of art. This has Winograd written all over it. Her with the designer garbage cans and fancy flower pots.
Just bond it!
Free money!
Out of money. Bring an umbrella.
“Council members didn’t like the fact that the garage would be open to other than Ridgewood residents”
— A rare moment of agreement between the Council and its haters.
Move the station to the Town Garage property.
In light of the $1.5 million taxpayer bill to remove toxic soil at Schedler let NJ Transit put up the free ones.
Exactly they say they have no money, I think The so full of shit. If the village is broke, there’s a big problem then you’re telling me there’s no money put on the side for emergencies, there’s no money investments, bullshit. Every year the village is broke. They gotta stop the bullshit. Someone stealing, if someone can steal over $1 million in quarters wow I’ll believe anything. Just think about that. We wonder how many millions of dollars the village owes and debt. What they should do is see if anybody wants to take an early retirement. I’m sure they’ll get a few people they can save a lot of money. They did it years ago.
How is it broke when they just spent over a quarter of a million dollars for the Healthbarn pavilion in Habernickel park?
We don’t care.
We are…
RICH and STUPID
… and they know it.
We’re not that rich anymore.
They should have made the new very large pavilion at Habernickel half the size and put the other half at the bus station
How are we broke, well they spend more money that’s coming in in taxes and revenue, they keep on floating all these bonds and borrowing money. They keep on bragging about their AAA bond rating. How about the mayor council the village taxpayers how much money do we owe From all the loans? Remember last year they wanted to furlough the employees for a week you tell us they keep on going forward with all these projects.
I’m surprised the politicians didn’t come out for a picture in front of the old bus station. You know they love photo ops.Hummmmm,
Pam could have worn one of her cool hats for the photo-op.
And Greasy Paulie and the little congressman could have worn construction helmets.
Definite missed opportunity.
Village needs a DOGE to clean house.
The “temporary” one is up. Take a look…It’s pretty small…but why not just put 1 or 2 identical ones right next to it to accommodate more people when needed and be done with it? Its a bus stop…not a bus station.
Agreed. Why spend a fortune when you can get something functional for free. It’s a bus stop, not Buckingham Palace.
What was the cost of this shelter? Let’s have the council pay for it out of their own pockets!
Zero consideration for all the people who used this space as a lavatory and a marketplace for nickel bags.
Very elitist.
“Ridgewood’s historic Central Business District”. Really?