SEPTEMBER 9, 2015 LAST UPDATED: WEDNESDAY, SEPTEMBER 9, 2015, 10:59 AM
BY MARK KRULISH
STAFF WRITER |
THE RIDGEWOOD NEWS
The Community Center Advisory Board is set to undertake a large-scale survey of the needs of the village’s oldest residents in an effort to better meet the needs of the senior citizens it serves.
A subcommittee of the Community Center Advisory Board, known as the Survey Committee, will be heading up the initiative, which the group says is needed due to the increasing world population of citizens 60 and over. Among its various duties, the board oversees many aspects of the senior center on the first floor of Village Hall, including the events held there.
In presenting the idea to the Village Council last month, Beth Abbott, the chairperson of the Survey Committee, said the board is charged with serving both the current and future users of the center, therefore learning more about Ridgewood’s population of older residents would allow it to provide better services and programs.
“We feel we would be remiss if we did not learn more about this portion of our community,” Abbott said. “Thus, we would like to conduct this needs assessment.”
The plan is for the group to take the survey to various focus groups to ensure it is user-friendly to its participants and the content is acceptable. Abbott noted two-thirds of the Survey Committee itself is age 55 or over, but the board still reached out to groups that study aging, such as the Taub Foundation of Bergen County and researchers at Rutgers University and Montclair State University.
Once the survey is ready to go, it will be circulated online via the online development company Survey Monkey and at various village organization meetings, in churches, the library and at the Oct. 4 Wellness Fair.
Councilwoman Gwenn Hauck, the liaison to the Community Center Advisory Board, said the survey would be conducted between October and December, with a final report coming the following spring.
https://www.northjersey.com/news/health-news/survey-to-review-needs-of-seniors-1.1406075
The smartest way to keep taxes from increasing exponentially is to encourage older people without children in schools to stay here.
They subsidize the majority of families that use the expensive schools.
7:37am:
How do you encourage older people to stay without giving them a very big break on their property taxes? Older people not only leave because they want to pay less taxes, but also because they are looking to downside their house being that the process of kids moving out has slowly started.
Freezing property taxes for people over a certain age and under a certain annual income, with documentation, is done elsewhere and should have been done here many years ago. Even then, current taxes are out of sight for many people, but it ought to be done anyway.
The problem with doing something like that is that it will grow, causing a shrinking tax-base.
The two pictured above just need weed and they will stay.
Declan….here’s a unique concept…pay fortune sevicesm that you require.
Why should retirees subsidize the schools for the rich new residents’ children?
Every empty nester that sells = more kids in school from new homeowners.
It’s not that I don’t understand the concept. I understand it very well. I plan to put the realtor sign up when my last kid is about 3-months from HS graduation. However, one has to face the reality of the dynamics of what is known as Ridgewood. Oddly enough, it still has this cache as a great place to raise kids, and real estate values and the rapidity of sales reflect that. There is a bloated government in charge of the Village and as they say, the beast needs to be fed. If they were to start giving big tax breaks to seniors, the population of seniors would therefore grow, while at the same time, the tax base would decline (being that it would be drawn from a shrinking population). The Village government are not going to shoot themselves in the foot.
What seems like the right thing to do (i.e. tax breaks for the elderly), comes with unforeseen consequences. I am merely pointing out reality.
If you have a system that raises taxes based upon the FMV of the properties, then it should apply to whomever owns the property, be it a senior citizen or anyone else. Anything else would shift the tax burden unfairly.
Rich it’s unfair now in the state of nj with property tax payers funding the schools.
I have no kids in public schools and never did. Why should I pay to educate the children of others , most who makes lot more money than I do?
Declan’s a perfect example of our temporary residents who bail outnandnstick the rest of us with the tab for all the school budgets they voted yes on , sports fields, and Cadillac health care plans for teachers.
First – you have no idea how I voted on budgets for the past 27 years, so put that aside.
With kids out of the schools it is hard to justify these taxes. I do not use the schools, Graydon or most other amenities. When I sell it will probably be to a family with at least three kids since I have a large 4 bedroom house.
If someone would like to lower my 29k taxes then I will listen. Otherwise there is nothing to keep me here. I can still shop and eat in the downtown and visit with friends. I can still go to OLMC. For me “status” is not a reason to stay.
The high density housing proposed for the downtown will probably have high taxes, no parking and a lot of train noise. Where will my three children park when they come to visit. That will not entice empty nesters looking to stay nearby. I would love to see the research behind these plans.
In all seriousness, high density on the “horse farm” is more appealing because it could have the parking that people need. And no train noise.
Is the upcoming senior survey related to this issue at all? Trying to find proof that residents will move to downtown apts. (NO)?