>Mr. Wellinghorst — please lead.
We need closure on Valley — it needs to either curtail its plans or move down the road to route 17 or somewhere else sensible.
Graydon needs to be made more attractive while staying true to what it is — the local swiming hole where the community can gather.
Village Hall needs cleaning. Get rid of Brancheau, Merlino, Rutishauser and the other do nothing department heads. Its too top heavy.
Address the pension and retirement issues that can drag us down to bankruptcy. We can’t renege on existing contracts and obligations (and remain true to the principles of a free market) but we sure as hell can put an end to the gravy train going forward.
Look closely at the people we outsource to — the attorneys, vendors, etc. Are we really getting value?
Work with the Board of Education –don’t listen to the morons who say the budgets are separate and nothing can be done. I pay out of one check book and one pocket, and I want my money spent wisely.
Cut taxes — but only if you can. We are still reeling from years of the pfree spending administration. Village halls and public toilets that came in three or four times over budget took a chunk out our pocket books when we had the money to spend. Now we don’t, but we can’t make up for it with budget reductions that cut off our noses to spite our faces. We need to remain a first class town.
In that vein, keep up our Village services. Cutting the waste at the top is a first start. But, what else can we do? Be creative. Is there a way, say, to charge people for the services they use, like charging per can garbage pick ups? I dn’t know, but I bet collectively we can find all sorts of creative solutions to our issues.
Open space — perhaps the one area where we can’t cut spending even though we may like to. No one is building more land, so when it comes on the market, we need to buy. Perhaps that means things like the schendler property sit vacant for a couple of years while we get the money to do something with it.
Downtown — we need to be careful. Yes, we need more parking and we more stores, but lets not lower standards. And, we need to do somethig about traffic is horrendus. Again, creativity: can we make Ridgewood avenue and other major streets one way with diagonal parking? I don’t think we need to rush to put up another major structure, particularly a mixed use structure that guarantees as many new cars as it does new spaces.
COAH — perhaps its going away, but unless it does, our prior councils, planning board and board of adjustment have let things get way out of hand by allowing the massive overbuilding we have seen in the past few years. This is Ridgewood, not Long Island. We don’t need to keep expanding. Escpecially when the relaxed building standards mean we have to bring in even more housing structures to satisfy COAH.
New Jersey transit — many of us conspiracy theory folks have wondered just why all the changes to our station? Are there plans to make our local station a hub for buses and trains? Stay on top of this one and fight hard.
In closing, I direct this to the other council people as well. Please, let’s get moving. You made promises and frankly, I am not sure they have been kept. What happened to “lets get moving, we’re burning daylight”? Step aside if its gotten to be too much.
Mr. Wellinghorst, I wish you well.
