
June 8,2017
By Boyd A. Loving
Ridgewood NJ, Surprise, surprise, surprise – apparently, Ridgewood taxpayers were once again lied to by a Village official.
During Wednesday evening’s Village Council Work Session, Village Engineer Christoper Rutishauser told Council members that it would NOT be possible alter the current pavement/road conditions of Garber Square/Franklin Avenue approaching and underneath the NJ Transit train trestle to permit two (2) lanes of traffic to flow freely in both directions (again).
Many of us remember when former Village Manager Roberta Sonenfeld promised that if things didn’t work out with the bike lane to nowhere, we could “go back to what we had before.” Well, that ain’t happening folks.
Rutishauser told Council members that the size of NJ Transit’s buses (a required turning radius) is what’s preventing a return to sanity. However, we believe the actual reason is that grant money was used to construct the bike lane to nowhere and rules associated with the use of grant funds would require the Village to give the money used back if the project were removed. So, we’ve been lied to twice? Wow.