the staff of the Ridgewood blog
the staff of the Ridgewood blog
Lodi Nj, Senator Anthony M. Bucco said the New Jersey Motor Vehicle Commission (NJMVC) has failed to respond to his repeated requests to produce an overview of their reopening plan to demonstrate they will have sufficient capacity to handle a surge in customers that should be expected after agency offices have been closed for months.
Continue reading NJMVC Fails to Demonstrate Plan to Meet Surge in Demand Upon Reopening
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Ridgewood NJ, When Ridgewood schools closed due to the coronavirus pandemic, most parents assumed they would reopen in a matter of weeks.Instead, schools across the country have remained closed and will likely remain closed for the rest of the academic year.
Continue reading Should Ridgewood Taxpayers Get A “Coronavirus Tax Refund” Due to Closed Schools?
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Ridgewood NJ, Village of Ridgewood Mayor Ramon M Hache on May 19th encouraged residents to wear a mask ,”While we have not had any new positive cases of COVID-19 in Ridgewood in nearly a week, we are still not out of the woods. As the lifting of restrictions has begun slowly, please continue to take precautions for your safety and the safety of others. Be particularly disciplined about wearing a mask in public. The continued lifting of restrictions, while welcomed, will be bringing us in closer proximity to others so we must continue to exercise extra care to avoid re-igniting the spread of the virus. A new flare up would be devastating. Be well and stay safe.”
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Ridgewood NJ, Village of Ridgewood Mayor Ramon M Hache , “During last night’s Village Council meeting, I provided some details regarding the planning underway for the reopening of our downtown. While the reopening of businesses in NJ will be gradual, and we still do not have set dates and guidance from the Governor, it is safe to expect that there will be restrictions regarding the number of customers allowed at each business. That means businesses will not be able to fully utilize the interior square footage of their locations. Together with all the Village department heads, the Chamber of Commerce, the Ridgewood Guild, commercial landlords, retailers and restauranteurs, we are working on a reopening plan. That plan will, first and foremost, aim to ensure the safety of our residents and patrons while helping our businesses to have the necessary tools to thrive. With the understanding that the downtown that will reopen will be very different from the one that closed in March, we have to embrace some outside-the-box ideas that probably could have never been considered previously. For example, closing a significant portion of our downtown to vehicles, thereby creating an outdoor pedestrian mall on Saturdays and Sundays. It is the best way to ensure proper social distancing while allowing businesses to make up for the lost indoor square footage. While we encourage residents to walk to the downtown if possible, patrons will still be able to park on some streets as well as Walnut Street Lot, Bus Station Lot, Cottage Place Lot and the soon to open Hudson Street Parking Garage. As you can imagine, this will require a lot of coordination between NJ Transit, Ridgewood Police, Signal Department, commercial landlords, businesses, volunteers and most importantly you the public. We will continue to provide more information. In the meantime, if you have any feedback or suggestions, please email them to: [email protected].”
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Ridgewood NJ, The governor announced that in-person graduations can happen in July. Specific guidance regarding graduations has not yet been provided. Dr. Fishbein has a county roundtable meeting for superintendents, and graduation ceremonies are an agenda item to be discussed. With social distancing, we still face significant hurdles, having a graduating class of approximately 440 students. Managing crowds is also something that must be evaluated to determine the best way to hold graduation that is both special for the Class of 2020 and safe. Another concern is in the area of liability, as pandemics are not covered by our insurance policy. All of these factors are being carefully considered.
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Ridgewood NJ, at the Ridgewood Board of Education meeting on Wednesday evening Ms. Brogan shared information on the financial outlook for the state, as outlined in a report by the state treasurer, which is available online. Additionally, Ms. Brogan and Dr. Fishbein attended a Garden State Coalition of Schools meeting earlier in the day, where they heard from some legislators. The state is struggling financially with their response to COVID-19, and there is a huge unknown for the financial outlook of the state and how schools will be impacted. The recommendations outlined in the report appeared to indicate that there will be a cut of new state aid for the district. The current recommendation is to flat fund the 2020-2021 school year at the amount of the 2019-2020 school year. This impacts the $654,000 of new state aid that we anticipated, and it is likely that there will be additional state aid cuts. On top of cuts, there will be a delay in state aid payments to the district from September to October, as well as a delay in extraordinary aid payments, which the district budgeted at $1.5 million. Extraordinary aid is reimbursement for high special education costs based on an application that the district completes in the spring. Typically, extraordinary aid is granted by the state in July, but this year, it is being postponed until September, which will be the next budget year. These are significant unknowns and concerns because we rely on our state aid.
Continue reading Ridgewood Board of Education Begins Facing a “New Normal” in State Aid
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TRENTON NJ, The New Jersey Department of Labor and Workforce Development processed a record 1.1 million benefits certifications for the week ending Saturday, as the total amount of benefit payments surpassed $4.3 billion and nearly 90,000 claims were made newly eligible for federal Pandemic Unemployment Assistance (PUA).
The number of new applications for unemployment decreased to 34,410, the lowest weekly total since mid-March. Employees in casinos, retailers, food service contractors, restaurants, and airlines continue to be the hardest-hit industries.
Two Morris County lawmakers call for action
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Trenton NJ, Many families have been scrambling to either do without child care or to try to find alternative care so they can work. Assemblyman Brian Bergen and Assemblywoman BettyLou DeCroce urged Gov. Phil Murphy to immediately open day care facilities across the state.
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Ridgewood NJ, More than 100,000 people are now dead in the United States because of a virus no one had heard of before late last year. This microscopic pathogen COVID19 brought life and lives to a halt.
The most important and ignored Coronavirus statistic is that 43% of U.S. deaths are from nursing homes . That means 2.1 million Americans in Long Term Care facilities , representing 0.62% of the U.S. population, account for 43% of all deaths due to COVID19 . In Ridgewood alone suffered 35 deaths from COVID19 and 28 were in Long Term Care .
TIME SENSITIVE – DEADLINE IS 6/1/2020 AT NOON
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Ridgewood NJ, The Village Council of the Village of Ridgewood would like your input about opening Graydon Pool this summer. In order to safely operate the Graydon Pool swimming facility for the residents of the Village during the COVID-19 pandemic this summer, many changes must occur. The facility and park area will be governed and look differently than they have in the past, as we continue to adhere to social distancing safeguards, the Governor’s mandates, and State health regulations.
Continue reading Village of Ridgewood Survey for Graydon Pool Operations/COVID 19
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Ridgewood NJ, The New Jersey Department of Education (DOE) today released guidance regarding commencement ceremonies to honor 2020 graduates during the COVID-19 public health emergency.
The guidance outlines three options for K-12 school commencement ceremonies: 1) virtual; 2) drive-through/drive-in; or 3) modified in-person, outdoor ceremonies. Decisions about the most appropriate type of ceremony for each school community will be made locally, in consultation with municipal officials. At this time, only virtual ceremonies are permitted. Beginning July 6, 2020, drive-through/drive-in and modified in-person, outdoor ceremonies will be permitted subject to the requirements set forth in the guidance. These ceremonies must comply with the social distancing protocols and the limitations on in-person gatherings that are in place when the ceremonies are held.
Continue reading New Jersey Department of Education Provides Guidance on Commencement Ceremonies
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Ridgewood NJ, Andy Moss and Jerry Zheng two New Jersey high school students from Basking Ridge and competitive swimmers started a petition to ask Governor Murphy to reopen pools for competitive swimmers to practice.
That petition, which started on May 17, has since gone viral tracking toward 13,000 signatures. Hundreds of competitive swimmers are looking forward to getting back in the pools to train, and serious competitors are ready to train responsibly. Here is the link to the petition
Continue reading NJ High Schoolers Petition for Governor Murphy to Reopen Pools
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Trenton NJ, Elected officials, environmental leaders and ordinary citizens throughout the State harshly criticized today’s NJ Turnpike Authority’s approval of a $16 billion plan to widen the NJ Turnpike and Garden State Parkway and demanded that Governor Murphy reject the plan, which would be disastrous for the health, welfare and well-being of New Jersey residents and our cash starved State. The widening plan conflicts with the State’s Energy Master Plan and the Governor’s Executive Orders regarding climate change and clean energy, increases pollution, and despite its enormous price tag, undermines the state’s pandemic recovery efforts, and produces no benefit to the State, especially compared to alternatives. The approval will be followed immediately by a 1:30 p.m. special meeting of the South Jersey Transportation Authority (SJTA), which will likely approve $210 million for highway expansions on the Atlantic City Expressway.
Toll Hike Vote Called “Unconscionable”
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Trenton NJ, New Jersey Turnpike Authority voted to increase tolls on the Garden State Parkway and the New jersey Turn Pike .The Parkway and Turnpike increases were both approved by the New Jersey Turnpike Authority, which manages the highways, in a 7-0 vote during a remotely-held Wednesday meeting. It followed three hours of public comment from many who oppose the increase.
Continue reading Coronavirus Pandemic No Excuse Not to Raise Tolls
