The Ridgewood Blog Brings a Free Market Laissez-faire Point of View to Local, New Jersey State and National Issues.
RHS Field 1903 photo, other photos courtesy of Boyd Loving
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Ridgewood NJ,the Village is abuzz with lots of talk about flooding , so how did it get so bad? Lets leave the Village Hall “wreck-ovation” for another day. Here is the short version, in 2009 residents voted for a $48 million dollar Referendum to Turf Ridgewood High School Stadium Field .
Continue reading Village of Ridgewood Flooding a Little Background
photo courtesy of Suzanne R
photo of Saddle River near the foot bridge on Kingsbridge ln
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Ridgewood NJ, Ridgewood Mayor Vagianos, and Council majority, claim Schedler Property is a perfect location for a field because there is no flooding. So why does this Village of Ridgewood notice state (once again) that the Schedler neighborhood floods?
Continue reading Ridgewood Mayor and Council Unaware That Schedler Neighborhood Floods
file photo by Boyd Loving
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Ridgewood NJ, the National Weather Service has issues a FLOOD WATCH IN EFFECT FROM SUNDAY AFTERNOON THROUGH MONDAY AFTERNOON.
file photo by Boyd Loving
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Ridgewood NJ, FLOOD WATCH REMAINS IN EFFECT THROUGH MONDAY AFTERNOON .
Continue reading FLOOD WATCH REMAINS IN EFFECT THROUGH MONDAY AFTERNOON
file photo by Boyd Loving
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Ridgewood NJ, Ridgewood OEM Coordinator Jeremy P. Kleiman says Please be aware and be safe!
file photo by Boyd Loving
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Ridgewood NJ, the National Weather Service has issued a flood watch for Bergen County. The FLOOD WATCH REMAINS IN EFFECT THROUGH THIS EVENING . Flash flooding caused by excessive rainfall continues to be possible.
Portions of southern Connecticut, including the following areas, Northern Fairfield and Southern Fairfield. Portions of northeast New Jersey, including the following areas, Eastern Bergen, Eastern Essex, Eastern Passaic, Eastern Union, Hudson, Western Bergen, Western Essex, Western Passaic and Western Union. Portions of southeast New York, including the following areas, Bronx, Kings (Brooklyn), New York (Manhattan), Northern Nassau, Northern Queens, Northern Westchester, Orange, Putnam, Richmond (Staten Island), Rockland, Southern Nassau, Southern Queens and Southern Westchester.
Continue reading Saturday October 7th : FLOOD WATCH REMAINS IN EFFECT THROUGH THIS EVENING
photos courtesy of Boyd Loving
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Ridgewood NJ, Ridgewood resident Boyd Loving caught some pics of blockage in Ho-Ho-Kus Brook near Spring Avenue that may be contributing to flooding at Ridgewood High School. Before we blame every thing on “Climate Change”, in New Jersey, the responsibility of cleaning debris from clogged waterways can vary depending on the location and type of waterway. According to the New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection, “the property owner of the land under the river or stream is responsible for debris removal after a storm event.
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Continue reading Ho-Ho-Kus Crossings : Major Impact on Maple Avenue Corridor
file photo by Boyd Loving
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Ridgewood NJ, the National Weather Service has issued a FLASH FLOOD WATCH , FLASH FLOOD WATCH REMAINS IN EFFECT FROM 8 PM EDT THIS EVENING THROUGH TUESDAY AFTERNOON… The Flash Flood Watch continues for portions of southern Connecticut, northeast New Jersey and southeast New York, including the following areas, in southern Connecticut, Northern Fairfield, Northern Middlesex, Northern New Haven, Northern New London, Southern Fairfield, Southern Middlesex, Southern New Haven and Southern New London. In northeast New Jersey, Eastern Bergen, Eastern Essex, Eastern Passaic, Eastern Union, Hudson, Western Bergen, Western Essex, Western Passaic and Western Union. In southeast New York, Bronx, Kings (Brooklyn), New York (Manhattan), Northeast Suffolk, Northern Nassau, Northern Queens, Northern Westchester, Northwest Suffolk, Orange, Putnam, Richmond (Staten Island), Rockland, Southeast Suffolk, Southern Nassau, Southern Queens, Southern Westchester and Southwest Suffolk.
The Ridgewood Board of Education is proposing more artificial turf for Stevens Field,a district owned field, despite mounting evidence that it presents significant health and safety concerns for those using the fields and to the environment. A recent article in the NJEA Review Magazine ,” Use it? Ban it? quotes the following statements from Dr. Philip Landrigan, a Public Health and Pediatrics Professor at Mount Sinai :“ The companies that are marketing the fields don’t talk about the heat hazards, they don’t talk about the chemical hazards, they don’t talk about the costs that are going to be associated with dismantling the fields when they reach the end of their natural life span, when they must be treated as hazardous waste ….. a better solution is to build fields that are properly drained and are planted with tough species of grass that do not require pesticides.”
Continue reading Feds to Investigate Safety of Crumb Rubber Turf Fields
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Ridgewood NJ, Dr. Fishbein presented the Ridgewood High School Stevens Field Synthetic Turf Replacement Proposal. The field is used seven days a week, during the school day for physical education, as well as by RHS athletics, youth sports, and adult community programs. Dr. Fishbein provided background on the field, explaining that Stevens Field was first completed during the 2009 referendum.
Continue reading Ridgewood Superintendent Lays Out Stevens Field Synthetic Turf Replacement Proposal
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Ridgewood NJ, according to Professional Sports Field Services, “Flood water can destroy the performance of a turf athletic field in a single event. Not that will occur everytime, but the potential is always there.
Thorough and proper planning for the site would have prevented a flood event in the first place. If a flood plane is the chosen site to install a turf field, then some form of mitigation or divergence would be appropriate if allowed by regulating agencies. If not, relocating the field, using natural grass, or some other alternative would be wise. Of course if you are reading this article, then it’s too late for the planning part isn’t it?”
Continue reading Flood water can destroy the performance of a turf athletic field in a single event
photos courtesy of Boyd Loving
August 5,2018
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Ridgewood NJ, RHS athletic field and Stevens Field closed until further notice!
file photo by Boyd Loving
July 25,2018
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Washington DC, Financial Services Committee Chairman Jeb Hensarling (R-TX) delivered the following speech on the House floor today during debate on a bill to extend the National Flood Insurance Program (NFIP) without any reforms to the program:
Mr. Speaker, I come to the floor today to do something I do not often do, and that is I have asked my leadership to put a bill on the floor that I do not support. I’m talking about the bill that would provide for a non-reform re-authorization of the National Flood Insurance Program through the end of November.
I want to make it very clear, Mr. Speaker, I believe this program needs to be re-authorized, and the House has done its work. The House passed a bill with reforms last November.
Never underestimate the Senate’s capacity to do nothing, and unfortunately the Senate has done nothing. But this is a program, Mr. Speaker, that continues to be in dire need of reform.
And now we have re-authorized it without reforms not once, not twice, not three times, not four times, not five times – six times since the Financial Services Committee first reported this bill out. Enough is enough.
Mr. Speaker, we lost in America 116 lives last year to flooding. Billions and billions of dollars of property loss, and yet, we have a program unreformed that incents people to live in harm – incents people to live in harm’s way. We should not do this, Mr. Speaker.
I went and I visited those who survived hurricane Harvey. People that were close to your district, people whose homes have flooded three times in the last eight years, and I heard harrowing tales of survival. And yet we have a program that says, “you know what, we will help you rebuild your same home in the same fashion in the same place… hope you survive next time.” That’s wrong. That’s just wrong, Mr. Speaker.
And, yes, we need more mitigation money, we need better flood control projects, and the House bill had more flood mitigation money than any other reform bill.
But this bill before us has no reforms.
This is a program that the taxpayer has subsidized, so far, by $40 billion. Some of the debt has been forgiven, but it runs a billion and a half dollar deficit every single year, Mr. Speaker. It is unsustainable – the Congressional Budget Office says it, the GAO says it, OMB says it – it is an unsustainable program. The finances do not work.
And then last but not least, Mr. Speaker, it is a government monopoly. It’s a government monopoly when people could, through a competitive marketplace, actually get more affordable, flood insurance. And that’s just not a theory, that’s happening as we speak. In the small little bit of the marketplace that is open to competition, people are saving hundreds, if not thousands of dollars in places like Pennsylvania and in places like Florida. We had testimony in our committee, and so it’s just rather disappointing that again we face the seventh time, the seventh time of not reforming a program that has no market competition, that is fiscally unsustainable, and yet we continue to see premiums skyrocket in the government monopoly.
I do want to thank the gentleman from California, Mr. Royce, and the gentleman on the other side of the aisle, Mr. Blumenauer from Oregon. They tried to put together a reform package with the most minimal, minimal level of reforms, and unfortunately it did not appear to carry the day.
So now, I suspect we will soon cast, with an overwhelming vote, a clean re-authorization, but I don’t think they’re going to take it up in the Senate. Maybe I’m wrong, in which case we will have to deal with this. And I would just simply again ask, particularly for the people on my side of the aisle– I think it helps maybe once or twice a month we ask ourselves Ronald Reagan’s eternal question – “If not us, who? If not now, when?” I invite somebody to answer that question for me.
VILLAGE PARKLANDS
Citizen’s Park
Located at the corner of Godwin Avenue and North Monroe Street. Citizen’s Park includes a softball field, multipurpose field, a small sided softball field, an open play area, benches and gardens.
Dunham Trail
Located between Grove Street and Spring Avenue along the Ho Ho Kus brook and the public service right-of-way. Dunham Trail is one of the Village wildscape areas.
On Dunham trail look for:
Sycamores and a wild cherry tree with shiny gray bark.
Triassic Sandstone, like that used to build Manhattan’s brownstones.
A linden tree wrapped in Poison Ivy rope.
Springtime Dogtooth Violets, False Solomon’s Seal, Spring Beauties, Yellow Primroses, Pink Japanese Knotweed, and the biggest patch of Canadian Mayflowers in Ridgewood.
Graydon Park
Located on the corner of North Maple Avenue and Linwood Avenue. Graydon Park offers a hockey court, skateboard park, basketball courts, swimming, ice-skating, picnic area, shuffleboard, children’s playground, shelter, and restrooms. Click on the following link to find all that Graydon Pool has to offer – Graydon Pool website.
Grove Park
Located on the south side of Grove Street, just west of the Saddle River. This is one of Ridgewood’s wildscape areas, which include nature trails for walking.
In the 32 acres of beech forest and field that make up Grove Park, you will find:
Spring flowers that bloom between April and May before they disappear when the shade thickens.
The tulip poplars are the tallest and straightest trees in the wooded area.
You can look for the honeycombs located on top of the bee tree.
Turkey Tails and fungi can be found on fallen logs.
Kings Pond Park
Located off Lakeview Drive by the Midland Park border. Kings Pond Park offers a natural wildlife area, ice-skating, when permitted, and nature trails for walking. Kings Pond and Gypsy Pond offer a great variety of birds and mammal life.
In the parks you can also find:
Large glacial rocks at Park entrance are Canadian Shield Boulders.
Along the railroad track, wild azalea (pinxter) bloom.
Bracket fern and fiddleheads abound in the woods.
Ducks, Canada Geese and over 40 species of birds live here.
Wild garlic and mustard are abundant.
The general depth of the ponds is about 3 feet.
Leuning Park
Located on the corner of Northern Parkway and Meadowbrook Avenue. Leuning Parks offers an open play area.
Irene Habernickel Family Park
Located at 1037 Hillcrest Road in the northern most corner of the Village, this ten-acre park property has an abundance of mature trees. These trees help to define various areas of the property.
This special park property offers an opportunity for both passive and active recreation through the balance of wide open space, ball fields, natural areas, and a one-acre pond.
In the development stage; plans are to revive the dam and bridge area, install a children’s playground, multi-purpose fields, several walking trails and an arboretum complete with gardens.
This new park is soon to include nature programs as well as other passive opportunities as wildlife prevail such as mammals, reptiles and assorted birds.
Maple Park
Located on the corner of Meadowbrook Avenue and Northern Parkway. Maple Park offers one of Ridgewood wildscape areas as well as a community garden (Link to community garden page), part of the fitness trail (link to the parcourse fitness circuit page), benches, flowers, and nature trails. A regulation turf field hosts soccer, lacross and softball year round.
On the west and east banks of the Ho-Ho-Kus brook between Graydon Pool and Meadowbrook Avenue.
In Maple Park, look for:
A 70-year-old wisteria tree.
One of the largest stands of red cedar in this part of New Jersey.
A Porcupine (Sweet Gum) Tree.
A half dozen of different varieties of fern.
Fig-leaf magnolias with thin graceful leaves.
An herb garden.
On the east side of the brook, delicate grasses, berry bushes, and wild flowers that attract butterflies and birds of many descriptions.
North Road Park
Located on North Road, off of Glen Avenue east of Route 17. This is a natural wildlife area.
Pleasant Park
Located at the end of Stevens Avenue, behind Hawes School. Pleasant Park also offers one of the Village’s wildscape areas.
Pleasant Park offers a natural wildlife area, which includes:
Fallen “nurse” logs, nourishing many insects, lichens, ferns and fungi.
Green beggar ticks, jewelweed, ragweed, and purple loosestrife, all in the late summer.
Quaking aspen trees, with flat leaf stems (petioles) that quiver in the breeze.
New York ferns and lady ferns.
Grape vines.
Sassafras or “mitten” trees, whose name comes from the shape of the leaf.
A tree trunk shaped like a giraffe.
A wide variety of birds reside in this wooded community, which makes for excellent bird watching.
Schedler Property
This recent open space purchase is located between Route 17 and West Saddle River Road with development plans yet to be determined.
Twinney Pond Park
Located at the north end of Red Birch Court. Twinney pond offers a wildlife area, nature trails and ice-skating.
At Twinney Pond Park, this three foot deep kettle pond created by glaciers, you can see the following:
Sunfish as they sweep clean spots on the pond floor to make nests.
Shaggy Birches, Pin Oaks, and Locust Trees.
Veronica, they look like tiny orchids on the ground.
Button Bushes that will produce white pompoms this summer.
Dragonflies, with clear wings outspread, and Damsel Flies, with wings swept back and colored.
The life cycle of a tadpole.
Ice skating when the weather and ice permits.
Memorial Park at Van Neste Square
Located at East Ridgewood Avenue between Walnut Street and Oak Street. Van Neste offers a relaxing location in the center of town. Located in the park are the War Memorial Monument, benches, and gardens.
Veteran’s Field
Located at the corner of Linwood Avenue and Northern and Parkway. Veteran’s field is home to softball fields, hardball fields, multipurpose fields, running track, fitness circuit, amphitheater, open play area, and restrooms. The walking track is 0.452 miles around.