Ridgewood’s Valley Hospital sues over rejection of expansion project
OCTOBER 3, 2014, 11:53 PM LAST UPDATED: FRIDAY, OCTOBER 3, 2014, 11:56 PM BY MARY JO LAYTON STAFF WRITER THE RECORD
The Valley Hospital filed suit Friday against the Ridgewood Planning Board for rejecting its proposal to nearly double in size, arguing the board illegally sided with neighborhood opponents rather than permitting an upgrade for “an inherently beneficial regional hospital.”
For Valley, the lawsuit filed in state Superior Court in Hackensack is an attempt to end a protracted and costly stalemate with the village — its expansion plans have been defeated two times in the last four years.
Ridgewood Board of Education honors record-setting swimmer Charlotte Samuels
SEPTEMBER 22, 2014, 9:49 PM LAST UPDATED: MONDAY, SEPTEMBER 22, 2014, 9:50 PM BY CHRIS HARRIS STAFF WRITER THE RECORD
RIDGEWOOD — Open water swimming sensation Charlotte Samuels smiled widely Monday evening as the Board of Education recognized the 16-year-old athlete’s record-setting feat.
Charlotte — who recently returned from Britain, where she swam the English Channel to become the youngest person to complete open water swimming’s Triple Crown — thanked all the members of Ridgewood’s school board for the honor.
“This is the first time in my career I get to honor someone for breaking a world record,” said Superintendent of Schools Daniel Fishbein, before reading a resolution noting Charlotte’s swimming prowess.
The resolution expressed the board’s congratulations while extending to Charlotte “their best wishes for success in all future endeavors.”
Charlotte received a standing ovation from the 15-member audience, which also included her parents, Steven and Suzanne Samuels.
Sheila Brogan, the school board president, said she was both proud of the Ridgewood High School student, and “in awe” of her.
Parking Meter Scandal : he could not have acted alone
Readers continue to speculate on parking meter security issues and continue to come up with one resounding conclusion ,he could not have acted alone .
Even a $41 million renovation of the Ridgewood Train station did not change the out dated parking meter system .
While ,Village officials said a forensic accounting firm has been retained to examine how a former employee managed to steal $460,000 in quarters from parking meters.
Although I’m not convinced that all meters would need to be replaced in order to implement a closed container/collection system, I’ll give the Village Manager the benefit of the doubt.
But, at a minimum, they should deep six those open white paint buckets/pickle containers and have all collectors use the carts depicted here:
https://www.pom.com/collectionsystems.htm
Continuing to use those buckets is a huge security risk, for the individual collecting monies (holdup/robbery) and for taxpayers (shrinkage).
It is actually very funny that we can’t afford to secure the Villages’s cash. I’m sure there is a solution out there that costs less than $460,000.
They made a deal and I’m hoping the whole story will come out eventually. Who in the police dept. is/are being protected?
Yet again, taxpayers getting screwed to protect some mob/union crony(ies) in Village Hall and/or the PD. Put in smart meters like NYC and let people use credit cards… how are we doing on Tommy Boy’s restitution ? Is he paying us back every week? The guy is obviously a wise guy, and refused to rat out his minders in Village Hall.
Ridgewood council weighs costs of turf versus grass
AUGUST 14, 2014 LAST UPDATED: THURSDAY, AUGUST 14, 2014, 3:48 PM BY LAURA HERZOG STAFF WRITER
Artificial turf appears to cost less to maintain than grass, at least on Maple Field.
According to Village Manager Roberta Sonenfeld, an estimated $121,500 was spent maintaining the turf on Maple Field during an eight-year period from 2006 to 2014.
Turf king endorses Aronsohn, Hauck and Puciarell criticizes police and firemen, attacking salary and benefits
TAKEN FROM THE RIDGEWOOD BLOG (Archived ) You should read the whole article.
From 2009-2010 Brian Abdoo repeatedly endorsed the multi-million dollar controversial turf projects at Stadium and Stevens fields. As we all know the turf has been an unmitigated disaster resulting in Ridgewood Taxpayers incurring the burden of costly repairs
Turf king endorses Aronsohn, Hauck and Puciarell criticizes police and firemen, attacking salary and benefits
Moments ago, after a long day at work I sat down to review my personal emails, check school info and sports emails, kids schedule, etc. In the mix was an email from Brian Abdoo who I know from a number of sports programs my kids are involved in. I began reading the Abdoo’s endorsement of candidates, Aronsohn, Hauck and Puciarelli. The more I read the sicker I became. Abdoo has thoroughly disgusted me with his hypocritical rhetoric.
From 2009-2010 Brian Abdoo repeatedly endorsed the multi-million dollar controversial turf projects at Stadium and Stevens fields. As we all know the turf has been an unmitigated disaster resulting in Ridgewood Taxpayers incurring the burden of costly repairs.
Now, this same Brian Abdoo wants to express concern over taxes? He attempts to peddle Paul Aronsohn’s gimmicky zero based budgeting. Even my 6th grader understands built-in inherent cost increases. Abdoo states he wants more transparency and Village Council should “open the books”. The fact that Brian Abdoo is ignorant should not persuade anyone to his argument. Brian, the books are open. They are a matter of public record and are available for anyone to review. Brian, feel free to visit APP DataUniverse if there is anything you need to know. However, Mr. Abdoo, while doing your research you likely will not find the value of your candidate Aronsohn’s health care costs, at village taxpayer expense, for the past four years. Mr. Abdoo, while Mr. Aronsohn is busy telling you he wants to help Ridgewood Taxpayers, he has been busy helping himself for four years . Brian Abdoo proceeds to attack our police and firemen, attacking their salary and benefits. If this is such a concern why on earth would he support Aronsohn who voted for each and every raise, and contract , pertaining to the police & fire department. Maybe he prefers regionalized police and fire departments like Hauck and Puciarelli. Hauck announced the savings for each village taxpayer during the debate: a whopping $ 285 each! For that money I will sleep better at night with Village police and firemen.
Abdoo professes the revitalization of Ridgewood downtown and how committed each of his threesome is to this goal. Mr. Abdoo, Paul Aronsohn is the Council liaison to the Chamber of Commerce. What has he been doing for the past four years? Shopping at the mall? And Hauck and Puciarelli prefer a more urbanized Ridgewood. If they want urbanization let them move to Hoboken.
Best for last, Abdoo states each of these candidates is committed to helping Valley and residents to negotiate a compromise to allow for expansion. For goodness sake, Brian, where has Al Puciarelli been? He has been a member of the planning board forever. Hauck didn’t speak of compromise when she endorsed the massive expansion, as is, over and over again. Valley Hospital is not interested in compromise. The only time that was suggested by Valley was at the last Village Council hearing. Audrey Meyers, seeing the writing on the wall, begged council to hold off their vote so Valley could develop a compromise. Seriously, where was the compromise for six years?
Mr. Abdoo, reconsider and bullet for Killion and Shinizuka before we are in another turf-like drowning mess attributable to the likes of you.
Reader says it only fair that the Sports Groups step up and contribute to maintenance and depreciation of the turf fields
If the sports clubs have gotten so much value out of the fields, I would think it only fair that they step up and contribute to maintenance and depreciation. It shouldn’t always be the VC or BOE (the rest of us). Given that maintenance seems to be running about $100K year and depreciation another $200K for $1.5M to replace the carpets after a flood-shortened 7 year life, the sports clubs should be contributing on the order of $100K.
Raise dues if you have to — it’s part of the true cost of doing business.
And did they ever contribute everything they had promised for the lights?
Readers Say Turf Fields Exacerbate Village Flooding
Is seems ever time it rans now , significance damage is done to our playing fields and Village property .
We were told the turf fie;ds would drain faster , well yes they sure do but the water still needs some place to go like the Village Hall , the Ridgewood library .
Since the Village Hall Rebuilding Fiasco , and the addition of turf fields along the Ho Ho Kus brook the 50 year flood has now become an almost yearly event .
Is it time to recognize the damage to the environment all this turf is doing ?
The problem is not just the fields at Stevens ,Maple and the RHS Stadium but the many turf fields all along the banks of our rivers all over Bergen County . Again the water needs some place to go .
Maple Park flooded over into Meadowbrook on Aug. 1.
Police had to direct traffic. I was part of the directed traffic on my way home from the library. It was scary and dangerous driving through the flooded street. That’s why the police had to be called out.
I was coming home from the library where my shoes and socks and pants had gotten soaking wet as I had to wade to my car, in leg deep water. Note: Not ankle deep; leg deep, above the ankles.
Before Maple Field was turned artificial, REAC had done a report stating that artificial turf is safe for Maple field and good for the environment.
If the rains had continued the new village hall and new library would have been flooded.
Flooding was not supposed to occur there. Supposedly Ridgewood engineering experts had designed the buildings to prevent flooding.
You know what, the members of REAC should pay to have the artificial truf (grass) removed from Maple Field and real, mother nature’s grass replanted.
Trust me as they say: The kids will profit by playing on real grass.
Readers Question the wisdom of reducing traffic lanes at Garber Square
Would be interested in knowing how much additional funds were needed to make Wilsey and Garber Squares into one lanes vs. repaving existing setup. Not completely sure what they are trying to achieve at this location with the narrow roadways — is speeding/pedestrian safety a major issue around that stretch?
Starting Wednesday, May 7th, paving construction work will begin on the West Side at Wilsey and Garber Squares from Godwin Avenue to under the train trestle on Franklin Avenue. Expect traffic congestion in this area for the next 3 months during construction. To avoid delays, we suggest the use of alternate streets to get across the train tracks – Ackerman Avenue or W. Glen Avenue.
Ridgewood NJ, Amelia Ortiz had some extra pep in her step as she boarded her train Wednesday morning. It might have been the coffee.
Flo’s Depot at the Ridgewood train station officially opened for business Tuesday morning, exactly one week after its originally scheduled unveiling. No one, including Ortiz, seemed to mind the seven-day delay – after all, they have been waiting for almost five years for a coffee stand to re-open at the spot.
When New Jersey Transit began a multi-million dollar renovation project and forced the last coffee stand to permanently close its doors in 2009, morning rail riders were compelled to seek their caffeine jolts and breakfasts-on-the-go from other sources. For those residents opting against a travel mug of java from home, the extra stop at a nearby shop or bakery posed a minor inconvenience.
Ridgewood NJ, April 9, 2014 – The Ridgewood blog was founded in March of 2006 by James J Foytlin aka PJ Blogger .[1] Mr. Foytlin was born and raised in Ridgewood ,New Jersey and is a graduate of Ridgewood High School .[2] [3]
After many years living in New York City[4] Mr Foytlin returned to Ridgewood after a divorce and the tragic events of 9/11 . Once he settled in he noticed a lack of sufficient news coverage of local events . One day a friend from Brazil[5] showed him her home town on the internet and to Mr. Foytlin’s great surprise when he tried to reciprocate he was utterly dismayed at the absolute lake coverage of his home town. After all Ridgewood is only 18 miles from midtown Manhattan[6] the media capitol of world and there was not a single picture of Ridgewood to be found . How could this be? Ridgewood is a picturesque upper middle class village of around 25,000 located in Bergen county in northern New Jersey[7] . Founded by Dutch settlers before it became an English colony[8] . The town or village as its called is steeped in rich history and tradition .Known for a large amount of Victorian era housing , a quality school system and a family friendly atmosphere.
Though busy getting reacquainted with his home town the fact that the Village of Ridgewood was so under represented on the internet continued to disturb Mr. Foytlin. Mr. Foytlin had been writing news letters for his job in financial services since the mid 1990’s . The popular flip, off beat investment strategy news letters had become email blasts with the advent of readily accessible internet.[9] By 2004 the email blasts were converted into blog format for the One Small Voice blog (https://onesmallvoice.blogspot.com/ ). [10]
Around that time the Village of Ridgewood had finally completed it’s much anticipated and long delayed renovation of the Village hall which has been flooded out due to Hurricane Floyd.[11] The renovation was marred by huge cost over runs and lengthy delays. In 2005 it opened with great fan fare , was once again flooded with the very first rain . Mr. Foytlin was more shocked by the abject lack of responsibility taken by elected officials than the fact that the $9 million dollar renovation had to some extent been a failure . That was the breaking point and Mr. Foytlin had had enough so he decided to give , citizen journalism a go and created the Ridgewood blog in March of 2006. [12]
The birth of PJ Blogger .By this time Blogging its seems had become quite the rage and mainstream news anchors such as Dan Rather had questioned the validity of information from non professionals sitting around in their Pajama’s blogging.[13] Mr. Foytlin not a fan of Dan Rather or any of the mainstream media decided to blog under the name PJ Blogger as a play on words and to plant himself firmly in the camp of the new digital media.
Innovations by the Ridgewood blog to citizen journalism.
“The Fly” is a column on the Ridgewood blog the originates from the expression ,”I’d like to be a fly on the wall “ . The idea is that every citizen has both a unique perspective and experience and these two factors can be used to gather news and opinions about local issues. Originally only of handful of people in town participated but with time the Ridgewood blog can now count on 30–50 semi regular contributors. These post are both anonymous and signed and are largely opinion as well a breaking news.[14]
The Ridgewood blog brings a free market lassie fare point of view to local issues . Mr. Foytlin aka PJ Blogger has stated that for local issues there are only two kinds of people ;the ones who say spend what every you want because I will not be around to pay the bill and the second group which are more focused on the ,”be careful this is my money your spending” . The Ridgewood blog is dedicated to the interplay of there two groups.[15]
[1][12] the Ridgewood blog website https://theridgewoodblog.blogspot.com/
[2] Birth Certificate born in Valley Hospital , Ridgewood 04/09/1962
[3] Ridgewood High School Class 1980
[4] 444 East 86th street ,530 East 72nd
[5] Monica Rocha
[6] Mapquest
[7] United States 2000 Census, the village population was 24,936.
[8] https://www.americantowns.com/nj/ridgewood/organization/vi…
[9] Fahnestock & Co. now Oppenheimer & Co.
[10] https://onesmallvoice.blogspot.com/
[11] https://www.ridgewoodlibrary.org/localhistory/lh_vh_pease.htm
[13] https://www.opinionjournal.com/diary/?id=110005611
[14] [15] James J Foytlin
Editors note : History has shown us the problem is the Village simply has “ZERO” credibility in its ability to plan ,manage and implement large projects and too many seem to have their vision clouded by personal gain.
No one wants to see empty lots in the CBD , nor do most want to live in the “next, next ” Hoboken .
Like the Train Station renovation before , there is a way for everyone to get something positive, add housing , improve infrastructure , take into account schools and of coarse parking.
Whats lacking is a vision for the future of the Village. A vision uniquely by Ridewood ,for Ridgewood. Not about people getting elected or speculators getting rich off government connections .
This Vision must include Valley Hospital, CBD housing ,retail and parking , traffic and the Ridgewood School district.
The Village with its excellent schools , parks ,CBD, cultural institutions and easy access to transportation offers a very unique opportunity .
If we chose to destroy the character of the town , the very character that has attracted so many to the Village over the years , we will lose the very thing that makes us who we are….
The people advocating for high density buildings (and for Valley Hospital over expansion for that matter) do not care about our town. They care about making money. Once they make their money, if they don’t like what the town is like they will be able to leave. There is no middle ground we can get to right now because they want maximum $$. They will first try for maximum $$ via high density, and only if we defeat them will they come down a notch and try for slightly less (see Valley Hospital). Maybe after several defeats we might get to a middle ground, but even that will be temporary. People like this do not give up. 10 years after we reach a middle ground solution (if we do) they will be right back at it (or their children will take the helm) seeking to make $$ by ruining our Village…..
I think that is what has to be discussed. But to right away jump to conclusion and think over night or even years Ridgewood would turn into any of your examples is foolish and not forward thinking.
You think modernization and growth and you assume that means higher crime, noise, traffic and every negative thing you can imagine… But it doesn’t have to be that way if you develop a sustainable plan for growth through a thoughtful process.
The contextual makeup of Ridgewood is not sustainable. Look every town around us…. Minus glen rock… We are a old folks home… And it’s sad because we have an opportunity to be an example of a modern town that still remains true to its roots.
It doesn’t have to be an all or nothing deal. What i am really saying is that we are going to expand… No way around it it will happen eventually, just being honest. I rather the people that do care about this towns and it’s history be the ones making the plans and not the (as number one stated) money Hungary investors that can up and leave if it fails.
What rather you have?…..
We don’t want to follow the path of Hoboken, Paterson, Hackensack or NYC. Is there a suitable model out there?….
New coffee stand will brew at Ridgewood train station
Tuesday February 4, 2014, 10:03 AM
BY DARIUS AMOS
STAFF WRITER
The Ridgewood News
The Village of Ridgewood is now accepting bids from vendors who are interested in leasing and operating a new coffee stand at the Ridgewood train station, which has been without that particular service since 2009.
The deadline to submit proposals is 11 a.m. Feb. 20, when all public bids will be opened.
Flawed bid process will delay Maple Field cleanup in Ridgewood
TUESDAY DECEMBER 17, 2013, 10:32 AM
BY DARIUS AMOS
STAFF WRITER
THE RIDGEWOOD NEWS
The Ridgewood Council has rejected the lone bid it received for the Maple Park turf cleaning job, a move that will delay a much-needed procedure at one of the village’s most used fields.
According to a council resolution unanimously passed last week, the village will put the project back out for public bid because the initial bid process was declared flawed.
