Ridgewood NJ, For those age 55+, let us help you redefine your free time and connect with just the right volunteer opportunity to match your skills, interests, and availability. Please stop by our Volunteer Fair on Sunday, March 5 from 2-4pm in the Library’s Auditorium and meet representatives from many organizations. A great chance to sign up or explore some options. We hope to see you there. Sponsored by the Ridgewood Library and Age Friendly Ridgewood.
We want to stay in Ridgewood but on a significantly reduced income it may not be possible. Yes, our mortgage is long paid, But our taxes have increased astronomically. Our quarterly payment is more than my Social Security for 4 months, so all my Social Security for the year goes entirely to taxes. Thank heavens my husband also has Social Security but it is not enough to cover all other expenses .A reduction in taxes could make the difference between staying here or selling our 4 bedroom Colonial to a family with children. Such a family would cost the Village way more in services than we do now.
Ridgewood NJ, Richard A. Norden, MD FACS of Norden Laser Eye Associates has been awarded the 2016 National Doctor’s Choice Award in Ophthalmology, his second year in a row winning this award. The prestigious award is bestowed to a physician selected by other physicians. In order to be eligible to win, a doctor must go through the nomination process, which includes reviews and ratings by other physicians and peers. These reviews are vetted to ensure the credibility of the physician and the review itself. A winner in each category is chosen from each city, and they all compete for the national award.
“I am humbled to win this award,” Dr, Norden said. “To be honored by your peers two years in a row is such a tremendous accomplishment. I am grateful that my colleagues chose to select me as their choice to send themselves, their families, and their patients to.”
Dr. Norden has been performing LASIK surgery for more than two decades. Throughout his career he’s performed LASIK on over 30,000 patients. He was the first doctor in Northern New Jersey to perform LASIK, and he trademarked Custom LASIK. He’s contributed to the field of ophthalmology as well by training hundreds of doctors how to perform LASIK. He’s also contributed to the ophthalmic literature regarding LASIK.
For more information about the award, you can visit Doctor’s Choice Award’s website (https://www.doctorschoiceawards.org/). You can learn more about Richard A. Norden, MD and Norden Laser Eye Associates at 1144 E Ridgewood Ave in Ridgewood, NJ by viewing their website (https://www.nordenlasik.com/about/).
PSE&G Extends Gas Credit into March Customers to save another $12 depending on March usage $37 in total savings from Jan.-Mar.
February 24,2017
the staff of the Ridgewood blog
Ridgewood NJ, Public Service Electric and Gas (PSE&G) announced today that it will extend its bill credit for residential gas customers next month, saving customers another $12 on their bills for March usage.
PSE&G provided bill credits for January and February usage, saving the typical residential gas customer about $25. By extending the credit through March, this customer could save a total of $37.
A typical residential heating customer using 165 therms in March and receiving their supply from PSE&G would see a credit of $12, or a nearly 9 percent reduction, in their one-month bill. Depending on meter reading schedules, many customers will see some of the reduction in March with the remainder in their April bills.
The Jan-Mar. bill credits are in addition to a 3 percent annual bill decrease that took effect Oct. 1, 2016 that is saving the typical customer $26 a year. Since January 2009, annual bills for PSE&G’s typical residential gas heating customers are 53 percent – or $892 – lower due to supply rate reductions.
“This is the third time we have lowered the price of gas for residential customers this winter heating season,” said Jorge Cardenas, PSE&G vice president of asset management and centralized services. “The cost of natural gas continues to be low, and we are happy to pass along these additional savings to our customers.”
PSE&G makes no profit on the sale of natural gas, and passes along what it pays to customers. Last winter, PSE&G gave back $152 million to customers in the form of bill credits. The utility will be returning an estimated $47 million to customers this winter with the credit extension announced today.
Ridgewood NJ, Piccolo Bistro, 29 Chestnut St., Ridgewood is offering special pricing of $25 per person Sunday through Thursday. For details piccolobistro.net. The off is on a 3-course Prix-Fixe menu .
Executive Chef, Giancarlo Borletti specializes in a fine contemporary Mediterranean cuisine. His sustainable and vanguardist style of cooking adds a creative and innovating flair to tradition.
Piccolo Bistro is located at 29 Chestnut Street, Ridgewood, NJ 07450
Ridgewood NJ, Michael Fidanza, a New Jersey licensed real estate broker,announced the opening of a new brokerage, Positive Impact Realty, LLC, located in Ridgewood. Prior to opening Positive Impact Realty, Mr. Fidanza was a licensed salesperson for large franchise broker in Ridgewood for nearly five years.
“Positive Impact Realty was created differently from the very start. We put relationships before profits because people are more important than numbers,” said Mr. Fidanza, founder and broker/owner. “Our mission is to have a positive, meaningful and lasting impact on the lives of our clients, neighbors and communities in which we serve.”
Mr. Fidanza has been a resident of Ridgewood since 1995 and of Bergen County for much of his entire life. His background has been in technology and related industries and professions since 1979. In 2012, Mr. Fidanza joined Keller Williams in Ridgewood and was quite comfortable with their technology-strong agent platforms.
To augment the brokerage offerings, Mr. Fidanza will bring his knowledge and expertise in new media – specifically podcasting, blogging, and publishing on digital and traditional platforms, to the company. “In 2017, we will be launching community-centric initiatives to help residents and groups throughout the year,” said Mr. Fidanza.
Based in Ridgewood, Positive Impact Realty will cover the towns across Northern Bergen County. The main focus of the brokerage will be listing and selling residential properties including luxury homes, new construction, rentals and relocations.
….the fly has learned that a proprietor of a food establishment frequented by Ridgewood High School students during lunch periods (who wishes to remain anonymous) is reporting that employees of the business find a large number of discarded coins (several dollars worth) in their trash receptacles on a daily basis (yes, DAILY).
Seemingly, the youths of Ridgewood can’t be bothered carrying around loose change, so they just throw it away.
I wonder if behavior like this is being learned at home.
Ridgewood NJ, Ridgewood PD Patrol Officers Colin Donnelly and Kyle Scarpa rendered assistance to an adult female with physical disabilities whose SUV became stuck on a small retaining wall in the parking lot of a medical office building located at 85 South Maple Avenue, Ridgewood on Thursday afternoon, 02/23. A flatbed tow truck successfully freed the vehicle from its predicament and the SUV was able to be driven away on its on power. The driver was uninjured in the mishap.
Mark Krulish , Staff Writer, @Mark_Krulish6:54 p.m. ET Feb. 23, 2017
Ridgewood — Testimony on behalf of an applicant proposing a multifamily housing development on Chestnut Street concluded in front of the Planning Board on Tuesday, though more steps remain before a final vote is taken.
The board will have the opportunity for its own experts to testify and undergo cross-examination. There will also be time for public comment on any aspect of the proposal before a final attorney summation and board discussion.
In 2016 alone, more than 6,000 New Jersey hosts earned over $50 million by renting out their home or a room to visitors through Airbnb.
Representing a 100 percent increase compared to 2015, New Jerseyans welcomed approximately 257,000 people for a short stay last year, according to figures released this month by the San Francisco-based company.
Airbnb said the typical New Jersey host earns $6,200 in supplemental income annually, often using the extra cash to make rent or mortgage payments, save for retirement or repay student loans.
Typical listings are occupied 44 nights per year, the company said, and the average length of stay is about four nights.
“We are proud to see that more and more New Jerseyans have discovered home sharing as an opportunity to share their community with visitors from around the world, and earn a little bit of extra money along the way,” said Josh Meltzer, head of northeast public policy for Airbnb. “From the Jersey Shore to Jersey City, Airbnb hosts are ambassadors to the Garden State and we are grateful they have embraced home sharing as a way to welcome thousands of visitors.”
New Jersey’s top five cities by number of guest arrivals:
Jersey City: $11.35 million through 53,828 guest arrivals Union City: $4.3 million through 22,592 guest arrivals Ocean City: $2.7 million through 15,403 guest arrivals Weehawken: $3.2 million through 14,166 guest arrivals Atlantic City: $1.4 million through 11,244 guest arrivals
At a recent council meeting I asked the council to consider asking our CFO to prepare a report on the feasibility of a property tax reduction, such as 10%, for seniors–whether all seniors or only those with income under a certain level (based on income tax returns) TBD. Other towns do this. It’s fiscally sound for all: a house sold by one or two seniors will go to a family with children, further burdening the school system. With our new all-day kindergarten, and the strong possibility of numerous new apartments looming, we will attract more people with very young children attending school from K through 12. Seniors are around during the day to keep an eye on the neighborhood when others are at work. Seniors volunteer and patronize stores, restaurants, the movie theater, and services such as hair salons on weekdays. A tax reduction each year, especially as taxes rise but a fixed income does not, might help some seniors to remain. Another point that needs to be far more widely known is that seniors with income under a specified amount are entitled to a property tax reduction through the state. The council and website should announce this and provide details, links, forms at Village Hall, etc.
NJ’s public sector pension plans are expected to be mostly insolvent by 2027 as the pension demands of retirees far outweigh the capital appreciation and new contributions to the fund. That’s what happens when you assume 7.95% annual pension fund returns (not adjusted for inflation) and 1980s era mortality data to pay for “special” retirements after 25 years of service. The fact is people are living longer than they were in the 1980s. So NJ has public sector retirees who will earn more from their pension (plus health plan benefit cost savings before Medicare kicks in) than they did in their 25 years of service. For example, the average PFRS retirement age is 52. If that retiree lives to 84,the recent expected average male lifespan in the US, then they’ll draw a pension for 32 years vs. only 25 years of service. This is nothing more than a Ponzi scheme where retirees are taking out much more than the <10% they actually contributed from wages could ever earn in the pension funds. Simply, the pension math no longer works.
There is no ‘fix’ possible. We are well past the point where a ‘fix’ could be implemented.
The optimal path now (something that Christie intentionally/unintentionally followed) is to hasten the demise of the unsustainable pension liabilities. Restructuring is inevitable, the sooner it is done the better it will be for all sides – pensioners as well as taxpayers.
Ridgewood NJ, in a 2017’s Best & Worst States to Raise a Family Wallet hub the Study gave New Jersey high marks rating the Garden state 7th best state in the nation for raising a family.
The survey was predicted on the idea that ,”raising a healthy, stable family sometimes requires moving to a new state. And the reasons are often similar: career transitions, better schools, financial challenges or perhaps a general desire to change settings.
But wants and needs don’t always align in a particular state, which might offer, for instance, a low income-tax rate yet subpar education system. Consequently, a family must make unnecessary sacrifices — the kinds that are easily avoided by knowing which states offer the best combination of qualities that matter most to parents and their kids.
To help with the evaluation process, WalletHub’s data team compared the 50 states and the District of Columbia based on 40 key indicators of family-friendliness. Our data set ranges from “median family salary” to “housing affordability” to “unemployment rate. Read on for the complete ranking, relocation advice from experts and a full description of our methodology.”
The WalletHub analysis used 40 key indicators of family friendliness for its ranking.
The study ranked New Jersey as:
11th best in the country for the percentage of families with kids
9th best for child care costs, adjusted for median family income
4th best for infant mortality rate
10th best for median family salary (adjusted for cost of living)
13th best for violent crime rate
11th best for percentage of families below the poverty level
Ridgewood NJ, as many of our reader’s are well aware when you fly its mandatory to have a boarding pass to get on the plane.
Right before boarding an airplane we hold onto our boarding passes like our lives depend upon it. But after we board, many, if not all of us, do not care anymore about the boarding pass. Sometimes we leave it in the plane, other times we leave it in the hotel room, or just chuck it in the garbage.
But this careless can get you into so much trouble.According to “Krebs on Security” there is personal information encrypted on your boarding pass. After someone took a screen shot of the bar code on the ticket, you will be amazed of how much personal information that person can get about you: home address, banking info, email address, phone number.
Watch the video and share it for others to learn about the risks and damage of being careless with their boarding pass!
Maurie Backman, The Motley FoolPublished 9:03 a.m. ET Feb. 21, 2017 | Updated 24 hours ago
We all want to save money for retirement, but these 5 costs that retirees face might shock you. USA TODAY NETWORK
Do you have a will or trust in place? Your loved ones could face a world of upheaval without one.
When most of us start planning for retirement, we think about things like what our living costs will be and how much money we’ll have access to. Many of us, in fact, get so focused on how much we are or aren’t saving that we fail to make one critical move: creating a will or living trust.
In a recent Caring.com study, 58% of American adults admitted to not having either type of crucial document in place. Even scarier, among adults with children under the age of 18, that figure climbed to 64% of folks without a formal estate plan.
Now the good news is that older Americans are more likely to have a will or trust than their younger counterparts. Here’s how the data breaks down:
AGE GROUP 18 TO 36 PERCENTAGE OF PEOPLE WITH A WILL OR TRUST 22%
37 to 52 36%
53 to 71 60%
72 and older 81%
Data source: Caring.com.
Though it’s not surprising to see that almost 80% of younger Americans don’t have a will, it’s an attitude that can hurt Millennials as easily as it can folks 20 or 30 years their senior. And while you might think you have plenty of time to draw up a will, or that not having one isn’t such a big deal, it’s a mistake that could be far costlier than you might imagine.
