February 1,2017
the staff of the Ridgewood blog
Ridgewood NJ, some reminders for the snowy weather .
Sanitation – Please remember to bring your garbage to the end of your driveway at the curb when snow & ice are forecast for our area.
Sidewalks – Snow must be removed from all residential sidewalks within 24 hours of the snowfall. This is especially important on school walking routes.
JOHN REITMEYER | JANUARY 30, 2017
Superintendent no longer willing to wait for Legislature to fix the problem, says ‘We are going to become the aggressor on this issue’
Kingsway superintendent James Lavender and other school officials announce their legal challenge to New Jersey’s school-aid formula.
School officials in communities all over New Jersey have complained for years about state education-funding inequities, and now lawmakers are holding a series of hearings on the issue — giving clear indications that they plan to address the school-aid problems in the next state budget.
But that new spending plan won’t go into effect until July, and officials representing the Kingsway Regional School District in South Jersey say they can no longer wait on the State House to fix a system that is shorting their students more than $11 million in state aid this year.
Instead, Kingsway regional superintendent James Lavender said district attorneys will be filing a legal brief this week with the state Supreme Court as they attempt to join a new phase of school-aid litigation that Gov. Chris Christie has been seeking to initiate since last year. But unlike Christie, who wants a complete overhaul of the state school-aid law that was enacted in 2008, the Kingsway district is instead pushing only for the invalidation of a “hold harmless” provision that for years has allowed some districts to avoid losing school aid even as others, including Kingsway, have been shortchanged.
By Christopher Baxter and Matthew Stanmyre | NJ Advance Media for NJ.com
on January 30, 2017 at 4:34 PM, updated January 30, 2017 at 8:00 PM
TRENTON — A leading state senator said Monday she will formally urge the state Attorney General’s Office to investigate the top U.S. maker of artificial sports fields, FieldTurf, after the company failed to answer key questions about its sales practices.
During a hearing, Sen. Nellie Pou (D-Passaic) led more than 90 minutes of questioning of the Canadian-based FieldTurf’s CEO, Eric Daliere, focusing on why company officials did not notify all customers of problems with its turf after they became apparent to executives.
“If it was clear that it happened to enough customers throughout the country, early enough, why weren’t actions, the appropriate actions taken?” said Pou, the chairwoman of the Senate Commerce Committee.
Daliere offered a spirited defense of the company, noting that nearly all of the fields in question in New Jersey made it through their eight-year warranty period and emphasizing that the problems with its Duraspine turf did not create a safety hazard for those who used the field.
file photo by Boyd Loving
Reader offers some more practical tips on how to raise a kid that won’t quit:
1. Keep Score in sports
2. Make them get a job that makes real money (from someone other than the parents) ASAP
3. Clean up after themselves
4. Earn perks – do your chores or you don’t get TV, phone, lessons, sports, to attend that party, etc… NO or very, very rare exceptions
5. Don’t buy them everything – they’ll figure out how to get it if it is really important to them
6.They must take care of/look out for/defend/protect siblings
7. Teach them to cook – they should always be able to feed themselves
8. Don’t be their friend, be their parent
January 31,2017
the staff of the Ridgewood blog
Ridgewood NJ, in order for the Financial Advisory Committee to be an effective part of the Village governance the following criteria have to be met:
Publish clear and realistic by-laws
Post agenda’s of all meetings
Post minutes of all meetings promptly
All members must sign Financial disclosure forms
All members must sign NDA’s or non-disclosure forms
These are professional standards that are used and commonly accepted everywhere in the world.
In the real world this is how you run a financial decision body. You also attempt to fill the committee with people who have some experience in finance, not failed or “wannabe” politicians who are promoting their own secret agenda.
Unfortunately, until these criteria are met any Financial Advisory Committee or FAC decision should be viewed with maximum suspicion and nothing more that a joke, a joke that could get the Village involved in massive lawsuits.
…SNOW FROM LATE THIS MORNING INTO THIS EVENING…
…WINTER WEATHER ADVISORY IN EFFECT FROM 10 AM THIS MORNING TO
6 PM EST THIS EVENING…
THE NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE IN UPTON HAS ISSUED A WINTER WEATHER
ADVISORY FOR SNOW…WHICH IS IN EFFECT FROM 10 AM THIS MORNING TO
6 PM EST THIS EVENING.
* LOCATIONS…INTERIOR PORTIONS OF THE LOWER HUDSON VALLEY,
NORTHERN PORTIONS OF NORTHEAST NEW JERSEY AND SOUTHERN FAIRFIELD
COUNTY.
* HAZARD TYPES…SNOW.
* SNOW ACCUMULATIONS…1 TO 4 INCHES.
* TIMING…LATE THIS MORNING UNTIL EARLY THIS EVENING.
* IMPACTS…ACCUMULATING SNOW WILL MAKE UNTREATED SURFACE
SLIPPERY…MAKING DRIVING DIFFICULT AT TIMES.
* TEMPERATURES…IN THE UPPER 20S.
PRECAUTIONARY/PREPAREDNESS ACTIONS…
A WINTER WEATHER ADVISORY FOR SNOW MEANS THAT PERIODS OF SNOW
WILL CAUSE TRAVEL DIFFICULTIES. BE PREPARED FOR SLIPPERY ROADS…
AND USE CAUTION WHILE DRIVING.
A WINTER WEATHER ADVISORY MEANS THAT PERIODS OF SNOW…SLEET…OR
FREEZING RAIN WILL CAUSE TRAVEL DIFFICULTIES. BE PREPARED FOR
SLIPPERY ROADS AND LIMITED VISIBILITIES…AND USE CAUTION WHILE
DRIVING.
January 30, 2017 7:23 PM
RIDGEWOOD, N.J. (CBSNewYork) — Short term room rentals are big business in the New York area, but towns in northern New Jersey are moving to ban them and homeowners could face fines.
Suzanne Warfield told CBS2’s Meg Baker that she thinks of herself as a super host — renting a room in her home for more than two years now, and charging $100 a night — she made more than $14,000 in 2016.
Now, the Village of Ridgewood has put a ban on short-term rentals.
“The village has legitimate concerns about party houses, that’s not me. I am a single woman, enjoy living in this community, and being able to rent a bedroom is allowing me to stay in my home during difficult financial times,” she said.
Many of her guests are repeat customers with ties to the area, or couples looking for a new home.
“Three sets of grandparents who come into town to visit their grandchildren,” she said.
In Ridgewood, there are 63 homes playing host to Air BnB. The village had 3,000 guests in 2016.
Ridgewood’s mayor said the niche travel industry had not been addressed with zoning rules until now.
Dear Parent / Guardian:
Mary Jo Layton , Staff Writer, @MaryjolaytonPublished 12:03 p.m. ET Jan. 30, 2017
The medical center announced plans last week to move its main campus to Paramus, pleasing many Ridgewood neighbors.
It took a decade, but the David vs. Goliath battle many Ridgewood residents waged against The Valley Hospital’s proposed expansion ended Friday with a champagne party at Pete McKenna’s house, the epicenter of the resistance.
Ridgewood NJ, 2016-2017 RHS Maroon & White Series Continues On Thursday, February 2, the Ridgewood High School Department of Fine and Applied Arts will present the third Maroon & White Music Recital and Art Exhibit for the 2016-17 school year. The third of five such events for this year, the concert will be held in the newly renovated RHS Learning Commons beginning at 3:45PM, followed immediately by a reception and gallery opening in the Carroll Art Gallery. Admission is free and open to the public.
The recital will feature four outstanding musicians, presenting a varied program and will begin with a performance by Jacqueline Johnson, a junior soprano vocalist who has performed as a member of the All State Choir, who will perform Tu lo sai by Giuseppe Torelli, Romance by Claude Debussy and The Sky Above the Roof by Ralph Vaughan Williams. Sophomore trombonist Nik Gambardella will continue the program with a performance of the Menuet from Johann Ernst Galliard’s Sonata No. IV. Isaac Peabody, also an All State Choir member in his junior year, will perform Stefano Donaudy’s Spirate pur, spirate, Franz Schubert’s Das Fischermädchen, and Sea Fever by John Ireland. Jonathan Negron, an accomplished All-Bergen County trumpet player in his junior year, will round out the recital by performing Preludio, Aria e Scherzo by Ennio Porrino, a transcription of Franz Liszt’s Hungarian Rhapsody No. 2, and Chet Baker’s I Can’t Get Started.
Following the concert, the February Maroon & White Art Exhibit will officially open in the Carroll Art Gallery. The exhibit will include original works by seven highly accomplished students in a variety of media. The work of senior Maxine Earl varies from realistic, abstract and illustration, all relating to her concentration on influenced emotion. Anna Koontz, a junior, experiments with many different media, with an emphasis on markers and oil pastels. Sophia Swanson, sophomore, creates whimsical illustrations and ethereal portraits using pencil, pen, and colored pencil and has experimented with chalk pastel and watercolor paint, while this exhibit’s other sophomore artist Sarah Taggart, specializes in ceramics. Senior Danielle Testa creates artwork that displays emotions and provokes thought using media from colored pencil to paints to photography, and Julia Yoon, junior, uses oil pastel and pencil drawing to express color and texture in her artwork.
The Maroon and White Recital Series began in 1964 as a means of highlighting outstanding Ridgewood High School musicians in a featured solo capacity. Over the past five decades, the series has expanded to include art exhibits as well as a recital featuring only dancers. Musicians and dancers are selected through competitive audition, while artists are chosen after an extensive portfolio revue. Past Maroon & White recitalists include Jonathan Spitz, principal cellist with the New Jersey Symphony Orchestra, Elizabeth Ostling, associate principal flutist with the Boston Symphony Orchestra, the piano duo of Sarah and Susan Wang, renowned Broadway singer/dancer Ali Stroker, Stephanie Buesser, dancer with Ballet West, New York City choreographer Yael Nachajon, Broadway director Marc Bruni, jazz organist Jared Gold and many others. The list of past artists includes Lauren Roth of Lauren Roth Art, renowned illustrator Kyle McCullough, Giovanni Forlino, whose work can be seen on display at the Getty and Guggenheim museums, plus a host of professional freelance artists who work in a wide variety of visual art related fields.
Upcoming Maroon & White Recital/Exhibits will take place on March 9, April 6 (Dance) and April 27. All recitals are held in the RHS Learning Commons, with the exception of the dance recital, which takes place in the Little Theater. For more information, please contact the RHS Department of Fine and Applied Arts at 201-670-2800 x. 20542.
Sunday, February 5th 2017 from 12:00 noon – 4:30pm
Ridgewood High School
Ridgewood, NJ
Students will be selling door to door on 2/5/17 with a delivery March 4th-5th, 2017
Prices as follows:
Navel Oranges – $26.00
Red Grapefruits -$26.00
Citrus Sampler – $35.00
Fresh Fruit Medley (orange, apples,pears) $26.00
Orders accepted until 02/16/17. Please contact: Eileen Karanikolas: [email protected] for more information. Orders/ checks made out to RHS Band Assoc and can be mailed c/o Eileen Karanikolas 33 Lenox Avenue, Ridgewood , NJ 07450
For more information on the band program and a list of events, visit www.rhsbands.org
file photo by Boyd Loving
January 30,2017
the staff of the Ridgewood blog
Ridgewood NJ, RHS alumnus David Madden hosted the National History Bee and Bowl at Ridgewood High School for the 8th consecutive year in January. Twelve teams comprised of over 50 Ridgewood students competed against students from over 65 high schools.
Four RHS Varsity teams and one JV team made it to the playoffs, with two of those teams advancing to the second round. These students** have now also qualified to compete in the National Championship in Washington D.C. in April: Varsity Team: Ben Amos, Matthew Zachem, Joonho Jung -JV Team: Philip Terman, Cameron Blaire.
** Two additional students do not have media permission to be named.
file photo by ArtChick
Ridgewood is a destination. If you park them they will come. Parking is not just for commuters. It’s for restaurant goers, shoppers and patrons of other businesses. But sadly that ship has sailed. So Ridgewood’s reputations as the town with no parking will continue to proliferate, drivers will continue circling as pedestrians continue having accidents, and the types of businesses we would like to attract will avoid us without assurance of parking for customers. Lack of forward thinking is keeping us locked in a past that is no longer viable and now the damage is beginning to show as businesses leave town. Ridgewood is not a mall, and we should not equate failing Macy’s or Sears with Ridgewood’s CBD, which offers a completely different experience of boutique shops and specialty stores, restaurants and pretty park. I don’t come to town to get my shoes fixed or my nails done. I come to Ridgewood because it’s a nice place to go. The parking garage was a good idea, the study was done, the plans were made – it should have moved forward
photo by ArtChick
It’s true it seems–the Ridgewood library is walking (running?) away from its traditional role as a book lender. E-books are not so convenient or popular a vehicle for substantive reading yet to justify this shift. Sad to say this, but those who run the Ridgewood library may be just as bored with the crucial job of improving the substantive knowledge of the general public as the school district is becoming with respect to the K-12 students. It’s all about process now. There is no longer any need for people to have a solid foundation of raw knowledge in a broad variety of subjects, a ‘la the classic “liberal arts” education. No, today they need only use their cell phones to do a targeted web search (and forget the results five minutes later). So teaching them the bare minimum of how to do a digital search is the only role that really matters for a library or high school. /s
ZONING BOARD OF ADJUSTMENT
AMENDMENT TO MEETING SCHEDULE
SPECIAL PUBLIC MEETING ANNOUNCEMENT
In accordance with the provisions of the “Open Public Meetings Act,” please be advised that the Zoning Board of Adjustment will hold a special public meeting on Tuesday, January 31, 2017, at 7:30 p.m. in the Village Hall Court Room, 131 North Maple Avenue, Ridgewood, NJ.
The Board may take official action during this Work and Public Meeting at which time the Board will hold a public hearing concerning an appeal to the Zoning Board of Adjustment of the Village of Ridgewood from the order, determination, or decision by the Building Department.
All meetings of the Ridgewood Zoning Board of Adjustment (i.e., official public meetings, work session meetings, pre-meeting assemblies and special meetings) are public meetings which are always open to members of the general public.
Jane Wondergem
Secretary to the Board
