First of all, it’s not your town, and if you think Van Neste is an oasis of calm, you’re living in a time warp. Ridgewood has become a small city and don’t even think about blaming past councils, boards or the chamber. The residents of the village have collectively allowed this to happen as its median set of values is now drastically different than it was 30 years ago.
“median set of values” what is that? Translate: Do you mean, crowded , noisey, Hobokeny, Times Square, For me , I have lived here about 40 years, it still has that oh so wonderful small village feel and charm quality, and listen when I sit my old ass in Van Neste which I do often, it is quiet, an oasis of peace and charm coupled with natural beauty, trees, plants, grass and past citizen nostalgia (bricks, monuments) amidst the hustle and bustle of the downtown. Let’s keep the downtown no more developed than what it is. It is a really small space, so villagey and quaint. Don’t stuff it.
This is what I experience at Van Neste Park. Peace, calm , tranquility, beauty. I want to keep it that way.
And when I say it is MY TOWN, I am speaking POETICALLY, Of course it is OUR TOWN. I am trying to express my love and appreciation for what Ridgewood has and what I want to preserve. I am sorry you don’t understand. Take literature 101.
I was just at Van Neste,12:30 on Friday, a veritable slice of heaven, with people on benches quietly eating what looked like bagged lunches., some people just sitting and looking, walkers along the path, some dressed as workers, others as exercisers. Super peaceful and beautiful and calm, with even a working bubbler, water fountain, that is all that is needed in the way of water. Ni big fountain, please. And please, no fences on Walnut. Why make it ugly. Does Vanianos and company envision alcohol fueled parties with loud metallica noise-muzac, going late into night, Does the village manager and company envision alcohol fueled events at Van Neste and drunken people falling off the edge. That makes me very angry. The field stone wall around the park on Walnut is all that is needed. Get rid of Roberta and her cronies already. Let those who love Ridgewood RULE.
Paul Vaggianos was the first to get up at the mic at a town council meeting a year or two ago and ask that Van Neste be changed to accommodate lighting at night and entertainment every weekend.
Vaggianos said, “Let’s bring everyone together at Van Nest on the weekends.”
I obviously remember that. I was very saddened by his suggestion. Paul Aronsohn as mayor at the time was very receptive. I spoke against the idea at council meetings. I tried. I love Van Neste as a quiet park as it is now, an oasis of calm and beauty midst the busy downtown. Very charming invention!! Let’s keep it that way. Paul Vaggianos was happy with the big garage at Hudson. I wasn’t and wrote and spoke against it from day one. Vaggianos is a business owner in town and has influence , I have no influence. I think it would be wonderful to preserve Ridgewood a for future generations to experience, no expansion, not more congested. A town with easy accessibility to the Big Apple but with a small town charming quality. And yes, Van Neste is a big part of that as it is right in the center of the CBD. It says something by virtue of letting people experience of oasis of natural beauty and quiet in the midst of the hustle and bustle of a busy but small and charming downtown. ( I love that oasis ……sentence I made up)
Ridgewood NJ, this is a Recommended Reading List from C.S. Lewis ,looks like it time to hit the Ridgewood library.
Clive Staples Lewis (1898–1963) was one of the intellectual giants of the twentieth century and arguably one of the most influential writers of his day. He was a Fellow and Tutor in English Literature at Oxford University until 1954, when he was unanimously elected to the Chair of Medieval and Renaissance Literature at Cambridge University, a position he held until his retirement.
Lewis wrote more than thirty books, allowing him to reach a vast audience, and his works continue to attract thousands of new readers every year. C. S. Lewis’s most distinguished and popular accomplishments include Mere Christianity, Out of the Silent Planet, The Great Divorce, The Screwtape Letters, and the universally acknowledged classics in The Chronicles of Narnia. To date, the Narnia books have sold over 100 million copies and been transformed into three major motion pictures.
Aeschylus, The Eumenides (5th BCE)
Sophocles, Oedipus Rex (c. 429 BCE)
Aristotle, Poetics (335 BCE)
Virgil
The Georgics (29 BCE)
The Aeneid (29-19 BCE)
Lucian, Vera Historia (2nd)
Apuleius, Metamorphoses/The Golden Ass (late 2nd)
Unknown, Beowulf (8th-11th)
Unknown, The Song of Roland (11th-12th)
Laȝamon, Brut (c. 1190-1215)
Unknown, Huon of Bordeaux (c. 1216-1268)
Snorri Sturluson, The Prose Edda (early 13th)
Dante, Divine Comedy (1308-20)
Geoffrey Chaucer
The Canterbury Tales (late 14th)
Troilus and Criseyde (1380s)
Unknown, Sir Gawain and the Green Knight (late 14th)
Sir Thomas Malory, Le Morte Darthur (1485)
Ludovico Ariosto, Orlando Furioso (c. 1516)
Arthur Brooke, The Tragical History of Romeus and Juliet (1562)
Sir Philip Sidney, Arcadia (late 16th)
Edmund Spenser, The Faerie Queene (1590s)
William Shakespeare
Romeo & Juliet (1591-5)
Twelfth Night (1601-2)
The Winter’s Tale (1611)
A Midsummer Night’s Dream (1590-7)
Henry V (c. 1599)
John Donne, “The Apparition” (early 17th)
Michael Drayton, “The Shepherds Sirena” (1627)
Thomas Browne, Urn Burial (1658)
Jean Racine
Andromaque (1667)
Phèdre (c. 1677)
John Milton
Paradise Lost (1667-74)
Samson Agonistes (1671)
Alexander Pope, The Rape of the Lock (1712-4)
Jonathan Swift, Gulliver’s Travels (1726, 1735)
Voltaire
“Micromégas” (1752)
Candide (1759)
Samuel Johnson, The History of Rasselas, Prince of Abissinia (1759)
William Beckford, Vathek, an Arabian Tale (1782)
James Boswell, Life of Johnson (1791)
Samuel Taylor Coleridge, The Rime of the Ancient Mariner (1798)
William Wordsworth
“Michael” (1800)
The Excursion (1814)
Jane Austen, Pride & Prejudice (1813)
Walter Scott, Guy Mannering (1815)
Benjamin Constant, Adolphe (1816)
John Keats, “Ode on a Grecian Urn” (1819)
James Hogg, The Private Memoirs and Confessions of a Justified Sinner (1824)
Percy Bysshe Shelley, The Witch of Atlas (1824)
Elias Lönnrot, The Kalevala (1835-49)
Alexandre Dumas, The Count of Monte Cristo (1844)
Charles Dickens
The Pickwick Papers (1836)
Great Expectations (1861)
William Makepeace Thackeray, Vanity Fair (1848)
Edward Fitzgerald, Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam (1859-89)
Anthony Trollope, Barchester Towers (1857)
Leo Tolstoy, War and Peace (1869)
George Eliot, Middlemarch, A Study of Provincial Life (1871-2)
Samuel Butler, Erewhon (1872)
Lewis Carroll, “The Hunting of the Snark” (1874-6)
Fyodor Dostoyevsky, The Brothers Karamazov (1880)
Robert Louis Stevenson
Treasure Island (1883)
Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde (1886)
Edwin Abbott, Flatland: A Romance of Many Dimensions (1884)
John Ruskin, Praeterita (1885)
Henry James, The Turn of the Screw (1898)
H.G. Wells
First Men in the Moon (1901)
“The Door in the Wall” (1911)
Beatrix Potter, Tales (1902-1930)
Joseph Conrad, Nostromo (1904)
E.R. Burroughs, Tarzan (1912-1965)
Kenneth Grahame, The Wind in the Willows (1908)
Arnold Bennett, The Old Wives’ Tale (1908)
James Stephens, The Crock of Gold (1912)
D.H. Lawrence, Sons and Lovers (1913)
Gertrude Stein, “Sacred Emily” (1913)
James Branch Cabell, Jurgen, A Comedy of Justice (1919)
Kafka, The Castle (1926)
Mervyn Peake, Titus Groan (1946)
J.R.R. Tolkien, Lord of the Rings (1954-5)
Ridgewood NJ, its that time of the year again and that time is back to school . While the new trend in “education” is to limit free speech , “coddle and protect the innocent victims” and create “safe spaces” . Some schools thankfully will have none of this .
This is Not a Day Care. It’s a University!’
This past week, I actually had a student come forward after a university chapel service and complain because he felt “victimized” by a sermon on the topic of 1 Corinthians 13. It appears that this young scholar felt offended because a homily on love made him feel bad for not showing love. In his mind, the speaker was wrong for making him, and his peers, feel uncomfortable. I’m not making this up. Our culture has actually taught our kids to be this self-absorbed and narcissistic. Any time their feelings are hurt, they are the victims. Anyone who dares challenge them and, thus, makes them “feel bad” about themselves, is a “hater,” a “bigot,” an “oppressor,” and a “victimizer.” I have a message for this young man and all others who care to listen. That feeling of discomfort you have after listening to a sermon is called a conscience. An altar call is supposed to make you feel bad. It is supposed to make you feel guilty. The goal of many a good sermon is to get you to confess your sins—not coddle you in your selfishness. The primary objective of the Church and the Christian faith is your confession, not your self-actualization. So here’s my advice: If you want the chaplain to tell you you’re a victim rather than tell you that you need virtue, this may not be the university you’re looking for. If you want to complain about a sermon that makes you feel less than loving for not showing love, this might be the wrong place. If you’re more interested in playing the “hater” card than you are in confessing your own hate; if you want to arrogantly lecture, rather than humbly learn; if you don’t want to feel guilt in your soul when you are guilty of sin; if you want to be enabled rather than confronted, there are many universities across the land (in Missouri and elsewhere) that will give you exactly what you want, but Oklahoma Wesleyan isn’t one of them. At OKWU, we teach you to be selfless rather than self-centered. We are more interested in you practicing personal forgiveness than political revenge. We want you to model interpersonal reconciliation rather than foment personal conflict. We believe the content of your character is more important than the color of your skin. We don’t believe that you have been victimized every time you feel guilty and we don’t issue “trigger warnings” before altar calls. Oklahoma Wesleyan is not a “safe place”, but rather, a place to learn: to learn that life isn’t about you, but about others; that the bad feeling you have while listening to a sermon is called guilt; that the way to address it is to repent of everything that’s wrong with you rather than blame others for everything that’s wrong with them. This is a place where you will quickly learn that you need to grow up. This is not a day care. This is a university!
and the University of Chicago
Dear class of 2020
Welcome and congratulations on your acceptance to the college at the University of Chicago. Earning a place in our community of scholars is no small achievement and we are delighted that you selected Chicago to continue your intellectual journey.
Once here you will discover that one of the University of Chicago’s defining characteristics is our commitment to freedom of inquiry and expression. … Members of our community are encouraged to speak, write, listen, challenge, and learn, without fear of censorship. Civility and mutual respect are vital to all of us, and freedom of expression does not mean the freedom to harass or threaten others. You will find that we expect members of our community to be engaged in rigorous debate, discussion, and even disagreement. At times this may challenge you and even cause discomfort.
And then, the coup de grace:
Our commitment to academic freedom means that we do not support so called ‘trigger warnings,’ we do not cancel invited speakers because their topics might prove controversial, and we do not condone the creation of intellectual ‘safe spaces’ where individuals can retreat from ideas and perspectives at odds with their own.
Photo Caption: Shown at Pony Power’s Therapeutic Riding Center are (left to right) Wendy Lupo, Director of Development, Pony Power Therapies; Judy Tamburro, Volunteer, Valley Home Care; Dana Spett, MSW, Founder & Executive Director Pony Power Therapies; and Dyana Thompson, Clinical Manager, Maternal and Child Health and Butterflies Palliative Care & Hospice Program, Valley Home Care.
August 23, 2016
the staff of the Ridgewood blog
Ridgwood NJ, Children and their family members who receive services through Valley Home Care, including the Butterflies Program for children with serious or life-limiting illnesses, are benefiting from a unique recreational opportunity with therapeutic benefits offered not in a medical office or home-care setting, but on a fully accessible farm in Mahwah.
The children, their siblings and their parents recently wrapped up a weeklong summer extended-day program at Pony Power Therapies that included horse-assisted ground activities for children and parents, as well as riding sessions for the children.
During the therapeutic horseback riding sessions, riders are paired with a team of trained volunteers and certified instructors who tailor the riding experience to the abilities and needs of the individual rider. Therapeutic horseback riding at Pony Power provides both physical and emotional benefits to children, such as increased strength and muscle development as well as fostering feelings of self-confidence and pride. Importantly, the project also allows siblings to enjoy a range of activities together regardless of limitations. The parents also spend time with the horses engaged in activities that encourage them to work on their own self-care and to serve as a source of support for each other.
Riding can help increase strength and muscle development and foster feelings of self-confidence and pride. The young riders work on balance, body positioning, communication, critical thinking and partnership skills. Most importantly, the children enjoy a unique, shared experience with their brothers and sisters, as it’s one of few recreational activities that is completely inclusive, regardless of a person’s limitations. When engaging with horses during ground activities, children and parents learn how to stay present and focused; they experience life in the moment without the worry of usual stresses or concerns. Plus, tailored sessions help parents build upon current skills and develop new skills for handling the emotional difficulties that can come from caring for an ill child.
For five years, Pony Power Therapies and The Valley Hospital have partnered to provide integrative health and wellness programming to the children and families of Valley Home Care. From therapeutic riding sessions for patients and siblings during the school year to week-long summer programming for families to horse-assisted ground activities for Valley staff, the organization’s comprehensive and holistic approach has empowered hundreds of patients and their “teams” — parents and professional caregivers. Valley’s financial support of the program allows Pony Power to continue facilitating Valley families’ physical and emotional growth, as well as introducing the power of ponies to adults battling serious illnesses.
Ridgewood NJ , Ridgewood Police report and upsurge bicycle related crimes an East Ridgewood Avenue resident responded to headquarters on 8/8/16 to report the theft of two bicycles from her garage in the past. One bicycle was described as a male Schwinn mountain bike red in color and the second bicycle was described as a female Schwinn mountain bicycle purple and pink in color. The bicycles were valued at $150.00 each.
A Fairfield Avenue resident reported the theft of a bicycle on 8/19/16. The victim reported the bicycle was left unlocked at the rear of an East Ridgewood Avenue business. The bicycle was described as a Nishiki male racing style bike and is black and white in color.
On 8/22/16 a Spring Avenue resident reported the theft of a bicycle tire. The victim reported the bicycle was left locked along the fence at the Station Plaza underpass. The value of the front tire is unknown at this time.
Ridgewood NJ, Ridgewood Police report a series of unrelated incidents involving parked cars in Ridgewood .Ptl. S. Amoruso responded to North Pleasant Avenue on 8/10/16 to investigate a criminal mischief in the past. Upon arrival the resident reported an unknown person damaged a parked motor vehicle by egging and scratching the vehicle. The cost of repairing the damage is unknown at this time
On 8/14/16 Ptl. S. Amoruso responded to Ackerman Avenue to investigate a criminal mischief. Upon arrival it was reported an unknown person threw a rock through the rear window of a parked vehicle. The cost of repairing the damage is unknown at this time.
On 8/20/16 a Butler, N.J. resident reported a burglary and theft from a motor vehicle while it was parked in Ridgewood Duck Pond. An unknown actor did force entry into the vehicle by damaging the rear window and removing personal property from within. The Bergen County Sheriff’s Department requested our assistance with their investigation.
A Richards Road resident responded to police headquarters on 8/22/16 to report a theft from a motor vehicle in the past. The victim reported discovering personal items missing from her motor vehicle upon arriving at the Ridgewood Library parking lot but is unsure of where the theft occurred.
Park is SMALL. Stop filling everything up. A stage when not in use (i.e., 99% of the time) would co-opt open space. We need more of it, not less. Everybody seems to think their kids are future Broadway stars. Get with the program–amateur performances are for the performers. Noise in the middle of town would just drive people away. What happened to peace and quiet? You can’t even just sit on a park bench any more without acres of concrete? Even sitting in the dark on a summer night is nice. No need for Klieg lights. How about Strobes?
Ridgewood NJ, the Ridgewood Police report on 8/19/16 a South Broad Street resident responded to police headquarters to report a fraud in the past. The victim reported an unknown person applied for an Amazon credit card utilizing his personal information but was denied.
A Beechwood Road resident responded to police headquarters to report an incident which occurred in February 2016 when an unknown person attempted to file a tax return utilizing the victim’s personal identity fraudulently. The victim reported several months later he received a notice from Discover Card regarding a bank account being opened and most recently he received a notice from PNC Bank that an unknown person was attempting to change the address on his current accounts. The victim reported the IRS and credit bureaus have been notified of the fraudulent incidents.
An East Ridgewood Avenue resident reported the theft of impersonation on 8/20/16. The victim reported an unknown person fraudulently opened three separate accounts between 12/1/15 and 8/8/16. The victim reported a Victoria Secret account was opened in Orlando, Florida, a Sprint Mobile account was opened in Tennessee and a third fraudulent account was a Paypal account opened in August 2016. The victim was provided a Ridgewood Police identity theft fact sheet.
The Ridgewood Police Department would like to remind citizens of the increased amount of scams. Always investigate communications made through postal mail, telephone, and/or the internet to prevent fraud and deceptive activity. If you have any questions or concerns, please contact the Ridgewood Police Department to ensure you’re not becoming a victim of these scams.
The time has long passed for pleasantries. And don’t fool yourself thinking that this blowback directed at the volunteers is uncalled for. To think that someone like Gail was donating her time because she was giving back is laughable. Look at the connections, connect the dots. It’s pretty simple to see the payday just a we bit over the horizon. As far as the over paid / over pensioned lot it’s been a long time coming…people have HAD IT with the continued abuse in the form of over taxation and as soon as I complain about a $100MM school budget or the local FD/PD taking a 100K pension after 20 I get some union lackey putting his foot up my arse because “its only fair”.
Well guess what? PARTY’S OVER.
Ridgewood NJ,Patrolman Patrick Elwood assists with traffic as a new flag pole is installed at the Ridgewood Post Office this morning. The new flag pole replaces the original flag pole installed in 1937.
Ridgewood NJ, Earlier this summer, Governor Christie proposed a solution to New Jersey’s two most pressing issues; the failure of urban education and high property taxes.
In 1985 Abbott Districts were created as a result of the first ruling of Abbott v. Burke, a case filed by the Education Law Center. The ruling asserted that public primary and secondary education in poor communities throughout the state was unconstitutionally substandard.
The Abbott II ruling in 1990 had the most far-reaching effects, ordering the state to fund the (then) 28 Abbott districts at the average level of the state’s wealthiest districts.
The low-income districts began to receive the extra aid .The Abbott ruling led to the current school funding formula crisis allowing failing school districts to spend as much as $33,699 per pupil in tax dollars, while high‐performing school districts spend less than half of that per student.
In what could be one of the largest failures in social engineering ,leading to excessive spending by a select few and chronically failing school districts,who have received billions more in state taxpayer dollars over the past three decades than hundreds of successful school districts.
According to the Mercatus Center at George Mason University,”While it is difficult to compare academic achievement across time periods, evidence indicates that Abbott money has had little effect on improving student performance. ”
Mercatus Center went on , “The lackluster performance of these schools is also related to the fractured relationship between beneficiaries and providers. Abbott districts receive the majority of their funding from state aid rather than local tax revenues. The incentive to make optimal use of this funding and to monitor school performance is minimal. In addition, taxpayers in districts receiving state aid may not be benefiting from lower property taxes, because officials in local government prefer to work the increased revenue into their budgets, rather than returning it to taxpayers via a municipal tax cut.”
That’s where Governor Christie steps in with his Fairness Formula. The Fairness Formula will provide equal education funding for every pupil throughout the state, valuing every child equally. Under the Fairness Formula, all public school districts would receive $6,599 for every enrolled student, plus continued funding for special education. This will give every child an equal chance at success.
With this new formula, 75% of all New Jersey districts would get more state aid than they do today. The biggest driver of New Jersey’s nation‐high property taxes is the ineffective and unfair state school funding formula. The Fairness Formula will not only be equal for students it may also provide hundreds or even thousands of dollars in annual property tax savings for New Jerseyans in most communities. The potential property tax savings that would be realized under the Fairness Formula is a strong benefit to New Jersey’s economy as a whole. Business owners are burdened by New Jersey’s highest in the nation property taxes and chased to more affordable states due to New Jersey’s many other non‐competitive taxes that have been enacted by Democrats.
A byproduct of the Fairness Formula is a renewed interest in alternative options for educational choice.
Recently Atlantic City passed a resolution unanimously by the Democrat-dominated body for a non-binding referendum in time for the November ballot : REGARDING SCHOOL VOUCHERS AND TAX CREDITS.
WHEREAS, The City Council of Atlantic City is empowered with the authority to submit nonbinding referendum questions to the public in order to ascertain the sentiment of legal voters; and NOW, THEREFORE, BE IT RESOLVED that the Council of the City of Atlantic City hereby submits the following questions to be printed upon the official ballots to be used at the next ensuing General Election as follows: “Shall the State of New Jersey designate the City to begin offering vouchers to families with children ages 6-16 so they can select the school they want their children to attend?” “Shall the State of New Jersey designate the City of Atlantic City to begin offering property tax credits to families with children ages 6-16 who choose to homeschool?
The revolutionary resolution was created by freshman GOP Councilman Jesse Kurtz, who is himself an NJEA member, New Jersey’s largest teachers union.
According to Matthew Chingos of the Urban Institute ,”School choice policies aim to break the link between where children live and where they go to school. They seek to interrupt the cycle of poverty by providing low-income children with access to high-quality educational options that will boost their chances of long-term success. Choice programs come in several flavors, including charter schools, which are publicly funded but independently operated; private school vouchers, which cover all or part of private school tuition; and open enrollment plans (sometimes called public school vouchers) that allow parents to send their child to any public school in the district. When done right, school choice programs can be powerful tools in the fight against poverty.”
Ridgewood NJ, On Sunday, September 25, 2016 our Nation honors our Gold Star Mothers and families. The Presidential Proclamation in 2011 commemorating this day pronounces, “As members of a grateful Nation, we owe a debt we can never repay, but hold this sacred obligation forever in our hearts, minds, and actions. We honor their sacrifice, and stand with our service members, military families, and Gold Star families as they have stood for us.”
The American Legion Post 53 and Ridgewood NJ’s Blue Star Families are committed to bringing awareness to our community and to commemorate the sacrifices these mothers and their families have made for our Country.In the aftermath of World War I, Washington D.C. resident Grace Darling Seibold formed an organization called Gold Star Mothers to support the moms who had lost sons and daughters to the war. Grace’s son, First Lieutenant George Vaughn Seibold, was an aviator killed in combat over France in 1918. In 1928, the small D.C.-based group decided to nationalize its efforts. In 1936, a joint congressional resolution established the last Sunday in September as
Gold Star Mother’s Day. The Gold Star Mothers grew from a support group of 60 women to today’s extensive nationwide network with tens of thousands of members and hundreds of local chapters.
In Ridgewood, NJ the Gold Star Mother’s Day Committee will sponsor our fourth annualevent commemorating Gold Star Mother’s Day on Sunday, September 25, 2016. There will be a short ceremony starting promptly at 7:00 p.m. and hundreds of luminaries will be lit to honor Gold Star Mothers and their families. But in addition, our goal is to see thousands of other luminaries lit throughout Ridgewood and other towns on September 27th to honor the Gold Star Mothers and families!
Luminaries will be available for a donation before the ceremony at the following
location:
Residence of Bob Paoli, Commander American Legion Post #53,at 368 N. Pleasant Avenue, Ridgewood, NJ. 07450
Call 201-445-1738 to arrange time to pickup
Everyone also can stand with us in honoring the Gold Star Mothers and families by
helping to raise awareness through:
talking to your family, friends, and neighbors about the event;
joining us at Van Neste Park; and,
supporting this event with a donation (please make checks payable to the American
Legion Post #53, write “Gold Star event” on the memo line, and send it to the American Legion Post #53, P.O. Box 1525, Ridgewood, NJ 07450).
Thank you for your support and cooperation,/s/ Ridgewood, NJ Gold Star Mother’s Day Committee.
“Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it” George Santayana
Ridgewood NJ, by destroying Village history and discarding those who made sacrifices in our past are we not trampling on the very foundations of what made the Village of Ridgewood ,the Village of Ridgewood?
There are hundreds of commemorative bricks in Van Neste Memorial Park and large commemorative markers associated with the 1995 restoration project, are we so willing to disregard the people and the past ?
And if you are willing to sacrifice the past,who’s decision is it anyway ? A Village employee trying to make political points?
History is what makes you who you are. In Van Neste Square there is a memorial dedicated to Abraham Godwin. Abraham Godwin was born July 16, 1763. He was a Soldier, Statesman, artist, poet, engraver, and a very talented musician. As a soldier Abraham went to Fishkill joining his brother, Captain Henry Godwin’s regiment, the Fifth of the Line, January 17, 1777, as a fife major. The regiment was ordered to Fort Montgomery to lay the chain across the Hudson River. He was in the Governor’s life guard at Schenectady protecting the frontier at Lake Otsego under General Sullivan during the Finger Lakes campaign and at Yorktown, where he witnessed the surrender of Cornwallis to Washington.
Before Ridgewood got its name, it was called Godwinville in his honor. Godwin Avenue is now named after him. There are various other war memorials in Van Neste Square as well.
No one is against “change” but why is it the politicians always look to “fix” things that are not broken ? Why must we always “change” the good but never change the bad?
Why must we destroy and denigrate our history but put up with a “3rd world water system” ? If your looking for change how about changing Ridgewood Water instead, so we do not have water restrictions every summer?
