Tag: Ridgewood NJ

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Ridgewood and Glen Rock hosts its 34th annual celebration of the life and legacy of Dr. King

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MARTIN LUTHER KING CELEBRATION – JANUARY 18TH

January 15,2016

the staff of the Ridgewood blog

Ridgewood NJ , U.S. Senator Cory Booker will deliver remarks addressing the theme, “We Shall Not Be Silent,” as The Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Celebration Committee of Ridgewood and Glen Rock hosts its 34th annual celebration of the life and legacy of Dr. King. The community is invited to attend this free program, which will take place on Monday, January 18 at the Ridgewood United Methodist Church, 100 Dayton St., in Ridgewood, New Jersey.

Senator Booker and The Rev. Joseph Ellwanger, Pastor Emeritus of Cross Lutheran Church in Milwaukee, will be guest speakers during an interfaith worship service beginning at 10 a.m. Rev. Ellwanger is best known as a civil rights activist who marched alongside Dr. King.

The morning service will be followed by an 11:30 a.m. outdoor rally, 12 p.m. community lunch, and 1 p.m. screening of the documentary I Shall Not be Silent. The film highlights the work of Rabbi Joachim Prinz, a key figure in the American civil rights movement.

The program will also include Ridgewood and Glen Rock student speakers and musical performances by the Indian Hills Chamber Choir and Men of Umoja chorus.

“We are thrilled that Senator Booker and Rev. Ellwanger will be joining us as we shine a light on the continuing struggle for racial justice in our country,” said committee co-chair Alice Newton. “Each of them embodies Dr. King’s legacy of not only speaking out for justice, but actively advocating for change. At a time when civil rights issues dominate the headlines – locally and nationally – we welcome their insights and inspiration.”

Rev. Ellwanger, a white pastor, led an African American congregation for nine years at St. Paul Lutheran in Birmingham, Alabama. He went on to serve as pastor of Cross Lutheran from 1967 to 2001. Rev. Ellwanger was active in the civil rights movement and shares his experiences in his book, Strength for the Struggle, copies of which will be available for purchase at the event. He was awarded the Fred L. Shuttlesworth Human Rights Award by the Birmingham Civil Rights Institute in 2008, and continues to work on projects involving social justice and other issues facing communities today.

I Shall Not Be Silentis an award-winning documentary of the life of Rabbi Joachim Prinz, who spoke out for justice from the synagogues of 1930’s Berlin to the 1963 March on Washington. Rabbi Prinz addressed the crowd just before Dr. King delivered his “I Have A Dream” speech, urging them to actively advocate for racial and social justice.

The annual Ridgewood/Glen Rock Martin Luther King Jr. celebration began in 1983 in an effort to unite area residents, regardless of faith or ethnic background, in worship and action as they work towards peace and justice for all. More than 20 religious groups, the Ridgewood and Glen Rock Boards of Education, local government, and civic organizations participate in and support the event each year. For more information contact Alice Newton at 201-951-9903 or Roann Rubin at 201-704-4650; email [email protected]; or visit the Martin Luther King, Jr. Committee of Glen Rock/Ridgewood, N.J. on Facebook.

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Lack of snow precipitating positives for Ridgewood

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JANUARY 15, 2016    LAST UPDATED: FRIDAY, JANUARY 15, 2016, 12:31 AM
BY MARK KRULISH
STAFF WRITER |
THE RIDGEWOOD NEWS

The temperatures have turned a little colder since the start of the New Year, but the weather has remained unseasonably pleasant in northern New Jersey.

Most notably, the past couple of months have lacked the cycle of snowstorms that blanketed the region in each of the past two years with several feet of powder, which can cause havoc for many municipalities as they attempt to keep streets clear and safe.

Instead, the village has been able to focus on tasks not normally associated with this time of year.

Director of Operations Rich Calbi said without snow, village employees can spend more time on routine maintenance, such as fixing potholes. The unseasonable warmth has allowed workers to continue using hot asphalt to fill potholes, which Calbi said tends to have a longer lifespan than a substance known as cold patch.

However, Calbi said the relative lack of potholes in the village is due to the investment made last year in completing numerous paving projects.

“The village put forth a major effort budget-wise with infrastructure,” said Calbi. “They completed miles of road this year and that has a great effect on how many potholes we have had to fill.”

Other such routine maintenance includes the cleaning of catch basins and performing additional cleanups of the roadways beyond leaf season.

In past years, the end of leaf season and the beginning of snowy weather have occurred back-to-back, but a dearth of snow has allowed the village to perform extra sweeps post-leaf collection to pick up extra debris.

https://www.northjersey.com/news/weather/lack-of-snow-precipitating-positives-1.1492234

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Bicycle fatalities in N.J. defy overall drop in traffic deaths

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file photo by Boyd Loving

JANUARY 13, 2016, 11:02 PM    LAST UPDATED: THURSDAY, JANUARY 14, 2016, 7:30 AM
BY JOHN CICHOWSKI
RECORD COLUMNIST |
THE RECORD

New Jersey road deaths fell a bit less than 1 percent to 554 last year — a near record low — but those who rely on bicycles or let others drive for them won’t find much comfort in year-end fatality figures for 2015.

Cycling deaths ballooned 64 percent to 18 last year, the most since 2008, and passenger fatalities rose to 95, almost a 19 percent rise, according to preliminary New Jersey State Police figures. On a more positive note, motorcycle deaths dropped to a record low 49 and pedestrian fatalities fell to 163, but that figure remained well in excess of the previous 10-year average of 152.

“We’re pleased, but we think we can do even better,” said Gary Poedubicky, acting director of the state Division of Highway Traffic Safety.

States like New Jersey and New York, where overall road fatalities have declined substantially since the 1980s, have been struggling to extend these safety benefits beyond drivers to walkers and cyclists, whose combined death counts have remained stubbornly high. Garden State totals showed 172 pedestrians and cyclists were killed in 2005 compared with 81 in 2014, a 5 percent increase. During the same period, all traffic deaths declined more than 25 percent — from 748 in 2005 to 556 in 2014.

This week, the Legislature sent a bill to Governor Christie that would focus on these mostly preventable incidents — the kind that killed 1,517 people on foot and 143 people on bicycles from 2005 to 2014. The legislation, which unanimously passed both houses, would create a 15-member commission to recommend strategies for making improvements in road design, laws and behavior that traditionally favor vehicles over people, said Cindy Steiner of Montclair, executive director of the New Jersey Bicycle and Walking Coalition.

“More people are walking and riding bicycles than ever,” said Steiner, whose group supports the bill — A-3888 in the Assembly and S-2521 in the Senate. “But for the first time, this commission would put all the parties together who have a stake in the problem — from bicyclists and drivers to police, motor-vehicle executives, transportation officials and even the health commissioner.”

https://www.northjersey.com/news/road-warrior-bicycle-fatalities-in-n-j-defy-overall-drop-in-traffic-deaths-1.1490848

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Ridgewood Adds Three new police officers

Ridgewood police officers
photos by Boyd Loving

Ridgewood Adds Three new police officers

January 14,2016
the staff of the Ridgewood blog

Ridgewood NJ, New Ridgewood police officers Ryan McAlister, Kyle Monton, and Peter Tuchol, Jr. are sworn in during Ridgewood Village Council Meeting of Wednesday, January 13th at Village Hall.

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Summery of the Special Public Meeting on Ridgewood High Density ,Multi Family Housing

RIDGEWOOD MULTI-FAMILY HOUSING

file photo by Boyd Loving
SPECIAL PUBLIC MEETING – RIDGEWOOD MULTI-FAMILY HOUSING – JANUARY 12TH

January 14,2016

the staff of the Ridgewood blog with input from several readers

Ridgewood NJ , the Special Public Meeting on high density multi family housing was attended by 30-35 residents attended who heard proposals for studies from five groups as follows:

1. Heyer, Gruel & Associates – who could do studies on the fiscal and school impacts
2. Maser Consuting – traffic study
3. Ross Haber Associates – school impact
4. The RBA Group – traffic study
5. BFJ Planning/Urbanomics – fiscal, infrastructure, school, and traffic

Overall the meeting was peaceful. The mayor as usual did not answer all the questions and asked some residents “your five minutes are up” when they questioned him, though they still had time, and answered questions from some others who were appreciating his efforts.

Mayor Aronsohn could not resist poking residents making a sarcastic remark about the “overflow crowd,” – stating that BF had been selected to handle a large crowd, his comment discounted the fact that 30-35 residents had come out. Which under normal circumstances would be a decent sized crowd .

The Village had two police officers present through the entire meeting, at what cost? It was also unclear whether they were guarding the Council members , or the public since threats were made from hostile council members to the public?

There were five presentations. 2 for school, 2 for traffic and one for everything. The firm which presented everything also included impact on schools and traffic. So, for schools and traffic, 3 options each were presented. For the other two impact studies, only one option was presented BFJ/Urbananomics.

The Village Manager Roberta Schoenfield stated that there had not been an RFP, that there did not need to be for this.  Thus we only wound up with ONE infrastructure group, thus no basis for comparison.

Council Women Hauck asked questions of one of the contractors regarding how to discredit residents who disagree with the results of a study.

Deputy Mayor  Pucciarelli stated that the public called for experts, and then goes ahead and questions the expertise of the experts, implying that residents should not ask any questions about how any of the proposed studies should be done.

The council seemed to agree informally to go with BFJ for the fiscal, infrastructure and school but RBA for traffic.  This was not a vote and it will be discussed further.  RBA’s description of their traffic study indicated that would use video technology at 10 intersections, considering the cars as well as the pedestrians and bicycles at each.  The tubes-in-the-road technology is outdated and only captures vehicles.  RBA also indicated that any data from studies more than 3 years old is basically useless.

They liked the fact that BFJ had the ability to do all the studies and work with each other in-house, but their traffic proposal was weak.
Roberta stated that our in-house experts are quite capable of doing some of these studies .During the initial comments the village manager mentioned that she wanted to use them as hub where traffic and school consultant will feed into them, but she also mentioned that she did not like their pricing for data collection and she wanted them to use already collected data. When one resident asked why was only one firm invited for the other two impact studies, the village manager responded that we may not even go with them and we may do those in house to save money.

It clearly sounded like the village manager doesn’t want an outside consultant to be looking at the water, fire, police, fiscal stuff closely and wants to keep that part to herself ie internally.

Eleven residents made comments, paraphrased:

The VC was thanked for changing the date of the meeting from Friday to Tuesday
Much concern about the traffic studies – one day, two days, a week, what if a snowstorm, how good a picture would any traffic study actually produce
Questions about the RUSH – why not slow down with all of this.
Questions about complying with COAH.
Questions about what was going on with Kensington Assisted Living

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RIDGEWOOD LEAD AWARENESS PROGRAM

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REAC PROGRAM – LEAD AWARENESS PROGRAM

January 11,2016

the staff of the Ridgewood blog

Ridgewood NJ, Ridgewood Environmental Advisory Committee (REAC) in conjunction with the Park and Recreation Department is pleased to present a series of environmentally focused programs – Back to Basics – Healthy Lifestyle. The first program will be Monday, January 25th at 7:00pm in the Community Center Senior Lounge and the topic will be

“Understanding Lead Poisoning.” This will be an informational presentation by Dawn Cetrulo, Health Supervisor, Ridgewood Health Department and Danielle Cinnante, Health Educator, Valley Hospital. All are invited to this free program. Future topics in this series will be Beekeeping Basics; Streetscapes – Trees, Sidewalks, Roads and Re forestation; Backyard Composting; From Garden to Table; Recycling – After materials leave the curb. Details to follow.

Ridgewood Water  https://mods.ridgewoodnj.net/pdf/water/leadnotice.pdf

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Anthony Lillo took the helm as director and chief of Ridgewood Emergency Services on Jan. 9

Ridgewood Emergency Services Installation Oath
January 12,2016

the staff of the Ridgewood blog

Ridgewood NJ , Anthony Lillo took the helm as director and chief of Ridgewood Emergency Services on Jan. 9.Lillo, 57, was sworn in by Ridgewood Mayor Paul Aronsohn at the Departments annual installation dinner. Lillo’s emergency services career began in 1991 and he joined Ridgewood Special Operations in 1999. Lillo, an EMT, has served in various leadership positions during his tenure, most recently as deputy chief.

Chief Lillo has worked with Ridgewood Central Dispatch and has extensive background in computer disaster recovery and disaster management as a project manager. He is enrolled in the Certified Public Managers Program at Rutgers University. Chief Lillo succeeds Brian Pullman who retired after serving as director and chief of Ridgewood Emergency Services for 10 years.

Robert Greenlaw, the founder, director and chief of emergency services for 25 years, praised Pullman’s commitment and service saying he helped make the organization what it is today. Pullman joined Ridgewood Emergency Services in 1993.

2016 Ridgewood Officers 1

In addition to Lillo being named director and chief, the other officers were announced during the installation dinner. The 2016 officers include: Deputy Chief Ryan Savaria; Medical Director Dr. Bob Lahita; Public Information Officers Richard Breining and Bob Krane; EMS Captain Murray Yang; EMS Lieutenants John Baker, Brendan Fischer, Emily Benjamin and James Bigos; Special Operations Captain John Epperlein; Special Operations Lieutenants Mike Butler, Eric Frielink and Ace Antonio; Teens in Emergency Services (TIES) Captain Corrine Scarpa; and TIES Lieutenant Kevin Scarpa.

In 2015, Ridgewood Emergency Services responded to 1704 requests for assistance. This amounts to 19,236 hours donated by the volunteers to the Village of Ridgewood on active duty. It does not include time spent on training, meetings, meeting and event preparation.  A cost savings of over $1 million dollars to the Village of Ridgewood.

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The Passing of Peter Deuber of Ridgewood New Jersey

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Ridgewood Nj, Peter Deuber of Ridgewood, New Jersey passed away Monday, January 4th at Select Specialty Hospital in Rochelle Park, New Jersey. He was born in Manhattan on January 17,1932 and grew up in Ridgewood, New Jersey. He attended Ridgewood High School and majored in Economics at Columbia. He worked in sales and the building trade in New Jersey. Peter had a great love of gardening, landscaping, and horticulture. > > Peter leaves behind his loving long term partner, Helen Eagy, ex-wife Mary Lou, and cousin Robert Huber; his two daughters: Nancy Gameson (Lyn) and Sharon Richter (Marc); five grandchildren: Ceri Gameson, Victoria Richter, Margaret Richter, Abigail Richter, and Joshua Richter. Burial will be private.

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Ridgewood Impact Study presentations for Multifamily housing Tonight at Benjamin Franklin Middle School

clock_cbd_theridgewoodblog

MEETING TUESDAY NIGHT

Tuesday, January 12, 2016 – 7:30pm – Benjamin Franklin Middle School- Impact Study presentations for Multifamily housing, North Walnut Redevelopment Zone, Hudson Street Parking Garage -Presentations by Vendors:
a. Heyer, Gruel & Associates
b. Maser Consulting
c. Ross Haber Associates
d. The RBA Group
e. BFJ Planning/Urbanomics

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Ridgewood school board reorganizes

BOE_theridgewoodblog

JANUARY 11, 2016    LAST UPDATED: MONDAY, JANUARY 11, 2016, 2:27 PM
BY MATTHEW SCHNEIDER
STAFF WRITER |
THE RIDGEWOOD NEWS

Sheila Brogan was reelected as president and Vincent Loncto as vice president during last week’s Ridgewood Board of Education reorganization meeting.

“I just want to thank the board for your support, and I’m so pleased to continue to work with Vincent and all of you,” Brogan said. “It is a real honor to serve this community in this capacity and to be on the board, so I thank you for that and I look forward to the challenges that we have.”

Loncto, who ran unopposed in the November election, also thanked the board for its confidence in him.

“I’d like to echo Sheila’s comments and express my gratitude for the opportunity to serve in this capacity,” Loncto said, adding that he is “honored by the opportunity.”

Loncto was sworn in Monday night to a three-year term.

Schools audited

Mike Andriola, an auditor for accounting and consulting firm Wiss & Company, presented the results of a recent district audit at Monday’s meeting.

Andriola noted that a few mistakes had been made, such as purchasing small amounts of supplies and asking for approval afterward. He said the district also racked up travel expenditures that exceeded the approved maximum.

“They weren’t big dollar amounts; there really weren’t many of them,” he said. “I don’t think it’s anything to be overly concerned with.”

Based on his findings, Andriola suggested that the district “strengthen its internal controls,” in order to ensure that nothing is purchased without consent and that over-expenditures are not made.

He also suggested that the district ensure that monetary transfers are made on a monthly basis, so that “any budgetary account lines that are in a deficit balance” are covered.

“I am confident that (the school district is) going to address these and fix them going forward,” he said.

 

https://www.northjersey.com/news/education/ridgewood-school-board-reorganizes-1.1489374

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Readers say Going to the BCIA is a back-door way of going around the electorate

3 amigos in action Ridgewood NJ

file photo by Boyd loving

Going to the BCIA is a back-door way of going around the electorate, plain and simple.$250,000 in additional cost to the taxpayers because the bond vote failed 3-2.

At the meeting on January 6th a few things were made clear. One is that the “threesome” stands firm as a bloc and of course voted in perfect synchronicity, in spite of the gigantic number of objections to the huge garage. Another point  is that Aronosohn is going rogue, going directly to the BCIA to get his funding, for which he only needs three votes.

Damn the laws of the land, just find a way around them. Another is that Albert’s trigger temper is still very much alive, as he went after a resident who alluded to the upcoming election. The resident was calm and polite, and Albert was wild, then Gwenn started holding up her cell phone. Such unprofessionalism from the dais, such calm in the audience.

A summary is SAME OLD SAME OLD. A million people spoke. Most were against the garage. The three amigos voted in favor of the bond. Susan and Michael voted against it. Aronsohn is immediately going to circumnavigate the law (legal, but still underhanded) and go to the BCIA, where he only needs three votes. He put that in motion before the ink was dry on the bond defeat. Good luck trying to find the Ustream on the new website. It seems to be nowhere.

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HOLD ONTO YOUR WALLETS: PROPERTY TAXES IN NEW JERSEY INCREASED BY THEIR FASTEST RATE IN FOUR YEARS IN 2015.

for sale Ridgewood_Real_Estate_theRodgewopodblog

Average Property taxes paid

Alpine $20,880.00
Tenafly $18,787.00
Demarest $17,937.00
Upper Saddle River $17,112.00
Haworth $16,940.00
Ridgewood $16,798.00
Saddle River $16,670.00
Franklin Lks $16,635.00
Old Tappan $15,765.00
Glen Rock $15,157.00
Woodcliff lake $15,139.00
HoHoKus $15,045.00
Allendale $14,551.00
Oradell $13,796.00
Wyckoff  $13,280.00
Midland Park $11,020.00
Waldwick $10,396.00
Washington Twp 10,157.00
Fair Lawn $10,012.00
Mahwah $8,154.00

file photo by Boyd Loving

EXCLUSIVE: Property taxes up $537 million

HOLD ONTO YOUR WALLETS: PROPERTY TAXES IN NEW JERSEY INCREASED BY THEIR FASTEST RATE IN FOUR YEARS IN 2015.

Michael Symons,

Hold onto your wallets: Property taxes in New Jersey increased by their fastest rate in four years in 2015, with landowners shelling out an extra $537 million.

The hike pushed the average local tax bill to $8,354 for homeowners, up $193 from the prior year, according to data compiled exclusively by the Asbury Park Press. That’s an increase of 2.4 percent, despite a supposed 2 percent cap enacted in 2010.

The jump marks the second straight year New Jersey’s property tax hike has gotten bigger, after three years of slowing growth in Gov. Chris Christie’s first term. Monmouth and Ocean counties fared worse most of the state with tax boosts of 2.6 percent and 3.3 percent, respectively.

The trend undercuts one of Christie’s selling points as he touts his gubernatorial record on the GOP presidential campaign trail. On his campaign website, Christie says property taxes are rising at their slowest pace “in more than two decades.” Growth has grown since dipping to 1.3 percent in 2013.

The new accounting tells a costly different story — in a state where homeowners already pay the highest-in-the-nation property taxes. That burden helped drive nearly 14,000 to sign an Asbury Park Press petition urging elected officials to cut property taxes. The petition came in tandem with Asbury Park Press’s investigation of the tax crisis last fall.

Stay or leave?

Adrienne DiPietro’s property taxes have tripled in the 20 years she has lived in Eatontown. She remains optimistic elected officials will do something about the problem but says “I’m not holding my breath.” She is considering whether she and her husband, Paul, will stay in New Jersey. Both are retirees.

“All of our retirement income, we have to start thinking about this in the next five years or so: Do we want to stay here and keep coughing up that much taxes?” DiPietro said. “Do we want to stay here, because the taxes are only going up and up?”

https://www.app.com/story/insider/2016/01/08/nj-property-tax-increases/78504096/

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PETITIONS FOR RIDGEWOOD VILLAGE COUNCIL CANDIDATES AVAILABLE

vote for me

January 11,2016

the staff of the Ridgewood blog

Ridgewood NJ, Petitions are available for any Ridgewood registered voter seeking the position of Village Councilmember, in the Village Clerk’s Office at Village Hall, 131 North Maple Avenue, from 8:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m., Monday through Friday, except legal holidays.

The Village Clerk will accept petitions which contain the valid signatures of at least 164 registered voters who live in Ridgewood, as required by law.

Three Village Council seats, which have four year terms, will be up for election.  The terms begin July 1, 2016.  The deadline for filing the petitions with the Village Clerk is no later than 4:00 P.M., March 7, 2016.

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RHS Math Team Competes thirtieth Joseph W. Andrushkiw Mathematics Competition at Seton Hall University

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January 11,2016
the staff of the Ridgewood blog

Ridgewood NJ, Nineteen members of the RHS Math Team competed in the thirtieth Joseph W. Andrushkiw Mathematics Competition at Seton Hall University.  The team placed fourth out of 23 schools and one RHS senior placed fourth overall out of more than 200 students.

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Readers say Valley Ridgewood Mediation Will be Tainted ,Ms Hauck is too Invested in Valley

Gwenn Hauck has absolutely no business representing us in a lawsuit. For crying out loud, this is glaringly apparent. This is not about what platform she ran for office on, this is not about whether she loves valley hospital. This is the fact that there is a major lawsuit against Ridgewood and one of the two elected official on the mediation is a person who donates big money to them. How can anyone not see the conflict here? She is supposed to be representing US against THEM in this lawsuit, but she funnels money to them.

If anyone thinks that she should represent us in the law suit all you have to do is look up the minuets Sept 19 H-Z hearing and she what she said. Then you tel me.

Speaking before the council during the “H-Zone” hearings to determine the fate of ‘Renewal’, Hauck said on Sept. 19: “Also, I trust Audrey Meyers, Megan Fraser, all the doctors and volunteers I work with and all the spokespersons of the hospital when they tell me that the hospital will have better services and healthier surroundings if they modernize and expand the way they’ve laid out because they’re the health experts…and I believe them.”

While it may seem unlikely a perfect solution will ever emerge, Hauck stressed a “healthy” and “reasonable” dialogue must emerge for any meaningful change to happen.

Any output from her “mediation” will be tainted. That does not serve the interest of anyone, including Valley. Pencil this in for another 10 year slog unless a good faith process for resolution is adopted.

In my experience, the vast majority of ethical types always recuse themselves from legal duties where there is the potential perception of there being a conflict of interest. The key word is “perception”. In a lot of these cases, the reality of an actual conflict of interest is slim to none, but in the interests of showing absolute honesty, they do in fact, recuse themselves. By not recusing themselves, it actually infers that they are in fact attempting to improperly influence a decision.