WINTER WEATHER ADVISORY IN EFFECT FROM 8 PM THIS EVENING TO
6 AM EST TUESDAY…
THE NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE IN UPTON HAS ISSUED A WINTER WEATHER
ADVISORY FOR SLEET AND FREEZING RAIN…WHICH IS IN EFFECT FROM 8
PM THIS EVENING TO 6 AM EST TUESDAY.
* LOCATIONS…SOUTHERN FAIRFIELD AND NEW HAVEN COUNTIES IN
CONNECTICUT…SOUTHERN WESTCHESTER COUNTY IN NEW YORK…BERGEN
AND EASTERN PASSAIC COUNTIES IN NEW JERSEY.
* HAZARD TYPES…SLEET AND FREEZING RAIN.
* ACCUMULATIONS…A TRACE OF SNOW AND ICE ACCUMULATION.
* TIMING…A WINTRY MIX DEVELOPS ACROSS THE TRI-STATE FROM WEST TO
EAST THIS EVENING. THIS WINTRY MIX CHANGES TO PLAIN RAIN
SOMETIME BETWEEN MIDNIGHT AND 6 AM TUESDAY.
* IMPACTS…SLIPPERY ROADWAYS AND SIDEWALKS. WITH THE MAIN
THREAT BEING TO ELEVATED SURFACES AND HIGHER ELEVATIONS IN THE
ADVISORY AREA.
PRECAUTIONARY/PREPAREDNESS ACTIONS…
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.
an article worth reading and so relevant to what Ridgewood is going through right now..
PUBLISHED BY LESLIE WRIGHT ON DECEMBER 22, 2015
At this time of year, when we gather with loved ones, often returning to, or remembering, the places we hold dear, the reflections of Orton Family Foundation Trustee Ed McMahon on the importance of place seem especially apropos. Ed is senior resident fellow at Urban Land Institute in Washington, D.C.
We live in a world of rapid change: immigration, new technologies, global trade, instantaneous communication, changing consumer tastes, rapid movement of people, ideas, and goods, etc. However, if I have learned anything over 25 years in the community planning arena, it is this: change is inevitable, but the destruction of community character and identity is not. Progress does not demand degraded surroundings. Communities can grow without destroying the things people love.
Place is more than just a location or a spot on a map. A sense of place is a unique collection of qualities and characteristics—visual, cultural, social and environmental—that provides meaning to a location. Sense of place is what makes one location (e.g. your hometown) different from another location (e.g. my hometown), but sense of place is also that which makes our physical surroundings valuable and worth caring about.
Land use planners spend too much time focusing on numbers—the number of units per acre, the number of cars per hour, the number of floors per building—and not enough time on the values, customs, characteristics, and quirks that make a place worth caring about. Unfortunately, many American communities are suffering the social, economic, and environmental consequences of being places that simply aren’t worth caring about. The more one place (one location) comes to be just like every other place, the less reason there is to visit or invest. Just take tourism, for example: the more a community comes to look like every other community, the less reason there is to visit. On the other hand, the more a community does to enhance its distinctive identity, whether that is natural, cultural, or architectural, the more reasons there are to visit. Why? Because tourism is about visiting places that are different, unusual, or unique; if one place was just like everyplace else, there would be no reason to go anyplace.
Similarly, when it comes to 21st century economic development, a key concept is “community differentiation.” If you can’t differentiate your community from any other community, you have no competitive advantage. Capital is footloose in a global economy. Natural resources, highway access, locations along a river or rail line have all become less important. Richard Florida, a leading economic development authority and author of The Creative Class, has said, “How people think of a place is less tangible, but more important than just about anything else.”
The CSAC is absolutely right when it identifies parking lots as dangerous places and anything that makes them a little safer would be a welcome change. There is obviously be a cost associated with that plan – how much would parking lot re-striping cost? This is where the devil really IS in the details. As an example, how much change could there be in even one parking lot for the amount that was just spent on that electronic sign at the train station? There are ways to scrimp and save when something is really important.
Additionally, we can’t expect the police department to be everywhere all the time. It seems unrealistic to think they can provide full traffic safety coverage in the CBD all the time. An increased police presence would definitely be an effective deterrent and make people less likely to drive like maniacs, but in the meantime we must figure out some other ways to protect ourselves. Can’t we have (some version of) crossing guards in the most dangerous intersections at the most dangerous times of day? Crossing guards are not full-time and not paid much but, for the most part, drivers do yield to their directions. Reasonable hourly pay and no benefits makes it at least something to consider in the short term – until we figure out another way.
I think most of us appreciate Ridgewood for its relative safety, i.e. low crime rate. We have a town in which it’s actually possible to allow our kids to go downtown alone and walk around – in many ways a really nice throwback to an earlier era. However, even though we have that luxury, we have to worry that they will be killed by a car if we let them go. It’s sad and a waste of the police dept’s efforts to keep it a safe place.
Ridgewood NJ , the Ridgewood Police department is investigating an alleged kidnapping and carjacking that was reported early Saturday morning.
In a statement the Ridgewood Police said that the “vehicle in question” has been located near the Thruway in Bergen County, N.J, and an investigation is ongoing. .The victim has also been recovered suffering only minor injuries.
Ridgewood Police have so far withheld any further information about the incident .New York State Police are also working with police in Ridgewood, N.J.
According to the NJ State Police Carjackings are relatively rare in Bergen County.Only one car jacking was reported for Bergen County in 2013.In two in 2014.
DECEMBER 25, 2015 LAST UPDATED: FRIDAY, DECEMBER 25, 2015, 12:31 AM
BY BETSY MURPHY
CORRESPONDENT |
THE RIDGEWOOD NEWS
Darlene Gidney sat in a booth at Daily Treat one recent morning happily sharing the Board of Directors Award she received from AUDELCO at Symphony Space in New York City last month for outstanding service to the theater community.
“It’s the black Tony of theater,” she said proudly of the award, from Audience Development Committee Inc. Gidney has put a lot of work, and a lot of love into the dedication that earned her this coveted award.
Born and bought up in the village, where her great-grandfather started Glidewell Taxi, later Ridgewood Taxi, she moved back to Ridgewood when her sons, Yates and Edward, were about to enter the fifth and first grades. Today, Yates Gidney is in the U.S. Navy and Edward Blair IV will graduate from college in 2016.
Gidney acknowledges her own “good strong foundation from the community of Ridgewood,” where she was “always encouraged to explore other things.” Among her mentors she counts Ella Rae and Dudley Saunders, who owned Colonial Post and who were among the founders of Order of the Lamp. Many Ridgewood students benefited from scholarships from Order of the Lamp.
photo courtesy of Helene Zgagowski’s Facebook page
DECEMBER 25, 2015 LAST UPDATED: FRIDAY, DECEMBER 25, 2015, 12:31 AM
BY EILEEN LA FORGIA
STAFF WRITER |
THE RIDGEWOOD NEWS
Helene Zgagowski has been a Ridgewood resident for 13 years and is having her first solo art show this month at the Stable.
“Diverse environments and the richness of the life around me inspire my work,” she said calling the exhibit, “a little glimpse of my life.”
“Whether it is in nature or riding horses, or spending time with family and friends, these are the things that give me joy,” explained the artist. “I’ve been there, done that and lived a good life, and I want to capture these moments forever and what better way than painting these memories on canvas.”
Born in Belgium, her Russian immigrant parents came to the United States sponsored by Tolstoy Farm in New York State. The family later moved to New Jersey.
Zgagowski studied at the Newark School of Fine and Industrial Art and Montclair State University – Fine Arts. She has also studied oil painting at the Fair Lawn Art League under Pauline Campanelli and at the Ridgewood Art Institute. She studied pottery at the Mudworks Company and jewelry making at the Art School at Old Church.
There will be a Village Council Special Public Meeting held on Friday, January 8, 2016 @ 5PM in the Court Room at Village Hall. Various Consultants will be presenting proposals for the 4 Multi-Family Housing Studies covering; fiscal impact, traffic, education & municipal infrastructure.
DECEMBER 22, 2015 LAST UPDATED: TUESDAY, DECEMBER 22, 2015, 10:51 AM
THE RECORD
North Jersey epicureans are in luck, therefore. In 2015, The Record’s restaurant critic Elisa Ung reviewed a number of first-rate formal restaurants that either opened their doors this year or experienced a significant change (for example, a new chef or new owners, new look) during the year. She also reviewed a few eating establishments that have been around for sometime and continue to dazzle.
RPPs will be sold each business day from 8:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. Be sure to bring for both new applications as well as renewals, both their driver’s license and the registration for the cars they wish to register for the permits.
The friends of Lesley Ellis Linker, a 45-year-old Ridgewood, NJ mother of young children who is unable to work due to advanced Multiple Sclerosis and who has been devastated by the breakdown of her family, are seeking your help.
Lesley was diagnosed with MS at age 33, when she had almost no symptoms. She married and had two children, now 6 and 10. Over the past 5 years Lesley’s disease has progressed to where she is a prisoner in her own body. She can no longer walk or stand, or see well enough to read regular print. She is confined to a wheelchair.
Despite her hardships, Lesley has been able to parent her children consistently and lovingly. She oversees all aspects of the children’s upbringing including dinners together, homework help, bedtime stories and most importantly, Lesley comforts them during trying times and provides them with unconditional love at all times.
In January 2015, Lesley’s husband moved out of the family home.
Despite Medicare and Social Security disability payments, the costs associated with Lesley’s care have become staggering. Lesley’s around-the-clock home health aide alone costs over $5,000 per month, which is not covered by insurance, any governmental agency or other organization. Lesley, her soon-to-be ex-husband, her retired schoolteacher parents, and her brother are struggling to cover these costs. The financial and emotional strain on them is severe and cannot be sustained.
Lesley’s pre-owned handicapped-accessible van has been breaking down and cannot be repaired. It will cost at least $55,000 to replace. A safe mode of transportation for her and her children is critical to Lesley’s peace of mind and sense of independence, yet this cost is out of the family’s reach.
Just as important for the children, as they’ve witnessed their mother lose the ability to walk and as they’ve had to come to terms with their parents’ separation and impending divorce, is the continuity of their public school, friends and neighbors. Yet Lesley and the children may not be able to afford to stay in their modest home in Ridgewood. An exhausting and often very upsetting 16-month search for an even more modest wheelchair accessible apartment or other accommodation in Ridgewood has yielded nothing thus far.
Through all of the heartbreak of recent years, Lesley has been incredibly grateful to help her babies grow and has worked hard to maintain an optimistic outlook for them. With your support, we can work to alleviate her outsized share of unfairness, sadness, humiliation and struggle. Monies raised in this campaign will go directly toward replacing Lesley’s lift van, and any surplus will be use to defray the cost of her home health aide as well as start a fund for Lesley’s living costs. Please help us to keep Lesley and the children safe and help restore their quality of life by contributing to this campaign. Thank you.
Please note that donations will not be tax-deductible to the donor. Thank you again.
If any RHS alumni are looking for some last minute gifts, we still have t-shirts, hats, umbrellas and blankets for sale. Please check out the items atRHSalumniassociation.org …scroll down on the main landing page to see the items. Thanks.
Ridgewood NJ, The Ridgewood High School Alumni Association is currently accepting nominations for this year’s Distinguished Alumni event. The event will take place on Thursday, March 10th, 2016. The deadline for nominations is January 23rd, 2016.
Please submit all nominations via the website (RHSalumniassociation.org) under the Contact Us section. Please make sure to include the full name of the graduate, year of graduation and a brief write up detailing the person’s distinguished achievements. Any questions or inquiries can be sent directly to info@rhsalumniassociation.org.
Ridgewood NJ, The Orpheus Club Men’s Chorus directed by John Palatucci headlined two concerts this past weekend, Saturday evening 19 Dec at 7:30 and Sunday afternoon 20 Dec at 4. At a New venue: Bethlehem Lutheran Church, in Ridgewood, with special guest Laura Hamilton, associate concert master of the Metropolitan Opera Orchestra.Ms. Hamilton performed solo works of Beethoven and Fauré and a mind blowing rendition “Havanaise” featuring some violin pyrotechnics. The group was also accompanied by internationally acclaimed pianist and Monroe Quinn on guitar.
Repertoire iincluded:
Do You Hear What I Hear? – Regney
The First Nowell – Vaughan Williams
Ani ma’ amin – arr. Leavitt (w/Ms. Hamilton)
O magnum mysterium – Handl
The Prayer – Sager & Foster
Go tell it on the mountain – arr. Quinn (OCMC premiere)
I’ll be home for Christmas – Gannon, Kent & Buck
Selected Carols – Turrin (Ron Levy, piano)
Credo – Turrin (world premiere)
Night Song – Lane (w/Ms. Hamilton)
Little Saint Nick – Wilson
How can I keep from singing? – arr. Ellingboe (w/Ms. Hamilton)
Some children see him – Burt
Jingle Bells – arr. Gold, Paich; adapted Hayes
And of of coarse there was plenty of audience participation including the annual sing-a-long with Auld Lang Syne.Orpheus started on October 11, 1909, eight men met at the Ridgewood home of Frank R. Pawley do discuss a men’s singing club. A week later, 10 men gathered in the village library, a room in the First National Bank Building. The group paid 75 cents per night to use the room and began singing together, with Dewitt Clinton, Jr., as director. The Orpheus Club Men’s Chorus was born. Others joined the club and by December, it was agreed that a concert would be presented in February at the Library, but the actual decision was left to the director, and the first Performance was in May. The opener in that concert was the rousing “Winter Song.”
Club membership quickly rose from the 18 who sang the first concert, to 35. The members met weekly on Wednesdays from October to May, and in 1913, the club gave it’s first performance of “Pilgram’s Chorus” from Wagner’s Tannhäuser. Variety in repertoire was common in Orpheus Club concerts. A program might include “The Boog-a-Boo,” a ragtime number, “Old Black Joe,” the Stephen Foster song, comedy numbers like “But They Didn’t,” and classics, sometimes sung in French or German.
Ten years after its founding, the Orpheus Club was making guest appearances around New Jersey, and traveled as far as Brookly to sing at a fundraiser for the rebuilding of the Baptist Temple, which had suffered a fire. As the years continued , the Orpheus Club Men’s Chorus remained a significant part of New Jersey’s cultural life. When the Kasschau Memorial Band shell was dedicated in Ridgewood, the club sang at the inauguration.
In 1962, Richard Lane signed on as pianist for the club, beginning a distinguished career that would continue for 42 years until his death in 2004. A brilliant composer and teacher, Lane wrote 20 numbers for the Club and today’s concerts always feature at least one of Richard’s compositions.
Today, the Orpheus Club Men’s Chorus includes about 50 singers from New York and New Jersey and generally makes eight to ten appearances annually including four formal concerts. The Club has sung “Alto Rhapsody” (Brahms) with the Adelphi Chamber Orchestra as well as “The Testament of Freedom” (Thompson) and “Hymn to the Nations” (Verdi) with the Orchestra of St. Peter by the Sea. The men of Orpheus have joined with the Ridgewood Choral to sing “Song of Democracy” (Hanson) and appeared with the Ridgewood Concert Band to sing the music of Aaron Copland and Richard Wagner.
In the Spring of 2005, the Chorus made its Lincoln Center debut, performing at the Lincoln Center Library with the Palisades Virtuosi chamber ensemble. Additional performances in recent years have included concerts at the Kasschau Memorial Band shell in Ridgewood, singing in Ridgewood’s Independence Day parade, area churches, and in November 2009, a presentation of Beethoven’s Fantasia for Piano, Chorus, and Orchestra, Op. 80 (the Choral Fantasy) with the Ridgewood Choral, the Ridgewood High School Chamber Choir, and the Eastern Christian High School Chorus.
Richard Lane’s composition declares: “We are men who like to sing. We are the men of Orpheus.
The Roland L. Meyer Orpheus Club Scholarship
The Orpheus Club is proud to sponsor a scholarship program designed to honor and assist a graduating high school senior who has demonstrated extraordinary accomplishment in music and who intends to continue musical studies on the collegiate level. Since the program took on its current form in 1993, we have been pleased to recognize students from more than a dozen area schools with grants totaling more than $20,000. These outstanding young musicians have gone on to study at colleges and universities across the country. The 2016 Application and instructions will be available in January 2016.
SAVE 20% on all Gift Cards! $100.00 Gift Card gets you $120.00 worth, $50.00 Gift Card gets you $60.00 worth. Give the gift of a clean, shiny car this Holiday Season. Our gift cards make wonderful stocking stuffers.
Buy online at www.thevillageautowash.com or visit us at 152 S Broad Street, Ridgewood, NJ and mention this ad. Offer expires 12/31/15.
Village Auto Wash is a full service hand car wash and professional detail center located in Ridgewood, NJ. Our experienced staff, competitive prices and exceptional customer service sets us apart as NJ’s premier hand car wash. Village Auto Wash offers a wide variety of services designed to protect your investment and keep your vehicle looking its best.
Village is a Hand Car Wash which means no tunnels, no machines to scratch your tire rims and no brushes to scratch your car. Village Auto Wash is perfect for anyone that wants a great wash with special attention to the details. We also have a large bay to accommodate oversized vehicles and trucks.
We pride ourselves on our skilled and experienced team and promise to take great care of your car. We offer a wash and park service, so feel free to drop off your car while you grab lunch, work out or get a little shopping done.
DECEMBER 18, 2015 LAST UPDATED: FRIDAY, DECEMBER 18, 2015, 12:31 AM
BY MATTHEW SCHNEIDER
STAFF WRITER |
THE RIDGEWOOD NEWS
The Village Council agreed last week to conduct four impact studies related to proposed multifamily housing projects in Ridgewood.
“It is our intention, per previous conversations, to go forward with four impact studies to look at issues like financial impact, school impact, (municipal) infrastructure as well as traffic,” Mayor Paul Aronsohn said.
These studies, which many residents have been calling for, will be performed by various consultants, according to Village Manager Roberta Sonenfeld.
“We’re looking at those four things,” she said, “and we’re telling the consultants that it’s based upon realistic build-out analysis for the four sites under current vs. proposed zoning.”
“We developed some of our own input and we went out to eight potential providers of this kind of information,” Sonenfeld said.
“The current status is that we have one provider who’s provided a very preliminary proposal that includes all four areas and includes some reliance on previously obtained data, and that’s BFJ/Urbanomics,” she said.
Sonenfeld said that other companies submitted proposals for separate areas of study.
“We reached out to Ross Haber in education; we reached out to Heyer Gruel Associates for fiscal impact and education; we reached out to Maser Consulting for traffic and we are in the process of reaching out to the RBA Group for traffic as well,” she said.
She explained that if all goes according to plan, the consultants will come before the council during a special public work session and make presentations before the next council meeting on Jan. 6th.
