>September 17, 2009
Hon. David Pfund, Mayor
Council Members Keith Killion, Paul Aronsohn, Patrick A. Mancuso, and Anne Zusy
Village Hall
131 N. Maple Ave.
Ridgewood, NJ 07450
Dear Mayor Pfund and Council Members:
We were dismayed at last night’s Council meeting to hear from the dais that we suddenly had a deadline for deciding whether to join the Council’s new Graydon committee and that that deadline was today. We had been told privately, and it had been announced, also from the dais at the September 9 Council meeting, and repeated by a Council member at our table at the Ridgewood street fair on Sunday, September 13, that the committee meeting originally scheduled for tonight would be postponed by one week in consideration of personal issues. If meeting minutes had been posted, as they should have been, within 48 hours, we could have checked and pointed to those words.
Since a response is demanded immediately, please consider this letter to accommodate the surprise deadline.
Discussions of proposed changes to Graydon have become a highly sensitive public issue. This was amply shown by the historic demonstration of public interest in the future of Graydon at the Village work session meeting on September 9, 2009, at which members in the audience wishing to preserve and protect Graydon Park and “plake” greatly outnumbered the group demanding their demolition and replacement, as well as the more than 1,000 signatures obtained by the Coalition over a week’s time around Labor Day weekend (and still growing) on a petition with the following statement: “We ask the Ridgewood Village Council to resist replacing Graydon’s sandy beaches and large swimming area with a much smaller concrete pool or pools and to postpone issuing a Request for Proposal (RFP) until less-invasive alternatives to enhance the existing facility have been explored.” Yet unfortunately, from the beginning, a behind-closed-doors atmosphere of overzealousness and negativity by the Ridgewood Pool Project (RPP) and now by members of the same group using a new name, as well as the longtime spoken and silent consent to their behavior and statements by various Village government officials, representing an apparent strange collusion with that group’s efforts to subvert a beloved Village property, has served to promote a pro-concrete agenda that most residents vehemently reject and that has undermined the public trust.
As it is the duty of the Council to respect and uphold a democratic form of government, transparency is desirable and warranted at every level, including deliberations and determinations regarding any proposed changes to Graydon Park and plake. We ask the Village Council to revisit the Graydon issue in a fully open, democratic public forum and to start anew, as you have suggested, although not by a committee of the same people who have veered in the wrong direction but through a public forum based on transparency.
The volunteer group RPP’s flawed “Final Report,” which, like their pronouncements to the public and press, contains serious false statements about Graydon; two site renderings, the first quickly rejected by all, the second by an unlicensed architect lacking experience in pool design, and both wholly incompatible with the setting; and history of misrepresentation of facts, and which represents nothing more than a social study with no real implications for the feasibility of the drastic change to the park that it recommends, have amply shown the group to lack validity. Distortions about the role and recommendations of the NJDEP with regard to Graydon and grave public misstatements by that group and by at least one Village Council member regarding the cleanliness and safety of Graydon even as the Village contests a multimillion-dollar lawsuit related to swimming safety have contributed to the dissemination to residents of misinformation that unfairly and inaccurately maligns a cherished public amenity. The discrediting of Graydon through half-truths, innuendo, and rhetoric has been a sad travesty, but one that our community can salvage if the Village immediately goes forward as described below.
Representatives of the Coalition would consider participating in a Council-appointed committee under the following terms and conditions:
1. We have received the committee’s mission statement only via email, by request. To review the statement, we will need to see a copy on Village letterhead, signed and accompanied by a list of the other proposed members, the projected frequency and dates of meetings, any anticipated deadlines, and an assurance that the committee would continue to meet as long as necessary, not merely as a stopgap before issuing an RFP within a short period.
We have heard mixed messages regarding the disposition of the RFP: both that it is no longer under consideration and that it will be passed within a few weeks. We hope the former is correct, but fear from Council member’ comments at Council meetings and elsewhere that is not the case.
2. The objective of the committee must be to examine all issues relating to Graydon from an independent and critical perspective. The committee must be willing to marshal all available resources, both within and without the community, encouraging participation and suggestions by all; the Coalition, for example, has already received notes and ideas from around the country and world that its members wish to share, and would expect to be able to solicit more on various topics over time. The committee must be charged with the obligation of publishing its own findings of fact and conclusions without reference to the “Final Report,” or any other report, comment, or findings, of the Ridgewood Pool Project, whose work is done and which must be firmly instructed to cease and desist in its unremitting maligning of Graydon for its own purposes; so too for the offshoot/companion group named Fix Graydon Now! and any additional such groups formed in the future. Further, if the goal of the committee is indeed to “start fresh,” every member must be of the disposition that that is what will be done. Any individual or representative of a group known to have rejected the possibility of maintaining Graydon in its current state, whatever they may say now, would not be suitable members and would hinder progress.
3. If the committee’s mission is to proceed free of preconceptions with the purpose of enhancing Graydon with an eye to attracting more members, as has been stated, then at least one full swimming season, and more likely several, will be required to test new techniques and technologies as well as to implement a full-bore public relations campaign supported by the Council both financially and in fact. The cost of such measures will be considerably less than the many millions projected for the concrete solution, a fortuitous saving at a time of severe economic hardship for the Village.
4. Success will be contingent on the Council’s full participation and cooperation in protecting Graydon and speaking positively about it, including when the Council speaks at public meetings and to the press, in a way that residents will hear and recognize rather than permitting a group with an anti-Graydon agenda to continue its negative propaganda with the Council’s spoken or silent affirmation rather than severe rebuttal. Steps must be taken to protect Graydon throughout the year, as it remains, as intended, a public park. For example, covering the rafts with flags or other objects to prevent geese from landing on them now that the swimming season has ended would be a prudent step to take in the ongoing effort to keep the park attractive and pleasant throughout the year. Our goose control experts have some inexpensive recommendations.
5. The committee cannot have any predetermined outcome, nor can it be considered a means of achieving compromise between competing groups. The Coalition does not consider itself a competing group except in that it demands the exploration of all means to enhance Graydon rather than leveling it; in this the Coalition has been working in effect as an unpaid booster of Village property and holdings. No such compromise is possible at the current time. The purpose of the committee must be not to mollify individual citizens demanding a specific solution but to examine, without undue haste, ways in which Graydon Park, in its present format, can be improved and can restore some measure of its former popularity as a community gathering place 12 months a year; in short, to explore what is best for the community.
6. Further, the prospect of the committee’s making final determinations within a matter of weeks belies the claim that all possibilities for the future of Graydon are open. No relevant research could possibly be done and evaluated in that time.
7. No adequate environmental study has been done for this setting in the center of a tremendous floodplain area with numerous considerations requiring thorough study and evaluation, including the considerably increased impervious area caused by building in recent years and the potentially disastrous consequences of a 100-year flood. Going forward beyond discussion and scrupulous study at this time would represent sheer folly and a potentially devastating waste of time and taxpayers’ money. A feasibility study would incorporate environmental and other issues. Only after a full assessment of the plausibility of such construction could an RFP be considered appropriate.
8. To dispel rumor and innuendo from the proceedings and assure Village residents that discussions and decisions about Graydon will be open to full public scrutiny, which would be the only way to overcome the atmosphere of the past few years regarding Graydon, the committee must work with full transparency. Meetings shall be open to the public and available on closed-circuit television. (Public comments would not necessarily be available every time.) The area of the Village website designed to permit meetings held in the courtroom to be viewed online should be completed/repaired immediately so that anyone with a computer and modem could watch them. At least one venue larger than the Village Hall courtroom and supplied with the necessary technology and materials, such as television cameras, should be established at the earliest opportunity for future meetings of considerable interest to the community so that more people may participate in open government, obviating the travesty of public participation that characterized the council meeting on September 9.
9. Continuing with the theme of “sunshine,” members of the committee must be free to discuss its activities with third parties. Again, if all available resources are to be obtained, the members must, of necessity, talk with residents and non-residents. Ridgewood residents offer a wealth of expertise in many different areas, including, but not limited to, civil and hydroengineering and other technical issues; survey techniques; environmental considerations, including wetlands and floodplain issues; public relations and marketing; and operations management.
10. Members of the committee who may also be members of the Coalition must be free to continue educational and other outreach activities on behalf of the Coalition. We believe that much can and must be done to educate the community about what is good about Graydon. This is especially needed to counter the negative publicity generated over several years by the Ridgewood Pool Project, which, in the estimation of the Coalition, has contributed greatly to declining membership. In fact, the most dramatic drop in membership occurred during the summer of 2007, the first swimming season after the RPP announced its existence in February 2007. Prior to that time, membership had never fallen below 4,000. Once the RPP had organized, membership decreased by an additional 1,300 in 2007. Stunts such as marching in the July 4 parade holding signs toward the RPP’s goal must have an impact on membership and must be stopped. These examples and others demonstrate that the RPP’s insistence that it has had nothing to do with declining membership is patently false. Much damage has been done to Graydon’s reputation, and these misconceptions must be rectified. Such efforts may take some time, but will be well worth while.
11. The Coalition intends to examine the “Final Report” of the RPP in detail and to report its findings to the public. This too would have to be permitted. For this the Coalition must have, at your earliest opportunity, all the raw data on which the report was based, whether the Coalition participates in the committee or not and whether the Council already has such data in its possession; if not, and this would mean that the report had never been appropriately reviewed before becoming the basis of an RFP, the data must be obtained now from the RPP or whoever is holding it. The RPP report was partially funded with taxpayer money and should therefore be available to the public in all its phases.
12. Having no place on a committee devoted to considerations of preserving rather than destroying Graydon, by definition, is any group dedicated to such destruction. Neither the RPP, nor its alter ego known as “Fix Graydon Now!,” nor any other person or group with an agenda favoring the demolition of Graydon deserves a place at the table. Including such persons would in effect nullify claims of impartiality and a fresh slate.
13. The Coalition considers the committee’s activities to be a long-term project, and certainly not something that can be completed in a month or even, most likely, in only one more swimming season, as word of mouth can take time to take hold, especially when years of negative public relations must be overcome. If, in defiance of its own mission statement, the Council persists in even considering moving forward with a construction project involving the partial or complete demolition of Graydon as we know it, there will be insufficient time to do the independent, objective investigation required. Accordingly, all discussion of an RFP, which is not in fact a tool to “see what is out there,” as frequently stated by the Council, but a means to a definitive end, specifically a contract document, must be tabled indefinitely to demonstrate to concerned Village residents the Council’s genuine interest in pursuing the correct course.
14. The Coalition would expect to be permitted to send any designated representative to committee meetings and in addition to invite limited numbers of experts, after notifying the committee head, whoever that may be. More than two such persons might be present at any given time, depending upon the topic at hand.
15. Any meetings with the NJDEP and/or other state or federal regulatory agencies will be disclosed at least 48 hours in advance and an announcement of the time, date, and place posted. Coalition representatives will be invited to attend those meetings and site visits.
Unless these conditions for success are met, the new committee will be unable to make a decision in the best interests of the Village, and the public desire and good can never come about.
We made many points at our well-received presentation on September 9 and had many more prepared that we were discouraged from presenting but that deserve consideration and investigation before rational, careful decisions can be made about the future of Graydon.
Support from experienced and skilled professionals in the Village is available and should be accepted. For example, a letter to the Council from the Ridgewood Historic Preservation Commission (September 4, 2009), published in full at our website, www.PreserveGraydon.org, concludes: “The recent proposal to destroy more than half of this tranquil setting is contrary to the intent and historical importance of Graydon Park. We urge the Council to consider a non-intrusive design and instead improve upon Graydon’s natural and historical landscape. We would be glad to participate in this effort.”
Reconsidering and re-forming the committee as described above would be of tremendous benefit to the Council, Graydon, and the Village. The Coalition has accumulated masses of information, suggestions, forward-thinking ideas, and recommendations from experts in the United States and other countries; many are cost effective. Graydon can only benefit from that input and those ideas. Would it not be a disservice to the Village and Graydon if the only reason the Coalition’s ideas could not be put into place was the absence of a sound, productive committee open to the public scrutiny that residents have craved all along? The most expedient way to share those ideas would be as members of the committee; however, if that is not possible, we will continue our research independently.
One of the jewels of our community is in great jeopardy, causing widespread confusion, bewilderment, and anger among a large proportion of residents, many of whom are just learning about the situation. “Horrified” would not be too strong a description of the average resident reaction to the prospect of losing Graydon Park to concrete. A Facebook site on the subject has over 1,100 members. The RHS Class of 1951, already planning its 50th reunion in 2011, and the RHS Class of 1958 (www.ridgewood58.com) have independently adopted our cause. We have received hundreds and hundreds of email messages and letters protesting the possibility that Graydon could be removed and offering help of time, research, letter writing, and money. This is more, much more, than “nostalgia.” It can no longer be said that no one cares about Graydon.
Time and care must be taken to ensure that proper decisions are made. Fundraising groups and philanthropic individuals, and persons who are relatively new to a community encompassing many families that harbor strong positive feelings about Graydon, often for several generations, must not be permitted to proffer a large check that determines the future of this or any other of our unique open spaces or to replace with an ordinary concrete structure the long-lived, long-loved, still-vibrant site of active and passive recreation in a sunny park in the center of town.
The Preserve Graydon Coalition, like the Village Council, understands that any changes to Graydon must have the support of our citizens. With transparency, our community can find the best solution. One fine way to bring the community together and back to Graydon would be a townwide celebration in honor of the park’s 100th birthday in the spring.
Sincerely,
Suzanne Kelly and Marcia Ringel, Co-Chairs
For The Preserve Graydon Coalition
via email and by hand
cc: Heather Mailander, Acting Village Manager
Timothy J. Cronin, Director, Department of Parks and Recreation
Nancy A. Bigos, Deputy Director, Department of Parks and Recreation
Christopher Rutishauser, Village Engineer
Ridgewood News
Bergen Record
