>Board of Education MeetingBOE Meeting
The Ridgewood Board of Education will hold regular public meetings on Jan. 7, 2008, and Jan. 28, 2008, 7:30 p.m., the Board room, 3rd floor, Ed Center, 49 Cottage Place.
Special BOE MeetingThe Ridgewood Board of Education will hold a special public meeting on Monday, Jan. 14, 2008, 7:30 p.m., in the Board room, floor 3, Ed Center, 49 Cottage Place. The purpose of the meeting is to hold a workshop with the district’s school principals on math instruction.
>Saturday, December 1 thru Monday, December 31, 2007
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I would like to take this time to wish everyone a healthy, happy and prosperous Christmas and New Year
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The Fly wants to know why some residents and business owners refuse to comply with the Village’s law concerning ice & snow removal from sidewalks. Should the Village hire part-time employees to issue summonses post every major snowfall? What do you think? And what about those pesky contractors who plow driveway snow into the street? Shouldn’t they be issued summonses?
§ 249-1. Snow and ice removal. [Amended 7-8-1975 by Ord. No. 1582; 3-10-1987 by Ord. No. 2084; 11-9-1993 by Ord. No. 2435]
A. The owner of any land abutting upon the streets or public highways in the Village, if such land is owner-occupied or vacant, otherwise the tenant or occupant of such land situate in all zones of the Village of Ridgewood as shown on the 1990 Zoning Map, with the exception of the B-1, B-2, P and P-2 Zones of the Village, shall remove all snow and ice from the abutting sidewalks of such streets or highways within 24 hours after the same shall fall or be formed thereon. No snow or ice so removed, however, shall be deposited or placed in the street or highway in such a manner or location so as to impede the flow of traffic. For purposes of this section, such land shall be deemed owner-occupied if occupied by either the owner or owners of record or any agent, servant or employee thereof.
B. Owners, tenants and occupants of any land abutting the streets or highways of the Village situate in the B-1, B-2, P and P-2 Zones of the Village are subject to the following snow removal regulations. Special regulations are adopted for the business and office zones in order to maintain an attractive and safe environment in the business and professional office zones of the Village by assuring that the snow will be removed from the sidewalks in and around the central business district on a timely basis.
C. Snow is required to be removed in the B-1, B-2, P and P-2 Zone Districts from the sidewalks concurrently with its fall. To assure compliance with this section, more than one clearing may be required to keep the sidewalks as free of snow as is practical. The following specific regulations are hereby adopted. Snowfalls commencing during the evening, that is, after 6:00 p.m., will be cleared by no later than 9:00 a.m. the following morning, Sundays and holidays included. During weekday storms, Monday through Saturday, occurring during business hours, sidewalks shall be cleared to a five-foot minimum width to provide access from the storefront to the curb, between meters, if meters are installed. After 6:00 p.m. and on Sundays and holidays, sidewalks will be completely cleared into the street.
D. A court appearance will be required to answer any summons issued for a violation of this section occurring in the B-1, B-2, P and P-2 zones of the Village. A court appearance will be required to answer any summons issued for a second or subsequent violation of this section in all zones of the Village. [Amended 7-11-1995 by Ord. No. 2533]
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Texas Football Succumbs to Virulent Staph Infection From Turf
By Victor Epstein
Dec. 21 (Bloomberg) — Missy Baker recalls the moment when she realized that her football-playing son, Boone, didn’t just have the flu.
“He told me he was paralyzed,” Baker said. “I said, `What do you mean? I just saw you walk to the bathroom two hours ago.’ And he said, `Mom, I can’t move my arms or legs.”’
Sixteen-year-old Boone, a wide receiver for Texas’s Austin High School, was suffering from a recurrence of methicillin- resistant staphylococcus aureus, or MRSA, which his doctor said he got through an abrasion from playing on artificial turf, Baker said.
Texas has artificial turf at 18 percent of its high school football stadiums, according to Web site Texasbob.com. It also has an MRSA infection rate among players that is 16 times higher than the estimated national average, according to three studies by the Texas Department of State Health Services.
“This is a disease that can kill you,” said Carolina Espinoza, a graduate epidemiology student at the University of Texas in Houston, who helped conduct one of the studies. “If I were a football player, I would be alarmed.”
MRSA is a virulent strain of drug-resistant staph bacteria that plagued hospitals for decades and migrated into the general population in recent years, said Edward Septimus, an infectious disease specialist at Methodist Hospital System in Houston. Without proper treatment, it can spread to internal organs and bones after reaching the bloodstream, causing organ failure, he said.
In October, the deaths of a Brooklyn boy and a Virginia youth were blamed on MRSA infections.
Infection Rate
At least 276 football players were infected with MRSA from 2003 through 2005, a rate of 517 for each 100,000, according to the Texas studies. The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta reports a rate for the general population of 32 in 100,000.
Football players often become infected at the site of a turf burn and are misdiagnosed, said David Smith, co-author of a study showing that MRSA-related hospitalizations in the U.S. more than doubled from 1999 to 2005.
“The turf burns themselves are just the kind of minor skin injury that MRSA can exploit,” said Elliot Pellman, medical liaison for the National Football League, which also has had infections among its players.
Football dominates high school sports in Texas, which has more participants than any other state. Seventy-four schools have stadiums seating more than 10,000. The sport provides 22,041 full-time jobs and generates $2.88 billion in annual spending, said Ray Perryman, president of Perryman Group, a Waco economic and financial analysis firm.
Football Risk
Football also produces more MRSA infections than any other sport, said Marilyn Felkner, the epidemiologist who led the Texas studies. The department wasn’t able to obtain enough data to establish a statistical link between artificial turf and MRSA infections, she said.
“So many schools had at least one case,” Felkner said of a 2005 report showing 76 high school athletic departments with MRSA infections. “It was more schools than we would have thought.”
In Collin County, which includes parts of Dallas and Plano, six high schools had more than two infected athletes this fall, said Janet Glowicz, county epidemiologist.
MRSA causes more deaths than any of the 51 infectious diseases tracked by the CDC, including AIDS, according to CDC data. The agency doesn’t require medical professionals to report MRSA cases.
Texas plans a pilot program next year making MRSA a reportable illness in three regions, said Bryan Alsip, assistant health director for San Antonio.
Epidemic Proportions
Researchers including Septimus blame MRSA’s spread on overuse of antibiotics. A CDC report in the Journal of the American Medical Association showed that MRSA caused three times more infections than previously thought.
“This is an epidemic,” Smith said. His report was published by the CDC in the December edition of Emerging Infectious Diseases. “It’s a big problem, and it’s likely to get bigger.”
Smith said the public needs to hear more about MRSA. There is no benefit in alarming people, but they have a right to know that it is a serious situation, he said.
Spreading MRSA can be prevented by frequent hand washing, covering scratches and turf burns, disinfecting whirlpools between uses, and not sharing towels or razors, the Texas health department advises.
Mike Carroll, head athletic trainer at Stephenville High School near Fort Worth, said he tells coaches to avoid saying “staph” when they see a possible infection.
“You want people to be educated, but you don’t want to create a sky-is-falling mentality,” Carroll said.
Lasting Fear
Baker said she was shocked to learn how pervasive MRSA is. It’s also persistent: Boone was originally diagnosed in October 2006, and the infection returned last January. He had three surgeries to remove infected tissue and spent three weeks in the hospital.
While Boone resumed playing football this season, fear of another relapse haunts the family. Some survivors continue to carry the bacteria, according to doctors and the CDC.
Baker said she and her husband spent a sleepless night when Boone developed a skin infection that looked like a spider bite.
“We were both wide awake and shaking with fear,” she said. The wound cleared up the next day.
To contact the reporter on this story: Victor Epstein in Houston at [email protected] .
Last Updated: December 21, 2007 01:06 EST
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>Dear Trenton Legislators,
Please ignore Mrs. Brogan’s tacky form letter admonishing you for proposing a funding formula that does not deliver more money to Ridgewood.
Since in her mind (she is one of our 5 board members) Ridgewood is the only district in the State that is important, you can understand why she takes this proposed funding formula so personally as a slap in the face to Ridgewood.
Our Board uses money like a dripping faucet. We do not even have textbooks in our elementary schools, but we have lots of consultants to help our hapless administrators administrate.
We’ve recently instituted reform math, the worse possible form of math at great cost and absent any due diligence or input from parents. The board of ed just spent $9,000 on a consultant who left us a report that told us what we knew when she started: THAT MANY PARENTS WANT TRADITIONAL MATH IN THEIR SCHOOLS.
Our Board recently spent an entire year attempting to hire a superintendent. They chose to hire someone who wanted to commute from Long Island (at our expense!), who was a reform math constructivist in the face of intense parental opposition, and someone who had thrice bailed from the hiring process at other school districts.
I am but one parent, but I’ve seen enough of public school administration to determine the extent of wastefullness and single-mindedness that prevails. All one-party systems eventually fall to corruption.
The Ridgewood public school system, as currently run is but a one-party system for which corruption is systemic.
We do not need more money to be wasted in the public school system. I do not want to pay higher state taxes so that a little bit more comes back to Ridgewood.
That’s the game and I don’t want to play anymore.
Thank you for your attention.
Sincerely,
A Ridgewood parent
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IN ADDITION…NORTHEAST WINDS COULD GUST AS HIGH AS 40 MPH INTO THIS AFTERNOON. THE GUSTY WINDS COULD KNOCK DOWN SOME ICE COVERED POWER LINES AND OVERHANGING LIMBS…RESULTING IN POWER OUTAGES.
>Dismissal times today will be:
RED Program – 11 A.M.
A.M. Kindergarten – 11:20 A.M.
P.M. Kindergarten – Cancelled
Grades 1-5 – 12:45 P.M.
Grades 6-8 – 12:15 P.M.
Grades 9-12 – 12:30 P.M.
Please refer to the RPS district website for general EMERGENCY CLOSING
INFORMATION
>…Is it just me or do all contractors hate doing business in Ridgewood because of the hoops they have to go through and the delays that are encountered?This issues continues to be brought to the fly over and over .I have heard many people complaining about the ridiculous amount of time it takes to get approval .This is seriously impacting business in town. I’ve heard stories about how an application stays on the bottom because others get bumped to the top, due to inside contacts at the Village Hall. The staff in the Building Dept. all appears to have gone to the DMV school of customer service. I’m all for maintaining high standards of construction in Ridgewood, but the time it takes to get approvals is absurd.
