By Christopher Baxter and Matthew Stanmyre | NJ Advance Media for NJ.com
on January 24, 2017 at 5:07 PM, updated January 24, 2017 at 5:11 PM
A state Senate panel will hold a hearing Monday on a report that the leading maker of artificial sports fields in the U.S., FieldTurf, for years sold a popular line of turf to taxpayers across the country after knowing it was falling apart.
The hearing, scheduled for 1 p.m. in Trenton before the Senate Commerce Committee, comes in response to an NJ Advance Media investigation published in December that called into question whether the company had committed fraud.
“This is a first step in our effort to determine exactly what happened and to take the action necessary at the state level to ensure that taxpayers are protected,” the chairwoman of the committee, Sen. Nellie Pou (D-Passaic), said in a statement.
She called the findings of the investigation “incredibly concerning.” The company has denied any wrongdoing.
The committee will hear testimony from FieldTurf executives, school officials and others who have been invited to testify, the statement said.
RIDGEWOOD VILLAGE 2016 avg: $17,181 2015 avg: $16,798 Change: 2.30%
By Michael Symons January 24, 2017 7:26 PM
Property taxes increased by more than $700 million across New Jersey in 2016, the most in six years, according to a New Jersey 101.5 compilation of tax data.
That added $196 to the average residential property tax bill, a 2.35 percent jump to $8,549. That’s the same percentage increase as in 2015, which was the most since 2011.
The tax levy increased by 2.54 percent statewide, or nearly $703 million. The levy last rose by that percentage in 2011, and the last time it grew by that many dollars or more was in 2010.
The levy can increase by more than Gov. Chris Christie’s signature 2 percent cap because of exceptions for pensions, health benefits, debt, construction and emergencies. Also, governments that are under the cap one year can “bank” that increase to use in any of the next three years.
Christie spokesman Brian Murray said the governor didn’t want the exemptions. Murray said rising property values largely triggered the slight tax increase and that annual increases in property taxes have averaged 2.04 percent since 2010.
“The annual increase would have been lower had the Legislature not incorporated exceptions to the 2 percent caps, exemptions the governor advocated against,” Murray said. “But more importantly, the rate of increase is far below the astounding 7 percent-per-year tax growth New Jersey averaged during the decade preceding the governor’s arrival in office.”
THE RIDGEWOOD VILLAGE COUNCIL’S
PUBLIC WORKSHOP AGENDA
JANUARY 25, 2017
REVISED
1. 7:30 pm – Call to Order – Mayor
2. Statement of Compliance with Open Public Meeting Act
Mayor: “Adequate notice of this meeting has been provided by a posting on the bulletin board in Village Hall, by mail to the Ridgewood News, The Record, and by submission to all persons entitled to same as provided by law of a schedule including the date and time of this meeting.”
3. Roll Call – Village Clerk
4. Flag Salute/Moment of Silence
5. Public Comments (Not to Exceed 3 Minutes per Person – 40 Minutes in Total)
6. Discussion:
d. Policy
1. Municipal Aid Grant Application – Resurface North Pleasant Avenue
2. Municipal Aid Grant Application – Safe Street to Transit
7. Motion to Suspend Work Session and Convene Special Public Meeting
Special Public Meeting Agenda:https://www.ridgewoodnj.net/…/1209-village-council-special-p…
8. Motion to Adjourn Special Public Meeting and Reconvene Work Session
9. Special Public Meeting – See Attached Agenda
10. Presentation
a. Ridgewood Public Library – Preliminary Presentation on Renovation Plans
11. Discussion
a. Ridgewood Water
1. Award Second Year of Contract – Landscaping Services
2. Award of Contract – Cold Water Meters and Accessories
3. Award Second Year of Contract – Pipes, Appurtenances and Service Materials
b. Parking
1. CBD Parking – Parking Garage Discussion
2. Sherman Place Discussion
3. Authorize Ordinance to Assist Drivers with Disabilities
4. Chestnut Street and North Walnut Street – Change in Parking Allocations
c. Budget
1. Award of Contract – Purchase of Vacuum Tank Unit
2. Award of Contract – Purchase of Sludge Hauling Tanker Truck Chassis
3. Award of Contract – Professional Services – Upgrade Traffic Signals
4. Award of Contract – Professional Services – Tax Assessment Map
5. Graydon Pool Fees
6. Authorize Designation of an Acting Municipal Court Administrator
7. Liquid Waste Acceptance Program
d. Policy
1. Removed from Agenda
2. Schedler Property – Next Steps
3. Committee By-Laws Timeline Discussion
4. Uber Discussion
e. Operations
1. Authorize Membership Agreement with PVSC and NJWCPS
2. Authorize Girl Scout Project – Tree Nursery at Parks in Flood Plain
3. Authorize Bus Stop Ordinance – NJ Transit
12. Manager’s Report
13. Council Reports
14. Public Comments (Not to Exceed 5 Minutes per Person)
15. Resolution to go into Closed Session
16. Closed Session
a. Legal – Contract for Parking; Town Garage
Ridgewood Nj, despite prophecies of doom from the national weather service, Ridgewood like much of Bergen County got through the Noreaster relatively unscathed. Reports of high winds are always a danger in the Village with so many older trees.
PSE&G even sent out a reminder courtesy of the Village Website, “that it was preparing for the approaching storm system that could bring heavy rain and gale-force winds. ”
Fortunately for residents, while winds were high and rain was heavy little damage is being reported this morning.
I thought the Facebook comments about renting a house for a golf tournament or Super Bowl type event were also illuminating.
The reason NYC or Los Angeles are against Air B&B is because it kills hotel tax revenues. They lose millions yet even they cant actually ban short term rentals. There is no way this law holds up but it will cost some homeowner and all of us taxpayers to work it through the system.
These knee jerk reactions to public comment has to be tempered. The mess with that parking near Whole Foods is a similar situation (from the past council). It is great to listen to the public and to try to find solutions but elected officials cannot just react. They are elected to be a deliberative body that analyzes both sides of an issue and finds solutions. These mistakes are costly in time and tax payer money.
Those who attended the hearings could easily reach the opinion that Arohnson sold the Village out to the developers. He pushed for a a formula where the Village allowed land speculators and developers to build 85 regular market units for every 15 coah compliant units. Do the math – – under the Aronson Plan, if the Village was ordered by the Courts to build 150 units, then the developers would be allowed to build 1000 apartments in town. And because the Village may need to build as many as 500 coah units (or even 1,000 according to some attorneys) then under the Arohnson formula, the town would have to let the developers build 5,000 to 10,000 units in total. Think about it, that’s 5,000 to 10,000 new families moving into town. The developers were licking their chops over the stupidity of the Aronson formula and the opportunity to start to apply it to properties throughout the town.
The new council quickly moved to kill some of the enabling legislation behind the Aronson plan. But, frankly, its not clear they have done enough to prevent developers from continuing to buy up property and make the argument that they need to build, build, build in order to enable Ridgewood to meet its coah requirements. Our Council needs to take bold action to meet coah requirements while not allowing developers to re-make the Village.
A lot needs to be done and the process needs to be started quickly. The Council cannot ignore this issue. They need to starting acting now.
Ridgewood NJ, Monday 10.45 employee parking lots aside Town Garage extremely underutilized. These same spots held train pass holders who were moved into center crowded area of this same lot.
the staff of the Ridgewood blog
Ridgewood NJ, With 31 percent of all nonretired adults having no retirement savings or pension because many simply cannot afford to contribute to any type of plan, the personal-finance website WalletHub conducted an in-depth analysis identifying 2017’s Best & Worst States to Retire.
Over the past year and a half, the group Age-Friendly Ridgewood has taken steps to learn what the village can do to better serve its oldest population. Those 65 and older make up 12.5 percent of the village’s population, according to the 2010 census.
To help retirees find a retirement- and wallet-friendly place to call home, WalletHub’s analysts compared the 50 states and the District of Columbia across 31 key metrics. The data set ranges from “adjusted cost of living” to “weather” to “quality of public hospitals.”
Best States to Retire
Worst States to Retire
1
Florida
42
Arkansas
2
Wyoming
43
Kentucky
3
South Dakota
44
Vermont
4
Iowa
45
New Mexico
5
Colorado
46
New Jersey
6
Idaho
47
Hawaii
7
South Carolina
48
Connecticut
8
Nevada
49
District of Columbia
9
Delaware
50
Alaska
10
Wisconsin
51
Rhode Island
Some of the finding included :
Mississippi has the lowest adjusted cost-of-living index for retirees, 85.6, which is 1.9 times lower than in Hawaii, where it is highest at 165.3.
Louisiana has the lowest annual cost of in-home services, $34,892, which is 1.8 times lower than in North Dakota, where it is highest at $63,972.
Alaska has the highest share of the population aged 65 and older working, 22.34 percent, which is 1.8 times higher than in West Virginia, where it is lowest at 12.32 percent.
Florida has the highest share of the population aged 65 and older, 18.6 percent, which is 2.1 times higher than in Alaska, where it is lowest at 9.0 percent.
Vermont has the lowest property-crime rate per 1,000 residents, 14.07, which is 3.3 times lower than in the District of Columbia, where it is highest at 46.76.
Ridgewood NJ, A Porsche SUV was totaled when its adult female driver smashed into a utility pole in front of 239 Lakeview Drive, Ridgewood on Monday evening, 01/23. The driver was uninjured in the mishap. Utility service in the neighborhood was unaffected by the crash, but damage to the pole warrants its replacement. A flatbed tow truck removed the damaged Porsche from the scene. One (1) summons was issued by Ridgewood PD in connection with the incident. Midland Park PD assisted at the scene.
Board of Education Meets Tonight
January 23, 2017 at 7:30 p.m.
The Education Center
49 Cottage Place, Ridgewood
Ridgewood NJ, The Ridgewood Board of Education will hold a Regular Public Meeting tonight, Monday, January 23, 2017. The Board meets at the Education Center, 49 Cottage Place, Floor 3 at 7:30 p.m.
The public is welcome to attend the meeting, or to watch from home on FiOS channel 33 or Optimum channel 77. Meetings are also streamed via the “Link in Live” tab on the district website at www.ridgewood.k12.nj.us.
Meeting webcasts are immediately available on the district website.
Educator Jim Trelease explains why reading aloud to your child, no matter what her age, is the magic bullet for creating a lifelong reader.
by: Connie Matthiessen | January 14, 2016
Jim Trelease is the author of the respected, Read-Aloud Handbook, which some parents have called the “read aloud Bible.” The book is packed with information — from what really makes kids love reading, to tips for luring kids away from electronics and onto the page, to hundreds of read aloud titles. The Handbook’s seventh edition will be published in the spring of 2013 and, at 71 years old, Trelease says it will be his last. We reached Trelease recently in his home in Connecticut and asked him to explain why reading aloud is essential for kids of all ages.
Can you explain the link between reading aloud and school success?
It’s long established in science and research: the child who comes to school with a large vocabulary does better than the child who comes to school with little familiarity with words and a low vocabulary.
Why is that? If you think about it, in the early years of school, almost all instruction is oral. In kindergarten through second and third grades, kids aren’t reading yet, or are just starting, so it’s all about the teacher talking to the kids. This isn’t just true in reading but in all subjects; the teacher isn’t telling kids to open their textbooks and read chapter three. The teaching is oral and the kids with the largest vocabularies have an advantage because they understand most of what the teacher is saying. The kids with small vocabularies don’t get what is going on from the start, and they’re likely to fall further and further behind as time goes on.
How does a child develop a large vocabulary even before school starts? Children who are spoken to and read to most often are the ones with the largest vocabularies. If you think about it, you can’t get a word out of the child’s mouth unless he has heard it before. For example, the word “complicated.” A child isn’t going to say the word unless he has heard it before — and in fact to remember it, a child probably has to hear it multiple times. (That’s not true with swear words, of course. If a child hears his parent swear he’ll remember it the first time, and happily repeat it whenever he gets the chance.) But kids have to hear most words multiple times, so it’s important that their parents talk to and around them from the time they are very young, because that’s how they learn words.
I have had many airbnb visitors, all very decent professionals, staying for various reasons, TI Pros working 1-2 or 3 month contracts, people that had construction going on because of a fire-damaged to their home and were sick of staying a hotel, CEO”s come in for 3 days , but mostly guests visiting family members for a few days coming to see newborns of there kids having kids from the UK.,Israel, Denmark, Japan.
I have never had a problem with anyone of these guests. And this has helped me out tremendously since I lost a love one that contributed to my loving home financially, a home I don’t wish to lose…..
So to the ignorant person that has threatened to call the IRS on your neighbor, you are a despicable neighbor that “ASSUMES” we don’t pay our taxes , with no proof what so ever !!!! So please call them and rear your ugly head out to all of us. Think of us when your having your $500 spa day and stuff your face with tartare. and getting your manicure and hair colored, god it’s been so long for me Maybe you should try getting a job so you wouldn’t have so much time on your hands to judge everyone around you. Make no mistake about, YOU ARE the person people talk about in town behind your back, and rightfully so you play the role so eloquently, ponder that the next time your gossiping, we all see right through those people, they are the black sheep in our community’s !!!!!!!
Unlike the bloviators here, I actually spent the time to do some research regarding my concerns about liability coverage and Air bnb provides coverage. I doubt the ban will stand and if it does, you’ll have neighbors spying on each other and calling the cops when a stranger parks in a driveway or goes into a house. Kind of echoes some activities from 80 odd years ago… maybe we’ll have to carry our “resident” papers too…
Ridgewood Nj, according to George Becker, M.D., Director, Emergency Department, The Valley Hospital although most people are not in any danger from shoveling snow,(https://toyourhealth.valleyhealth.com/blogs/valleyblogs/january-2017/shoveling-snow-winter-chore-or-health-hazard) Doctor Becker tells us that the American Heart Association (AHA) still shares useful tips for anyone shoveling snow in the winter. To begin with, the AHA recommends that those who don’t exercise on a regular basis, those that have a medical condition, or those that are middle age or older consult with a doctor before shoveling.
The AHA also has the following general tips for staying safe while shoveling:
Take frequent rest breaks during shoveling.
Don’t eat a heavy meal prior or soon after shoveling.
Use a small shovel or consider a snow thrower.
Don’t drink alcoholic beverages before or immediately after shoveling.
Be aware of the dangers of hypothermia.
Learn the heart attack warning signs and listen to your body.
Some signs that you might be having a heart attack are pain in the chest, arm(s), back, neck, jaw or stomach. You might also break out in a cold sweat, feel short of breath, nauseated, lightheaded, or uncomfortable pressure, squeezing, fullness in the center of your chest.
If you are concerned that you may be having a heart attack, Doctor Becker says you should not hesitate about seeking medical treatment—every minute is crucial when experiencing a heart attack. Call 911 immediately or head directly to the closest emergency room.
Valley Hospital Emergency Department, located at 223 N. Van Dien Avenue in Ridgewood, NJ is open 24/7, 365 days a year and is staffed with physicians who are board certified in emergency medicine
Ridgewood NJ, Wellbeing Series tackles the importance of failure on Feb. 1
The district’s free Wellbeing Series for parents, guardians and the general adult continues next month with bestselling author Jessica Lahey on Wednesday, February 1.
Ms. Lahey’s program, “The Gift of Failure,” will focus on the importance of self-motivation to academic success and how parents can best support their children to stay motivated over the long term. The presentation will take place at George Washington Middle School Auditorium, 155 Washington Place, Ridgewood, from 7-9 p.m.
Ms. Lahey is author of the bestselling book The Gift of Failure: How the Best Parents Learn to Let Go So Their Children Can Succeed. A writer and teacher on education, parenting and child welfare, Ms. Lahey’s work appears in several publications, including The New York Times and The Atlantic.
the staff of the Ridgewood blog
Ridgewood NJ, Emmanuel Baptist Church will be offering a new parenting support group, “The Parenting Village,” with the first session starting on Wednesday, February 8th at 6:00 p.m. – 8:00 p.m. in the Peace Lounge. Parents with children of all ages are invited to attend. The group will begin by studying Dr. Gordon Neufeld and Dr. Gabor Mate’s book, “Hold On to Your Kids” (2006). Childcare will be provided free of charge at Emmanuel. Light refreshments will be served.
Emmanuel will be purchasing the reference material for this first group meeting. In order to determine how many books to be ordered, please RSVP to the Church office at 201-444-7300 or on the Facebook event link at www.facebook.com/EBCRidgewood/. If you are unable to reach the church office, please contact facilitator, Heidi Ehman, at [email protected].
The purpose of the parenting support group is to create a supportive, loving community for parents to discuss fears and challenges they are facing as parents, help parents maintain connection with their children, and to establish a strong network for parents to call upon to help and guide each other. Possible topics of discussion include living in the moment with children, modern day challenges of parenting, limiting technology, and how to maintain positive connections with children in a world that pulls them away.
Heidi Ehman, founder and facilitator of “The Parenting Village” support group, stated, “In response to the fervent need of virtually every parent we meet, we have decided to provide a safe space for them to ask any question and share their experience.”
Ms. Ehman, a life-long Hawthorne resident, has served on Emmanuel’s Education Board and believes strongly in the philosophy of Attachment Parenting. She is a decorative painter who homeschools her daughter in the Waldorf Method. Recently, she has been pursuing a teacher’s certificate in handwork.
Emmanuel, founded in 1891, is celebrating its 125th Anniversary Year and continues to maintain a tradition of outreach to the community. Emmanuel is located at 14 Hope Street, at the corner of Hope Street and East Ridgewood Avenue, Ridgewood, NJ. The building is ADA accessible and all are invited to attend. For more information, visit www.emmanuelridgewood.org.
