I am completely disappointed and disillusioned with many of our teachers. I agree ,it goes to the problem with tenure. It protects hacks earning good salaries when we have enthusiastic, energetic and able bodied folks working in retail or Starbucks because they can’t find teaching jobs. I wish all those teachers with the signs and smirks would move on but they won’t because despite their protests they know they have a great deal in the Ridgewood School System.
from the desk of Superintendent’s Office
Public Vote on Full-day Kindergarten
Tuesday, November 8
Regular polling locations
6 a.m. – 8 p.m.
Native Plant Society of New Jersey
November 9, 2016 at 7PM Lecture at Ridgewood Public Library
Climate Change and Urban/Suburban Trees
Dr. Jason Grabosky, professor at Rutgers University’s School of environmental and Biological Seiences, will address Climate change and Urban/Suburban Trees.
Dr. Grabosky will discuss the implications of climate change on plant selection and management, how trees occupy spaces which change over time, and how that affects other species such as insects.
There will be time for general discussion and questions and answers.
JOB POSTING – HR PROFESSIONAL P/T
VILLAGE OF RIDGEWOOD is seeking an individual to fill the Civil Service position of P/T Assistant Personnel Technician. The Professional will assist in reviewing and making recommendations for establishment and improvement of HR policies, procedures and practices; must have exp. as HR professional in public sector as well as knowledge of Civil Service; a SPHR or PHR certification is pref’d. Send detailed cover letter and resume to: Heather Mailander, Acting Village Manager, Village of Ridgewood, 131 N. Maple Ave., Ridgewood, NJ 07450. Application deadline: 11/14/16. Village of Ridgewood is EOE.
JOB POSTING – ASSISTANT WATER SUPERINTENT
The Village of Ridgewood is seeking an Assistant Water Superintendent for the Water Distribution Facility. Qualified individual must minimally have current NJDEP W-2, and the ability to advance to W-3 or higher licenses in the future. Strong leadership skills required, as well as at least 5 years’ experience in water distribution maintenance, repair, upkeep, and operation, and at least 2 years’ supervisory experience. Please send resume and salary requirements to Sharyn Matthews, HR Director, 131 N. Maple Ave., Ridgewood, NJ 07450 [email protected]
JOB POSTING – ADMINISTRATIVE ASSISTANT
Administrative Assistant to Director of Northwest Bergen Central Dispatch, located in Ridgewood, NJ. Perform fiscal responsibilities including payroll, purchasing, processing invoices, bank statement reconciliation, and budgeting. Experience with QuickBooks preferred. Provides clerical and administrative support including preparing mailings, entering data, preparing routine documents, correspondence, spreadsheets, and reports, creating and maintaining personnel files, maintaining office supply inventory. Must possess excellent communication skills (both verbally and in writing), strong interpersonal skills, maintain confidentiality, be well organized, and able to handle several projects simultaneously. Thorough working knowledge of Microsoft Word and Excel required, as well as excellent keyboarding skills. Northwest Bergen Central Dispatch is EOE. Send resume and cover letter, to Heather Mailander, Acting Village Manager, Village of Ridgewood, 131 N. Maple Ave., Ridgewood, NJ 07450 by 11/10/16.
JOB POSTING – DISPATCH CENTER DIRECTOR
The Northwest Bergen Central Dispatch in Ridgewood, NJ, is searching for a Dispatch Center Director. Manage operations and administration of the communications center serving Ridgewood and Glen Rock, as well as other public safety jurisdictions.
Responsible for employee hiring, training, evaluation and disciplinary issues. Oversees all operational features of the Dispatch Center, including maintenance of equipment and records; develops and oversees center’s annual budget.
Minimum of a B.S. in Criminal Justice, Business Administration, Electronic Engineering, or other related field. 2 years prior experience in public safety dispatching, valid CPR cert., Emergency Medical Dispatcher Cert. and Basic Telecommunicator Cert. required. Previous supervisory experience required.
Ridgewood and Glen Rock are both EOE Employers
Send cover letter and resume, including salary requirements to:
Heather Mailander, Acting Village Manager/Village Clerk
Village of Ridgewood
131 North Maple Avenue
Ridgewood, NJ 07451
file photo by Boyd Loving
Planning and accident prevention are not brain surgery, yet we just can’t do it. Here’s hoping you will approach the council, BOE, Parks-Rec-Conservation Board, Streets Dept head, and anyone else who can control this before winter sets in and it becomes increasingly difficult for tree work to be done. They can always find money for their pet projects. For my increasing number of tax dollars I’d much rather have had an arborist identify potential problems and have the town pay to deal with it, even if it involved bringing in temporary workers, than lighting up Van Neste, say. Do we always have to wait until someone is hurt? Or a BMW?
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MLS # 1630837 4 W Glen Ave, Ridgewood, NJ 07450 3 Bedroom, 1 Full Bath, 1 Half Bath, House Rose Hueneke, Broker Associate Keller Williams Village Square Realty
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MLS # 1642968 255 N Walnut St, Ridgewood, NJ 07450 3 Bedroom, 1 Full Bath, 1 Half Bath, Ranch Janis Fuhrman, Sales Associate Terrie O’Connor Realtors-Ridgewood
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MLS # 1621787 379 S Pleasant Ave, Ridgewood, NJ 07450 4 Bedroom, 1 Full Bath, C/C Jee E. Chang, Sales Associate Weichert Realtors, Fort Lee
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MLS # 1634331 640 Linwood Ave, Ridgewood, NJ 07450 3 Bedroom, 2 Full Bath, 1 Half Bath, Col Theresa Jung, Sales Associate Realty 7, LLC
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MLS # 1626209 4 W Glen Ave, Ridgewood, NJ 07450 3 Bedroom, 1 Full Bath, 1 Half Bath, Col Rose Hueneke, Broker Associate Keller Williams Village Square Realty
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MLS # 1641999 645 Witthill Rd, Ridgewood, NJ 07450 4 Bedroom, 2 Full Bath, 1 Half Bath, Col Christine Gubb, Sales Associate Keller Williams Village Square Realty
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MLS # 1614612 676 Terhune Rd, Ridgewood, NJ 07450 4 Bedroom, 4 Full Bath, Ranch Ghada Abbasi, Sales Associate Coldwell Banker, Ridgewood
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MLS # 1643207 313 Woodside Ave, Ridgewood, NJ 07450 5 Bedroom, 3 Full Bath, 1 Half Bath, Col Margaret A. Marino, Sales Associate Tarvin Realtors
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MLS # 1641284 355 Crest Rd, Ridgewood, NJ 07450 5 Bedroom, 3 Full Bath, 2 Half Bath, Col Jennifer Springer, Sales Associate Tarvin Realtors
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MLS # 1636404 344 Grandview Cir, Ridgewood, NJ 07450 4 Bedroom, 4 Full Bath, 1 Half Bath, Col Megan Zangrilli, Sales Associate Keller Williams Village Square Realty
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MLS # 1620561 309 Beechwood Rd, Ridgewood, NJ 07450 4 Bedroom, 3 Full Bath, 1 Half Bath, Col Linda Aktar, Broker Associate Tarvin Realtors
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MLS # 1643140 109 Heights Rd, Ridgewood, NJ 07450 6 Bedroom, 3 Full Bath, 2 Half Bath, Col Pam Christian, Sales Associate Keller Williams Village Square Realty
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MLS # 1630138 143 Kenilworth Rd, Ridgewood, NJ 07450 5 Bedroom, 2 Full Bath, 1 Half Bath, Col Angele Ekert, Sales Associate Keller Williams Village Square Realty
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MLS # 1639285 650 Wall St, Ridgewood, NJ 07450 5 Bedroom, 4 Full Bath, Col Anne C. Ryoo, Sales Associate Tarvin Realtors
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October 30,2016
the staff of the Ridgewood blog
Ridgewood NJ, the big local question for Ridgewood voters on November 8th will be to expand to a full-day kindergarten .
Detractors of the idea feel it’s nothing more than socialized babysitting at taxpayers expense , with little or no long-term benefit for students ,particularly in a town like Ridgewood where there are so many activities for young people and what many perceive as a need for more family time .
Proponents feel the current half day Kindergarten is more like a 1/4 of a day , and it is far too short to accomplish much of anything and even the proposed full-day kindergarten is still a short day leaving plenty of time for family activities . Proponents also feel a change in the current inconvenient hours
The reality seems to be somewhere in the middle ,with a change in current inconvenient hours lessening the financial pressure on families , balanced by a healthy skepticism over the idea of children spending far too much time with one point of view and not nurturing them with a diversity of experiences .
Funny because a neighbor to habernickel has emailed over and over again about a dead tree that needs to be removed before someone is seriously hurt and the date she was given was 12/27. Crazy yet our children play fall ball there and marroons soccer. But 12/27 is acceptable???
Yet the village managed to add commercial lighting to the parking lot within a month of a private non profit sharing business start date to allow this business to hold late night restaurant style living but cannot remove a dead tree that may injure a child until 4 months after tha fact. Crazy!!! Why can an excess of village tax payers dollars be used to assist a private business , but cannot be allocated until December to remove a tree that could seriously hurt someone?
October 30,2016
the staff of the Ridgewood blog
Ridgewood NJ, Ridgewood Emergency Services Volunteers will be out in the Village starting at 530 PM on Halloween distributing 600 Glow Sticks to Village Ghosts and Goblins.
Readers say , “No one missed Rurik. No one. And we had plenty of insanity without him being there. Chris Rutishauser (he of the ghetto palms) and Jeanne Johnson (she of the ridiculous bike lanes) provided ample idiocy for one evening.
The dynamic duo of Chris and Jeanne should take their show on the road showing people how to accomplish nothing while antagonizing everyone. Also, the Bike Lane To No Where is hazardous to bikers as well as drivers. In stead of calming traffic, it makes us all annoyed and irritated!
Miss Jeanne actually said that the bike lanes would only be for experienced bikers (ie dangerous). Oh hell yes, this makes sense. Let’s put bike lanes that are dangerous for all but the most experienced bikers. Ummmm what happens when an inexperienced driver comes alongside an experienced biker. This whole thing is a disaster waiting to happen. Thank God it probably will not happen.
Jeanne Johnson was out of control ridiculous. And Rutishauser too. Who the hell do they think they are trying to pressure the council to sign off on a grant application when they have not seen the plans. Memo to Ruishauser: Aronsohn and Sonenfeld sent out grant applications that were filled with lies. This council does not play that way.”
photos courtesy of Boyd Loving’s Facebook page
October 28,2016
the staff of the Ridgewood blog
Ridgewood NJ, A voluminous spill of hydraulic fluid at 205 East Glen Avenue, Ridgewood (Village of Ridgewood Recycling Center) required the response of trained personnel from Ridgewood FD and the Bergen County Department of Health Services Hazmat team on Thursday afternoon, 10/27. No injuries were reported in the mishap. Ridgewood PD also responded.
October 28,2016
the staff of the Ridgewood blog
Ridgewood NJ, NJ TRANSIT continues to advance its implementation of Positive Train Control (PTC) in order to meet the 2018 deadline with the lease authorization of radio spectrum. The approval of the lease authorization today by NJ TRANSIT’s Board of Directors allows NJ TRANSIT to execute a lease agreement with the Metropolitan Transportation Authority (MTA) for the last component of radio spectrum needed for NJ TRANSIT’s PTC system.
“This is another milestone in our commitment to upgrading our current safety systems to Positive Train Control by the federal deadline at the end of 2018,” said NJ TRANSIT Executive Director Steve Santoro. “We are aggressively tackling the challenges posed as PTC is being designed, developed and deployed simultaneously. Acquiring the needed radio spectrum was one of the larger hurdles which we have now crossed.”
NJ TRANSIT will lease the 218MHz radio frequency spectrum from the MTA for a period of 50-years, at a total cost not to exceed $725,000. The authorization will allow for the acquisition of the needed spectrum for the northern and eastern portions of NJ TRANSIT’s system.
The radio spectrum provides the wireless link which allows information to pass between the rail vehicles and wayside equipment, ensuring that the onboard PTC system is getting the most accurate and up to date safety data. NJ TRANSIT must have its own radio bandwidth or spectrum so transmissions do not overlap or interfere with any others in the region.
In April 2016, NJ TRANSIT’s Board of Directors authorized the purchase of radio frequency spectrum from PTC-220, LLC for the southern, central and western portions of the NJ TRANSIT system.
In addition to acquiring the needed radio frequency spectrum, NJ TRANSIT is also in the process of securing the hardware and software components of the PTC system including thousands of transponders and 124 radio “towers” along 326 route miles in addition to the radios and antenna equipment for 440 locomotives, EMUs and cab cars.
Positive Train Control is a federally mandated train control technology designed to prevent train-to-train collisions, over-speed derailments, incursions into work zone limits and train movements across switches in the wrong position. As part of that requirement, the PTC systems must maintain interoperability between commuter rail, freight and Amtrak trains and their associated wayside components.
file photo by Boyd Loving
October 27,2016
the staff of the Ridgewood blog
Ridgewood NJ, Ridgewood Police report ; Ptl. Joseph DiBenedetto responded to Veteran’s Field on October 24 to investigate criminal mischief to the pump house building. Upon arrival Ptl. DiBenedetto discovered an unknown person spray painted graffiti on the structure. The amount of damage is unknown at this time.
All actors are presumed innocent unless proven guilty beyond a reasonable doubt in a court of law.
photos by Boyd Loving
October 27,2016
the staff of the Ridgewood blog
Ridgewood NJ, Wednesday night’s Village Council Meeting led off with a moment of silence in honor of the missing Rurik Halaby . Mo, Larry and Curly a Peter,Paul and Mary cover band sang , “I am leaving on a jet plane”. Women wore black and wept openly during the pledge .
Now a brief rundown of last night’s council meeting. Congratulations to Ramon Hache on the birth of his son on October 15th.
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League of Women Voters President Anne Walsh read a resolution on the Pilgrim Pipeline which stated its negative effects if built on our environment, infrastructure and water.
Later in the evening after comments from Rich Calbi and council members ,it was approved 4 – 0 with councilwomen Walsh recusing herself.
Resident Martin Walker came to the mic in support of the TAP grant which needs to be submitted by November 10th. A discussion on TAP occurred later in the evening.
A presentation from Uber was next. The two women representatives came to the table and discussed a public/ private partnership opportunity for Ridgewood. They were quite professional and friendly. They referenced their relationship with Summit, New Jersey which from all accounts is working well. A pilot program could be introduced rather quickly if they got council approval. Ramon Hache commented that the use of Uber was essentially like building a virtual garage. Estimated arrival times from when the call is first made averages around 5 minutes.There are background checks on all approved drivers and their cars must also pass muster. Uber carries commercial insurance of 1.5 million dollars on every drive which is higher than what is standard for licensed taxis. The council appeared positive in their responses and will be considered after additional information is gathered.
Next was the discussion of the TAP ( Transportation Alternative Program). The dynamic duo if Chris Rutishauser and Jeanne Johnson made a presentation and it became clear that in the last two weeks the council never received copies of the grant or background information that they had requested in order to make a decision. There was no explanation of why this happened. While everyone agreed that pedestrian safety is a top priority, no decision could be made without the requested materials.The mayor asked if they could have it on Thursday but Chris said he was busy with a trial and therefore Friday or Monday would be the earliest he could send it .
Later in the evening,Boyd Loving commented on the absurdity of a paid employee of the village not fulfilling his duties and seemingly getting away with it.
Richard Calbi of the Water Department was on board to speak of the drought conditions in New Jersey due to a long hot summer, little rain and overuse by consumers for lawn and shrub watering/ irrigation. New Jersey relies on winter rain to recover. We will stay in stage 2 water restrictions indefinitely and will looking at additional water conservation methods to introduce to our residents through forums, entices and other forms of communication. A discussion ensued as to whether Ridgewood should privatize the water utility in total, in parts or not at all. I believe Richard Calbi’s preference would be to retain ownership as it is a huge asset and we would have local control which has served us well for the most part. November 1st , is also the water trial begins which is the law suit filed by Glen Rock, Wyckoff and Midland Park against Ridgewood for years of overcharging.
In a discussion amongst council members, two great ideas came up and seemingly got full support from the 5. One was the possible hiring of a grant writer and Mike Sedon’s suggestion that they take a second look at a town garage proposal on the Hudson Street site which actually fit the footprint keeping sidewalks and on street parking. Mike had all the information and will make a presentation at Ramon Hache’s CB meeting next week.So far there has been no hard decision on the parking garage ,just more studies and information gathering.
“ZERO TOLERANCE POLICY – MISCHIEF NIGHT AND HALLOWEEN – PARENT ADVISORY”
October 27,2016
the staff of the Ridgewood blog
Ridgewood NJ, The Ridgewood Police Department will be continuing our Zero Tolerance Policy this year during “Mischief Night” and Halloween (October 30th and 31st respectively). This policy is vital for the safety of our children and the protection of property. We are urging parents to take an active role in order for assist us in this endeavor.
Historically, our community had experienced significant property damage as well as mischievous and criminal behavior by unsupervised juveniles and young adults on these nights. We have also had problems with juveniles congregating in large groups in various areas of the Village. Parents and guardians should be aware of the activity that occurs when their children are unsupervised. Most property damage and criminal activity occurs when seemingly harmless behavior and pranks escalate out of control. Parents are asked to establish dialogue with their children about unacceptable behavior or, more importantly, not allow their children out without adult supervision. Parents must be cognizant of their children’s actions and behavior. Children leaving the home dressed in dark clothing and/or in possession of items such as eggs, shaving cream and other malicious items are traditionally a formula for trouble.
This year, we are recommending that all parents limit their children’s “mischief” to their own property. In the past, homes and moving vehicles have been the target of eggs, rocks and, in some instances, paintball guns. Toilet paper strewn across utility lines has created visibility hazards, which can easily lead to serious danger for the motoring public and our children.
The standards that we will be enforcing this year include:
A Zero Tolerance policy towards acts of Criminal Mischief, Trespassing and aggressive behavior. Anyone found defacing or damaging property will be transported to police headquarters and will face criminal charges.
Any children found with items that we believe pose a significant threat to persons or property will be transported to police headquarters and may face criminal charges. These items include eggs, spray paint, paintball guns, etc.
Anyone who operates a motor vehicle in violation of the law will be issued the appropriate motor vehicle summonses.
We will be confiscating all potentially destructive items, including toilet paper and shaving cream, from children who are wandering unsupervised on our streets. Names of all unsupervised juveniles will be recorded.
We will be supplementing the normal patrol force throughout both Mischief Night and Halloween with additional officers to prevent criminal mischief, criminal activity, and aggressive driving and to ensure the safety of our children. It is important for parents and the community to work in cooperation with the Ridgewood Police Department to deter criminal activity and make both Mischief Night and Halloween safe and enjoyable for all.
