Ridgewood NJ, The Ridgewood Health Department and Parks and Recreation invite you to Good Life Ridgewood. This event will be held Sunday October 1, 2017 from 11 to 3 at Memorial Park at Van Neste Square in downtown Ridgewood.
Come see what wellness services are available to Ridgewood area residents. Visit with 70 Local Health-Providers: Medical Providers, Non-profit Organizations, Health screeners, Vendors, and Entertainers.
The Mayor’s Wellness Campaign supports Good Life Ridgewood. The Mayor’s Wellness Campaign is a state-wide initiative to invite Mayors to play a leadership role in supporting opportunities to promote active, healthy lifestyles with long-term goals to include a reduction in health care costs for all. Come be a part of it all.
Three towns are pursuing a $13.4 million refund for customers of Ridgewood Water through the courts.
Wyckoff, Glen Rock and Midland Park have filed a joint appeal seeking new terms of restitution from the village of Ridgewood following a ruling in a water-rate lawsuit involving the village-owned utility. In addition to the refund, the towns are seeking $3.6 million in damages.
The four municipalities have been enmeshed in a lengthy legal dispute over whether Ridgewood Water overcharged customers and improperly used utility funds to supplement Ridgewood’s municipal budget. Ridgewood Water, which is owned by the village, also serves Glen Rock, Wyckoff and Midland Park.
Ridgewood NJ, Ridgewood has rolled out the Ridgewood Estate Card, a new property tax savings program now available to Ridgewood property owners. The program offers a debit like card that offers a reward on purchases that is automatically applied to reduce Ridgewood property taxes billed to the cardholder. An even greater level of reward is offered at participating local and online merchants. Tax rewards are applied annually to the third quarter tax bill.
If you visit RidgewoodEstateCard.com you can learn more about this exciting opportunity and to sign up for the program. Once signed up, one will receive their card via US mail in 5-7 business days. Each time the card is used, a percentage of that purchase is earned toward property tax reduction. Reward amounts are listed in both the cardholder’s online account and on the easy to use Card Rewards mobile app.
Use the card for your everyday spending and simultaneously reduce your property tax! On every dollar you spend, a percentage is earned as a reward paid towards your property tax. The more you spend, the less you owe!
The Estate Card also encourages local spending with many Central Business District merchants are offering a higher reward earned on local purchases, ultimately creating growth and sustainability in your community.
Take a look , White Maple Café offers a 5% tax reward , Ridgewood Eyewear a 10% tax reward , Taylor & Taylor Oriental Rugs offers a 30% tax reward , so if you just replace the card you are using for the shopping you are currently doing you will save money on your property taxes. https://ridgewoodestatecard.com/shop/localstores .
There are also over 3,200 online merchants that offer Ridgewood property tax rewards https://ridgewoodestatecard.com/shop/stores .
Cardholders can earn a base reward of .25% on all transactions and as much as an additional 25% at participating local and online merchants.
The RidgewoodEstateCard website also offers a Search function to find the best price with the largest tax reward amount. Save money while paying down your taxes!
You can also share a deal in your reward account. If you want a family member or friend to be able to take advantage, no problem, share the deal with them or post it to social media, they will get the deal and you will earn the tax reward!
Voigt wrote an even longer letter that The Record edited down. In his longer edition he wrote:
“Looked at another way: Since 2008, the central business district (CBD) has lost approximately $120 million in assessed value due to declining sales – with a main reason for this being a lack of parking. This $120 million loss in assessed value translates into a loss of approximately $3 million in tax revenue from the CBD. This is the amount that househoulds are paying that could have been paid by the CBD. In other words, improving the parking issue, helps CBD businesses increase their sales and their assessed value and; in turn lowers resident’s property taxes.”
How much is wrong with this idiot thinking? A garage will lower our property taxes??? The main reason that the businesses are not doing well is parking (and not internet sales)?????
He has not lost his mind – no, actually he HAS NO MIND.
Trenton NJ, The 2% cap on the raises police and fire unions can win in arbitration saved property taxpayers nearly $3 billion and should be renewed before it expires in December, but Top Democrats in New Jersey including Phil Murphy, the party’s nominee for governor quickly rejected the idea .
A report released on Thursday concluded the law limiting the raises that police and fire unions can win in arbitration should be renewed in an effort to keep property taxes in check.
From the executive summary …. in order to enable public employers to restrain increased costs within the 2% tax levy cap, public employers needed a tool to restrain increases to police and fire salaries, especially when labor disputes are submitted to interest arbitration. The data reviewed by the Task Force confirms that the 2% cap has provided that tool. Since the inception of the law, the average annual base salary increase provided in interest arbitration awards subject to the 2% cap is 1.85%. Even in voluntary settlements to which the 2% cap does not apply, the data confirms that the cap law has had a profound effect.
Indeed, the data shows that for interest arbitration cases subject to the 2% cap settled before an interest arbitration award was issued, the average annual increase to base salary was 1.80%. These numbers are a stark contrast to the average annual increases that were reported to PERC prior to the effective date of the 2010 amendments.2 Not surprisingly, with the right reforms in place, the rate of property tax growth in New Jersey has declined significantly.
While the cap law significantly reduced the growth of labor costs, the Governor Appointees have not uncovered any evidence that these reductions have negatively impacted crime rates or the ability of public employers to recruit qualified candidates for police and fire positions. In summary, the Governor Appointees conclude that the 2010 and 2014 amendments to interest arbitration have effectively addressed the concerns that were at the heart of this bi-partisan legislation. Accordingly, its recommendations set forth herein include the permanent continuation of the most critical elements of those amendments – namely, the procedural changes requiring expeditious resolution of all interest arbitration proceedings and the 2% cap – to ensure that the progress made over the last five years is not lost. (https://www.njassemblyrepublicans.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/09/2017-Governors-Appointees-Arbitration-Report.pdf )
Fiction: Many believe that paper bags are more environmentally friendly than plastic bags because they are made from a renewable resource, can biodegrade, and are recyclable.
Fact: Plastic shopping bags outperform paper bags environmentally – on manufacturing, on reuse, and on solid waste volume and generation.
The Facts
The belief that paper is better than plastic is not based on science or fact. It is based on misconceptions about how plastic bags are made, how landfills work, the incidence of plastic litter, and that non-biodegrading products are bad for the planet.
Numerous life cycle assessments demonstrate that conventional plastic bags are better for the environment than paper bags.
On resource use: plastic bags play an important role in the conservation of the natural gas resource. Plastic bags are made from clean energy natural gas in Canada, specifically from are a piece of natural gas – ethane that is often burned off in the natural gas refining process so that the gas will not burn too hot when used to heat our homes.
On manufacturing: paper bag manufacture is much more resource-intensive than plastic bag manufacture.
On reuse: it is difficult to reuse paper bags because they tend to tear.
On solid waste: paper bags have much greater mass and weigh five to seven times more than plastic bags so they add five to seven times more tonnage to the waste stream for municipalities to manage. This in turn results in a fivefold to sevenfold increase in greenhouse gas emissions.
Ridgewood NJ, how quickly they forget, in his recent letter to the editor , “Will Ridgewood ever build a garage?” ( https://www.northjersey.com/story/opinion/readers/2017/09/28/letter-ridgewood-ever-build-garage/712949001/ ), Councilmen Jeff Voigt continues his efforts to undermine the current council . In the piece Voigt claims ,”One of the initiatives important to Ridgewood council members elected last year is to build a garage on Hudson Street” . Interesting because Voigt ran for office on a “no garage” platform.
The entire letter is once again an effort by Voigt and his small band of “developer owned ,pave over Ridgewood at all cost types ” , to blame the current mayor for all the stupid things done by the previous administration, “the 3 Amigos” . “The mess they created will take years to clean up and a lot of hard work if the Village is not to join the growing list of ” Most White Trash Cities In New Jersey ” ( https://theridgewoodblog.net/website-rolls-out-list-of-10-most-white-trash-cities-in-new-jersey/ ).
The letter like Councilmen Voigt’s behavior on the Dais is a bit convoluted , in one instance he argues to proceed with the garage and on the other he says there is no information on the project and the voters have a right to know . Interesting didn’t that same councilmen try to stop residents from accessing his emails thru OPRA requests ?
Perhaps the councilmen would read the Ridgewood blog more thoroughly in order to get better informed as to the comings and going in the Village of Ridgewood.
Ridgewood Water to upgrade infrastructure piping at 4 Stream Crossings in the Village of Ridgewood
Ridgewood Water announced that the contract to upgrade infrastructure water piping at 4 stream locations has been awarded to Fred Deven’s Construction Company. The project will be managed by Consulting Engineer, Mott MacDonald.
Construction activities have been underway at the East Ridgewood Avenue stream crossing. The casing pipe and water main pipe have been installed across the streambed. Final piping, testing and tie-in’s will be completed in the next few weeks.
In the meantime, Deven’s Construction is anticipating mobilizing to the North Irving Street stream crossing on or about Monday, October 2nd. Construction activities will include setting up temporary barriers for pedestrian traffic, moving equipment and materials on site followed-up by sheet piling of stream bed and construction of the new water main. We anticipate approximately 6 weeks for completion of the North Irving Street stream crossing barring any unforeseen conditions.
Fred Devens will be coordinating with the Ridgewood police who will be directing traffic around work areas on an as needed basis. Expected work hours will be Monday through Friday, 7am – 5:30pm, weather permitting.
Ridgewood Water appreciates the patience of our residents while performing this important work as part of our ongoing commitment in upgrading our water system.
Sincerely,
Ridgewood Water
205 East Glen Avenue
Ridgewood, NJ. 07451
Ph: 201-670-5524
Ridgewood NJ, Three (3) passenger vehicles parked in the driveway of a single family home located on Richards Road in Ridgewood were literally wrecked late Thursday evening, 09/28, when a massive oak tree fell onto them. Ridgewood Police and Fire department responded to the incident. Ridgewood Fire department personnel spread absorbent material under the vehicles to contain leaking motor oil. The tree narrowly missed hitting the nearby home.
Putting aside all of the time wasted on pseudo-science feel good social engineering (bike path to nowhere, garbage tree, gay flag week, Bee City, village wide 25mph speed limit to name a few…)
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and putting aside the obvious irony of a move to ban plastic bags (which have little to no impact in Ridgewood) to save the earth while supporting other large impact projects (like the Ginormous Garage and Multi-unit Low Income Housing) which will greatly impact Ridgewood environmentally (and otherwise)
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it is telling that the REAC to show support for their proposed plastic bag ban quoted a Wired magazine article who’s Title is:
“Banning Plastic Bags Is Great for the World, Right? Not So Fast”
Link: https://www.wired.com/2016/06/banning-plastic-bags-great-world-right-not-fast/
This article concludes that “The larger takeaway is that no bag is free of environmental impact… stating that paper, plastic and even reusable bags all have pros and cons as it relates to the environment.
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Wired ALSO ran another article which was PRO plastic bag “Throwing This Out Here: Plastic Bags Are Amazing and You Should Appreciate Them More”
Link: https://www.wired.com/2016/01/plastic-bags/
This article concluded that “In the grand scheme of environmental problems, ubiquitous plastic bags do not rank that high…” and “Plastic bags may be symbolic of everything bad in our consumerist culture,…”
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SO… it looks like (AGAIN) that the REAC and the increasingly disappointing and useless Village Council is trafficking in feel good social engineering which will only harm and inconvenience Ridgewood residents while making no positive contribution to society other than having yet another hashtag cause to trumpet on social media
Ridgewood NJ, at last nights Village Council Meeting the Ridgewood Environmental Advisory Committee or REAC, for short proposed a Village wise ban on plastic bags . A seemingly noble cause if their ever was one .
According to Wire magazine , “The adverse impacts of plastic bags are undeniable: When they’re not piling up in landfills, they’re blocking storm drains, littering streets, getting stuck in trees, and contaminating oceans, where fish, seabirds, and other marine animals eat them or get tangled up in them. As longtime plastic bag adversary Ian Frazier recently reported in The New Yorker, “In 2014, plastic grocery bags were the seventh most common item collected during the Ocean Conservancy’s International Coastal Cleanup, behind smaller debris such as cigarette butts, plastic straws, and bottle caps.” The New York City Sanitation Department collects more than 1,700 tons of single-use carry-out bags every week, and has to spend $12.5 million a year to dispose of them.”https://www.wired.com/2016/06/banning-plastic-bags-great-world-right-not-fast/
But here is the rub, according again to Wire ,”advocates of these laws and journalists who cover the issue often neglect to ask what will replace plastic bags and what the environmental impact of that replacement will be. People still need bags to bring home their groceries. And the most common substitute, paper bags, may be just as bad or worse, depending on the environmental problem you’re most concerned about.”
So we are going to replace plastic bags with reusable bags , made from plastic ? Not really sure that is a good long term trade off ? And what about recycled plastic ,does it work?
Brandon Kuczenski lays out the obvious case : “It depends on what you mean by helping. And what you mean by recycling. In some cases there is a clear benefit. With metals, it almost always makes sense to recycle because mining and benefication of primary metals is energy intensive. For instance, making primary aluminum from bauxite requires tremendous electricity consumption.. the energy savings from using recycled aluminum is a factor of 10-15. slam dunk. Steel is very easy to recycle and is very commonly recycled throughout the world. Copper is in increasingly high demand for recycling because worldwide copper mining yields are bottoming out and as a result, copper mining is very expensive.
Plastics are a bit more uncertain, but that is largely because of the sloppy way Americans handle their plastics than any technical limitations. Recycling HDPE (milk gallons) or PET (soda / water bottles) is well-established and mature, and there are modest energy savings to using recycled over primary materials in both cases (yes, even when including the impacts from “driving all those trucks around”). However, other plastics- even HDPE and PET from non-bottle product systems- are not presently recycled in a meaningful sense. They may be made into park benches or doorstops or things of that nature, but it is much harder to argue convincingly that they provide benefits. The reason for this is that different plastics have different chemical compositions, so plastics recycling requires a pure material stream. People who might otherwise make money from recycling plastic have decided that the waste stream generated by American consumers is too contaminated to be of value. In places where recyclables are handled more carefully, sorted by the consumer and cleaned of other materials, this may not be the case.” https://www.quora.com/Does-recycling-really-help-the-environment.
The REAC looking to conduct a study as to the impact to the Village . The Political Correct environment allows little or no dissent or questioning the status quo wisdom. But will it really impact the environment in the Village?
Councilmen Jeff Voigt was on board no questions asked. Councilmen Hach was a big concerned on the impact on merchants. The Mayor was concerned , and the REAC ladies continued to voice support for a ban .
A lot of unanswered question and a lot of unintended consequences seem just over the horizon with a bag ban . The blog would prefer the ladies at the REAC stick to more pressing local issues , like the ecological disaster a turf field presents especially when its placed in a flood zone . While obviously we need to balance recreational time and logistics perhaps more thoughtful long term solutions can be found minimizing the down side .
Ridgewood NJ,at the Village Councill session of Wednesday night Eagle Scout Tyler Hansen presented his Raptor Nest placement project to the council. The project took 85 hours of work and took 12 volunteers from troop 5. Locations around the Village were chosen because they were good for the birds. There will be 4 prime locations and some back ups, of which the nests will be 12 – 20 feet off the ground . The Eagle Scouts are working hand in hand with the Ridgewood Department of Parks and Recreation .
Locations are 20 pound, Maple field by the river, the Stable by the river, Maple field by the garden , Vets field south of the foot bridge , Stevens field by the river , and Somerville walkway .
Raptors are birds of prey and eat mice, rabbits, squirrels and other rodents .
So What’s a Raptor? Rap-tor (rap’-tər) n.
[Latin, from rapere, to seize]Any of various birds of prey, including hawks, eagles, falcons and owls, distinguished by strong hooked beaks and taloned feet.
Raptors are an important part of nature’s intricate system of checks and balances. They help maintain stability in the living world, and it is important to preserve them for their biological significance alone. Furthermore, they are beautiful and intriguing creatures, the epitome of wildness and freedom; their very existence adds quality to our lives. (https://theraptortrust.org/the-birds/whats-a-raptor/)
During a Special Public Meeting of the Ridgewood Village Council held on Wednesday, September 27, Council members approved Resolution #17-291, “Central Valet Pilot Program in Central Business District” by a 4-0 vote (Councilwoman Bernadette Walsh was absent).
Key components/highlights of the centralized “pilot” valet parking program are:
The “pilot” program will be in operation beginning on Friday, October 6, and end on Saturday, December 30.
Establishments currently operating private valet parking services (e.g., Park West Tavern) may continue to do so during the “pilot” period.
Central valet parking service will be available every Friday and Saturday evening from 6:00 PM through 1:00 AM the following morning.
Two (2) drop off/pick up locations will be in operation – 1. Van Neste Square southbound opposite the bus terminal and 2. East Ridgewood Avenue just west of North Broad Street (the “hole”).
Service charge of $5.00 per vehicle (some establishments may choose to “validate” patrons’ central valet parking charges).
Central valet parking service provider has been contracted by the Village of Ridgewood; total costs for “pilot” program, being paid for by Village taxpayers, will not exceed $36K (taxpayers’ costs will be offset by valet parking fees collected). Unofficial reports are that the central valet provider must process a minimum of 250 vehicles per evening throughout the “pilot” program in order for Village taxpayers to “break even.
“Vehicles entrusted to the central valet provider will be parked at one of three Village owned properties – 1. Van Neste Square northbound (immediately adjacent to Van Neste Memoral Park), @. The “hole” (far west end of East Ridgewood Avenue immediately adjacent to the train station), and 3. North Walnut Street Municipal Parking Lot (portion of lot immediately adjacent to the former Town Garage).
NOTE: A total of approximately 90 metered parking spaces (currently providing free parking beginning at 6:00 PM, Monday through Saturday) will be removed from the “self parking” inventory” every Friday and Saturday evening to facilitate the central valet service (see locations above). Police will be instructed to prohibit self parking in the three (3) aforementioned central valet parking areas beginning at 4:30 PM on Fridays and Saturdays during the “pilot” program period. Violators will be ticketed and towed.
Despite viral email, there is no new cell phone Do Not Call database.
September 28,2017
the staff of the Ridgewood blog
Ridgewood NJ, According to the Ridgewood Police department ,consumers may place their cell phone number on the National Do Not Call Registry to notify marketers that they don’t want to get unsolicited telemarketing calls.
The truth about cell phones and the Do Not Call Registry is:
The government is not releasing cell phone numbers to telemarketers.
There is no deadline for registering a cell phone number on the Do Not Call Registry.
Federal Communications Commission (FCC) regulations prohibit telemarketers from using automated dialers to call cell phone numbers without prior consent. Automated dialers are standard in the industry, so most telemarketers are barred from calling consumers’ cell phones without their consent.
There is only one Do Not Call Registry, operated by the Federal Trade Commission (FTC), with information available at donotcall.gov. There is no separate registry for cell phones.
The Do Not Call Registry accepts registrations from both cell phones and land lines. To register by telephone, call 1-888-382-1222 (TTY: 1-866-290-4236). You must call from the phone number that you want to register. To register online (donotcall.gov), you will have to respond to a confirmation email.
If you have registered a mobile or other telephone number already, you don’t need to re-register. Once registered, a telephone number stays on the Do Not Call Registry until the registration is canceled or service for the number is discontinued.
Ridgewood NJ, A large tree fell and blocked the main roadway leading to the Village of Ridgewood’s Water Pollution Control and Signal Bureau facilities located at 561 Prospect Street, Glen Rock, on Wednesday morning, 09/27. Primary and secondary electric lines were taken down to the ground when the tree dropped. Glen Rock PD Patrol Officer James McGill was dispatched to the incident and requested PSE&G technicians be summoned. Crews from the Village’s Shade Tree Division responded to cut, chip, and remove the debris. Smaller vehicles were able to use an alternate entrance/exit to the facility while the main roadway was blocked.
