AUGUST 15, 2014 LAST UPDATED: FRIDAY, AUGUST 15, 2014, 12:31 AM BY LIZ WELLINGHORST STAFF WRITER
On the first day of class in late July, yogis could be seen practicing downward-facing dog and cat cow poses, not in a yoga studio, but on the undulating waters of Ridgewood’s Graydon Pool.
SUP yoga combines yoga poses with surfing and is practiced on 10- to 12-foot-long boards, anchored in the water by bags of sand attached to a paddleboard. The beginner-friendly sport of standup paddleboard began in the 1940s in Hawaii, when surfers made their way through the waves with a long paddle. In the short time it has been around, yogis have embraced a practice that seems to bring a sense of blissful freedom to the centuries-old earth-bound practice.
“SUP Yoga takes a lot of physical work, but just as much mental work to perform a simple pose,” said Andrea Powers, program director and yoga instructor for SUP yoga. “A student must practice patience, concentration and focus or the board will gently remind you to stay in the present moment. When you do SUP Yoga, there is nowhere else you can be.”
These are the competitors from Ridgewood-based Taekwondo All In to win medals at the Big East Taekwondo Championships XXI. FRONT ROW, from left: Holly Soper, Connor Rojas, Lucas Woods, Alex Han and Liam Woods. BACK ROW, from left: Master Youngmin Kim, Master Seongki Kim, Matthew Lee, Connor Park, Jongyun An, Kevin Park and Jiyoung An.
Ridgewood athletes earn tae kwon do medals
AUGUST 15, 2014 LAST UPDATED: FRIDAY, AUGUST 15, 2014, 12:31 AM
Ten students from Taekwondo All In of Ridgewood participated in the Big East Taekwondo Championships XXI at Ridge High School in Basking Ridge earlier this year, where more than 500 athletes gathered to compete.
The Ridgewood entrants made an outstanding showing, earning 10 gold, nine silver and seven bronze medals in three different divisions — Poomsae (Form), Breaking and Sparring.
* Lucas Woods, 5, earned a gold medal in the Poomsae division and a silver medal in the Breaking division. Woods was influenced by his older brother, Liam, and performed well in his first-ever championship tournament.
* Also in the Poomsae division, Alex Han showed great progress in his technique and performed as well as he did in the New Jersey State Taekwondo Championships, where he won a gold medal in Sparring this past March.
* Despite a short training period, Kevin Park earned a gold medal in the Poomsae division.
* Matthew Lee earned a gold medal in the Poomsae and Sparring divisions. Of note, he won against his opponent with a significant point advantage in the Sparring division.
* Jongyun An performed exceptionally well and won three gold medals from the Poomsae, Breaking and Sparring divisions. She executed a special turn and high-kick technique, which helped her earn a gold medal with a significant point difference from the silver medalist.
* Jiyoung An captured a gold medal, earning two points with the jump-and-back-kick technique. This technique is very difficult to perform.
* Connor Park advanced all the way to the final round in the Sparring division and earned a gold medal.
* Liam Woods reached the final round in the Sparring division, winning his semifinal bout by a score of 24-4 before finishing as runner-up.
* Holly Soper earned a silver medal from the Poomsae and Breaking divisions. She also received a silver medal from the State Championship.
* This was the first championship tournament in which Connor Rojas participated, and he earned a bronze medal in both the Poomsae and Breaking divisions.
Master Young Min Kim, the head instructor of Taekwondo All In, noted that the Big East Championships were good preparation for his students that participated in the recent USA National Taekwondo Championships in San Jose, Calif.
Han, Jiyoung An, Jongyun An and Liam Woods received special training in advance of that event. The competition in California was the first National Championship that the Ridgewood students attended.
Ridgewood’s Graydon swim team well-represented at county meet
AUGUST 15, 2014 LAST UPDATED: FRIDAY, AUGUST 15, 2014, 12:31 AM BY MATTHEW BIRCHENOUGH ASSISTANT SPORTS EDITOR
Fresh off winning the Lake League championship, a group of swimmers from Ridgewood’s Graydon swim team performed a worthy encore at their last meet of the summer season in the New Jersey Pool Managers Association (NJPMA) county championships.
Ashleigh Afromsky starred for Graydon with a first-place finish in the girls 13-14 50-meter backstroke, earning the team’s only gold medal in the meet final held last Saturday at Stonybrook Swim Club in Hillsdale. The preliminaries and finals were held at various venues from Aug. 4-9.
Afromsky was one of 13 swimmers from the Ridgewood team to participate in the county meet, and one of eight to take part in an event final.
“It’s a fun experience for them and it opens their eyes a little bit,” Graydon aquatics director Dan Burzinski said Wednesday. “When you’re the big fish in a small pond, you don’t realize what else is out there.”
Ridgewood resident’s monitoring of brook helps village locate issue
AUGUST 14, 2014 LAST UPDATED: THURSDAY, AUGUST 14, 2014, 3:28 PM BY JODI WEINBERGER STAFF WRITER
Doug Goodell points to a tree in his backyard where water from the Ho-Ho-Kus Brook reached during the flash flood on Aug. 1.
He walks onto a stone patio toward his Mulberry Place home, showing where it reached during Hurricane Irene in 2011.
A few big steps forward marks where the waters reached during Hurricane Floyd in 1999.
“I use this as a gauge,” Goodell said of his patio, which is marked with black lines that note the distance in feet from the top of the brook’s retaining wall.
For nearly half a century, the village resident has documented the flooding of the Ho-Ho-Kus Brook, and has earned the unofficial title of the go-to data man in the municipality.
Following Hurricane Irene, he put together a book for the village full of photos and information on the flood waters and has made himself available to field questions from village officials. He served on a flood committee for the village in the 1970s and on the Planning Board in the ’80s. A 100-page report he wrote, including drawings of the bridges in the village with flood elevations and flood predictions, is housed in the Ridgewood Library.
“I’d just as soon not have it,” Goodell said good-naturedly of his unofficial position.
Ridgewood council weighs costs of turf versus grass
AUGUST 14, 2014 LAST UPDATED: THURSDAY, AUGUST 14, 2014, 3:48 PM BY LAURA HERZOG STAFF WRITER
Artificial turf appears to cost less to maintain than grass, at least on Maple Field.
According to Village Manager Roberta Sonenfeld, an estimated $121,500 was spent maintaining the turf on Maple Field during an eight-year period from 2006 to 2014.
Turf king endorses Aronsohn, Hauck and Puciarell criticizes police and firemen, attacking salary and benefits
TAKEN FROM THE RIDGEWOOD BLOG (Archived ) You should read the whole article.
From 2009-2010 Brian Abdoo repeatedly endorsed the multi-million dollar controversial turf projects at Stadium and Stevens fields. As we all know the turf has been an unmitigated disaster resulting in Ridgewood Taxpayers incurring the burden of costly repairs
Turf king endorses Aronsohn, Hauck and Puciarell criticizes police and firemen, attacking salary and benefits
Moments ago, after a long day at work I sat down to review my personal emails, check school info and sports emails, kids schedule, etc. In the mix was an email from Brian Abdoo who I know from a number of sports programs my kids are involved in. I began reading the Abdoo’s endorsement of candidates, Aronsohn, Hauck and Puciarelli. The more I read the sicker I became. Abdoo has thoroughly disgusted me with his hypocritical rhetoric.
From 2009-2010 Brian Abdoo repeatedly endorsed the multi-million dollar controversial turf projects at Stadium and Stevens fields. As we all know the turf has been an unmitigated disaster resulting in Ridgewood Taxpayers incurring the burden of costly repairs.
Now, this same Brian Abdoo wants to express concern over taxes? He attempts to peddle Paul Aronsohn’s gimmicky zero based budgeting. Even my 6th grader understands built-in inherent cost increases. Abdoo states he wants more transparency and Village Council should “open the books”. The fact that Brian Abdoo is ignorant should not persuade anyone to his argument. Brian, the books are open. They are a matter of public record and are available for anyone to review. Brian, feel free to visit APP DataUniverse if there is anything you need to know. However, Mr. Abdoo, while doing your research you likely will not find the value of your candidate Aronsohn’s health care costs, at village taxpayer expense, for the past four years. Mr. Abdoo, while Mr. Aronsohn is busy telling you he wants to help Ridgewood Taxpayers, he has been busy helping himself for four years . Brian Abdoo proceeds to attack our police and firemen, attacking their salary and benefits. If this is such a concern why on earth would he support Aronsohn who voted for each and every raise, and contract , pertaining to the police & fire department. Maybe he prefers regionalized police and fire departments like Hauck and Puciarelli. Hauck announced the savings for each village taxpayer during the debate: a whopping $ 285 each! For that money I will sleep better at night with Village police and firemen.
Abdoo professes the revitalization of Ridgewood downtown and how committed each of his threesome is to this goal. Mr. Abdoo, Paul Aronsohn is the Council liaison to the Chamber of Commerce. What has he been doing for the past four years? Shopping at the mall? And Hauck and Puciarelli prefer a more urbanized Ridgewood. If they want urbanization let them move to Hoboken.
Best for last, Abdoo states each of these candidates is committed to helping Valley and residents to negotiate a compromise to allow for expansion. For goodness sake, Brian, where has Al Puciarelli been? He has been a member of the planning board forever. Hauck didn’t speak of compromise when she endorsed the massive expansion, as is, over and over again. Valley Hospital is not interested in compromise. The only time that was suggested by Valley was at the last Village Council hearing. Audrey Meyers, seeing the writing on the wall, begged council to hold off their vote so Valley could develop a compromise. Seriously, where was the compromise for six years?
Mr. Abdoo, reconsider and bullet for Killion and Shinizuka before we are in another turf-like drowning mess attributable to the likes of you.
Reader says it only fair that the Sports Groups step up and contribute to maintenance and depreciation of the turf fields
If the sports clubs have gotten so much value out of the fields, I would think it only fair that they step up and contribute to maintenance and depreciation. It shouldn’t always be the VC or BOE (the rest of us). Given that maintenance seems to be running about $100K year and depreciation another $200K for $1.5M to replace the carpets after a flood-shortened 7 year life, the sports clubs should be contributing on the order of $100K.
Raise dues if you have to — it’s part of the true cost of doing business.
And did they ever contribute everything they had promised for the lights?
AUGUST 8, 2014 LAST UPDATED: FRIDAY, AUGUST 8, 2014, 12:31 AM
BY GREG TARTAGLIA
SPORTS EDITOR
RIDGEWOOD — Once again, the girls golf team with the best record in the All-Suburban area was Ridgewood, which finished 17-3 overall and won its third straight Big North division title this spring. As such, the Maroons once more dominate the first team by garnering three of the seven spots.
Readers Say Turf Fields Exacerbate Village Flooding
Is seems ever time it rans now , significance damage is done to our playing fields and Village property .
We were told the turf fie;ds would drain faster , well yes they sure do but the water still needs some place to go like the Village Hall , the Ridgewood library .
Since the Village Hall Rebuilding Fiasco , and the addition of turf fields along the Ho Ho Kus brook the 50 year flood has now become an almost yearly event .
Is it time to recognize the damage to the environment all this turf is doing ?
The problem is not just the fields at Stevens ,Maple and the RHS Stadium but the many turf fields all along the banks of our rivers all over Bergen County . Again the water needs some place to go .
Maple Park flooded over into Meadowbrook on Aug. 1.
Police had to direct traffic. I was part of the directed traffic on my way home from the library. It was scary and dangerous driving through the flooded street. That’s why the police had to be called out.
I was coming home from the library where my shoes and socks and pants had gotten soaking wet as I had to wade to my car, in leg deep water. Note: Not ankle deep; leg deep, above the ankles.
Before Maple Field was turned artificial, REAC had done a report stating that artificial turf is safe for Maple field and good for the environment.
If the rains had continued the new village hall and new library would have been flooded.
Flooding was not supposed to occur there. Supposedly Ridgewood engineering experts had designed the buildings to prevent flooding.
You know what, the members of REAC should pay to have the artificial truf (grass) removed from Maple Field and real, mother nature’s grass replanted.
Trust me as they say: The kids will profit by playing on real grass.
Flash Flood Sees Ho Ho Kus Brook Breach its Banks in Ridgewood
Ridgewood NJ, The HoHoKus Brook went over its banks in Ridgewood on Friday, 08/01 causing the Village Hall/Ridgewood Public Library parking lot to flood as well as artificial turf athletic fields at Ridgewood High School, Maple Park, and Stevens Field.
Five (5) privately owned vehicles parked in the Village Hall/Ridgewood Public Library parking lot were not moved in time and heavily damaged. One vehicle reportedly belongs to a Library employee whose first day on the job was Friday.
The turf athletic fields were bubbled up and will need to be repaired.
Several streets, including Linwood Avenue, were closed due to flood waters.
No injuries were reported.
Damage to Village Hall itself was minimal; water entered at only one point, an overhead door on the north side of the building.
JULY 20, 2014 LAST UPDATED: SUNDAY, JULY 20, 2014, 1:43 PM BY ELISA UNG RECORD COLUMNIST THE RECORD
This summer, we’ll be spotlighting locally produced foods and drinks that have caught the attention of North Jersey’s chefs, bartenders and other tastemakers.
Where it’s on the menu
Moveable Feast provided this list of the local restaurants, caterers and clubs that serve its smoked salmon and other fish:
Alpine Country Club
Bareli’s, Secaucus
Bottagra, Hawthorne
Chakra, Paramus
Chef’s Table, Franklin Lakes
Fiesta Banquet, Wood-Ridge
The Elan, Lodi
The Graycliff, Moonachie
Latour, Ridgewood
Le Jardin, Edgewater
The Park Steakhouse, Park Ridge
Park West Tavern, Ridgewood
Rudy’s Inflight Catering, Teterboro
Village Green, Ridgewood
Alain Quirin has always been intrigued by how fresh-from-the-sea salmon can be transformed into the thin, silky, smoky slices that are twirled into canapés and draped onto buffet trays.
When the French-born chef ran the kitchen at the Greenwich Village restaurant Raoul’s, he often could be found spending afternoons on an outdoor terrace, tending to a few fillets of salmon in a small smoker, which he piled with ice to keep it from getting too hot.
“It was kind of like a game for me,” Quirin said. “It was interesting to go from A to Z on something that normally you just open a package.”
And eventually, he and his wife, Denise, turned that game into a family business. Their Moveable Feast, whose headquarters is in a Moonachie industrial complex, cold-smokes 5,000 pounds of buttery salmon a week, and customers say its quality is unrivaled.
“It’s just so much fresher,” said Chris Waters, executive chef of The Elan catering hall in Lodi, who serves platters of smoked salmon and also uses it in an avocado salad with apples and red onion. “You can smell the smoke as soon as you open the package. It takes over the room. People turn their heads.”
At Village Green in Ridgewood, chef-owner Kevin Portscher layers the salmon over warm potato pancakes, garnished with onions, capers and dill crème fraîche. “I couldn’t make it better myself — that’s why I buy it from him,” Portscher said. “There’s no chemicals, no crazy flavors. It’s fish, salt, hickory smoke. That’s the way they’ve been doing it for hundreds of years.”
Adds another Ridgewood chef, Michael Latour, who occasionally uses the fish in specials: “Some salmon can be a little too slimy. His technique is drier.”
– See more at: https://www.northjersey.com/food-and-dining-news/food-news/the-deans-of-smoked-salmon-1.1054271#sthash.Uh9A5QQR.dpuf
Work to begin on gas lines in Fair Lawn and Ridgewood
JULY 24, 2014 LAST UPDATED: THURSDAY, JULY 24, 2014, 12:31 AM COMMUNITY NEWS (FAIR LAWN EDITION)
With approval of its Energy Strong program, Public Service Electric & Gas Co. (PSE&G) is upgrading gas facilities in Fair Lawn and Ridgewood.
The utility will be installing new gas mains, as well as upgrading associated service lines that carry the gas to homes and businesses. Beginning on or about July 28, work will take place Monday through Saturday between the hours of 7 a.m. to 8 p.m., conditions permitting. The project is expected to be complete by the end of the year.
Customers will be notified when work is about to begin in their area. This upgrade is part of PSE&G’s recently approved Energy Strong program to strengthen and protect the state’s electric and gas infrastructure from severe weather.
The impacted streets in Fair Lawn include 1st Street, 2nd Street between Morlot Avenue and 4th Street, 3rd Street between Bellair Avenue and Alyson Street, 4th Street between 2nd Street and Morlot Avenue, 4th Street between Berdan Avenue and Lyons Avenue, 5th Street between Morlot Avenue and Alyson Street, 6th Street between Morlot Avenue and Alyson Street, Alyson Street between 3rd Street and 6th Street, Arnot Place, Bellair Avenue between Arnot Place and 1st Street, Berdan Avenue to 1st Street, Bush Place, Canger Place, Chittenden Road, Dewey Place, Essex Place, Fairhaven Place between Chittenden Road and Cyril Avenue, Hamlin Court to Canger Place, Lambert Road between 1st Street and 4th Street, Lyons Avenue between 1st Street and River Road, Morlot Avenue between Passaic River and River Road, Plymouth Drive between Fairhaven Place and Ivy Lane and River Road to Morlot Avenue.
As part of Energy Strong, PSE&G will replace 250 miles of older cast iron main with new plastic pipe in or near flood areas throughout its service territory. This year the utility will replace the first 88 miles, with the remainder scheduled for replacement in 2015. These new pipes will prevent water from entering the mains, increasing the reliability of gas service in these locations.
Ridgewood considers valet system to ease downtown parking problems
JULY 21, 2014 LAST UPDATED: MONDAY, JULY 21, 2014, 2:06 PM BY JODI WEINBERGER STAFF WRITER
Ridgewood officials believe they have found a way to free up “potentially hundreds” of parking spaces in the Central Business District (CBD).
A policy is being written that would allow restaurants to valet cars to non-metered lots, providing a benefit for businesses and patrons.
An ordinance for valet parking “supports the public good,” said Village Manager Roberta Sonenfeld.
Under the valet policy, restaurants would pay $250 to apply for a valet permit, and, if approved, would pay $1,000 for an annual operating permit.
The permit application would have to detail such things as insurance, the seating capacity of the business, hours and days of operations, a map of routes to the offsite parking lot, and a copy of the agreement between the business and the owner of the offsite parking location.
The restaurant would also be charged with displaying valet parking signage and would not be allowed to park in any metered spot, and would have to employ a sufficient number of valet parking attendants so that cars do not queue up and block the road.
The village engineer would review the permit application to determine whether the plan is “workable and safe” and possibly consult with the police and fire departments on the plans.
