Thank you attending last night’s Mayor and Council Special Meeting, and more importantly, for standing united with Mayor Mario Kranjac, Councilmen William Woo and Ramon Ferro, who along with you have consistently stood strong against building residential high-density units at 800 Sylvan Avenue. The number of attendees coupled with your voice of objection spoke volumes, and we asked that WE diligently remain ENGLEWOOD CLIFFS STRONG!
This was one of many Roberta favors for a friend with full support from the 3 amigos. If tax payers took a few minutes to get the facts about where their money goes instead of just bitching about parking they would be shocked.
The give away at habernickle Park is insane. Use of 11 acres and all the amenities we tax payers pay for a mere $3700 a month. No water bill either for a gardening business.
Let’s talk liability too.. the VC is ignoring the ridiculous hellbarn contract..who is looking out for us? Say one of the 25-30 kids arriving by bus gets hurt…gets hurt while hiking on the steep terrain ( yes they go into the woods during the healthy eating camp and field trips ) I guess because there isn’t much else to do!! Anyway who will be paying that law suit…YOU the tax payers because the VC is allowing a business to USE the park as part of her business plan!!!
So basically healthbarn charges kids to use a free park…scam or what???
And anything that may go wrong with these “keep busy” activities because the garden is frozen, falls on us tax payers…part of the activities for this healthy eating class (haha) is kids also paying healthbarn to be on the soccer field and hang on the broken nets.. not playing soccer just hanging around and tearing up our nets.
That sounds fun…( NOT) until someone gets hurt and tax payers are paying those bills too along with all the other bills we pay for at the gate house to operate just so Roberta’s friends business makes money!
Thanks VC for not looking into this contract after Roberta left and clearing up any possible liability that may fall upon tax payers.
An overhaul of this lease is long over due!!! Take the time and do it. We cannot afford yet another law suit!
By Adam Clark | NJ Advance Media for NJ.com
on February 28, 2017 at 7:15 AM, updated February 28, 2017 at 7:53 AM
TRENTON — When Gov. Chris Christie delivers his 2018 budget address on Tuesday, New Jersey school officials will be listening especially closely.
How Christie will address education funding is the biggest question about his final budget, leaving administrators bracing for the possibility of funding cuts.
There’s some concern Christie could follow through with the “Fairness Formula,” a plan he unveiled last summer to give every district $6,599 per student regardless of income or other needs. Though many education groups are convinced Christie won’t do that, they still don’t have high hopes for increases in school funding.
“I’m not expecting any good news in the budget,” said Richard Bozza, executive director of the New Jersey Association of School Administrators.
Attorneys for Triple Five, the developer of American Dream Meadowlands, told the state Appellate Court in September that immediate dismissal of a lawsuit against the project must be made so as not to impede a complex financial sequence that must culminate on Nov. 4. The court dismissed the case the next day.
Yet more than nine weeks later, the project site looks as deserted as it has since before Christmas – and as it has many times over the past decade. The bond issuance plan – which has expanded to a planned $1.15 billion offering – was approved by the state for the first time in fall 2013.
Past practices are what got us in to the mess we’re in now in the state. Nothing about the status quo is acceptable. NJ and Bergen need clearer thinking and smarter decision making, not payments based on “past practices” without written policy or contractual obligation.
When taxpayer funds are involved, the process should be transparent. Let’s remember this man let Tommy Boy Rica walk free after the theft of at least $500,000 in quarters (and most likely much more) from the Village of Ridgewwod, and now his friend Mordaga, who resigned from Hackensack PD, has an unsealed case to deal with.
The late Gov. Alfred E. Driscoll, a founding father of the modern state constitution, probably would have been appalled with state Senate President Stephen Sweeney’s approach to New Jersey’s hallowed charter.
In 1947, Driscoll urged the 81 delegates who had been chosen to draft the new document to refrain from padding it with their pet legislative projects. Stick to “basic fundamental principles,” he said.
Ridgewood News Letter: Will parking deck pay for itself?
DECEMBER 11, 2015 LAST UPDATED: FRIDAY, DECEMBER 11, 2015, 12:31 AM
THE RIDGEWOOD NEWS
Will parking deck pay for itself?
To the Editor:
The results of the recent election have indicated that there is a need for a parking garage. The village website provided inadequate information. Of the three designs only one was shown.
The consultants have stated that the bond can be retired from the projected revenues. However, there is no evidence of the reliability of these projections.
The design that is favored by many is one that has brick panels. It is pleasing aesthetically. The design is more expensive to build and more expensive to maintain in this climate. No financial considerations appear to have figured in this design. In addition, there is only a small building in the vicinity that has some brick exterior. If the construction bids come too high, will the architect redesign the project at no additional fee?
The revenue projections are based on increased meter fees. When fees are raised, occupancy tends to go down. The financial report cites one case where this happened. If sufficient revenues are not generated, the town residents will be left holding the bag. The consultants and the council members will be long gone.
There is no urgency to build a large deck given the uncertainty of revenue projections. I therefore suggest that the project be built in two phases.
Univision and NBC may claim to be distancing themselves from Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump over his recently stated opposition to criminal illegal aliens, but Trump’s strong stance against criminal illegals has been well established for years and buttressed by governmental data.
In his 2011 bestselling book, Time to Get Tough, Trump held both Republicans and Democrats responsible for the nation’s failed immigration policies and cited Government Accountability Office (GAO) data revealing the economic costs the nation’s 351,000 criminal aliens imposed on U.S. taxpayers at the time.
“Both sides need to grow up and put America’s interests first—and that means doing what’s right for our economy, our national security, and our public safety,” wrote Trump. “According to a Government Accountability Office (GAO) 2011 report, America’s prisons house 351,000 criminal aliens who committed a crime after having already broken the law by entering America illegally.”
Trump added, “Making taxpayers pay for 351,000 criminals who should never have been here in the first place is ridiculous.”
JUNE 8, 2015, 10:06 AM LAST UPDATED: MONDAY, JUNE 8, 2015, 2:28 PM
BY SALVADOR RIZZO
STAFF WRITER |
THE RECORD
The state Supreme Court will hand down its ruling Tuesday in a major legal battle between Governor Christie and public-sector unions who say his move to cut $1.57 billion from pension funding violated workers’ rights.
The high court’s decision will be released at 10 a.m. Tuesday, according to a news release from state judiciary officials.
The ruling is expected to have a far-reaching impact on New Jersey’s state finances and workers’ rights. At stake is a pension-reform law Christie signed in his first term, which pledged large payments to the strapped pension system for seven years until the funds regained their health. Christie is asking the court to strike down his law during difficult economic times.
Christie’s pension reform was once his signature legislative achievement, a bipartisan agreement that raised worker costs but also pledged more tax dollars to rescue the pension system from collapse. The Republican governor said it was government at its best, protecting 770,000 pension beneficiaries. To this day, Christie boasts about his “pension reform” efforts on frequent trips out of state as he explores a presidential run.
Taxpayers on hook to fund portion of signs for CBD businesses
March 14,2015
Boyd Loving
Ridgewood NJ, As a result of Village Council approval of Resolution 15-90, Village taxpayers are now on the hook to pay a portion of the expenses associated with installing new “Wayfinding” signs in the Village’s Central Business District (CBD). The “Wayfinding signs are intended to direct pedestrians to businesses located on side streets off of East Ridgewood Avenue in the CBD.
Estimated construction expenses to be paid by taxpayers for additional poles to hold the signs are between $6K – $9K.
Village of Ridgewood employees will also be responsible for the installation of each new sign. Taxpayers will be reimbursed $25 per installed sign by the Ridgewood Chamber of Commerce (including reimbursement for previously installed signs). The Chamber collects an annual “maintenance fee” from each sign owner, as well as a fee for the signs themselves. 36 signs have been sold to date, this according to the Chamber’s president, Paul Vagianos.
No explanation was offered to the public as to why taxpayers needed to provide funding if installation and annual maintenance fees are being collected by the Chamber. Nor was any explanation offered as to why a private contractor could not be hired to install the signs (as is done in Montclair).
Additionally, no review of the sign project was undertaken by the Historic Preservation Commission nor the Planning Board, and questions regarding ownership of the signs as it pertains to liability insurance coverage in the event of an injury caused by a sign defect were left unanswered (during the Council meeting at which the resolution was passed).
Here’s the full text of Resolution 15-90:
Res. No. 15-90
RESOLUTION NO. 15-90
WHEREAS, the Village of Ridgewood Chamber of Commerce continues to strive to enhance the public’s knowledge of the various stores on the side streets in the Central Business District by means of the installation of”wayfinding” signs at various intersections; and
WHEREAS, each proposed wayfinding sign, identifing the various businesses, would be a plaque no larger than approximately 6 to 8 inches tall and no more than 24 inches in length affixed to a pole at the approved intersection locations, with no more than 8 plaques per designated pole or no more than 4 plaques per PSE&G decorative streetlight pole location, while maintaining a vertical clearance of 84 inches from the sidewalk; and
WHEREAS, the Chamber is seeking approval for additional locations for designated poles for wayfinding signs, in accordance with the location sketch presented to the Village Council.
NOW, THEREFORE, BE IT RESOLVED, by the Village Council of the Village of Ridgewood that it approves the installation of wayfinding signs at the various locations along East Ridgewood Avenue, in the Central Business District, to direct patrons to the various businesses on the listed side streets; and
BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED, that the Village Council agrees to install the concrete bases for the new designated poles for no more than 4 locations, have the Village Traffic and Signal Division install the designated poles on the new bases for no more than 4 locations; have the Traffic and Signal Division install new sign plates for a $25.00 per plaque fee paid by the Chamber of Commerce; have the Traffic and Signal Division perform an annual sign plaque maintenance which would remove any invalid sign plaques for a $25.00 per plaque fee to be paid for by the Chamber of Commerce; and
BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED, that the Ridgewood Chamber of Commerce agrees that they will purchase the designated poles in the color black, without a globe, matching the existing PSE&G decorative streetlight poles for the wayfinding signs; agrees to have installed no more than 8 sign plaques on designated poles, and no more than 4 sign plaques on PSE&G decorative streetlight poles; and
NOW, THEREFORE, BE IT FINALLY RESOLVED, that the Village Council of the Village of Ridgewood agrees to authorize the Village Manager to approve any subsequent locations for wayfinding signs in the Central Business District, upon review and approval by the Village’s Engineering Division and Public Safety Departments.
New Jersey’s Supremes direct trial courts to manage affordable housing
Posted by Matt Rooney On March 10, 2015
By Matt Rooney | The Save Jersey Blog
Assemblyman Greg McGuckin voiced frustration on Tuesday afternoon, Save Jerseyans, after our state Supreme Court gave trial courts jurisdiction over affordable housing in the Garden State.
Click here to read the Opinion of Justice LaVecchia.
“Once again, our Supreme Court has decided that the elected branch of government will not set housing policy in our state, but instead it will be done by the courts,” said McGuckin, R-Ocean. “I urge my Assembly colleagues to immediately pass A-4124, introduced last month by Assemblyman (Dave) Rible and myself. The measure protects municipalities, which have not historically discriminated against low and moderate income residents, from the oncoming barrage of builder’s remedy lawsuits. Towns that have not committed a constitutional violation should not be forced to provide a constitutional remedy.”
New Jersey’s affordable housing guidelines expired in 1999. Litigation commenced last year when COAHfailed to issue new rules by November 2014 as mandated by the Supreme Court. Gov. Christie continues to run into court-imposed roadblocks on this issue and others, too, notably on the pension front (and most recently on the eve of his FY 2016 budget address).
