file photo by Boyd Loving
April 5,2017
the staff of the Ridgewood blog
Ridgewood NJ, the Wednesday nights Village Council Work Session offered 10 takeaways :
1. Pomander walk is going to have parking on one side of the street once again. Ordinance today, new ordinance tomorrow.
2. Cambridge-Bogert is going to have limited times with no parking, based on school drop-offs and pick-ups. That ordinance lasted maybe a month, and now is being changed again.
3. The Schedler home is going to be saved.
4. Cynthia Halaby’s “Conservancy” is going to be celebrating daffodils while advocating for the clear-cutting of all trees on the Schedler property and while clinging emotionally to a couple of crappy trees at the train station parking lot. Isabella Altano did an amazing job of completely discrediting the so-called conservancy.
5. The water department talked about their efforts to reduce lead in the drinking water and the fact that the E. coli was found in water that had not been treated and thus had not made it out to anyone’s homes. They made it clear this is NOT AN OUTBREAK of E. coli, the boiling alert is just a precaution.
6. The bus station may be moved to the train station to create a single transit hub. This would free up many parking spots in the core of the village by Van Neste. It would also get buses off of Ridgewood Avenue and onto Franklin Avenue. Of course with high density housing slated for the Ken Smith property, there is going to be a lot more traffic on Franklin anyway. And the bus station on the other side of the tracks would take away some spots there. But overall there would be a net gain of 38 (?) spots.
7. The garage was discussed with next steps being tossed around. There is still talk of having some stores on the ground floor which would necessarily reduce the number of parking spots in the structure. Some pointed out that there is an abundance of empty stores in town, so why build more?
8. Herr Halaby felt he needed to state that Mayor Knudsen has sons on the police force so anything she says or does is tainted.
9. Central Valet might not happen because potential bidders were unwilling to bid if there is not a place for them to valet the cars TO.
10. Village Manager Mailander is doing an amazing job, so clear and organized and professional. She is the breath of fresh air that this office needed after the former stink bomb.
