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Flash Flood Watch : Rainfall totals of 2 to 5 inches with locally higher amounts are possible

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file photo by Boyd Loving

the staff of the Ridgewood blog

Ridgewood NJ, the National Weather Service has issued a FLASH FLOOD WATCH , FLASH FLOOD WATCH REMAINS IN EFFECT FROM 8 PM EDT THIS EVENING THROUGH TUESDAY AFTERNOON… The Flash Flood Watch continues for portions of southern Connecticut, northeast New Jersey and southeast New York, including the following areas, in southern Connecticut, Northern Fairfield, Northern Middlesex, Northern New Haven, Northern New London, Southern Fairfield, Southern Middlesex, Southern New Haven and Southern New London. In northeast New Jersey, Eastern Bergen, Eastern Essex, Eastern Passaic, Eastern Union, Hudson, Western Bergen, Western Essex, Western Passaic and Western Union. In southeast New York, Bronx, Kings (Brooklyn), New York (Manhattan), Northeast Suffolk, Northern Nassau, Northern Queens, Northern Westchester, Northwest Suffolk, Orange, Putnam, Richmond (Staten Island), Rockland, Southeast Suffolk, Southern Nassau, Southern Queens, Southern Westchester and Southwest Suffolk.

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RHS Athletic Field Officially Reopens with Friday Night Football

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photo by Boyd Loving
by the staff of The Ridgewood Blog
Clean up from Hurricane Ida having been completed, the RHS Athletic Stadium came alive again on Friday night with the return of RHS home football games.

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RHS Stadium and Stevens Field Clean-up Begins

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Photos by Boyd Loving

The staff of the Ridgewood blog

Ridgewood NJ, the Ridgewood Board of Education approved the vendor contracts to complete the necessary clean-up work on the athletic fields due to recent flooding. This work began yesterday on the stadium field at Ridgewood High School, where at least four truckloads of dirt and debris were removed from the field. The work on the RHS stadium field is expected to take a couple of weeks, and once that field is completed, the vendor will begin to work on Stevens field. The work on the Brookside field is scheduled to begin today and should be completed in a few days. The fields are being disinfected as part of the process.

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“Climate Change ” Can No Longer Be and Excuse for Poor Planning in Bergen County

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photo by Boyd Loving

the staff of the Ridgewood blog

Ridgewood NJ, there is nothing more ridiculous than claiming “climate change” as a reason for poor planning  . Forced over development, including turf fields in floodplains  is a function of greed , and stupidity . Everyone, living or dead, knew the Ridgewood high school field flooded every time it rained . This has been documented since the school was built in 1895.

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Ridgewood School District Facilities Projects Continue to Move Forward

Orchard Elementary Soil Remediation Project

photos courtesy of the Ridgewood School System

the staff of the Ridgewood blog

Ridgewood NJ, as previously reported by the Ridgewood blog, the Ridgewood School district has undertaken 3 major Summer Facilities Projects ; Orchard School Soil Remediation, RHS Gym 3 Floor Remediation and  Replacement  and Stevens Field Turf Replacement .  All three appear to be making good progress .

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Reader calls even the thought of not Opening Graydon Pool , “abject laziness”

Graydon Pool Ridgewood

“No resident uses all of the features of this town. Some residents don’t even use the school system. Some use the parks, some don’t. Some play tennis, some don’t. Some use the communal garden, some don’t. Some go to concerts at the band shell, some don’t. For those who enjoy using Graydon, it’s a wonderful thing that the VC went ahead and opened it up this year. It’s kind of shocking to me that there was even a dispute about it. Nancy Bigos and Heather Mayländer pushed back so hard against this that it was shocking. Spoke to me of complete abject laziness on their part.”

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Time to Rethink “Crumb Rubber” Turf at Stevens Field

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To the members of the Ridgewood Board of Education,

I am writing to implore you to change the decision you made last night, authorizing the installation of crumb rubber on Stevens Field.
I am completely supportive of the remediation of this heavily used field. I do not object to using artificial materials for this field (although in a perfect world I would prefer grass). But I am asking you to please use a product that is safer for the health of the children and the environment.

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Daniel Fishbein, Ed.D Superintendent of Schools , “Simply do not congregate “

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March 15, 2020

Dear Ridgewood Public School Community,

It is critical that everyone in the community sign up for the Village of Ridgewood E-Notice System at https://www.ridgewoodnj.net/village-info/enotices-and-alerts-registration. Please do this immediately so that you can get vital notifications and information about the Village as it pertains to this public health crisis. Information about our schools as it relates to this emergency will come directly from me. Instructional information will be sent from the teachers and your child’s school. Additionally, I will be sending daily email notices to keep you up-to-date and informed. I ask that you also follow the district on twitter @RwdPub Schools and @RWDSupt, and please follow your schools. We send a lot of important information through our twitter accounts, as well as the district Facebook page @RidgewoodPublicSchools.

Continue reading Daniel Fishbein, Ed.D Superintendent of Schools , “Simply do not congregate “

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Reader Blasts Turf Choice

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“There are better choices for our fields than artificial turf made of plastic and crumb rubber. 90 percent of pro players in all sports prefer grass to turf for a variety of reasons. Our fields are in active flood plains. We can’t get warranties on the stuff because of that fact. There are new grass blends that are pest and drought resistant and when the fields flood on an artificial turf field like the ones the BOE has installed and now again at Stevens, the toxins go into our water ways, the fields harden , often need extensive repairs and the cost of disposing of it is around 100,000 dollars per field and it sits in the land fills for ever as it is not biodegradable.”

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CDC says Study on Safety of “Crumb Rubber” Could Take Two More Years

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the staff of the Ridgewood blog

‘Ridgewood NJ, in 2015 and 20016 Three federal agencies are teaming up to investigate the safety of crumb rubber artificial turf used in playing fields and playground all across the country,the investigation was the subject of a series on NBC News .NBC reported that the “The Environmental Protection Agency, the Centers for Disease Control and the Consumer Product Safety Commission announced an “action plan” on Friday to answer questions raised about synthetic turf made from recycled tires and possible risks for young athletes.”

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Turf Town 2.0

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photo by Boyd Loving

the staff of the Ridgewood blog

Ridgewood NJ, on April 29 meeting, the Ridgewood Board of Education voted to again install a rubber crumb based field turf at RHS Field Stadium . In the usual method the Board made its decision without open discussions with residents, vendors ,students  and healthcare and environmental professionals.Crumb Rubber fill is basically ground up car tires .

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Reader say, “pro teams when asked what surface they prefer to play on, choose grass”

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“So grass is unrealistic? We played on it for years and something upwards of 90 percent of professional players [soccer,baseball, football ] prefer grass to artificial turf. We have a bigger problem in Ridgewood. We put turf in active floodplains. It was not made for that. Environmentally it is a disaster. Financially, it is more costly to install and to maintain. It needs to be sanitized which they left out of the scenario when they decided to sell us on it. “

“Multi use is not a benefit of artificial turf. More playing time was considered the benefit. However, not in an active flood plain. It is environmentally unfriendly, needs much maintenance, is not ideal for children’s health and safety,etc. Today’s hearty grass blends that are drought and pest resistant also make it the fiscally responsible thing to do. In addition, all pro teams when asked what surface they prefer to play on, choose grass.”

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Reader Defends the Turf

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” We’re talking about what was some of the most exclusive real estate in the village, which from August through December was restricted for use solely by the RHS football team and the marching band, and when the grass was damp, even the marching band was kicked off (while the football team and its opponent enthusiastically chewed up the field to within an inch of its life). After Christmas and New Year’s, during the late winter and early spring, literally everyone was banned from using the field so that it could recover from the yearly fall trampling. Of course, this allowed the field to be re-seeded, fertilized, watered, and otherwise expensively pampered in preparation for the famous RHS graduation ceremony. By late June, the grass was admittedly beautiful, and certainly soft beneath the feet of girl graduates in their flowing white dresses who, in accordance with decades of tradition, tended to take off their shoes during the ceremony. That said, net-net, making the RHS football field a multi-use field by turfing it was a good decision. So many more students and other people have now had the benefit of its use, it’s not even a close question. “

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Rutherford Voters Reject Proposed $53M Vanity Schools Referendum

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the staff of the Ridgewood blog

Rutherford NJ, according to Matthew Gibson,  this referendum was not to “fix schools” it was to make superficial changes like a taxpayer funded turf field for lacrosse and do things which would not affect education at all.

Gibson commented ,”They wanted to spend $53 million, of which about approximately $0 was for education. $5 million to literally bulldoze the high school poll, another $5 million to replace it with a new cafeteria. $2.5 million to turf some open space behind the HS, $3+ million to remove a playground and my personal favorite building new chemistry labs without windows which is totally safe”

Referendum Rejected

Dear Parents, Students, Faculty, and Staff,

The Rutherford community has voted to reject the proposed $53M referendum to improve our school facilities. While this is a disappointing result, we still need to provide adequate space for our growing enrollment and create environments to support our students academically. We will examine our plan to determine if there is a less encompassing alternative that could still give us more classroom space and make the district compliant with federal and state mandates, even if it does not fulfill all of our needs.

Thank you to all of the voters who became informed and supported the proposal.

Sincerely,

Jack Hurley, Superintendent of Schools