All I can say is that if you don’t like what went on here then sign the RECALL PETITION when it comes around and believe me it coming around. A councilperson that signs a Ordinance and then claims that it was someone else fault does not deserve to be in office. Take responsibility for action.
New Jersey*
Const. Art. 1, §2(b)
Any elected official in the state or representing the state in the United States Congress. Includes local officials.
Recall may not commence during first year in office.
No specific grounds are required
Time for gathering signatures is 160 days.
Signature requirement is number equal to 25% of the registered voters of the district
CELL TOWER UPDATE: A review of Village Council meeting minutes dating back to 2008 may provide the answer as to why the mobile AT&T tower was brought in.
What the meeting minutes reveal is that for years, several cell phone carriers have attempted to construct a new monopole style tower on property owned by the State of NJ on Franklin Turnpike. However, indications are that Village officials objected to this location because of the State’s unwillingness to share site rental revenue with the Village. Instead, several Village owned properties in the Route 17 corridor were offered as alternatives to the State of NJ owned property. Unfortunately for the Village, there were insurmountable technical issues with each of the alternative sites.
The State’s policy has been to reject construction of cell towers on their properties when objections are made by local government officials, So, due to the objection voiced by Ridgewood officials, a new cell tower can’t be built at the NJDOT facility on Franklin Turnpike (which seems to be the only location that offers the requisite ground space, and meets all technical parameters). Thus, the current holding pattern – and unusual risk taken by AT&T to keep their system functioning (the existing AT&T shared use tower in the construction company’s yard is unable to support equipment required for 4G service).
It is believed that construction of a new tower on State owned property would result in removal of the existing tower at the construction company yard. The Village would get property tax revenue despite the tower being built on State owned property (most likely more tax revenue – the new structure would be larger).
However, the Village would not get any of the site rental revenue, and that’s what this seems to all boil down to; we want our cake, and we want to eat it to. Why do Village officials feel the State of NJ should share site rental revenue with them? Would they expect the same of any property owner? Then why the State?
Flawed bid process will delay Maple Field cleanup in Ridgewood
TUESDAY DECEMBER 17, 2013, 10:32 AM
BY DARIUS AMOS
STAFF WRITER
THE RIDGEWOOD NEWS
The Ridgewood Council has rejected the lone bid it received for the Maple Park turf cleaning job, a move that will delay a much-needed procedure at one of the village’s most used fields.
According to a council resolution unanimously passed last week, the village will put the project back out for public bid because the initial bid process was declared flawed.
Mark was shown where he made a mistake in stating in a footnote that delegates from Vermont belatedly attended the constitutional convention in Philadelphia in 1787. In reality, Vermont was not even a state until 1791. Before that it was a disputed territory between New Hampshire and New York. So Vermonters were not asked to nor were they qualified to attend the Philadelphia convention. He gave his challenger no credit for reading his book carefully and bringing this non-trivial mistake to his attention. He then refused to sign the book on the page where the footnote appeared and showed distinct signs of impatience and annoyance when he opened the front of the book and began to sign it.
At this point, Mark was challenged about Cruz’s eligiblity. But the challenge did not happen as Mark said it did. The challenger asked this: “Under what possible definition of the term natural-born Citizen does your friend Ted Cruz qualify to be president?” At this same time the challenger placed an annotated copy of an earlier TheRidgewoodBlog posting repeating CNN’s recent article questioning Cruz’s eligibility, and was pointing at the document. After cursing at the challenger , Mark replied: “I never said he was a natural-born Citizen.”, upon which his challenger said: “But you must be a natural-born Citizen to be President!”. Mark then said: “No you don’t!”, and the challenger said “Yes, you do. Read the Constitution.” Levin was showing no signs of changing his tune. The challenger then turned around and left the booksigning. There was no time during any of this dialogue for Mark to ruminate on the challenger’s motivations or talk about Canada or Cruz’s mother or anything like what he said on his Radio program
Readers asks Why is Heather A. Mailander capable enough to fill in but not to actually be appointed to the position
Why is she capable enough to fill in but not to actually be appointed to the position. Another woman running a dept and not being recognized. She is better than Gabbert and Ten Hoeve
Heather Mailander would make an excellent choice for Village Manager. She is highly capable, has a tremendous work ethic, she knows the town and she well respected and liked by both Village employees and residents. Most importantly she has good common sense………..which is in short supply in Village Hall.
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Appeals court affirms decision to reduce Ridgewood firefighter’s award to $500,000 from $3.5M
Wednesday May 1, 2013, 12:29 PM
BY CHRIS HARRIS
STAFF WRITER
The Record
RIDGEWOOD — A panel of appellate court judges agreed the village only has to pay one of its firefighters half-a-million dollars — far less than the $3.5 million a jury awarded him in 2012 for emotional distress.
The decision, issued Tuesday, upholds a Superior Court judge’s May 2, 2012 ruling, reducing Kevin Reilly’s damages to $500,000.
Will the Zabriskie Schedler House, in Ridgewood become the next turf field
Reader says to save money, quit buying land and taking it off the tax rolls to make soccer fields
If you want to save money, quit buying land and taking it off the tax rolls to make soccer fields. The horse farm, if its worth the $10 million we got hosed for at the time of purchase, equates to about $250,000 per year of taxes no longer coming in.
Citizens park was paid for with donations from long time residents, whose names appear on the placque. It was for a PARK, not a soccer field, with obnoxious loud people blocking up the traffic there, along with the nite lights. Its disgusting how a nice green park became a brown mudfield to accommodate the newbies here.
February 6, 2013 7:41 AM
the staff of the Ridgewood blog
Ridgewood NJ– The U.S. Postal Service has announced that it will stop delivering mail on Saturdays but continue to deliver packages six days a week under a plan aimed at saving about $2 billion, the financially struggling agency says. Saturday mail cutback would not begin until August.
The move allows the USPS to focus on package delivery which has increased by 14% since 2010, At the same time technology which aids in package delivery has caught up with the delivery of letters and other mail declining significantly with the ever increasing use of email and other Internet based technologies. .
Under the new plan, mail would still be delivered to post office boxes on Saturdays. and Post offices now open on Saturdays would remain open on Saturdays.
The Postal Service for some time has advocated shifting to a five-day delivery schedule for mail and packages . The US Postal Service is an independent agency that gets no tax dollars for its day-to-day operations but is subject to congressional control.
The agency would need congressional approval to make the change and It was not immediately if that would be forth coming or even necessary.
Patrick R. Donahoe, postmaster general , says Postal Service market research and other research has indicated that nearly 7 in 10 Americans support the switch to five-day delivery as a way for the Postal Service to reduce costs.
Village Council commits funds for affordable housing ah sort off
July 13.2012
the staff of the Ridgewood blog
On Wednesday evening the Village Council committed $195,000 from its affordable housing trust fund to subsidize future projects by Habitat for Humanity of Bergen County. Village officials are hopeful that the resolution, passed at a special meeting will prevent the state from seizing that money and absorbing it into the New Jersey Housing Trust Fund.
Village Manager Ken Gabbert told the Ridgewood News that .”committing the funds, the village establishes a maximum amount of money to put toward an affordable housing proposal by Habitat for Humanity. The organization will be responsible for raising money and gathering donations in the event its project exceeds the $195,000.
With in such a depressed real estate market we fail to see the wisdom of much of the COAH funding . Politicians would be better off streamlining housing regulations and cutting spending to lower property taxes making housing more affordable in New Jersey . Prime real estate is always going to go for a premium and subsiding home ownership as we all have learned since 2008 has proven a well intentioned folly.
However some people for what ever reason have simply dropped through the cracks making it very hard to reenter society as productive individuals .Housing responsibilities are sensible part of the rehabilitative process. This means a case by case evaluation avoiding all the big government housing project one size fits all of the early 1970’s or the Soviet Union. Local organisations have proven to be far better and more able to identify the issues facing local displaced people.
With that said , Ridgewood is a town that spent over $400,000 on toilets aka “the golden toilet” for Vets field so it does look like Habitat for Humanity has its work cut out for it given $195,000 may barely cover a shower head in Ridgewood.
Paul Aronsohn, Gwenn Hauck and Albert Pucciarelli are officially sworn in to the Village Council
July 12012
the staff of the Ridgewood blog
Ridgewood NJ , Paul Aronsohn, Gwenn Hauck and Albert Pucciarelli were officially sworn in at Sundays Village Council reorganization meeting.
There were no big surprises Paul Aronsohn was appointed Mayor, Albert Pucciarelli appointed Deputy Mayor. Matt Rogers reappointed as Village Attorney, and a litany of appointments to the various Village boards were also made . U.S. Sen. Robert Menendez administered the oaths of office .
Some changes were made to Village Council committees; Gwen Hauck is now liaison to Parks & Rec and Bernie Walsh assumes the Citizens Safety Advisory Committee leadership now that Keith is gone.Both former Mayor Killion and Councilman Stephen Wellinghorst were praised by residents and council alike . Former Mayor Keith Killion received a standing ovation as he left the dais.
Now Mayor Aronsohn made his first public speech as mayor, and vowed to work on the revitalizing the business community, fix the permitting process, fill store vacancies, and take a closer look at pedestrian safety.
In his remarks U.S. Sen. Robert Menendez was very complimentary to Ridgewood’s non partisan form of government.
Both the ceremony and reception were well attended and there was a standing room only crowd .
Ex Chief Bombace looks to resuscitate image after behavior was blasted by judge in Reilly verdict
Kevin Reilly alleged that he reported two incidents in which firefighter safety was compromised because of violations by his superiors.
The recent decision by Judge Menelaos W. Toskos reducing Firefighter Kevin Reilly’s 3.5 million dollar jury award to $500,000.00 told only half of the story.
Firefighter Reilly’s “whistle blower” claim that he and his colleagues were ordered to clean up an unknown chemical spill at The Valley Hospital was proven to be false during the court proceedings. The chemical had been identified by The Bergen County Hazardous Materials Team, which was called to The Valley Hospital at 7:30 PM on Sunday, August 12, 2007, at the request of the Fire Department, for what was then an unknown spill in the area of the Hospital Pharmacy. I was also called to the scene by the on duty Fire Captain.
The members of the Ridgewood Fire Department and Bergen County Hazardous Materials Team contained and then identified the spilled material, which was identified as 1000 cc of Glacial Acetic Acid. Bergen County Hazmat and Fire Department members then used an absorbent to pick up the liquid. Once all of the liquid had been picked up they double bagged the absorbent and the broken bottle for disposal. The bagged material was turned over to a Hospital Representative for disposal in the Hospitals normal hazardous waste flow. This action was documented in a report filed by the Bergen County Hazardous Materials Team (BCDHS Case Number 2007-8-71) see attachment.
The next day, Monday, August 13, 2007, Deputy Chief David Yaden and I returned to Valley Hospital in the morning to speak to the Valley Hospital Safety Officer about incident and to insure that the already contained and bagged material was going to be disposed of properly. When we went to check on the hazardous material it was noticed that the outer bag had been torn at some point. We called for the on duty firefighters to respond to The Valley Hospital and I instructed Firefighter Reilly and the other Firefighters to wear their appropriate respiratory protection with gloves and to place the torn bag into another bag and then place a hazardous materials label on the new bag.
None of the already bagged absorbent material had spilled from either of the inner bags. No spill was cleaned up by Firefighter Reilly or the other Firefighters. At no time were these Firefighters placed in any danger and because there was no spill there was no need to call the Bergen County Hazardous Materials Team for this situation.
Ridgewood its Reorg time
May 15,2012
the staff of the Ridgewood blog
The election is over and its time for the reorg, Reorganization as it is called will be held at the council meeting on July 1, the two new council members Albert Pucciarelli, Gwenn Hauck will join Paul Aronsohn , Bernadette Walsh and Tom Riche to select a new mayor for a two year term.
Contrary to popular belief the popular vote during elections makes no difference in picking a mayor. .In 2010 Councilwoman Walsh, took home the most votes and was passed over for a more experience Kieth Killion. It all comes down to a simple process ,after the new members are sworn in, nominations for mayor are submitted. The individual with most total votes among the five is then appointed and sworn in as the new mayor.
The Patch has reported the sources have said Aronsohn has support of running mates Gwenn Hauck and Albert Pucciarelli, and would have enough votes to take over the their words “largely figurehead role”. We have also heard that both Bernadette Walsh and Tom Riche, elected in 2010, have expressed also interest in the position. Riche is currently the deputy mayor and comes to the council with a lot of experience .While many witnessed Paul Aronsohn standup up in front of the whole town and say he couldn’t work with Keith ,Tom,Steve or Bernie, this in our and many peoples eyes rules him out as mayor .
Ridgewood still uses a mayor-council system based on the Faulkner Act. The mayor presides over the council meetings.,but has no veto power over decisions. His or her vote counts just like any other councilperson. However the mayor is the public face of the village, attending Village functions meeting with respective counterparts and of coarse other politicians. The mayor also presides over the council meetings.
This is again where many people have a serious problem with the two new council members for their strings attached affiliation to Valley Hospital and of councilmen Aronsohn for his deep connection to the state Democratic party and partisan out look in a non partisan town.
