annual daffodil festival and earth day fair
Sun, April 22, 2018
Time: 11:00 AM – 2:00 PM
Memorial Park Van Neste Square, East Ridgewood Ave, Ridgewood
LET’S RECYCLE RIGHT….It takes a Village.
Please join us on Earth Day as we highlight ways to recycle better and increase the community commitment to a sustainable future through waste reduction, reuse, and improving the quality of our recyclables.
More information on event participation will follow on VillageofRidgewoodnj.net.
![alexander_hamilton_pic[1]](https://theridgewoodblog.net/wp-content/uploads/2018/04/alexander_hamilton_pic1.jpg "Ridgewood Public Library is offering a Workshop on Genealogy")
ridgewood public library is offering a workshop on genealogy
Sat, April 21, 2018
Time: 10:30 AM
Ridgewood Public Library, 125 N. Maple Ave, Ridgewood,NJ 07450
April 8,2018
the staff of the Ridgewood blog
Ridgewood NJ, Using familysearch.org, Saturday, April 21, 10:30am. Learn about the wealth of records and research help available free on familysearch.org. Instructor: Judy Kenney. Registration and fee required. Please contact Local History Librarian Sarah Kiefer at [email protected] or call 201-670-5600, ext. 135.
file photo by Boyd Loving
April 8,2018
the staff of the Ridgewood blog
Trenton NJ, police throughout New Jersey will be targeting distracted drivers as part of a nationwide enforcement campaign called “U Drive. U Text. U Pay.,” which seeks to stop one of the most dangerous habits that motorists display.
The Division of Highway Traffic Safety has awarded $5,000 to 38 police departments for the initiative and many more agencies are expected to participate unfunded. The campaign runs through April 21. The crackdowns are similar in scope to the “Drive Sober, or Get Pulled Over” and “Click It or Ticket” mobilizations, which have targeted impaired driving and seat belt usage, respectively. The campaign is part of a nationwide effort, which was developed by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) and will coincide with nationally-observed Distracted Driving Awareness Month.
“The dangers of driver inattention are staggering, placing drivers, passengers and pedestrians alike in harm’s way,” said Acting Attorney General John Hoffman. “Distracted driving is an incredibly significant issue on our roads and one that requires a total commitment from law enforcement to eliminate. To continue to make our roads safer, we must be as aggressive with distracted drivers as we have been with drunk drivers and people who refused to wear seat belts.”
“Driving and texting is illegal and irresponsible. People who break our distracted driving laws will be stopped and fined,” said Division of Highway Traffic Safety Acting Director Gary Poedubicky. “For those who say that driving and texting is an epidemic, we believe enforcement of our state texting law is part of the cure.”
In addition to the enforcement component, public service announcements recorded by Attorney General Hoffman will be broadcast on New Jersey radio stations throughout April and will urge drivers to put down their phone and just drive.
The national “U Drive. U Text. U Pay.” enforcement blitz will also be supported by a multi-million dollar national advertising campaign, designed to raise awareness about the enforcement effort and remind people about the deadly consequences of driving and texting.
Researchers have found that distracted driving is a major problem, especially for young drivers. According to the AAA Foundation, analysis of crash videos of teen drivers found significant evidence that distracted driving is likely much more widespread than previously known. The organization’s new findings, issued earlier this month, found that distraction was a factor in nearly 6 out of 10 moderate-to-severe teen crashes, which is four times as many as official estimates based on police reports.
Researchers analyzed the six seconds leading up to a crash in nearly 1,700 videos of teen drivers taken from in-vehicle event recorders. The results showed that distraction was a factor in 58 percent of all crashes studied; including 89 percent of road-departure crashes and 76 percent of rear-end crashes. NTHSA previously has estimated that distraction is a factor in only 14 percent of all teen driver crashes.
It is illegal in New Jersey to operate a motor vehicle while using a handheld electronic device. Violating this law subjects motorists to fines of $200 to $400 for a first offense and could increase to $800 and three insurance points in subsequent violations.
In last year’s “U Drive. U Text. U Pay.” campaign, police issued 13,478 summonses for illegal phone use, 5,908 for speeding and 1,211 for DWI.
April 8,2018
the staff of the Ridgewood blog
Ridgewood NJ, on April 5th it was Injury Prevention Day for National Public Health Week. Here’s important information from the Ridgewood Health Department.
Bicycle Safety
As the weather gets warmer, the Ridgewood Health Department and the Pedestrian and Bicycle Information Center want you to be safe when you and your family ride bicycles. Bicycle trips account for only 1% of all trips in the United States. However, bicyclists face a higher risk of crash related injury and deaths than occupants in motor vehicles.
Always Ride with Traffic and Follow the Rules of the Road
You are better off riding with the flow of traffic, not against it. Crash data tells us that getting hit from behind is extremely unlikely.
You are more predictable and visible to motorists, especially at intersections and driveways.
Ride in a straight line, not in and out of cars, and use hand signals when turning and stopping.
Obey traffic signs, signals, and lane markings and yield to traffic when appropriate, including pedestrians.
Don’t Ride on the Sidewalk
Although you might think it’s a safer option, motorists are simply not looking for bicyclists on the sidewalk, especially those riding against the direction of traffic.
At every driveway and intersection, you are at greater risk of being hit by a motorist than if you were riding on the road with traffic.
Pedestrians will thank you for riding on the road as well.
Ride on the trail, paved shoulder, bike lane, or bike route. You still need to follow the rules of the road and watch out for your fellow travelers. Ride to the right, signal your turns, obey traffic signs and signals.
Be Predictable and Visible:
Try not to be hesitant or do things that motorists and other travelers may not be expecting.
Make sure everyone can see you and knows where you are and where you are going.
If riding in the dark, use headlights, taillights, and reflectors and wear reflective materials and brightly colored clothing.
Do not wear headphones or talk on a cell phone while bicycling.
Watch for Stuff on the Road or Trail that Might Make you Fall or Swerve:
Rocks, trash, storm grates, wet leaves, potholes, gravel, railroad tracks, and even wet pavement markings can all send you flying.
Also watch for parked cars, doors opening, and cars pulling in and out of driveways.
Watch for Turning Traffic
Most car/bike collisions happen at intersections and driveways when motorists or bicyclists are turning.
At every intersection and driveway; keep a careful eye out for motorists turning right in front of you, you may be going faster than they think. Also, look for motorists turning left across your path, drivers are looking for gaps in traffic and may not be paying attention to anything other than other motor vehicles.
Wear a Helmet
“Use your head, wear a helmet.” It is the single most effective safety device available to reduce head injury and death from bicycle crashes.
Find the Right Helmet Fit
Make sure your child has the right size helmet and wears it every time when riding, skating or scooting. Your children’s helmet should meet the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission’s (CPSC) standards. When it’s time to buy a new helmet, let your children pick out their own; they’ll be more likely to wear them for every ride.
Make sure the helmet fits and your child knows how to put it on correctly. A helmet should sit on top of the head in a level position, and should not rock forward, backward or side to side. The helmet straps must always be buckled, but not too tightly.
EYES check: Position the helmet on your head. Look up and you should see the bottom rim of the helmet. The rim should be one to two finger-widths above the eyebrows.
EARS check: Make sure the straps of the helmet form a “V” under your ears when buckled. The strap should be snug but comfortable.
MOUTH check: Open your mouth as wide as you can. Do you feel the helmet hug your head? If not, tighten those straps and make sure the buckle is flat against your skin.
Use Appropriate Helmets for Different Activities
Children should always wear a helmet for all wheeled sports activities.
A properly-fitted bike helmet is just as effective when riding a scooter, roller skating or in-line skating.
When skateboarding and long boarding, make sure your child wears a CPSC certified skateboarding helmet.
Proper Equipment and Maintenance Are Important
Ensure proper bike fit by bringing the child along when shopping for a bike. Select one that is the right size for the child, not one he or she will grow into.
When children are sitting on the seat of the bicycle, their feet should be able to touch the ground.
Before the ride, make sure the reflectors are secure, brakes work properly, gears shift smoothly, and tires are tightly secured and properly inflated.
Long or loose clothing can get caught in bike chains or wheel spokes. Dress young kids appropriately to ensure a safe ride.
Keep an Eye Out
Actively supervise children until you’re comfortable that they are responsible to ride on their own.
Every child is different, but developmentally, it can be hard for kids to judge speed and distance of cars until age 10, so limit riding to sidewalks (although be careful for vehicles in driveways), parks or bike paths until age 10. No matter where you ride, teach your child to stay alert and watch for cars and trucks.
Children should be able to demonstrate riding competence and knowledge of the rules of the road before cycling with traffic.
Model and Teach Good Behavior
You’d be surprised how much kids learn from watching you, so it’s important for parents to model proper behavior. Wear a helmet, even if you didn’t when you were a kid.
Teach your kids to make eye contact with drivers. Bikers should make sure drivers are paying attention and are going to stop before they cross the street.
Tell your kids to ride on the right side of the road, with traffic, not against it. Stay as far to the right as possible. Use appropriate hand signals and respect traffic signals, stopping at all stop signs and stoplights. Be predictable when riding.
Stop and look left, right and left again before entering a street or crossing an intersection. Look back and yield to traffic coming from behind before turning left.
Be Bright, Use Lights
When riding at dusk, dawn or in the evening, be bright and use lights – and make sure your bike has reflectors as well. It’s also smart to wear clothes and accessories that have retro-reflective materials to improve biker visibility to motorists.
Most states require a front light but allow the use of a rear reflector. Headlights aren’t so much for bicyclists to see where they are going but for others to see them. Riding without a headlight means drivers won’t see you, and surprising motorists is never a good idea.
photos courtesy of Boyd Loving’s Facebook
April 8th 2018
the staff of the Ridgewood blog
Ridgewood NJ, Ridgewood Police is currently investigating two (2) separate, but possibly linked, car theft attempts that occurred within two (2) blocks of one another early Saturday morning, 04/07. An attempt to steal a newer model Jeep Grand Cherokee from the driveway of a single family home located in the 400 block of Hopper Avenue, Ridgewood, was thwarted at approximately 4:40 AM when a Ridgewood Police marked patrol vehicle entered the short, dead end street as the would be thief was backing the car out of the driveway. Police believe the perpetrator abandoned the Jeep and fled on foot when he/she saw the patrol car heading down the street. A search of the immediate neighborhood and surrounding area by patrol officers, including a K9 unit from the Bergen County Sheriff’s Department, proved fruitless. The other reported car theft took place at the Van Dyk Manor Nursing Home on nearby South Van Dien Avenue, Ridgewood. An employee’s vehicle was entered, but was apparently unable to be started. Police are reviewing the output of security cameras mounted at and/or close to both incident locations. The Bergen County Sheriff’s Office Bureau of Criminal Identification processed both crime scenes.
Anybody wondering why “the Bell Schedule” will change next year at the high school?
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To support the incoming flood of new students over the next 10 years.
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But don’t worry, they will be able to park their cars in the Ginormous eyesore of a Garage.
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Good luck living in the urban utopia formerly known as Ridgewood…
April 7th 2018
the staff of the Ridgewood blog
Ridgewood NJ, Cottage place Surface Lot A case of Neglect & Danger . The lot is a disaster, perhaps that is why no one wants to park there .
April 7,2018
the staff of the Ridgewood blog
Ridgewood NJ, When placing political signs for candidates, please be aware that political signs shall not be permitted to be placed on any publicly owned property, including, but not limited to, municipally owned property, library property, parks, right of ways, the planting strip between the curb and the sidewalk of any residential or commercial property, trees, telephone poles, lighting stations, street or traffic signs, tree wells or planters, water utility property, and/or any other such publicly owned property within the Village.
April 7,2018
the staff of the Ridgewood blog
Ridgewood NJ, A Superior Court judge declared a mistrial in the state’s case against Ridgewood Resident Dr. Roberto Rivera, a physician who was indicted in 2012 for stockpiling large amounts of bomb-making materials in his Ridgewood home.
At the time authorities including the Ridgewood police discovered a stock of hazardous materials during a 2012 raid on Rivera’s Union Street home, including nitric acid, hydrogen peroxide, glycerin, sulfuric acid, calcium hypochlorite and potassium perchlorate. Along with multiple weapons, authorities also recovered 10 thermite lighters, which can be used as detonators.
In 2012, Dr. Roberto Rivera, 60, was reported to be active in the Occupy Wall Street movement and a far left wing activist .His license to practice medicine temporarily suspended in 2013 and in 2015, he was cleared by a court to represent himself in his trial.
This past Wednesday Judge Frances McGrogan made her decision after a juror independently obtained information about the case during deliberations, said Joseph Torre, a Bergen County assistant prosecutor.
The three-day trial in March saw testimony from detectives who seized two Cobray M11 9mm assault rifles and a large-capacity ammunition magazine from Rivera’s house, Torre said.
Rivera is charged with possession of assault weapons and a high-capacity magazine. He could face up to 10 years in prison if convicted.
A new trial will take place in June,and the state will also hold a second trial in October on charges related to the explosive material, including possession of a destructive device and creating risk of widespread harm.
The old saw that the SAT is a test that you can’t study for is still that: an old, false saw. Perfect or near perfect scores were once a rarity, perhaps because students were (wrongly, as it turns out) warded away from preparing in a focused, methodical way. Now, however, admissions offices at the nation’s top-rated colleges are swimming in applications from students sporting such gaudy scores. Fully a quarter or more of freshmen matriculating at places like Yale or Princeton totally body-slammed the SAT. Hence, schools who informally market themselves the “Harvard of the South” or similar monikers that identify them as non-Ivy League, but striving for recognition and a healthy share of the rest of the best students, are competing heavily for students with those kinds of obscenely high scores by offering large merit-based scholarships. But, and this is a big but, those same schools are prone very quickly to lose interest in students who do not score perfectly or near-perfectly on the SAT. Respect for the SAT as a tool for admissions offices to make fine distinctions between and among good students has plummetted. Many detractors of the SAT see it merely as a narrowly-focused test of a certain raw academic-related skills, perhaps predictive of first year college performance, but of no real value beyond that. The ACT, by contrast, has a much different format. The ACT is broken down by subject matter and gives admissions offices a good idea how much of the pure substance of a given academic subject a student has ingested and comprehended. The ACT’s popularity among college-bound high school students is increasing as more and more people recognize the real weaknesses of the SAT.
file photo by Boyd Loving
Look at which houses in Ridgewood have the highest turnover rates. Less expensive homes resell more often. People still move to Ridgewood, often from NYC, for the schools and leave when their kids graduate. Yes. Taxes are high, but they are far lower than the cost of private school tuition plus taxes in a town with lower rated schools. A year of property tax payments on an average Ridgewood home (Roughly $16,000) is roughly one third the cost of tuition at a New York City private school (over $50,000). That is the choice many parents have made. For a family with multiple children, the savings are even more substantial
One family makes $50,000 or less and one family makes well over $300,000. The average of that is really quite high. So, don’t brag about all the millionaires who live here. Even a mean would be slanted to the higher end. Many of our residents live in small apartments so they can send their children to Ridgewood schools. They can’t afford that nice cheap $400,000 home. When the new apartments open, our schools are going to be overwhelmed with new students. So, yes, many of our teachers are paid much more than many of our residents. Even at starting salaries because they are getting thousands of dollars in free benefits that even our millionaires might find it tough to meet. Don’t forget, the salaries are not based on 12 months of education. Many teachers make a lot at their “summer jobs”. Ridgewood is fortunate to have very talented teachers who do inspire their students but we have almost as many who are sick of teaching and are just counting down to their very well padded retirements.
April 4,2018
the staff of the Ridgewood blog
Ridgewood NJ, This 4-day multi-sport camp for students in Grades 1-7, will be held Monday through Thursday, April 9 through 12. It offers a half-day session from 9 am to 12 pm ($145) or a full-day session from 9 am to 3 pm ($170). Rain make up will be Friday, April 13th if needed.
Introductory classes provide fundamentals of each game, teaching skills that increase in difficulty as the players progress, with the promotion of teamwork, spirit, respect, fair play and much fun. Sports include golf, tennis, cheeerleading, flag football, floor hockey, lacrosse, ultimate frisbee and volleyball. Activities are held at Maple Park, Leuning Park, the Hockey Rink and Graydon Pool (check-in at Maple Park each morning).
Registration can be made online at CommunityPass, www.ridgewoodnj.net/communitypass, or in person/by mail to the Stable, 259 N. Maple Avenue, Ridgewood, NJ 07450.
MULTI-SPORT CAMP WITH TGA PREMIER SPORTS
From Monday, April 09, 2018 – 9:00AM
To Thursday, April 12, 2018 – 3:00PM
Contact Ridgewood Recreation, 201-670-5560
April 6,2018
Morgan Knight
Good afternoon, Ridgewood families! I’m the staff supervisor for the RHS Junior New Players summer program. If your child is interested in theater — or just wants an inclusive place to call home this summer — please consider signing them up for Junior New Players! We are open to district students who have completed grades 4 and up! No previous stage experience is required!
This three week workshop is facilitated by advanced RHS students (under the direction and supervision of adult staff) and culminates in performances on the RHS Little Theater stage. Junior Co. (approaching its 25th year) is special and unique to our district. As a Junior Co. alum, I can attest to some very happy memories and close friendships being made here. The performances are great fun but, more importantly, our J-Co. kids learn life skills like public speaking, teamwork, time management, and self-confidence; our high school students make for positive role-models and mentors.
For additional information and registration, see the attached file, or visit our website at rhsnewplayers.com
Feel free to send me a personal message, or email me at [email protected] with any questions about our program!
The RHS New Players Company is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization; donations are tax deductible.
Damiano, you still seem to think your only salvation is a garage. If it is so important for downtown businesses, when are you going to get the members together to force the landlords to contribute towards it? When are you going to contribute at least a wee bit? Quit firing at the people of the Village because most of us don’t want to build a garage. The businesses in Ridgewood basically all have the same problem. Landlords who think nothing better than milking you all dry. Take some responsibility for your own problems–make your employees walk a distance to work so your customers can park close enough to your business to make it worth their while to shop with you. The Village council and the residents of Ridgewood are not your Mommies-who would happily give you anything you wanted. You are grown up now. quit whining and at least make an effort to help yourselves!
