Opponents of Valley Hospital expansion in Ridgewood leave hearing frustrated
Wednesday October 23, 2013, 8:00 AM
BY BARBARA WILLIAMS
STAFF WRITER
The Record
RIDGEWOOD – It was another night of frustration for residents opposed to The Valley Hospital’s plan to expand as testimony from one of their representatives was blocked, interrupted and delayed during a planning board meeting that had residents fleeing long before it ended.
John Hersperger, an advisor to Concerned Residents of Ridgewood, was trying to make a few points he wanted the board to consider when it decides whether to allow the hospital to nearly double in size on its 15-acre lot. But by the end of the three and a half hour meeting Tuesday night, his testimony was limited to a few sentences.
He had been trying to present to the board with what opponents consider to be conflicting statements Valley made about the need for expanded healthcare in Bergen County.
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Build it, they will come.
It was horrible. PB should not allow him to co-opt meetings. By 9 PM not much had happened except his endless repetitive rants. This is done deliberately to wear everybody out and has to be stopped. He must be laughing at how many bad-boy pranks he is getting away with.
During the few moments when he wasn’t interrupting, he kept leaping up and talking to the Valley contingent–intentionally distracting.
For all his arrogance and pomposity the guy doesn’t know that “criterion” is singular. He mispronounced twice a word that CRR’s speaker pronounced correctly–can’t remember what it was.
As for comparing apples to oranges, it’s time for a new cliche. How about “Get lost”?
By 10 PM almost nothing had happened and everyone was exhausted. Mr. Drill’s machinations are transparent and cannot be allowed to continue unless the Planning Board doesn’t mind being branded as extremely biased.
The whole process is completely askew. The Planning Board seems intent upon honoring all of Drill’s requests – that we bring in “expert” witnesses in order to present documents…how can we possibly do this? We are residents of a town, civilians—we do not have endless money to pay for experts, lawyers, etc. So how can this be fair? And we are the ones being affected…yet, so far have had no say.
Valley will be hoisted on its own petard. The biased proceedings should provide ample basis for overturn of a pro-Valley decision.
Its a war of attrition. On remand from the courts a few years from now hopefully we will have a different PB prepared to serve the interests of the whole community.
For as long as I have been involved with this battle, last night’s meeting had to be one of the most frustrating and painful. The residents paid for a planner, a lawyer and an assistant to sit there for the whole night and to get to say practically nothing. It seems to me that this process is geared to bleed the residents dry, and to wear them down until no one is left standing to raise a hand to stop this atrocity. We are fighting a hospital with deep, deep pockets. The money that the residents have spent to get to this point is huge especially when you realize that the economy has been so bad these past few years. If this PBcontinues to allow these meetings to progress as slowly as they have and so skewed to favor Valley they will ruin this community.. What a legacy!
What residents paid? The stop-valley group?
Yes, the resident funded group CRR paid for Mr. Kate’s, his assistant and Mr. Steck. Did you think they were there for free? I presume they thought they would be allowed to present some testimony but as it t urns out the night was almost exclusively taken over by Mr. Drill and his objections and lots of ” Mombo Jumbo”. (Mrs. Price’s words).
Yes, #6, we all paid something to have legal representation. For many of us, this expenditure is a true hardship (we have a son in college and another on the way), esp. considering that we will never see a fair return on the property in which we’ve invested, our home, if the expansion is allowed to happen.
And now Mr. Drill is insisting that we will not be able to present our documents unless we produce an “expert” — more $—at the same claiming that it would be an “undue burden” on Valley to be expected to bring back one of theirs for clarification. Undue burden on Valley? Please. Valley has engendered more than frustration; it has cultivated pure, unadulterated hatred.
When Valley loses there should be a time limit before they can apply for another expansion. Residents should be allowed to move on with their lives. Valley should move on too.
The fix is in. Price was bought!
Notice that there are no Valley supporters at these meetings? Anyone supporting Valley, including one of our Council members, should be ashamed of themselves at this point and embarrassed for the organization that they support. Not only should Valley be denied any request to expand, they should be taxed into bankruptcy and then run out of town. Their behavior is reprehensible.
Nobody likes arrogant, and Valley certainly has re-defined the word. No class. Forget the expansion, the residents should be ashamed they even have this place in the town.