Case Style: Family and Estate of Soo Hyeon Park v. Village of Ridgewood
Case Number:
Judge:
Court: Superior Court, Bergen County, New Jersey
Plaintiff’s Attorney: Neil Weiner, Weiner Carroll & Strauss, Newark, New Jersey
Defendant’s Attorney:
Description: Family and Estate of Soo Hyeon Park sued Village of Ridgewood, New Jersey on a governmental tort claim negligence wrongful death theory claiming that Park, age 13, drowned at the Graydon Pool on July 15, 2008 as a result of the failure to exercise due care of the life guards on duty that day who failed to observe that Park was struggling to stay afloat.
When notified that Soo Hyeon had possibly drown, the Manager had the life guards search the parking lot. As a result, the boy’s body was not found at the bottom of the pool for 40 minutes.
The defenses asserted by Defendants are not available.
>Audrey Meyers : Social darling or community pariah?
Audrey Meyers has had a bad week. First the State Health Planning Board gave the OK to the reopening of Pascack Valley then the Ridgewood Village Council strongly rejected her management team’s bid to massively expand Valley Hospital. To her followers, Meyers seems to have moved from social darling to a pariah in the community. What happened and why?
If you have lived in Ridgewood for more than 5 years you will remember the first Valley Renewal fliers that began appearing in mailboxes in late 2006. The early renewal propaganda all featured large images of Meyers with her serene expression and steady gaze looking out of the page from beneath her straight black fringe. I guess the public relations company decided that they could appeal to the perceived community popularity of Meyers to help sell the Renewal. But even at the beginning of the campaign was Meyers really a popular community figure in Ridgewood? From her vantage point on Highland Ave and her salary of over $1.3 million it was hard to see her as person of the people. Ever since Meyers took the job as CEO at Valley she has constantly surrounded herself with a small circle of her executive team. Stories have emerged from within Valley of people who expressed views counter to Meyers being fired. Yet Valley PR has repeatedly claimed that Audrey has the ear of the Ridgewood community from which the Renewal enjoys full support. After two council elections for Village council where candidates who did not publically support the renewal were elected, the truth about broad community support has proved to be false.
So who are the Audrey supporters? This group is really the Hospital Ancillary. At its heart the Hospital Ancillary is really a club that holds social events in support of the hospital. IRS documents reveal that the ancillary contributes just over 2 million dollars in donations per year. With the total hospital revenue near one billion dollars the financial contribution from the Auxiliary is in reality small. However, in the community Ridgewood, the Auxiliary is really THE social club in town, especially amongst the ladies who lunch. It is a club where the very comfortably well-off can rub shoulders with the very wealthy and feel like they have made it. At least twice a month members of the auxiliary can be seen gracing the social pages of the Ridgewood News or in photos in the health section. Gala balls, dinners and fashion shows are all opportunities to display a member’s taste in fine clothes, food and wine. Like the socialites buzzing around Miss Hilly in THE HELP’s depiction of Jackson Mississippi, Ridgewood’s social scene is also clearly divided between the ancillary crowd and everyone else. In this environment it would be easy for Meyers to believe that she has overwhelming support. Surrounded by employees are compelled to follow the boss and the members of the ancillary fawning over her to get a place in the social order it is easy to see why she still believes she is on top in public opinion. This is because all she hears is support as no one who she surrounds herself with dares to tell her anything different.
I’ve posted about leaves in the street before, having narrowly missed being hit more than once by drivers who couldn’t see around the skyscrapers people insist on building in the street.
Putting leaves or anything else in the streets should be illegal and the fines should be high to encourage compliance, perhaps after one initial warning.
Village saves money, and you don’t wind up picking up leaves your neighbors pile in the street which then blow into your yard and everyone else’s over and over again.
Simple thing to change. People can bag them, or take to Recycling or compost. (we do all 3 here, and we have no trees, we get loads of leaves though from other people’s trees). If you have a landscaper, make arrangements with them to take leaves away or bag for you.
The other day Village did leaf pickup in our area. Less than an hour later, 3 landscapers and 1 homeowner were out building new street skyscrapers. There is a current ordinance (7 days bef schedule) against that, but it is not enforced. And the schedule sometimes must be changed anyway- out of necessity like weather or storm events.
Simply ban putting leaves in the street completely. As I’ve written before, a long time ago it was tradition here to BURN your leaves. So many people were careless that many fires resulted and so it was changed and no longer permitted.
Time to stop putting leaves and other junk in the street. Is it going to take more accidents, damage to cars -or worse – to make this happen? I sure hope not. I’ve seen kids playing in those piles in the streets, sometimes near when it gets dark too. Recipe for disaster.
It’s simple to do and will save money and pose less hazards too. It is to everyone’s benefit and the cost of paper bags really is not much. You can also avoid that cost and just take to recycling or compost too.
So you have options, and (for 4.11) you can pick “your way” so long as it doesn’t endanger other people the way piling leaves and junk in the streets certainly does.
>MARK YOUR CALENDARS! Registration for first session of 2012 at YMCA Mon, December 05, 2011 Time: 8:30 AM Ridgewood YMCA, 112 Oak St. Ridgewood
MARK YOUR CALENDARS!
Registration for first session of 2012 opens December 5
New Year’s resolutions – we all make them but also know it’s often hard to stick with them.
Why not make a plan now to achieve your 2012 health and fitness goals at the Ridgewood YMCA. With classes starting on January 2, you’ll insure a healthy start to your new year!
Registration opens at 8:30am on Monday, December 5 for the 8 week session beginning January 2 and running through February 26. Online registration is available at www.ridgewoodymca.org.
For full program listings and schedules, please see our latest program guide.
You seem to have a short memory. Prior to the renovations at Maple, Stevens, BF and RHS, Ridgewood’s fields were, quite literally, the butt of jokes around various leagues in northern NJ. Our fields were an embarrassment. Ridgewood’s fields were, in fact, “AWFUL”. Go back and look at pictures of Maple and Stevens. Maple and BF were simply dangerous. Brookside remains one of the worst fields in Bergen County. Go down and look at the dirt lots at Vets and tell us how wonderful those fields are.
Athletics and nice facilities are not just “icing on the cake.” If you look at the 25 top high schools in the country, you will find that virtually all of them have strong academics, strong athletics and above average facilities. Not one of them has weak athletics or poor facilities. Do you think that is a coincidence? Academics and athletics go hand in hand when it comes to exceptional educational institutions. That doesn’t mean that every student is an exceptional scholar or an exceptional athlete. But, a diverse and well rounded culture is critical to a vibrant and high-achieving educational environment. You may want to have some facts before making sweeping incorrect statements
>Canada May Save $6.7B by Exiting Kyoto Pact By Jeremy van Loon – Dec 2, 2011 12:00 AM ET
Canada, the country furthest from meeting its commitment to cut carbon emissions under the Kyoto Protocol, may save as much as $6.7 billion by exiting the global climate change agreement and not paying for offset credits.
The country’s greenhouse-gas emissions are almost a third higher than 1990 levels, and it has a 6 percent CO2 reduction target for the end of 2012. If it couldn’t meet its goal, Canada would have to buy carbon credits, under the rules of the legally binding treaty.
Canada, which has the world’s third-largest proven oil reserves, would be the first of 191 signatories to the Kyoto Protocol to annul its emission-reduction obligations. While Environment Minister Peter Kent declined to confirm Nov. 28 that Canada is preparing to pull out of Kyoto, which may ease the burden for oil-sands producers and coal-burning utilities, he said the government wouldn’t make further commitments to it.
After months upon months of unemployment stuck at or above 9 percent, the American people may finally see a sliver of relief in today’s jobs report from the Department of Labor. The report suggests the month of November saw 120,000 net new jobs created and the unemployment rate drop to 8.6 percent–driven in part by the 315,000 people who have given up looking for work and were no longer counted as unemployed. That news is cold comfort to the 13.3 million Americans who are still out of work and the 402,000 workers who filed for unemployment last week.
The question is whether this improvement is real and enduring or a fluke. The economy is growing, but there’s little evidence of the real strength the report suggests, and there’s a lot in the report to suggest something’s amiss with the numbers–something likely to be corrected in the next report. For example, is it likely the labor market strengthened as much as the job number suggests at the same time so many people abandoned the workforce? And this is only one of the anomalies in the report.
The White House would therefore be wise to trumpet today’s news with soft notes. The fact remains that under President Barack Obama’s watch, the U.S. unemployment rate remains high because America just isn’t creating enough new jobs. And if the only way the Obama Administration can get the unemployment rate to drop is by convincing people to quit looking for work, that’s bad news for the American economy. Or to quote liberal blogger Matt Yglesias, ”Decreasing unemployment by shrinking the labor force is not exactly winning the future.”
It goes without saying that if the U.S. economy loses more jobs than it creates, the unemployment rate goes up. If job losses are low but few new jobs are created, then the unemployment rate treads water and remains high, with occasional dips and rises–and that’s what we’re seeing today.
As Heritage’s James Sherk writes, in the last quarter of 2007, private employers created 7.6 million jobs and shed 7.4 million jobs. That was enough net new jobs to keep unemployment steady as new workers entered the labor force. During the recession, job losses increased, hitting 8.5 million jobs lost in the first quarter of 2009. The good news is that today, job losses are well below their pre-recession rates, hitting a record low in the first quarter of 2011. The bad news is that few new jobs are being created, leaving America in the economic doldrums. Sherk explains:
>N.J. Senate panel approves bill preventing trafficking of tigers and their body parts
A Senate panel has approved a measure intended to serve as an international model to prevent trafficking in tigers and their body parts.
The bill (S3061) would establish strict reporting and registration requirements for captive tigers in New Jersey to prevent their illegal trade. It cleared the Senate Economic Growth Committee unanimously.
“This bill will send a message throughout the country and indeed the world that this illegal trade in tiger parts is horrible,” said its sponsor, state Sen. Raymond Lesniak (D-Union). (Friedman, The Star-Ledger)
>Ridgewood artists share holiday spirit Thursday, December 1, 2011 BY EILEEN LA FORGIA STAFF WRITER The Ridgewood News
Laura Paray, an instructor at the Ridgewood Art Institute (RAI), said this year’s Holiday Show is “special.”Our community is giving back,” she said, referencing the partial proceeds from the show that will benefit The Emmanuel Cancer Foundation.
The foundation serves New Jersey’s children with cancer and their families by providing emotional, material and emergency financial support. Their mission is to provide a variety of specialized services, at no charge, to any New Jersey family facing the challenges of caring for a child with cancer.
The Members’ Holiday Show is a win-win for the community. Three gallery rooms are filled with paintings in oil, watercolor and pastel, and all the paintings are for sale.
Due to recent power outages, many residents are exploring the possibility of using generators during until power can be restored. The following article in The Record may provide useful information, Click Here for more Information:
WEDNESDAY, NOVEMBER 2, 2011 BY REBECCA D. O’BRIEN STAFF WRITER THE RECORD
It’s an all-too-familiar sound now disrupting the calm of North Jersey streets: the buzz of generators.
As North Jersey recovers from another massive storm and parts of many communities are still without full power, sales of private home generators have spiked. And so have the concerns of officials scrambling to ensure they’re used safely.
“Between the generators and people using ovens to warm their houses, the Fire Department has received a ton of calls for carbon monoxide alarms,” said Bergenfield Councilman Charles Steinel, a former fire captain.
>Ridgewood News editorial: Hitting the restart button
Thursday, December 1, 2011
The Ridgewood News
The scene at Tuesday night’s Village Council meeting to formalize the governing body’s opposition to The Valley Hospital’s “Renewal” plan was far from the raucous display at last year’s Planning Board meeting, when an amendment to the Master Plan was approved.
>Village of Ridgewood : Crossing Guard Position Applications
The Ridgewood Police Department is accepting applications for anyone interested in becoming a School Crossing Guard. Posts are a minimum of two (2) hours a day. Work may even be available during times when school is closed (winter/summer breaks). Please contact the Ridgewood Police Records Room at (201) 251-4531 for blank applications and questions. The Village of Ridgewood is an Equal Opportunity Employer.
>New Jersey Choral Society presents “on a winter’s night”
Bergen and Essex County – Celebrate the beauty and light of the holiday season as the New Jersey Choral Society presents “on a winter’s night” on Saturday, December 3 at 8:00 pm and Sunday, December 4 at 3:00 pm in the Church of the Immaculate Conception, 30 North Fullerton Ave., Montclair. A third performance will be presented on Sunday, December 11 at 6:00 pm in Ridgewood’s West Side Presbyterian Church, 6 South Monroe St.
Under the direction of dynamic conductor Eric Dale Knapp, the New Jersey Choral Society will present an uplifting program featuring such festive works as Bach’s “Magnificat in D major,”“Fantasia on Christmas Carols” by Ralph Vaughan Williams, and “Gloria” by Randol Alan Bass. Seasonal favorites include “In the Bleak Midwinter,” “Lo how a Rose e’er Blooming” and “Angels we have Heard on High” as well as the beautiful Christmas anthems “Night of Silence” and “There is no Rose of such Virtue.” Organist Linda Sweetman-Waters and a full orchestra will accompany the chorus. The NJCS Children’s Chorale and soloists Alicia Luick, Ryan Milkwick, Megan Knapp, David Adams and Keith Harris will be featured. Come one hour prior to concert times for The Inside Line, a complimentary lecture about the music for all ticket holders.
In support of the Center for Food Action, the New Jersey Choral Society will be collecting nonperishable food items at each concert. Donated food items can be deposited in one of the receptacles in the lobby. The Center for Food Action is a non-profit organization that provides emergency food, rental and utility assistance, counseling and advocacy for people in need.
Advance tickets are $20.00 for general admission, $17.00 for students, seniors, and patrons with disabilities, and $12 for children 12 and under (Add $5.00 at the door). Group discounts are available. The West Side Presbyterian Church and the Church of the Immaculate Conception are both wheelchair accessible. For reservations or more information, visit https://www.NJCS.org or call the New Jersey Choral Society at (201) 379-7719. Funding has been made possible in part by funds from the New Jersey State Council on the Arts/Department of State, a Partner Agency of the National Endowment for the Arts.
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