file photo Boyd Loving
Reader says be careful what you wish for with changes to the building department
Change in leadership ,while many readers ecco this sentiment : Be honest, has any one who has ever dealt with him ever dealt with someone who is more ill-suited for his job? It is unbelievable that we allow this pale imitation of building inspector to hold the wealth and safety of the Village in his hands. I think that might be part of the reason that Valley and the apartment project developers figure that they can get away with what they want.
One reader points out ,The reason this municipality looks as good as it does from a conformity to zoning regulations/building code standpoint is because Tony Merlino gives a damn about his work.
Some may view him as a nitpicker who works too slow, but that is exactly the kind of guy I want watching what’s being built and who is building it.
Mark my words, if we replace Tony with someone who just rubber stamps anything put in front of him/her, this place will look like shit in a few years.
I never viewed him as slow because he is careful. He is slow because his department is paper based and disorganized.
His job is to follow the regulations. If he is doing that then he is doing his job. If he can’t find a piece of paper and tells a resident to resubmit and wait three more weeks, then he is not doing his job.
Never had any problems with the man or the department. Sour grapes on the part of one Council member.
Merlino needed to go. He has mismanaged the Building Department far too long, much to the detriment of the Village and its residents. From a managerial perspective he was way over his head.
I’ve put an addition on my house and found Tony and his staff to be very helpful.
My bigger concern is with another village staffer — Blais Brancheau. Still haven’t forgiven him during the first round of Valley hearings before the Planning Board years ago for not being able to read the hospital’s plans correctly. He missed hundreds of thousands of square feet! And that came out very late in the process. This is how developers get things past our village — people like him are not up to the task.
Having done several permit-requiring projects on my house over the years, my only complaint is slowness in administering the process. My contracts would occassionally say that Ridgewood is their least favorite municipality to work with, but thet’s their issue, not mine.
From what I have heard over the years, the processing work does get done, but being that it’s paper-based, this is why things take an eternity. All too often, construction projects have to take extended breaks because the interim mid-project inspection is pending a visit from the inspector.
Can we please get the Building Department into the 21st century whereby applications can be made online, and all processing is administered electronically?
I don’t know why we’re all crying about Tony’s departure. Straight from the article: “Tony Merlino, the village’s construction official, will continue in that role, Sonenfeld’s letter says, and will continue to serve as the Zoning Board of Adjustment’s secretary.”
Just sounds like he has a new boss.
He will continue in the role of construction official, but will no longer be calling the shots as far as managing the offfice. We’re not dumb Amigo. We know what’s about to happen.
It is all about management skills
The longer I live here, the more Village employees, esp. heads of departments, have emerged as incompetent and uncaring and wasting of money. It’s horrible. From the lawyers to the planner to the head engineer to parks & rec and water dept. (now the stand-in for the Village Manager–this is terrifying) and the guy who runs the official village website and you name it–DUMB and INCOMPETENT.
Here’s what’s about to happen, Compadre: The antiquated bureaucracy and 1950’s paper based processing are going away and the service levels in the building department are about to go way up for residents and businesses.
Blais the buffoon was brought in because Tony was incompetent. Turns out we hired them both from the island of misfit zoning officers. Neither one knows what he is doing. Neither is competent to hold the public positions they hold. Neither has the moral integrity to fade into the obscurity they both so richly reserve.
We need a hard hitting top notch person to replace them, someone who knows how to read and enforce code requirements and restrictions and who can also read and interpret building plans.
Grouse all you want to about Tony Merlino folks but the bottom line is that the “antiquated bureaucracy and 1950′s paper based processing” has resulted in a community renowned for its visual appeal.
People just don’t walk into Ridgewood and start constructing crap because they don’t want the hassle and they know that they’ll get caught. They go other places, thank goodness.
Name just one commercial building or mansion that we’re crying about not having been constructed because Tony was so difficult to deal with. Right; there is none.
So does this mean we are going to hire another village employee, costing us more in salary and pensions?
I guess you haven’t been downtown recently and seen all of the empty store fronts, gold pawn shops, and deserted car dealerships. Must be nice living in the Heights and never crossing the tracks to the CBD. Your views on visual appeal are antiquated when it comes to the CBD. Go to Niagara-on-the-Lake if you want to see “visual appeal”.
Pleasing community aesthetics and excellent customer service do not need to be mutually exclusive.
For every non-existent example of an ugly building that didn’t get built I can show you a non-existent visually appealing tennant in the CBD that went to another town rather than deal with the legendary hassle, amigo.
Well said retiring Council member who thinks everything in Village Hall is just peachy ! Did Rica pay the initial $69,000 yet? Is he making his $2000 weekly payments? Any public official caught red-handed stealing any money from Villagers deserves to be thrown in jail for life. This guy steals $500K and gets off with no jail time. Is that sour grapes on our part, too?
So Tony Merlino and his department are the cause of vacant storefronts? Give it a rest, please.
Why don’t you ask the three amigos they have the voting block. They think everything is peachy.
Tony is rude, nasty and incompetent.
It’s a shame he will still be in the office…
Many retailers have just given up even trying to locate in Ridgewood because of our building department. It takes too long, so if you’re a retailer and you have to pay rent for five months or more before you can open, the cost is prohibitive. There are many examples of businesses that either relocated elsewhere or decided against Ridgewood because of the buildings department’s lack of transparency and the high rents. You can’t run a business paying rents like that if you have no visibility on when you can open. So we’re left with gold pawn shops, empty stores and frozen yogurt. Is that “aesthetically pleasing” to you?
Interesting view. Obviously they disagree that everything is peachy. They’ve rooted out conflicts of interest, outright theft of Village funds ($500K in quarters? By one guy? Who got no jail time?), replaced the Village Manager, held the line on Village taxes, and appointed a volunteer Financial Advisory Committee to give them advice on how best to keep us on a sustainable financial footing. Sounds like sour grapes on your part #18.
You’ve consumed way too much Aronsohn Kool Aid my friend. Suggest you remove it from your daily diet quickly.
“Rooted out conflicts of interest?” WTF? Explain, if you can.
The quarter theft was discovered accidentally so please don’t give them credit for that.
They’ve rebuffed some advice from the FAB.
Taxes held, but roads look like shit, snow not plowed on time, and leaf pick up was late.
And they wasted taxpayer money replacing Gabbert just because of his political affiliation.
Add to it the acceptance of those fundraiser tickets from a person with an application before the Planning Board, AND, acceptance of money for additions to the Stable from another person with a pending Planning Board application.
Not a good team, for sure.
Gabbert, regardless his political affiliation, ran village hall so badly that a low level employee stole almost $500,000. That alone made it a good use of taxpayer money to replace him. His replacement makes less and does more, Amigo.
hate to clue you i “amigo ” but when Ridgewood loses the Ridgewood Water rate case the Village will be out of pocket for a cool 5mill , Tenhove created this mess and Gabbert put and end to it other wise it would be even worse , as for the new manager , I hope your right but only time will tell
So we should sell Ridgewood Water? I couldn’t agree more.
#21, your comment sounds like something cranked out of a marketing school. Nobody will give it any credence.
Ridgewood Water is a black hole that spends more than it takes in, it should be sold just so the Village can cut ties.