When the present members were re- elected to the Council, they sold themselves as capable and “cost conscious”. The only “Cost conscienceness” that the residents of Ridgewood have seen has been in the “spend, spend, spend” column. They were elected to direct the Village and help it balance the budget and control expenses. They were not elected to grant all the wishes they or anyone else with power ever had. But that is what they are doing. I don’t think any of them are stupid and they must realize how much this will raise their taxes, but they don’t seem to care. “We have millions of dollars, what can we spend it on next?” seems to be their attitude. We had to elect two people this year, and all the candidates trailed problems behind them. Two were basically do nothings, except to spend. Of the other two, one reeked so badly we couldn’t elect her and the second had already proven she was a dedicated follower and that we did not need more of. The present council have consistently refused to listen to any other people’s opinion so I don’t know how the residents will be able to break through their “hear no evil, see no evil, but definitely DO the evil” stance.
Good spend more money on repairing roads.
Let’s cut the obvious out: no 11 mil garage, sell Ridgewood water, leave the library as is, put the kabosh on BOE’s dream list.
It will inevitably be this way. Even if it’s spending that seems right. These people have backers that get them elected because these backers expect a ROI. It’s an unsustainable cycle that simply inflates the debt load of the Village. I just can’t imagine how it’s possible in this day and age where we could have a council that operated on just maintaining essential services without venturing on to idiotic schemes like refurbishing the library or building a multi-story parking garage.
Backers? Not enough money spent on their election campaign. Bernie spent next to nottin., The big money was spent onHarwin. What do you mean by backers. If enough residents send e mail to council saying six mil library renovation is ridicuolous , the council won’t do it.
I mean Knudsen and Sedon voted NO for the multifamily hoousing and NO for a hospital expansion, if they feel a bigger library is wrong they won’t do it. No one is buying them.
Did anyone (everyone) see all of the open house signs today?
It’s graduation time … aka house dumping season in Ridgewood.
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Ha Ha Ha
Ridgewood needs a manager with a financial background. We spend too much on stupid things and not enough on important things like the roads and tax payers safety.
Look at what a rip off healthbarn is. We are losing money daily with that one!!!! And this productive business that is private ( which means it keeps all the profits ) causes such an unsafe environment for tax payers.
Wake up peopl and council. Do for your tax payers not everyone else!!! No one in the village knows what happens there daily and they do not care…replacements are needed immediately in SO many departments in town!!!!
Spend the money on repaving roads.
Short of putting a Hex on them, can anyone come up with ANY ideas as how to get the council to open their eyes and ears? Discussing, speaking up, writing letters–the council seems to be surrounded by an invisible force field. We don’t have the money to augment all their fancy ideas but they seem to think it grows on trees or falls from heaven for them. Does the allegory “little kids in a candy store” hit home? Their continued adoration of the Health Barn is only one of the places they absolutely refuse to see a problem. With all the ways the original lease has been defied, there should have been many adequate reasons to cancel their contract. Instead the council hurries up and produces generators so The Health Barn could continue with their profit making activities while almost everyone in Ridgewood lacked power. If our town lawyer said that was a necessity, then he should be replaced with a lawyer who will research the facts instead of responding with whatever comes to the top of his head when asked a question.
3:04, a legal item related to HealthBarn was listed on the agenda for a recent closed session following a council meeting. No details provided. With any luck they are breaking her lease and throwing her out (pipe dream?).
People watch what is going to happen The shit is going to hit the fan.
The roads are a complete disgrace and not one leader has stepped up and redefined a new approach to excelerated road sewer and surface repairs.Find the money do your jobs VC.PRIORITIZE ROAD REPAIRS .
we are literally driving on third world roads and it’s killing our cars and creates additional dangerous conditions every day.
You all voted for this council. They promised no development but that is what they are doing. They ran on, not raising taxes but that is a lie, choose Boe, the garage or the library they are going up. They said they paved roads, but pot bikes are many and paving is done by the County. They don’t work for us, they work for themselves
,nice try , and totally untrue ; the VC has nothing to do with the BOE , but there is a meeting to night best to get informed . As for roads there paving list is on the Village website , the county is a mess ,roads are terrible everywhere and the development was a done deal you can thank Paul Aronsohn, the 3 amigos and the people who voted for him .
Bergen County roads in the village of Ridgewood are the worst. Why is it in so many other towns the county roads are in great shape. I never ever see the county doing any repairs on the There roads. We should not be doing any kind of work on County Road it’s the counties responsibility. The village needs to do their own work. What’s next are we supplying relief on state highways to.
no they are not ,guess you do get out much or even go to glen rock?
6:26 – pse&g dug up alot of the county roads in Ridgewood for gas main replacement. Many, including Ridgewood Ave from Maple to Paramus border, will be paved in the coming months after school is over.
I love this town but Ridgewood is too far gone to save. Taxes are out of control. Pensions guarantees are ridiculous. Public employees make more than private employees when taking into account all the life benefits. Ridgewood Water and Garbage should be sold even though I love our garbage guys. Regardless of what your their qualifications are, there should never be nepotism in the the police department (massive legal/compliance/cover-up risk). The coin robber should be in jail. Mercy on the garage. Downtown will continue to have open stores until rents are repriced. This town needs to be run like a business. I am sorry but when you have a 100+ million budget every year it is a business and we are short real talent. Bring back the resident bankers, accountants and lawyers and get to work. Until then, expect residents to continue to leave Ridgewood and NJ.
then it appears pse&g is constantly tearing up the roads for something – this has been going on for years now. And when done, the roads are worse than ever –
Thanks James
knowing there is a paving is fine..that’s the status quo approach
we want a new approach and cost savings program I order to allocate
more real consistent money we pay in taxes and all sorts offers to over allocate money to fix more roads and keep them at a minimully acceptable
condition . The county needs to forced to perform here in VOR TO FIX THE MAIN COUNTY ROADS..The status quo is unacceptable.
meanwhile we are bonding for a garage that very few Taxpapers want as a gift to the developers who will flood our schools with new families children,
6:12 I, at least, agree with you. We basically had no choice but to vote for “our do-nothings we can see” or many more evil things would have occurred. But, in so many things this council seems to be happily going hand-in-hand with Pauls’ (both) agendas as we are still getting an unwanted garage and an unwanted library expansion. (Nancy Greene was begging Paul to buy her the Elks’ club so she could put her entertainment center there.) And the Elk’s Club has not been removed from the purchase agenda as far as I can see. Water trucks and vehicles will make Maple impassable there for a lot of the time.
So, James. can you list any action the present Council has taken that is visible to the Villagers? Or anything they have done that may not be visible but is publicly documental? I realize they are working diligently but, like the wizard of OZ, it’s all behind a curtain.
Major one; repeal 3066 for starts , https://theridgewoodblog.net/ridgewood-village-council-repeals-controversial-ordinance-3066/
the Library is far from a done deal