the staff of the Ridgewood blog
Ridgewood NJ, the Village of Ridgewood may soon lose more than $169,000 in federal health care grants, potentially derailing 34 public health and wellness programs that earned the community top honors just months ago. The funding cuts come amid a nationwide rollback of post-pandemic federal health spending, sparking frustration from local leaders and raising skepticism over Washington’s rationale.
“Frustrated is an Understatement,” Says Village Manager
Village Manager Keith Kazmark received notice of the funding loss via email at 5 p.m. on a Friday — a timing many might view as convenient for avoiding immediate backlash. The grant money supported programs born out of the pandemic, including Ridgewood’s Mental Health First Aid training, child health clinics, employee wellness initiatives, and Lyme disease prevention education.
“These programs just earned us the Mayor Wellness Campaign ‘Healthy Town for 2024’ award,” Kazmark said. “Without this grant funding, these achievements would not have been possible. Now, we’re being forced to dismantle exactly what worked.”
The Cuts Come from the Top — and Shift Priorities
Last week, the federal Department of Health and Human Services, led by Secretary Robert F. Kennedy, announced a staggering $11 billion cut to public health initiatives. The reasoning? Officials cited wasteful spending on a “non-existent pandemic” and are instead refocusing on tackling processed foods and physical fitness — a move that has left many wondering whether this is a public health strategy or political maneuvering.
According to federal officials, “America has moved on” from COVID-19 — but Ridgewood and dozens of towns like it appear to be paying the price for disagreeing.
What Ridgewood Stands to Lose
Ridgewood’s Enhancing Local Public Health Infrastructure program will lose $27,466 by June 30, which includes:
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$5,450 for employee wellness programs
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$4,538 for tick-borne illness prevention
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$1,047 for child health clinic supplies
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$16,431 covering salaries for two full-time public health staff
Additional cuts to the Sustaining Local Public Health Infrastructure are expected to total $142,051 by March 2026, affecting:
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$24,950 for part-time environmental health specialists conducting food and sanitation inspections
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$117,101 for two full-time staff positions in education and community outreach
A total of 23 programs are run by the affected staff members, while 11 more operate in partnership with The Valley Hospital and the Ridgewood Public Library.
“An Arbitrary and Capricious Decision”
Mayor Paul Vagianos didn’t mince words, calling the decision “arbitrary and capricious,” and highlighting the lack of federal understanding about how these funds support local communities. “This wasn’t just about COVID — these programs are helping us tackle RSV, measles, bird flu, and other emergent illnesses,” he said.
Meanwhile, New Jersey has joined 23 other states in suing the federal government to block the funding rollback, asserting that the move undermines local preparedness and health infrastructure built in response to past crises.
Final Thoughts
Ridgewood’s predicament highlights a broader national debate: Are public health efforts truly being “right-sized” — or simply dismantled under the guise of efficiency? As local leaders scramble to keep programs alive, the community is left to wonder whether their town is getting healthier — or just caught in the crossfire of federal politics.
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Excellent! Keep cutting! To the bone!
hey thunmbs down you must have been on the payroll or what? oh well to bad so sad. Looks like your going to have a to get a real job and stop wasting our taxes!!! MCDOnalds is hiring I hear. hahaha
This is a good wake up call to village leadership.
“Arbitrary and capricious “, he learn that from Seinfeld or law school! Even Paul knows the funding was ridiculous and wouldn’t last.
Why don’t we just get a Bond to cover it?
I feel so safe right now that our health were made by a junkie and cocaine addict who I will remind everyone we have no idea if he is clean or not, who is also a caught drug runner who got off because of his name!
I hope people are ready for the giant infectious disease outbreaks were are going to get, like Texas and New Mexico are experiencing. We already have had measles pop up in the state, and the junkie has done nothing to combat that.
But hey people voted for this outcome. Enjoy being sick and your children dying while your fiances are being destroyed and prices go through the roof.
it was called COVID
$169,000 divided among the taxpayers of Ridgewood, NJ amount to pennies per property tax payer. Don’t pretend to be fiscally hurt by this. Liberals don’t want the rich to reap the benefits of the Trump administration, so this should satisfy your aim to prevent the rich from benefitting. If $169,000 actually stretched over 34 programs, I question the need of such programs.
RW needs to get DOGED some more.
RW needs a right DOGERING for sure.
This article highlights the bloat of our local government and high cost structure. The real question to ask is – Should our village be in the health care business? Tackling emergent illness and providing health advice? See below —- Sounds like we need an Elon musk locally to focus our village on basic services that only the municipality can do – leave health and wellness to valley and hackensack hospitals
The mayor says
communities. “This wasn’t just about COVID — these programs are helping us tackle RSV, measles, bird flu, and other emergent illnesses,” he said.
The mayor who allegedly got money from Feed the Front lines, to the tune of $4 million. that Mayor? never did see a paper trail on that Good Samaritan endeavor and you never will.
No more. Stipends.
37,000,000,000,000 and counting.
Still going up after some minor cuts.
Should we be stealing from our grandchildren for this fluff?
we live in a society where mediocrity is often rewarded. These people leading us are no better than us, in fact they are much worse than us. They are the go along get along gang. They get paid to make the decisions that are going to shape our future. Ever since the George Floyd riots, this country took a dramatic shift toward liberal policy. DEI CRT the “pride flag”, woke public schools, a society with a victim’s mentality. Every day of our lives we have choices to make. We can sit here and just go along with it or we can challenge these so called leaders and hold them accountable and responsible for the unmitigated damaged they have created. I hope people wake up and start challenging the ideology of these leaders in town, the county, state, and federal government. If we dont do anything about it nothing will ever change. It’ll only get worse. Boomers need to wake up and start sacrificing for the younger generations. Stop selling out for your cozy retirement and all that. Do your service to the country and your creator and give back to mankind. You got all those millions. Start doing something that “matters”
Many Boomers are busy paying for their kids apartments and subsidizing these kid’s expenses because these entitled kids need to be kept in the manner in which they grew up and can’t afford to pay their own way in many instances. That is what helicopter parenting got them. Society gave these kids awards for showing up, another downside of that generation. Aside from that, what else are they supposed to pay for?
Village manager makes upwards on $300K to run around and pose for pictures. What does that tell you about the state of the village. What has he actually done? Why not start there and work your way down and anything non essential goes.
I’m ratioed so I guess I bothered the rich liberal boomers. My bad 🙂
I should be more kind. Please forgive me.
Would love if someone were to challenge me rather than throw a thumbs down!
We all know the boomers hold the majority of the wealth in this country. They had so much more opportunity than Gen X and the Millenials. Quality of Life, Food, Housing, Job Security and Opportunity, cheaper everything, more land, cleaner air and water, less traffic, less artificial stuff. They lived a much more simple life. the future generations after the boomers, especially the guys doing hard labor I feel for cause they had to compete with the illegals that started coming since the 80s i believe. I still cant believe how the borders were vulnerbale under Biden Harris. Its insane how tens of millions of illegals crossed into our country since 2020 including over 100,000 violent criminals including tens of thousands of murders. Go look it up on the ICE website if you dont believe me. Start waking up.
Boomers do the right thing and start giving back. Your money doesnt have to go through all these institutions. Start helping out your local community and get involved with educating younger people of on the things that matter cause these kids are not getting in school these days. I can tell ya that. I lived it. I went to school for 15 years of my life and i wish I did something different cause I wasnt able to think freely for years after I got out.
Loser, victim mentality from the entitled Post-Boomer population looking for a handout from Boomers.
Maybe stop voting for Democrats who put policies and laws in place that CAUSE the REDUCTION of Quality of Life, Food, Housing, Job Security and Opportunity, cheaper everything, more land, cleaner air and water, less traffic, less artificial stuff.
Boomers already paid their dues. Not all boomers are rich liberals. Boomers growing up post war 1940’s – 1950’s didn’t have much. Their returning war parents struggled to make do . Families had to chip in to help each other. Times were lean and tough.
Learn your history.
Open Borders, endless wars, liberal ideology and policy, bad trade deals, overspending weakness is what got us here.
These generations got the short end of the stick. Acknowledge it, be accountable, and do something to change it. Our resources are restricted and depleted. Traditional ways of living are unaccepted unobtainable around here. We don’t have the things we once had. We are losing every day. The values and hard work ethic our grandfathers had are not being passed down to younger generations. Why is it that the kids are inside wasting potential? Where are our leaders? Who will lead us from our demise?
Hard times create strong men, strong men create good times, good times create weak men, and weak men create hard times
Yes. Do something to change it. Vote for Republicans (real Republicans… not RINOs) and work to get others to vote for Republicans.
Democrats and their policies are ones who caused all of the problems you mention.
and many republicans that I know are first on line to collect their entitlements from programs that were not republican. Heck if you’ve got it coming to you, even if you are voting for people who don’t support it but take it anyway…
I can’t wait for the Dept of Ed to cut all federal funding to Ridgewood because it promotes RACIST DEI and Critical Race Theory and Anti-science Transgenderism.
I’m guessing we’ll get through this just fine.
“This wasn’t just about COVID — these programs are helping us tackle RSV, measles, bird flu, and other emergent illnesses,” he said. Such nonsense!!