>Ridgewood supermarkets now face fines for stray shopping carts.
WEDNESDAY, JULY 20, 2011
BY JOSEPH CRAMER
STAFF WRITER
THE RIDGEWOOD NEWS
Village Council members voted unanimously to fine supermarkets if their shopping carts stray across Ridgewood, based on residents’ concerns over what they deem a growing public safety issue.
The ordinance requires that all shopping carts picked up around the Central Business District (CBD) and elsewhere by Village staff will carry a $25 fee per cart. The new measure, passed by council members on July 13, is a reaction to the stores’ lack of compliance with previous requests by Village officials to manage the problem of delinquent property, according to Mayor Keith Killion.
“If there was compliance, and if the stores did pick up the carriages, we wouldn’t be at this point,” he said.
Managers from two local supermarkets, Evie Ascencio from Super Stop & Shop on Franklin Avenue and Vince Gramaglia from Kings on Maple Avenue, spoke up in protest during the public hearing of the ordinance, collectively saying that they are doing all that they can to correct the problem.
