Ridgewood Residents Outraged: Village Manager Under Fire for Artificial Turf Plans Amid PFAS Water Crisis
the staff of the Ridgewood blog
RIDGEWOOD, NJ — A growing wave of frustration is crashing against Ridgewood Village Hall as residents accuse leadership of ignoring public health risks. The controversy centers on Village Manager Keith Kazmark and reports that the village intends to expand the use of artificial turf, despite ongoing and costly battles with PFAS “forever chemicals” in the local drinking water.
The backlash ignited after a community social media post claimed “the plan is more artificial turf.” Tensions reached a breaking point when eagle-eyed residents noticed Village Manager Kazmark seemingly “hearting” the comment, signaling support for the expansion.
For a community already on edge over environmental safety, this digital interaction has become a lightning rod for criticism.
The PFAS Paradox: $100 Million and Still Counting
Ridgewood’s water system, which serves four neighboring towns, has been under a microscope for years. Despite the village investing more than $100 million in mitigation efforts, PFAS levels remain a persistent concern.
Residents argue that installing more artificial turf—which has been linked to PFAS shedding and environmental runoff—is a direct contradiction to the village’s clean water goals.
“While state officials are moving to eliminate PFAS in products like firefighting foam, Ridgewood leadership seems to be moving in the opposite direction,” one concerned resident noted.
Tax Hikes and Budget Cuts: A Question of Priorities
The “Turf-Gate” controversy arrives at a sensitive time for Ridgewood taxpayers, who are currently grappling with:
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Historic Tax Increases: Residents are feeling the pinch of rising municipal costs.
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Sweeping Property Reassessments: Many homeowners are seeing their valuations climb.
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Budget Cuts: Essential services are being trimmed while expensive recreational projects move forward.
The community is now calling for a total halt on artificial turf expansion, demanding that Village Hall prioritize fiscal responsibility and chemical-free infrastructure.
Calls for Accountability
The demand from the public is clear: a “pause” on any spending that could potentially increase PFAS exposure or further strain the municipal budget. As the frustration mounts, many are looking to the Village Council to provide transparency on Mr. Kazmark’s stance and the official future of Ridgewood’s playing fields.
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Tags: #RidgewoodNJ #PFAS #PublicHealth #NJPolitics #CleanWater #LocalGovernment #EnvironmentalSafety
Tackling forever chemicals… by adding more. He’s either a complete dunce or lining his pockets. 😬
Both
Kaith Kazmark has suddenly become an avid baseball fan and besties with the local sports clubs that need fields to run their “organization.”
Kazmark ‘hearting’ turf comments while residents worry about PFAS and budget says everything about his priorities. #nobrain
You’d think a Village Manager would understand the basics of environmental risk.
One would think!
Ridgewood deserves better leadership than this. Taxes are going up and teachers are being fired. Yet they miraculously have money to excavate green space and cover it up with plastic turf.
you got what you voted and keep voting for
Ridgewood has deserved better for many years. We need an intelligent, caring and realistic manager. Not one that does favors or favors certain people and places.
They are cutting busing to schools, firing teachers, spending millions to expand and turf the 36 fields we already have. Yet, we get quarterly notices warning that our water supply is hazardous to our health and children.
Other towns fixed their water problem in months. Despite taking 100 Mil +, we continue to be one of the most contaminated drinking supplies in the country, 10 years in a row. Shame on this Administration.
Given the ongoing concerns, the Village of Ridgewood should undergo an independent audit and investigation. If there’s nothing to hide, there should be no hesitation and initiated by the Village Manager. Right Keith?
Keith, how much restitution did you collect from the people responsible for contaminating Schedler Park (now costing taxpayers 10 Mil)? Answer: ZERO
At the very least release a public statement why.
Kazmark was in the room when the Green Amendment was adopted by the Village of Ridgewood- giving people a constitutional right to:
• Clean air
• Pure water
• Healthy ecosystems
What’s the point if he’s just going to ignore everything the public fought so hard for?
Number one, what is central services are being trimmed,
How about trimming certain employees that receive stipends the taxpayers would like to know who is receiving them, and why, do they have the credentials to be receiving those paid stipends. We would like to see a list of the employees that are receiving them. We have been requesting this for many years, and it’s always swept under the carpet. Why, why is it such a secret? And obviously you’re not adding any more employees so we the taxpayers would like to see Foreman/supervision to start doing lab work like hanging on a back of a yard waste truck, instead of riding around in an air air-conditioning brand new Ford Explorer we don’t need that engineering department can do that inspections it’s time for a change, with the taxpayers are out there, looking at everything, Big change is coming,
Hey, i am happy as long as all the trucks are white and the sanitation transports are regularly washed 😊😊👍👍
We the taxpayers demand that the New director make sure that all staffing starting at 7 o’clock. Not walking in the door 730, 745. This need’s to stop immediately. That’s why the new director needs to start doing surprise inspections at his departments that he’s in charge of. before 7 o’clock to see what’s going on. Because there’s some shitty things going on from what we hear. We are short on staff, so all foreman/supervision should be out in the workforce working. We have witnessed certain departments being insured on staff in the Dpw and we have supervision riding around an air-conditioning. Something‘s wrong. They need to start getting on the truck working with the crew. We’re going to be watching this. we are the taxpayers.
And the parks guys sit at Habernickel in the parking lot or at that little hut on Andover. They sit in the ride on mowers and look at texts messages as they mow Habernickel for the 3 rd time in one week. Who is in charge. Who do we call to complain about that? It’s crazy
Let’s not forget $500k in next year’s budget to redo the tennis courts at RHS. That’s right, $500k.
Why do you want sanitation trucks white, they should be green, and they’re not constantly being washed who is bullshitting you.
A dick Ames, are you happy with the picture on Facebook with patch crew patching holes on Maple Avenue that’s a county road. Let the county come in patch holes on the county roads in town. That’s why we pay County tax. Does the county come into Ridgewood and patch potholes on secondary roads no. You know that came down from the top political. Or from the manager, right?
Does the village have an outside contractor coming in and cleaning the vehicles. Or do they have a location that they can safely decrease and decontaminate these vehicles just curious
Here we go I like this picture, what do you think he didn’t bring up the contaminated dirt, dear Miss Governor is there anyway you can squeeze the DEP right?
You can’t claim to protect public health while ignoring well-documented risks tied to these materials.
What’s troubling here isn’t just the turf—it’s the pattern. Residents are raising specific concerns about PFAS, heat, and environmental impact, and instead of clear answers backed by independent risk assessments, the response has been to move forward anyway. When decisions outpace the science, that’s not leadership—that’s
INTENTIONAL NEGLIGENCE
Shouldn’t this article also mention Dr Schwartz and the Boe’s push for turf, not just the municipality Why not put pressure on them to flip the turf field back to grass. PFAS is broader than just Schedler. Just saying
Dr. Schwartz cannot make up his mind when it comes to his stance on turf and he seems to be consistently inconsistent from what I have heard. He will buckle under the pressure of Keith and the constant pressure of sports league leaders who do not care about negative health or environmental impacts of artificial turf and they’ll just focus on program expansion as that is how they make money.
When Village Manager Kazmark is not calling balls and strikes for the Village of Ridgewood, he is either hanging poolside with NJDEP Commissioner Shawn LaTorette or schmoozing with his pal, newly elected Govenor Sherill. Keith wherever do you find the time? I guess making time for those oh so valuable relationships will pay off.
It is truly astonishing to see the amount of emotional and irrational opposition to turf fields. It is similar to TDS. Refusing to accept reality that they are actually cheaper to maintain and overall safer than the poorly maintained fields that are full of goose poop, rutted, grass too tall, or hard packed dirt with no grass.
Oh yeah, there’s some sneaky shit going on, they come up with some amazing bullshit don’t they. They push to see how far they can get away with. And then when they get caught, they changed the whole story. And of course they’re gonna blame it on somebody else. The village is so overrated. It’s a time bomb just waiting to go off, they’re borrowing so much money and they don’t care, all these projects yes things are looking better, but I would expense. Sooner or later if they just can’t keep on passing tax increases guess what’s gonna happen, you’re gonna see two week furlough’s coming. It’s just a matter of time.
Enough is enough, show us the list of employees receiving paid stipends.
1 list of employees names
2-why is that employee receiving a paid stipend?
3-how much is that employee receiving in that stipend?
4-who approved that paid stipend
5- how long is that stipend for?
6-is that employee certified in the position that they’re in
Meaning, do they have certified testing test approval, or just handed the position?
7-a timeframe document from the village regarding the stipend. They failed over and over time of the time to give us this document, we know it’s floating around in the village. We seen it from time to time and then it disappeared. It’s time to resurface it and it needs to be posted. If not, we’ll just notify Attorney affairs in Trenton.
What I find very interesting is that in the past 30 years we had different mayors, different council members, a few different managers, and some of the things are still occurring, and this individuals not making the right moves. It’s the same old chess game, we have a feeling who it is, because it’s official has been employed for the town for over 30 years and we believe this individual is feeding information to individuals behind the curtain.
The Good news is his time is almost up ! He usually gets run out of each town he manages within 3 to 5 years . He manages with smoke and mirrors buries them in debt when he can’t hide it anymore he checks out. It’s definitely a pattern with him .