Officially open for the season! Come visit Ward’s Pumpkin Patch for pumpkins, cornstalks and hay bales. Today only: get a FREE mini pumpkin when you mention that you Like us on Facebook.
Freshly baked apple and pumpkin pie — just a few left!
Since 1940, the Ward family has operated Ward’s Pumpkin Patch in Ridgewood, New Jersey. We offer the best quality and selection of pumpkins, gourds, and squash in Northern New Jersey.
We have pumpkins to make common Jack-O-Lanterns as well as giant pumpkins, tiny munchkins, and gourds in unusual shapes. We offer mums, cornstalks, haystacks as well as a rotating selection of fall decorations. One of our most popular items is our painted pumpkins featuring cartoons, sports, and Halloween themes. Take an adventure on our new barrel ride, always free for our visitors! And on weekends leading up to Halloween we offer face painting, goat feedings, and other events. Check our website often for our calendar schedule. Bring your entire family for a fall outing at Ward’s Pumpkin Patch!
General Information
Hours:
Open every day in October from 10am to sunset.
Directions:
GPS Ridgewood Park & Ride – we are directly across the highway Northbound
Directions:
We are located 45-minutes north of New York City in the Village of Ridgewood in Bergen County just off Highway Route 17. To get there, travel North on New Jersey Route 17. Just after the West Saddle River exit, round the bend, and then make a quick right-hand turn into the second driveway. The turn into the driveway is quick afterwards! The entrance to the driveway is right before the “Ward’s Farm” sign. Stay safe and alert!
Our address is 552 Route 17, Ridgewood, NJ 07450. If you have GPS, program it to Ridgewood Park & Ride. We are directly opposite of the park and ride on the northbound side of the highway.
For details about the types of pumpkins and gourds we carry, click on the “Info” page of our website.
Contact Us:
Follow us on Twitter for up-to-date info, pictures from the patch, and pumpkin carving ideas @NJ_PumpkinPatch.
From left: Gynecologic-Oncologist William Burke, M.D.; Robert Silverman, M.D., Co-Medical Director, The Valley Institute for Pain; Audrey Meyers, President and CEO, The Valley Hospital and Valley Health System; Alexander Zapolanski, M.D., Director of Cardiac Surgery, The Valley Hospital; and Joseph Pizzurro, M.D., Director of Orthopedic Surgery, The Valley Hospital.
Valley Hospital’s President’s Council Reception
On June 21st, The Valley Hospital hosted its annual President’s Council Reception at The Ridgewood Country Club. The President’s Council is a group of community and business leaders who learn about the work of The Valley Hospital and its affiliates and serve as liaisons to The Valley Hospital community. Throughout the year, the President’s Council Members attend presentations given by members of the Medical Staff and Administration about Valley’s programs and services.
From left: John Williams (Franklin Lakes) with President’s Council Member Eric Epstein and his wife, Julie, Valley Hospital Foundation Trustee (Wyckoff), with President’s Council Member Kathie Williams (Franklin Lakes)
From left: Alexander Zapolanski, M.D., Director of Cardiac Surgery, The Valley Hospital; joined by President’s Council Member Stephen Borg (Tenafly) and Chris Farrell, Director of Philanthropy, The Valley Hospital Foundation.
David Bolger (Ridgewood), President’s Council Member, with Ann Swenson, President, The Valley Hospital Foundation.
From left: The Valley Hospital Foundation Chairman and President’s Council Co-Chair, Denis Sullivan (Wyckoff) and Scott Schroeder (Ridgewood), Valley Hospital Foundation Trustee and President’s Council Co-Chair.
From left: Sally Jones, Director of Gift Planning, The Valley Hospital Foundation; with Vicki Bruni, President’s Council Member (Ridgewood): and Paula and Ned Lipes, President’s Council Member (Mahwah).
Sandy Carapezza, (left) Director of Donor Development, The Valley Hospital Foundation; with Beverly and Howard Klein, President’s Council Member (Fair Lawn).
From left: Alexander Zapolanski, M.D., Director of Cardiac Surgery, The Valley Hospital; with Laurel Mengarelli, and Lenni and Robert Puritz, President’s Council Member (Glen Rock).
Robert Gutenstein (left), The Valley Hospital Foundation Trustee and President’s Council Member (Ridgewood) with fellow President’s Council Member Harry Plonskier, (Mahwah).
From left: Robert Silverman, M.D., Co-Medical Director, The Valley Institute for Pain; President’s Council Member, Joseph Fiorenzo and his wife, Susan (Wyckoff); Gynecologic-Oncologist William Burke, M.D. and Denis Sullivan (Wyckoff), Chairman, The Valley Hospital Foundation Board of Trustees and President’ Council Co-Chair.
Feds probe Watershed Authority actions under Cory Booker
Federal prosecutors have launched a probe into the Newark Watershed Authority for actions it took while chaired by the city’s then-mayor Cory Booker, sources said.
The inquiry centers on alleged misappropriation of taxpayer funds first uncovered by the New Jersey Comptroller’s Office and a local watchdog group.
While Booker — who is now a US senator — served as the agency’s ex-officio chairman between 2007 and 2012, his former law firm, Trenk, DiPasquale, Webster, raked in $1 million in legal fees. Elnardo Webster, Booker’s 2006 campaign treasurer, served as the authority’s general counsel.
The Post previously reported that the law firm paid Booker $700,000 — even after he became mayor. Booker claims the payments were part of a “separation agreement” for work done before he was elected.
Booker’s campaign spokeswoman said he “had nothing to do with the business the firm conducted with the Watershed, nor did he have a hand in their getting a contract there.”
Thanks to Obamacare, Health Costs Soared This Year
Robert Moffit / October 13, 2014
On November 15, open enrollment in the Obamacare exchanges begins again. Before the second act of our national healthcare drama commences, let’s review what we’ve learned in Act I.
For starters, everyone now knows that federal officials are challenged when it comes to setting up a website. But they’ve demonstrated the ability to dole out a huge amount of taxpayers’ money for millions of people signing up for Medicaid, a welfare program. And they’ve proved they can send hundreds of millions of federal taxpayers’ dollars to their bureaucratic counterparts in states, like Maryland and Oregon, that can’t manage their own exchanges. But there are many other lessons to be gleaned from Year One of Obamacare. Here are three of the most important ones.
1. Health costs jumped—big time. Huge increases in deductibles in policies sold through the exchanges were a big story in Florida, Illinois and elsewhere. While the average annual deductible for employer-based coverage was a little over $1,000, the exchange deductibles nationwide normally topped $2,000.
Notwithstanding President Obama’s specific promise to lower the typical family premium cost by $2,500 annually, premium costs actually increased. D2014 data for the “individual market” shows that the average annual premiums for single and family coverage rose in the overwhelming majority of state and federal health-insurance exchanges all around the country. In eleven states, premiums for twenty-seven-year-olds have more than doubled since 2013; in thirteen states, premiums for fifty-year-olds have increased more than 50 percent. For the “group market,” the Office of the Actuary at the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) estimated on February 21, 2014, that 65 percent of small firms would experience premium-rate increases, while only 35 percent were expected to have reductions. In terms of people affected, CMS estimated 11 million Americans employed by these firms would experience premium-rate increases, while about 6 million would see reductions. So much for “bending the cost curve down.”
2. The law reduced competition in most health-insurance markets. A limited analysis by the Kaiser Family Foundation found that in 2014, large states like California and New York were more competitive, but Connecticut and Washington were less competitive. The Heritage Foundation conducted a national analysis and found that between 2013 and 2014, the number of insurers offering coverage on the individual markets in all fifty states declined nationwide by 29 percent. On a county level, 52 percent of U.S. counties had just one or two health-insurance carriers. In 2014, at least, the law did not deliver on its promise of more personal choice and broader competition.
3. We still don’t know for sure how many people are actually insured. Following the disastrous October 2013 Obamacare “roll-out,” the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) estimated that about 6 million (rather than 7 million) would enroll in the exchanges. Last April, administration officials reported that they reached and surpassed their goal, enrolling over 8 million people in the health-insurance exchanges. They then declared the health-care debate, like the Iraq War, “over.”
That declaration appears to be premature. The administration now concedes that there are 700,000 fewer persons in the exchanges. Of course, we can expect some attrition. But exchange enrollment is not the same as insurance coverage. CBO said it best: “The number of people who will have coverage through the exchanges in 2014 will not be known precisely until after the year has ended.” Exactly.
Beyond the seemingly endless surveys, estimates and guesstimates, we do have some raw data. Between October 1, 2013, and March 31, 2014, there was a net increase in individual coverage of 2,236,942, but there was a net decrease in group (employment-based) enrollment: it fell by 1,716,540. Enrollment in Medicaid and the Childrens’ Health Insurance Program (CHIP) increased by about 5 million over that same period. We’ll know more later, as CBO said, especially how many Americans are losing their employment-based coverage.
Who enrolls is also crucial. In 2013, Obama administration officials said that their goal was for young adults between the ages of eighteen and thirty-four to account for 40 percent of exchange enrollments. On April 17, 2014, the White House announced that only 28 percent of those enrolled through the federally administered exchanges were between eighteen and thirty-four years of age—the crucial age bracket for a robust and stable insurance pool—but that 35 percent of the total enrollees were under the age of thirty-five. That made it sound as though the program was fairly close to reaching its target. But thanks to excellent reporting by Politico, we learned that the bigger number included children enrolled in the exchanges. Nice try.
Maybe 2015 will bring better news for Obamacare. But don’t bet on it.
CHRIST EPISCOPAL CHURCH “SECOND-CHANCE” BLESSING OF THE ANIMALS
Ridgewood NJ, Families and children of all ages were invited to a Blessing of the Animals celebration on Sunday October 12, 2014 at 3 PM, at Christ Episcopal Church, 105 Cottage Place in Ridgewood.
Everyone was invited to bring their favorite pets: dogs, cats, rabbits, goldfish, stuffed animals . . . any beloved “creatures,” great or small. A short service celebrating all animals was followed by individual blessings of each animal. Refreshments were served.
Some orphaned dogs and cats who are eligible for adoption from the Ramapo-Bergen Animal Refuge in Oakland were also be present.
The service was held at the outside altar, which is by the entrance to the Nursery School on Franklin Avenue.
Many churches hold Blessing of the Animals celebrations on the first Sunday in October, honoring St. Francis of Assisi, the patron saint of animals, whose feast day is October 4. The Christ Church celebration on the 12th provides a second chance for anyone who missed the prior week.
Christ Episcopal Church is located at 105 Cottage Place, at the corner of Franklin Avenue, in Ridgewood, NJ. For more information, call the church office at 201-652-2350 or visit the website at christchurchridgewood.org.
West Bergen Tea Party Presents Rich Danker, Campaign Manager Jeff Bell for Senate This Tuesday 7pm “Proud To Be An American”
Battle for control of the Senate Rich Danker, Campaign Manager Jeff Bell for Senate Join us 7 pm, Tuesday, October 14 At the Larkin House , 380 Godwin Avenue, Wyckoff (1/4 mile North of Stop & Shop on the Right)
More information:201 891-5918 [email protected] Twitter: westbergentp
About Jeff Bell
Jeff Bell has worked at the highest levels of American politics and public policy for over forty years. In 1978, at age 34, he became the New Jersey Republican Party nominee for U.S. Senate when he defeated four-term incumbent Clifford Case. As the first major candidate to win on the theme of tax cuts, he produced television ads for Ronald Reagan’s 1980 presidential campaign using the same message. He later worked as an advocate for the bipartisan Tax Reform Act of 1986 with Jack Kemp and Bill Bradley, the man who defeated him in the 1978 general election.
A graduate of Columbia University, Jeff went on to serve in the U.S. Army in Vietnam, where he was an intelligence advisor to the South Vietnamese infantry during the Tet offensive. Upon returning home, he joined the national presidential campaign staff of Richard Nixon in 1968 and later went to work for Ronald Reagan in 1974. He developed Governor Reagan’s first proposals for federal tax and spending reduction when Reagan ran for president in 1976. During the 1980 campaign, Jeff was elected from New Jersey as a Reagan delegate to the Republican national convention.
From 1988-2000, Jeff served as president of Lehrman Bell Mueller Cannon Inc., an economic forecasting and consulting firm. From 2000-2010, he was a principal of Capital City Partners, where he worked on promoting comprehensive immigration reform, the Bush Administration’s faith-based initiatives, and combating human trafficking, among other issues. In 2009, he was among the co-founders of the American Principles Project, a public policy organization dedicated to advancing conservative ideas derived from the principles of the American founding. As Policy Director, he headed its monetary reform initiative aimed at renewing sound money by restoring the dollar’s value in gold. He resigned from that position in February 2014 to run for U.S. Senate.
Jeff is the author of two books, The Case for Polarized Politics: Why America Needs Social Conservatism (2012), for which he was interviewed by the Wall Street Journal and Rush Limbaugh, and Populism and Elitism: Politics in the Age of Equality (1992). His articles have been published in the Wall Street Journal, the New York Times, Weekly Standard, National Review, and various other outlets. He has served as a fellow at Harvard’s Kennedy Institute of Politics, visiting professor at the Eagleton Institute at Rutgers University, the DeWitt Wallace Fellow in Communications at the American Enterprise Institute, and as a board member of the American Conservative Union and Campaign Finance Institute. From 1978 to 1980, he served as the president of the Manhattan Institute.
Jeff and his wife Rosalie have been married since 1983 and have three sons and one daughter ranging in ages from 19 to 28 as well as a one-year-old granddaughter.
Readers says Valley’s Board of Trustees needs to be accountable for this adversarial action.
The Valley Board of Trustees/Directors has not only allowed but financially rewarded the mismanagement of this now disgraced entity for it wrongful and failed attempts to bully the entire region.
The names of Valley directors should be made public so they can directly hear the wide annoyance at the poor decisions of its management team including the latest slap in the face to our village who has hosted and subsidized their tax free entity which is a farce to be discussed in detail another day.
First there was the Pascack Valley fiasco where Valley tried to sue to close that hospital agaisnt the wishes of that region instead of capitalizing on a golden opportunity to cheaply purchase a properly situated location that would have expanded their regional scope and market share while appeasing two communities. Valley’s lack of vision and their unethical legal maneuvering failed causing much lost of respect and goodwill and likely much business from that area , now Valley and its Board are repeating the same error that will further tarnish their standings in our community and the legacies of their predecessors.
The management and Board of Hackensack Hospital showed itself to be more attuned to the marketplace and prepared and likely will be again when other opportunities arise. Valley’s embarrassing doubletalk and repeated attempt to blatantly overdevelop a limited site despite knowing past rulings and objections reveals arrogance, incompetence and their over reliance on past back room brokering instead of sound management . To try to force something so sizeable and detrimental upon this town against its wishes was a Valley blunder and PR disaster and this high handed suit just tops off their list of errors.
There needs to be accountability for this adversarial action. Again, who are the Board of Trustees/ Directors? Time for them to be identified and properly addressed in good form for wearing blinders and showing disregard. I fully support and stand with the rightful decisions of our planning board and council and will gladly pay more taxes if that is what is required to fend off an hypocritical entity that argues positions without merit solely out of self interests and employs distasteful tactics to boot.
Our town reps were recognized by our residents for their thoroughness and integrity in this wasteful fiasco and my hope is that they wont feel pressure to succumb to the pressure tactics of a bully. Valley and its loud lawyers can scream like petulant children who don’t get their way to an absurd request . They can rant and threaten all they want but the resolve of this community to stand up for itself and its future generations will remain . High time for the Valley’s Board of Trustees to step up and stop the nonsense once and for all or face the music from the community
Ridgewood Girls Cross-Country impressive at Shore Coaches Invitational
October 10, 2014 Last updated: Friday, October 10, 2014, 12:31 AM
By Greg Tartaglia
SPORTS EDITOR
The Ridgewood News
Each year, for preparation purposes, the Ridgewood High School girls cross-country team enters the Shore Coaches Invitational on the first Saturday in October.
The Maroons’ main goal is to log some miles on the Holmdel Park course that hosts state-championship meets at season’s end. The Invitational also affords them an early opportunity to see where they stack up against statewide competition.
The verdict from Saturday’s Shore championship division race? RHS is in a short stack.
Led by junior Sam Halvorsen and senior Carleen Jeffers, Ridgewood averaged 20:17 per runner and finished second to Red Bank Catholic, 50-71, while holding off Princeton (72 points) and West Windsor-Plainsboro South (73).
“We had a great day,” Maroon coach Jacob Brown commented on his website. He added that “171 schools entered the seven varsity races, and 124 finished with team scores. We were second overall on a time basis.”
NJ Senate Candidate Bell praises Christie for halting budget busting tunnel project to Macy’s Basement
October 9, 2014 Last updated: Thursday, October 9, 2014, 1:21 AM
By JOHN REITMEYER
STATE HO– USE BUREAU
The Record
Governor Christie’s decision to halt construction on new Hudson River commuter tunnels “looks pretty good in retrospect,” even as damage from Superstorm Sandy is now expected to cause more delays during upcoming repair work, the Republican candidate for U.S. Senate said Wednesday.
Jeffrey Bell, speaking to The Record’s editorial board, also said he considers Christie’s success with Latinos last year during his bid for reelection a model, adding he favors comprehensive immigration reform even if other Republicans nationally have taken a firmer position on the issue.
“It makes us seem — I mean the Republican Party — completely unwelcoming,” Bell said of the stances some other GOP candidates have taken.
Bell, a 70-year-old former aide to Ronald Reagan, is trying to upset incumbent U.S. Sen. Cory Booker, a Democrat who is ahead in the race, according to the most recent public opinion polls. Christie headlined a fundraiser for Bell on Tuesday and Bell, who lost bids for the Senate in 1978 and 1982, said the Republican governor “has been very helpful.”
Bell didn’t try to distance himself from Christie’s 2010 decision to stop work on the new tunnels, which the governor said would have exposed New Jersey to billions of dollars in potential cost overruns.
CDC could quarantine U.S. citizens for weeks if they refuse Ebola screenings
Non-citizens could be turned back
By Olivier Knox 3 hours ago Yahoo News
U.S. citizens who refuse to undergo the new screenings for Ebola at five major American airports could find themselves held in quarantine for up to three weeks, officials told Yahoo News on Thursday. Non-citizens who refuse the screenings could be quarantined or turned away from U.S. soil by U.S. Customs and Border Protection.
The Obama Administration announced on Wednesday that it would soon require passengers from Guinea, Liberia, and Sierra Leone — the countries at the epicenter of the deadly outbreak in West Africa — to answer questions about their potential exposure to the illness and to have their temperature taken upon arrival.
Officials unveiled the new rules hours after the only patient thus far diagnosed with Ebola on U.S. soil, Thomas Eric Duncan, died of the illness. Neighbors said he helped a pregnant woman in Liberia get to a hospital, where she was turned away from a crowded Ebola treatment ward. Liberian government officials said they planned to prosecute him for lying on health forms by denying any contact with an Ebola patient.
OCTOBER 10, 2014 LAST UPDATED: FRIDAY, OCTOBER 10, 2014, 12:31 AM THE RIDGEWOOD NEWS
Occupation: Freelance writer and Ridgewood Village Council member.Age: 34.
How long I have lived in Ridgewood: Four years.
Interests and hobbies: Writing, hunting, fishing, cooking.
My favorite place to relax in Ridgewood: It’s difficult to narrow it down to just one place in Ridgewood. Depending on my mood, I might enjoy spending an afternoon at Graydon with my son Hunter, grilling in my backyard or taking a walk through the downtown.
A “perfect day” in Ridgewood would include: The Village’s Fourth of July celebration is pretty close to perfection thanks to the many great volunteers who work so hard all year long to make that day happen for all of us in Ridgewood.
The best-kept secret in the village: You can always find a parking space if you’re willing to walk.
The best thing about Ridgewood: Its residents.
One thing I would like to change in the village: I would like to finally see some progress made in offering additional parking downtown so you don’t have to walk as far after finding a space.
The best part of my job: My schedule is very flexible, and I don’t have to commute.
The most difficult part of my job: Deciding what to write about.
The big decision I’m currently wrestling with: I’m a new father and a councilman. I have several big decisions ahead.
According to Professor John Christy, director of the Earth System Science Center at the University of Alabama/Huntsville, October 1 marked the 18th anniversary of no warming as measured by Earth’s climate satellite system. Despite a continued and marked rise in emissions and atmospheric concentrations of carbon dioxide, Earth’s temperature has plateaued for the past 18 years.
Christy told CNS News, “That’s basically a fact. There’s not much to comment on.”
Christy and former NASA scientist Roy Spencer compiled raw temperature data collected from 14 instruments aboard various weather satellites. The data show no warming. While all of the climate models used by the United Nations’ Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change predicted steeply rising temperatures over the past two decades, the data show they were wrong.
The gap between the data and the model projections shows scientists have a very limited understanding of the complexity of the climate system and the factors that affect climate changes. And because the model projections were all wrong in one direction – all projecting ongoing, increasing warming – the assumptions were biased toward predicting warming.
Christy says it is “a fool’s errand” to base government policies affecting millions of Americans and billions of people around the world on these badly flawed models.
CNS News quotes Christy saying:
Our ignorance is simply enormous when it comes to the climate system, and our understanding is certainly not strong and solid enough to make policy about climate because we don’t even know what it’s going to do, so how can we make a policy that says ‘I want to make the climate do something’ when we don’t know what makes the climate do what it does?
Aides knew of possible White House link to Cartagena, Colombia, prostitution scandal By Carol D. Leonnig and David Nakamura October 8 at 11:40 PM
As nearly two dozen Secret Service agents and members of the military were punished or fired following a 2012 prostitution scandal in Colombia, Obama administration officials repeatedly denied that anyone from the White House was involved.
But new details drawn from government documents and interviews show that senior White House aides were given information at the time suggesting that a prostitute was an overnight guest in the hotel room of a presidential advance-team member — yet that information was never thoroughly investigated or publicly acknowledged.
The information that the Secret Service shared with the White House included hotel records and firsthand accounts — the same types of evidence the agency and military relied on to determine who in their ranks was involved.
ATLANTA — Federal health officials will require temperature checks for the first time at five major American airports for people arriving from the three West African countries hardest hit by the deadly Ebolavirus. However, health experts said the measures were more likely to calm a worried public than to prevent many people with Ebola from entering the country.
Still, they constitute the first large-scale attempt to improve security at American ports of entry since the virus arrived on American soil last month.
They are also a notable policy shift at a time of rising concern about the disease. Public health officials had initially resisted the move, saying such checks would be an unnecessary use of thinly stretched resources. But pressure for tougher action mounted. Republicans sharply criticized President Obama for what they called a lax response. Many, including Senator Ted Cruz of Texas, have suggested looking at air travel restrictions from West Africa, something the administration has rejected.
Readers says ; Valley Hospital A community hospital that sues the community it is serving
Want a laugh — see the below from Valley’s website:
“As a not-for-profit hospital, Valley is committed to giving back to the community.”
“The Valley Hospital is proud of its history of … community service ….”
“We are privileged to collaborate with and serve our … community ….”
“We will remain committed to … responsiveness to community needs ….”
So in line with these goals in mind, Valley has decided to file an expensive lawsuit against the community as a way of giving back to the community, adding to Valley’s history of community service and collaboration and responsiveness to the community???
A community hospital that sues the community it is serving. Town now has to spend money fighting the lawsuit. Sounds like a wonderful place that cares about the people it serves. So Ridgewood residents, what are you going to do about a hospital that is suing your town and causing your tax dollars to be spent defending the lawsuit?This is a not-for-profit hospital SUING the very community they claim to serve. They’ll have to change their website to “We sue the communities we claim to serve”. If the Council thinks they’re just going to settle or negotiate here, then they’ll all lose their seats in the next election. Where is the Mayor ? He could come out swinging and publically deliver a multi-million dollar bill for municipal services to Audrey and her out of touch board. He could note that we resent the lawsuit and won’t negotiate or settle.
What hospital people approve this sciocchezze ? I would like to know who are the directors because maybe they dont know what they are doing and we should write to them. I dont understand why manager makes so much money if the hospital is not for profit. I dont care for lawyers, most will argue wrongs for money. Maybe the directors just follow what that lady and lawyer tells them but maybe people who are well paid just do what directors and lawyers want. This is town, not city. We pay alot of tax and they pay none. I would like to tell directors to think more about the troubles they cause this nice town than just think about being big and making more money . They are suppose to be non profit not greedy. It is not good that they show no respect for the values of our townspeople and town leaders.
