Fri, September 10, 2010 – Fri, September 10, 2010 Time: 6:00 PM – 9:00 PM Location: Memorial Park at Van Neste Square, Ridgewood
Event Description
The Ridgewood Chamber of Commerce’s 17th Annual Car Show will be held around Memorial Park at Van Neste Square and along East Ridgewood Avenue. Non-Registration will open at 5:00pm on Walnut Street/Dayton. Parking will be on a first-come, first-serve basis. Come early because spaces are limited! Registration fees are not refundable. Music will keep the evening lively and there will be trophies for many categories. Bring your family and friends to admire vintage cars, enjoy some excellent dining and be part of a trademark, fun-filled experience here in Ridgewood.
At 8:28pm on August 27, the preparatory phone call was made between me and my travel buddy, Barry Walsky, my former college roommate. I purposely called him at that time. I picked him up at his place in Nutley at 2am. Driving down the Garden State Parkway we discussed our common purpose for heading down to Washington, DC: because we’re fed up with the direction our country is being led in, and we want to do our part to correct that. What can we do? Like many of our fellow ralliers, we were looking for answers.
We arrived in Washington, DC, at 6am. Our destination: the National Mall. The reason: the Restoring Honor Rally. Walking from the parking garage to the Mall was an eerie experience, something out of a post-apocalyptic movie, like I Am Legend or something. Newspapers blowing in the wind, whole blocks deserted. Eventually we spotted people, they all had folding chairs and flags. And they were all headed in the same direction.
Barry and I arrived early to get a good spot. There were already thousands of people on the Mall in the early morning fog. We found one along the barriers, at one of the front corners of the Reflection Pool. 75 feet from the speakers on their dais!!! We made acquaintances with those around us: folks from Chicago, Phoenix, Colorado, Louisiana, Florida, Maryland.
The very young and very old, the handicapped, black and white and yellow and red. Some wore local Tea Party shirts, some Restoring Honor shirts. There were state flags, American flags. Picnic blankets, beach chairs, umbrellas. Everyone agreed, easily hundreds of thousands showed up by the 10am start time. They stretched out way past the Washington Monument, and flowed way out beyond the surrounding side fields and monuments. And among all those people, there was no shouting, no arguments, no jostling, no litter even!
The sun came out and beat down on us, heating things way up, when the rally started at 10am with an inspirational video. Glenn Beck came out and the crowd went deafeningly nuts! Holding back tears, he said, “So this is ‘build it and they will come.’” And we sure did…in droves!!!
RIDGEWOOD – Newly appointed Police Chief John Ward will continue at his current 2009 salary of $160,623 until a new salary is approved by the governing body, likely by October, according to Village Manager Kenneth Gabbert.
The 27-year veteran of the department will start Sept. 1.
Ward, 49, has been serving as the senior officer in charge since last month, when Chief John LiPuma announced he was retiring.
Ward joined the department as a patrolman in 1983 and was promoted to sergeant in 1998. He became a lieutenant five years later and a detective captain in 2009.
Police Chief John LiPuma is receiving a terminal leave payout of $15,882 for 2010 and compensation for unused sick time at a 50 percent rate. That amount of $96,223 will be paid out over three years, bringing the total received by LiPuma to $112,105, according to Gabbert.
LiPuma, 50, who was appointed chief in January 2009, is a 1978 graduate of Ridgewood High School and a 1983 graduate of John Jay College of Criminal Justice. State records show he received a pensionable salary of $165,059 in 2009.
Ward, the married father of two grown boys and a teenage son, serves as an adjunct teacher at Bergen Community College teaching police administration, criminal justice, crime prevention and public administration. He has commanded every position in the Ridgewood Police Department.
>There is a problem when only like 2 teachers got canned for poor performance in the whole state in the last two years(out of 116,000 teachers)
I agree. you know there is a problem when only like 2 teachers got canned for poor performance in the whole state in the last two years(out of 116,000 teachers). that’s 0.0017%.
something is definitely wrong. there’s no way that that there aren’t bad teachers out there. the system needs to be fixed.
i’m tired of teachers hiding behind the tenure by scaring the public that the positions will be affected by political pressure if tenure is eliminated. i’ll tell you what — there are political pressures in every job, public or private. but everyday, job decisions are made based not only on job performance but relationships, who you know, etc. don’t you think that people happen to lose their jobs because of changes in administration at companies? it happens all the time. especially when companies merge, etc.
so, let’s expose teachers to the same forces the rest of the country face.
there is no free lunch. we are paying for it with our taxes and our childrens’ education.
>Former Democratic National Committee chairman Howard Dean: the “ground zero mosque,” “a real affront to people who lost their lives.”
Former Democratic Presidential Candidate and Democratic National Committee chairman Howard Dean is defending his comments on the so-called “ground zero mosque,” which he has called “a real affront to people who lost their lives.”
Writing on Salon.com, Dean states he is “not going to back off” his earlier comments – but then stops short of explicitly calling for the project to be moved, as he had earlier suggested.
He calls for compromise in the column, writing that “I personally believe that there are other possible solutions that could result from [a dialogue] and that a genuine exploration of those possibilities is something we ought to try.”
In the early 20th century, current owner Tom Hillmann’s great-grandfather retired as a PSE&G lineman to start an electrical contracting firm to wire all the new construction going on in Ridgewood in 1910 and convert the older homes from gas to the so-called “new” electric.
“We actually may be older than 100 years, but my great grandfather’s electrical contracting company was listed as a contributor in the 1910 July 4th parade, and we have been contributing ever since,” Hillmann said.
As for his own contribution, he maintains that his family’s legacy had little to do with his joining the business.
“Most summers during my school years, I did not work for my family, seeking employment in a variety of businesses instead. After graduating from college with a marketing degree, it just made sense. Because the business was actually two businesses (retail and electrical contracting) my father and I had separate daily activities and it worked,” Hillmann explains.
As for the time he has spent at the company, he says there is no one memory that stands out in his mind. However, this is due not to lack but to abundance.
“Of course there is the satisfaction of having control over your own destiny that many working for a large corporation don’t receive. But all the best memories are working with the people, whether they were customers, other business owners or town officials. I have also been blessed to have some great employees during my tenure and all my current crew have been with me between 15 and 35 years.”
See the attached below for a comprehensive history of Hillmann Electric & Lighting’s 100-year stint in Ridgewood. The picture located to the left shows the front of Hillman Electric & Lighting circa 1948.
Congratulations to Hillmann Electric & Lighting for an outstanding century in the business, and here’s to wishing them a bright future for many years to come.
How come my parents, in neighboring Pennsylvania, have almost never had water rationing in the 45 years that they have owned their home, and yet I have had it about every other year that I have owned my home in Ridgewood.
Why is our water utility so inadequate? Insufficient groundwater supply? Insufficient tank capacity? Insufficient pumping capacity? Leaky water mains and pipes? I have never heard a good explanation regarding the weaknesses in our system.
I realize that some years we have droughts and that reservoirs get low, but we seem to have this happen more years than not. Do other municipalities in NJ have as many mandatory water rationing periods as we do?
>Ground Zero Mosque :American Muslim organization says President Obama is wrong August 15, 2010 AIFD American Islamic Forum for Democracy
STATEMENT
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
PHOENIX (August 15, 2010) – Dr. M. Zuhdi Jasser, a devout Muslim and the president and founder of the American Islamic Forum for Democracy issued the following statement regarding remarks from President Obama on the proposed mosque and Islamic Center at Ground Zero:
“As an American Muslim whose family fled persecution in Syria and as someone who has stood in the face of some resistance to the building of many of our houses of worship in the U.S., I fully understand the value of standing for religious freedom in America. But President Obama’s statement about the Ground Zero mosque at last night’s White House Iftar dinner is the latest example of political correctness gone awry.
The President commented that:
“Muslims have the same right to practice their religion as everyone else in this country. And that includes the right to build a place of worship and a community center on private property in Lower Manhattan, in accordance with local laws and ordinances. This is America.”
Yes, Mr. President, this is America and you have fundamentally misunderstood the stakes in this discussion and the sentiments of the American people. Instead, you have focused on the very issue that the Islamist propagandists wish you to– the narrative that Americans somehow need lectures about Islam, Muslims, and religious freedom.
Your message to Americans will be spun on Al Jazeera and by Islamists across the world that President Obama reassured a friendly global Muslim audience at the White House Ramadan dinner that he was going to remind Americans about the principles of religious freedom for Muslims since they seem to be trampling over those principles in the local dispute at Ground Zero in New York.
Mr. President this is not about religious freedom. It is about the importance of the World Trade Center site to the psyche of the American People. It is about a blatant attack on our sovereignty by people whose ideology ultimately demands the elimination of our way of life. While Imam Faisal Rauf may not share their violent tendencies he does seem to share a belief that Islamic structures are a political statement and even Ground Zero should be looked upon through the lens of political Islam and not a solely American one.
As a Muslim desperate to reform his faith, your remarks take us backwards from the day that my faith will come into modernity. I do not stand to eliminate Imam Rauf’s religious freedom; I stand to make sure that my children’s religious freedom will be determined by the liberty guaranteed in the American Constitution and not by clerics or leaders who are apologists for shar’iah law and will tell me what religious freedom is.
‘Park 51’, ‘The Cordoba House’ or whatever they are calling it today should not be built, not because it is not their right to do it – but because it is not right to do it.” Mr. President, your involvement in this issue is divisive not uniting. Your follow-up stating that ‘you will not speak to the wisdom of the construction of that mosque and center’ indicates a passive-aggressive meddling on your part that only marginalizes those Muslim and non-Muslim voices against it while pretending to understand both sides of the debate.
About the American Islamic Foundation for Democracy
The American Islamic Forum for Democracy (AIFD) is a nonprofit 501(c)(3) charitable organization. AIFD’s mission advocates for the preservation of the founding principles of the United States Constitution, liberty and freedom, through the separation of mosque and state. For more information on AIFD, please visit our website at https://www.aifdemocracy.org/.
>Congressman Scott Garrett:Another Taxpayer Funded Bailout!
In case you haven’t heard already, Speaker Pelosi called my colleagues and me back from the August recess on Tuesday to vote on more government spending. This one comes in the form of a bailout package to help states cover the costs for education and Medicaid to the tune of $26 billion. And here I thought the American public would finally get some reprieve from the voracious spending appetite of liberal Democrats in Washington, DC.
It should come as no surprise for you to know that I voted against this bill. Not only does it spend money that we don’t have, but it perpetuates the bailout culture that has become so popular with Democrats in Congress. Also, but the so-called spending “offsets” in the bill came in the form of a $10 billion tax increase on corporations.
Democrats would like you to believe that spending this additional $26 billion will somehow create jobs, spur economic growth and expand individual opportunity for Americans. The truth is that this latest bailout is really just a give-away to state bureaucrats at the expense of U.S. taxpayers. Another short-term federal bailout will only encourage states to rely on more taxpayer funded federal assistance rather than balancing their budgets and reducing unneeded spending.
The American small business community is starting to catch on to the parlor games of Democrats in Washington. They have seen first hand just how ineffective the Democrats’ solutions have been in turning around the economy and putting American back to work.
On Monday, Michael Fleischer, the president of a small business in the Fifth District, penned a very thoughtful Wall Street Journal op-ed titled, “Why I’m not Hiring.”
In his piece, Mr. Fleischer writes, “As much as I might want to hire new salespeople, engineers and marketing staff in an effort to grow, I would be increasing my company’s vulnerability to government decisions to raise taxes, to policies that make health insurance more expensive, and to the difficulties of this economic environment. A life in business is filled with uncertainties, but I can be quite sure that every time I hire someone my obligations to the government go up. From where I sit, the government’s message is unmistakable: Creating a new job carries a punishing price.”
All Members of Congress would be well served to read Mr. Fleischer’s piece. Rather than looking for ways to make it harder to conduct business in the U.S., Congress should be working on ways to make it easier to grow businesses and hire new workers. We shouldn’t be coming back to Washington to vote on measures that spend money we don’t have. Instead, my colleagues and me should be coming back to Washington to vote for legislation that puts Americans back to work, reduces our ballooning national debt and gets the American economy on a course towards prosperity once again.
Sponsored by Ridgewood Chambe of Commerce Friday, September 10th from 6PM to 9PM at Memorial Park at Van Neste Square. Non-Registration will open at 5PM on Walnut Street/Dayton. Parking will be on a first-come, first-served basis. Come early because spaces are limited! Registration fees are not refundable. Music will keep the evening lively and there will be trophies for many categories. Bring your family and friends to admire vintabe cars, enjoy some excellent dining and be part of a trademark, fun-filled experience in Ridgewood!
Ridgewood Street Fair Sponsored by Village of Ridgewood Recreation 140 Quality Exhibitors of Arts and Crafts will be available at the Street Fair on E. Ridgewood Avenue. Kid’s Activities, Great Food and All Day Entertainment on Sunday, September 12th from Noon to 5PM. Free Admission. Raindate: September 19th. Promoted by: P.J.’s Promotion www.pjspromotions.com
>Missouri voters on Tuesday overwhelmingly rejected a federal mandate to purchase health insurance, rebuking President Barack Obama’s administration and giving Republicans their first political victory in a national campaign to overturn the controversial health care law passed by Congress in March.
“The citizens of the Show-Me State don’t want Washington involved in their health care decisions,” said Sen. Jane Cunningham, R-Chesterfield, one of the sponsors of the legislation that put Proposition C on the August ballot. She credited a grass-roots campaign involving Tea Party and patriot groups with building support for the anti-Washington proposition.
With most of the vote counted, Proposition C was winning by a ratio of nearly 3 to 1. The measure, which seeks to exempt Missouri from the insurance mandate in the new health care law, includes a provision that would change how insurance companies that go out of business in Missouri liquidate their assets.
>The Forget Me Not Foundation Announces Inaugural Fundraiser: “An Evening To Remember”
Non-Profit to establish support network for pregnancy loss, increase educational programs for the medical community, and raise infant death awareness.
July 30, 2010 – RIDGEWOOD, NJ – The Forget Me Not Foundation is proud to present “An Evening to Remember” on Monday, October 4, 2010 at The Woman’s Club of Ridgewood. “An Evening to Remember” is a tasting event showcasing Bergen County’s finest restaurants and caterers. In addition, there will be a chance auction of many exciting prizes with all proceeds benefiting The Forget Me Not Foundation. Tickets to the event can be purchased on the foundation’s website: https://www.fmnfoundation.com.
The Forget Me Not Foundation is a recently established non-profit organization that is dedicated to supporting families suffering from pregnancy loss or infant death, and educating the medical community about the emotional needs of such families.
“When dealing with the loss of a child, parents can feel very alone in their grief even when surrounded by loving friends and family,” said Dave Barry co-founder of the Forget Me Not Foundation. “The Forget Me Not Foundation will create a support network for parents suffering through similar tragic circumstances and provide educational support for the medical community on how to best serve these families during an extraordinarily difficult time in their lives.”
“An Evening to Remember represents a chance for the community to support a worthy cause while enjoying an evening of great food and fun,” continued Barry. “Our concept of the fundraiser is a celebration of life, and we are very excited about the generous participation of the surrounding restaurants, caterers and merchants. We would like to extend an invitation to the general public, especially to those affected by newborn or pregnancy loss to what promises to be an enjoyable night out.”
The Forget Me Not Foundation was established in memory of Emma Grace Barry, a beautiful baby girl born still on August 11, 2009. Emma was lost to a nuchal cord accident at 35+5 weeks gestation. Founders Dave and Melissa Barry are determined to celebrate Emma’s life by helping families suffering through the death of a baby.
The funds raised by the foundation support educational programs for the medical community and provide supportive materials to families affected by pregnancy and newborn loss at Hackensack University Medical Center.
The Ridgewood Soccer Association has openings in its special needs program for children ages 5-14 who require the individualized attention available in a smaller group setting. Open to children in Ridgewood and neighboring towns, the program provides an enjoyable hour of soccer for players of all skill levels.
A unique feature of the program is the participation by highly skilled and caring volunteers from the Ridgewood High School Girls Soccer team who serve as mentors for the players. Whether a player is new to soccer or a seasoned veteran of the program, the aim is to develop skills, promote fitness, and emphasize the fun aspects of soccer.
Clinics are run on Saturday afternoons in Ridgewood from early September through early November. The cost is $60 for 8 sessions. Each player receives an RSA team shirt and soccer ball. Complete program details and access to Community Pass, the
RSA on-line registration system, are available at https://www.ridgewoodsoccer.org/. Questions can be addressed to [email protected].
Hon. Matthew Boxer New Jersey State Comptroller Office of the State Comptroller PO Box 024 Trenton, NJ 08625
Dear Mr. Boxer:
Serious concerns have been raised about the administration of the Bergen County Improvement Authority (BCIA) as the result of recent shocking reports in the media of statements by co-workers of its Chairman alleging misuse of the BCIA for personal gain before a federal judge, and what is apparently an ongoing federal investigation by the United States Attorney’s Office (See eg, The Record, Editorial “Scandal and exit, Implicated BCIA chief resigns” Sunday, July 25, 2010 and prior reports therein on Friday, July 24, 2010 and Saturday, July, 25, 2010). The Agency’s chairman has resigned evidently as a result of allegations of wrongdoing. Presumably unrelated to these allegations, the Agency’s Executive Director has announced his pending retirement.
The BCIA is a creature of Bergen County.In my opinion, it operates without appropriate oversight while controlling hundreds of millions of dollars of expense, revenue and guarantees through four separate budgets. It is a jigsaw puzzle that can only be solved through audits conducted by a thoroughly independent office.
The office of State Comptroller is the appropriate agency to audit the BCIA. You have the resources and integrity required to conduct a comprehensive review of this independent, free standing by product of Bergen County government.
I thank you for your consideration of this request and I look forward to hearing from you.
>Like most residents I have had little interaction with the police. I suspect is not the case with the person who entered this post. No doubt there might be some other motive at work here.
None the less, I don’t see the problem with a 12 hour shift. Some quick math will most likely tell you that the police are still working the same number of hours a year. While I do not know the specifics as to how the RPD operate, I do know that many industries which maintain a 24/7 work staff do operate on 12 hours shifts. In my industry we support public utilities throughout the country and in Canada. It is very common for public utility line staffs to work 12 hour schedules. It has been seen as a benefit in that industry and I suspect the use of 12 hour schedules for police staffs were brought about due to the same line of reasoning. Perhaps larger departments like Paterson do the same thing, I am not sure. I doubt that the Ridgewood PD is the first and only police department to work this schedule.
What I am sure of is that any reduction in personnel will have little to do with an 8 hour schedule or a 12 hour schedule. Productivity will not be a key factor either. The police are not a revenue producing service, they are not out there to make money for a private for-profit corporation. As a citizen I do not see any benefit in a police department that is nothing more than a squad of uniformed revenue collectors.
Ridgewood does have a low crime rate, I feel safe walking the streets. If Ridgewood were Paterson I would not live here. A low crime rate does not just occur naturally, there are many factors that keep the crime rate low and the police are a key element. That is true anywhere, not just Ridgewood.
When I lived in a tree lined suburban community in California community 15 years ago that was not the case, gang related crime was a major concern. I did not live in the hood, I lived in a upper middle class suburb. You never saw an officer on patrol and they took 45 minutes to respond when you called (or so my fellow residents maintained in their letters to the editor). My small city refused to hire more officers due to the cost, yet my taxes were high there also.
Reducing the number of personnel means reduced service, plain and simple. If we want to contain costs then we are going to be forced to accept less service from all branches of government. The questions is what are we willing to give up and what will the true cost be in the long run? I suspect my answer to that question will be far different from that of the poster of this thread who appears to be motivated by some sort of a grudge.
I don’t see any big raises in the future for any public employees or increases in their numbers, the police included. However, I am very leery of any reduction in their numbers be it through attrition or layoffs. To do so would be in open invitation to the criminal element from within and outside or borders. A couple of soccer moms talking on their cell phones while driving and difficulty crossing the street will become the least of our problems.
