>.gif ">Total Solar Eclipse 2009: July 21 - Western Hemisphere; July 22 - Eastern Hemisphere")
The final countdown is here for the most awaited Total Solar Eclipse 2009, the longest solar eclipse our generation will experience until 2032. In the Western Hemisphere, the eclipse will occur on July 21. In the Eastern Hemisphere, it will be on July 22. This solar eclipse will occur once on Earth, but the difference in the dates account for the International Date Line. A solar eclipse occurs when the moon passes between the Sun and the Earth so that the Sun is totally or partially covered.
>“Ridgewood and Ho-Ho-Kus Veterans of Foreign Wars Post 192 members are being mistreated. See blog https://vfw-post-192-nj.blogspot.com/ for more information and how to assist our patriots.”
Thanks.
Stan
Stanley A. Kober
([email protected])
Monday, July 20, 2009
Post 192 Veterans Need Help
Dear Friend and Supporter of our Country’s Veterans:
WE NEED YOUR HELP!!
I apologize for the length of this post, but for the last several years, the Washington Elm VFW Post 192 (the only chartered Veterans of Foreign Wars Post for Ridgewood and Ho-Ho-Kus) situated in Ho-Ho-Kus at 620 Cliff Street, Ho-Ho-Kus, NJ 07423, has been attempting to rectify a wrong foisted on its members in 1994 and 2002 when the Post’s command group entered into a lease, after discussions with the Borough’s former mayor (who apparently was simultaneously a member of the lessee-railroad club), which at those times signed away, apparently without the Post membership’s permission, substantially all of the Post’s assets in a lease that is perpetual and “unconscionable” (as at least one attorney calls it). As the Post Commander for the last several years, while directing the Post in its many endeavors to get back into supporting the communities of Ho-Ho-Kus and Ridgewood and all veterans and their families, according to the “Purposes of the Corporation”, my burdensome duty has been to try to find a “pro bono” (at no cost) attorney that would litigate our case in court against this unlawful, illegal lease, so determined by the NJ State VFW Staff Judge Advocate who appears to be supported by at least two NJ statutes.
The lessee, the Ramapo Valley model railroad club, initiated a unilateral legal action against the veterans of our Post when in the Fall of 2005 their club member-attorney (the same club member-attorney who wrote the original lease in 1994) went before the Borough of Ho-Ho-Kus Mayor and Council complaining of the Post (the landlord) wanting to demolish the building and to reconstruct it, stating that they would fight for their leasehold rights, or words to that effect, even though the club was planned to be offered the entire second floor of the new building. That unilateral, uncooperative, aggressive action by the railroad club and its member-attorney commenced only two days after the Post Commander and the club’s president agreed to a meeting with club members to discuss the reconstruction project. Unfortunately, the meeting did not take place until many months later, since the VFW Post was now required to find its own attorney to represent it.
While the railroad club tenant has found an allegedly high-priced, “pro bono” litigating attorney from Closter, NJ to represent the approximately twenty-five club members, the ninety-four veterans in our VFW Post (as of June 30, 2009), all of whom have served OR ARE SERVING honorably in our Country’s military service, have not found any qualified, willing litigator, despite numerous discussions with attorneys, to take our case “pro bono” as the lessee has done. To my recollection, every one of the attorneys we contacted has reviewed the lease and every one has said words to the effect that they “have never seen a lease like this before” in which the lawful property owner (the Veterans of Foreign Wars) is so limited, among other issues, and in which that limitation extends forever!
It must be said, however, that several of the attorneys that we have contacted have been very helpful in providing some ideas and assistance, even though they have not been able to take on our case “pro bono” for various reasons, such as, they are not litigators, not specialists in the required field, etc. There was one local attorney, however, who after several very encouraging and favorable telephone discussions with me, said that he would take on our case and then suddenly made a complete reversal and became very antagonistic. He personally gave me the “cold shoulder” by not returning numerous phone calls (even when he did answer and said he would) and writing a very disturbing letter to me after I went to his office to find out what was wrong. While other attorneys have not returned or taken my follow-up phone calls, this one attorney appears to be the essence for the bad lawyer jokes. These actions and similar ones by other area attorneys have made some Post members think and remark that there may be something in play of which we are not cognizant.
Be that as it may, after contacting these many attorneys and not receiving what we required, we attempted to get the ball rolling by going “pro se” (representing ourselves) in the eviction process.
The eviction notice prepared by me as the Post Commander and given the tenant and its attorney, with copies to the Ho-Ho-Kus Mayor and Council among others, was filed with the Superior Court of Bergen County listing over two pages of inequities and contract violations by the tenant. For example, the lease is a perpetual one (not 99-years, but forever); it limits the use of the facility by the veterans (the landlord) to only once per month for its meeting; it sets the annual lease payment at an unconscionably low annual rate of $1,217 set for this year for a space of at least 2,500 square feet in Ho-Ho-Kus; the lease appears not to permit the landlord (the VFW) to cancel the lease at the time of renewal, only the tenant may do that in writing; it permits the tenant, without the notification to, or permission of, the landlord to alter the insides of the building for whatever it wishes to whatever extent it wishes; it relegates the once per month VFW meeting to an area that is impractical for complying with the VFW rituals and by-laws as well as the local fire code; and these are only a few among the restrictions or violations regarding the lease stated in the eviction notice papers.
To our dismay, the case was “dismissed without prejudice” because as a corporation in NJ a litigant is required to have legal representation (an attorney) in the court proceeding.That legal hurdle, however, has not stopped us in our pursuit to rectify the injustice perpetrated on us veterans. It is just another obstacle that we need to overcome and we believe that in the end, our Post, like the principles of Truth and Justice, as naïve as that may sound to some folks, will prevail. After all, aren’t they two principles that we veterans fought for and many of our comrades died for and our current troops are fighting and dying for, for us and others around the world, every day?
As a result, after much effort on our own, we veterans are at the point of asking the help of, you, the residents, business owners, and organizations of the communities of Ridgewood and Ho-Ho-Kus, whom we specifically serve, as well as others who read this, to assist us financially by sending whatever money you are able to provide for our legal expenses, to the Washington Elm VFW Post 192, 620 Cliff Street, Ho-Ho-Kus, NJ 07423, so that we might hire a qualified litigating attorney to represent us and to rectify this unjust situation without further delay.
Those of you who have the opportunity to have a matching fund donation from your company/corporation, please use this means to double your donation. All the IRS numbers for our organization for a tax-deductible donation are at the top of this letter.
We recognize that times are financially tight for all of us, but anything you can send for our legal expenses would be helpful and very much appreciated by the patriots, and in memory of those who have sacrificed all, from the Veterans of Foreign Wars Post 192.
If you have any questions, please do not hesitate to contact the undersigned at 201-445-1121.
May God continue to Bless America!
/s/ Stanley A. Kober
Stanley A. Kober
Commander,
Washington Elm VFW Post 192
620 Cliff Street
Ho-Ho-Kus, NJ 07423
TEL: 201-445-1121
FAX:201-445-2091
Posted by 71542 at 9:28 AM 0 comments
Labels: Ho-Ho-Kus, Hohokus, military, New Jersey, NJ, post 192, Ridgewood, veterans, vfw, washington elm
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>Something ‘amiss’ with figures?
Friday, July 17, 2009
BY KIPP CLARK
The Ridgewood News
STAFF WRITER
https://www.northjersey.com/news/health/hospitals/50989617.html
With the majority of The Valley Hospital’s supporters having previously submitted their written testimony in favor of the hospital’s expansion plans, nearly all of the residents who raised questions or testified at Wednesday night’s special Planning Board meeting spoke out against the hospital.
The residents addressed a variety of concerns over Valley’s request for revisions to the Hospital Zone (H-Zone) section of the village’s Master Plan, which would allow the facility to move forward with its “Renewal” project. Those who oppose the plan cited the hospital’s water consumption and sewer discharge use, the possible increase in traffic around the hospital during and after construction, the environmental and noise impact, the assertion that only 6 percent of the hospital’s patients are from Ridgewood, and the effect the expansion would have on the village’s Council of Affordable Housing (COAH) obligation.
While the residents’ statements and questions dominated the bulk of the meeting, which lasted three-and-a-half hours, the biggest revelations from the meeting didn’t come from residents, but rather from the testimony of Village Planner Blais Brancheau.
After Brancheau attempted to answer questions raised at the last meeting concerning the analysis of the hospital’s proposed floor area ratio related to above- and below-ground structures, Planning Board Attorney Gail Price and Village Council liaison Anne Zusy probed him on his figures relating to the hospital’s square footage before and after its proposed expansion. When Zusy peppered Brancheau with questions on specific square footage figures concerning the overall proposed increase, the planner testified the hospital would see an “80 to 90 percent” increase in above-ground square footage, an “approximately 80 percent” increase in below-ground square footage, and a “60 to 70 percent” increase in parking square footage. In all, he said, the hospital’s total square footage would increase to 1.5 million, up from its current size of 900,000 total square feet.
Acknowledging that just moments before he had said the hospital would only have a total increase of approximately 66 percent, Brancheau ultimately admitted, “There’s something amiss. There’s something wrong with the numbers.”
Zusy then asked Brancheau to re-examine his figures and report his revised findings back to the board at its next meeting.
“I just think we have to be absolutely definitive of what we are talking about,” Zusy said.
Reached for comment via e-mail yesterday, Valley Spokesperson Megan Fraser stressed the importance of the hearings in bringing such facts to light and reinforcing the purpose of Valley’s proposed expansion.
“While phase one of Renewal will increase the percent of visible hospital buildings and parking by just 60 percent, the increase will allow Valley to enhance diagnostic and treatment areas and accommodate new technology, as well as establish single-patient rooms, which are both required by State of New Jersey code and the best way to deliver patient care,” Fraser said. “In addition, Renewal will allow us to enhance the buffers between our buildings and our neighbors by removing surface parking and replacing it with above-ground parking, which will also allow us to address a long-standing parking deficit.”
Board to hire expert
Since the board was again unable to get through the entire list of speakers who had signed up to comment on the proposal, Planning Board President David Nicholson told the crowd in his opening remarks that each interested member of the public would get their opportunity to speak, with the next meeting to take place after the summer. Having “many things to go over,” Nicholson said that Paul Gould of the Concerned Citizens of Ridgewood, a grassroots opposition group, would get his opportunity “to sum up his case” before the board, as would Valley’s representative, attorney Charles Collins.
Nicholson also revealed a new development in the next stage of proceedings: The board was close to hiring a specialist who will overview all the materials it has been provided with from both sides during the two-and-a-half-year review of Valley’s application.
“The board has decided that in the interests of being comprehensive and in response to comments we have heard from the public over the last three sessions, that we are engaging a specialist in the field of medical facility planning who will review the material that has been amassed in these proceedings and hopefully advise the board relative to matters about approximate sizes of modern hospitals, appropriate physical requirements of modern hospitals, and other aspects that have been subject of questions of debate in these proceedings,” Nicholson said.
Questioned at the meeting’s first intermission about the identity of the candidate, Nicholson declined to elaborate further, since the board is still “negotiating with the expert.” Price said the specialist would be paid from the escrow that the hospital provided to the board in order to have its application considered.
Residents express dismay
The 12 members of the public who addressed the board Wednesday not only voiced their frustration with the process, but also continued to come up with new questions for the board and its experts to address.
Resident Peter McKenna spent nearly 45 minutes at the podium asking questions concerning traffic; Valley’s last expansion in 1996; whether the village’s Master Plan limits the number of beds a hospital can have; whether the Valley site could ever be made into a trauma center; whether a helicopter landing pad could be put on site; and how the village’s COAH obligation would be affected if the Village Council ultimately approves Valley’s request.
As the board’s traffic planner Joseph Staigar was not in attendance, many of McKenna’s questions went unanswered.
“As Mr. Nicholson has said, ‘This is the biggest decision this board has ever had to face,'” McKenna said. “I want to know that you have considered everything if the hospital is allowed to grow.”
Resident Daniel Gioia asked whether the board will ultimately consider past historical decisions in its final decision, specifically referring to its 1996 ruling to allow the demolition of the Kraft Building at the hospital. Brancheau responded, “yes and no,” before ultimately concluding “there is no black-and-white answer.”
Gioia later questioned whether Valley has “offered to help alleviate the burden” on COAH if granted its wishes. In answering the question, Brancheau confirmed the proposed expansion would add 60 units to the village’s COAH requirement.
“Valley has indicated it would do whatever the law requires,” Brancheau said. “The law currently does not require the hospital to do anything.”
Price then attempted to clarify Brancheau’s response.
“The municipality’s hands are tied in terms of asking or demanding any kind of contribution in return for any kind of obligation,” Price said. “It doesn’t prevent a developer from offering to help, but the demand can’t be made.”
Earlier in the meeting, resident Michael Stern asked why the “village leaders didn’t see the real value” in reaching some sort of financial agreement in which the hospital would be required to “fund projects in town” rather than “giving this away.” His question did not receive a response.
Resident Margaret Sherman later offered her take on whether the village or its residents would benefit from the expansion.
“I have been following the H-Zone changes for about a year. I am truly baffled that this room is not filled to capacity with ‘Stop Valley’ supporters,” Sherman said. “I and my fellow residents are generally astonished that Valley’s Hospital Zone [request] is being considered right … I keep coming back to a question posed last meeting by a fellow resident: ‘What do the residents of Ridgewood gain by changing the Master Plan?’ A baseball scoreboard? A few thousand dollars in donations? Not much in comparison to their annual $20 million in profits … But you [the Planning Board] are supposed to represent the citizens, and the cost relationship doesn’t add up.”
Proponents weigh in
Two supporters of Valley addressed the hospital’s need to be able to “renew” itself. Anne Raftery Denyeau, who is employed as vice president of human resources at Valley, recalled her previous tenure as president of the Ridgewood Board of Education, in which her decisions affected the quality of life for all residents.
“I urge you to consider the views of all Ridgewood residents, and not rely on the views of one group,” Denyeau said.
Resident Anne Marie Snyder said it was essential for Valley to expand in order to provide the same quality care it is know for.
“I believe most homes and businesses in Ridgewood have made changes to or modernized their bathrooms, kitchens, electrical systems, plumbing, heating, air conditioning, etc, over the past 50 years,” Snyder said. “Most of the time, modernizing can be done as a renovation to the existing space, but there are times when the existing home and business is too old or out of date … Hospitals are no different. Buildings, equipment and systems need to be modernized to provide the level of care expected today and tomorrow.”
E-mail: [email protected]
https://www.northjersey.com/news/health/hospitals/50989617.html
>A recent Headline from North Jersey Media ” Keep hospital shut, blacks tell Corzine” on Friday, July 10, 2009 BY Mary Jo Layton a staff writer set off alarm bells to this reader(https://www.northjersey.com/news/health/50426962.html ) It was filled with the usual tripe about how someone opening a hospital somewhere else is some how impacting the “down trodden” It was filled with the usually quotes from NAACP types and some comments from Assemblyman Gordon Johnson from Englewood not surprisingly home of none other than Englewood Hospital . But beside from omiiting the fact that Assemblyman Gordon Johnson represnts Englewood Hospital in his district ,I found the head line to be a very particular and insidious choice of words.,” Keep hospital shut, blacks tell Corzine” hummm no blacks live and work in Westwood or Hackensack?
The Implication being this person some how speaks for all blacks and it would be in their interest to ration health care for the rest of us? Folks maybe this is the problem to begin with . If a private investor wants to take a risk and open a hospital whats the problem ? I dont blame vested interests like Valley or Englewood Hospital for defending their turf but should it be up to Trenton to decide weather someone is allowed to open a hospital or not and where? I get it ,yes there are public health regulations and rightfully so but who the hell is Jon Corzine or some health care union to decide weather I can access health care or not ? Isnt the very problem leveled against the US health Care system that some dont have access? Yes some communities probably need a hospital more because of higher demand than north eastern part of Bergen county,but what does one have to do with the other ?
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Antonino Esposito, World-Class Pizzaiuolo, to Share Pizza Techniques at A Mano, Ridgewood
By Post Friday, July 10 2009, 06:03 PM EDT
Antonino Esposito Intimate Meet and Eat Monday, July 20th, 6:00-7:30 p.m., Hosted by Ridgewood’s Authentic Neapolitan Trattoria
A Mano will be hosting world-class Sorrento-based pizza master Antonino Esposito for a close up look at pizza craftsmanship on Monday, July 20th, from 6:00-7:30 p.m. by reservation only. Widely heralded as a master of authentic Neapolitan pizza, Mr. Esposito will demonstrate his skills and share insights during this brief appearance at the Ridgewood trattoria.
A top 5 finalist in 2007’s International Pizza Challenge and grand champion of Sorrento’s Taste and Cooking International Championship, Mr. Esposito will share distinctive subtleties of dough making, dough stretching, and baking temperatures, as well as other unique elements that make his creations so widely celebrated. The demonstration will highlight the contrasts between Neapolitan and Italian American pizza, showcase A Mano’s distinctive imported ingredients, and provide attendees with samples of Mr. Esposito’s pizza and selected menu items from A Mano’s menu.
Who: Antonino Esposito, renowned pizzaiuolo and Italian Food Channel star
What: An intimate educational, complimentary cooking demonstration by esteemed pizzaiuolo and Italian Food Channel pizza maestro, Antonino Esposito, held at A Mano, Neapolitan trattoria, 24 Franklin Avenue in Ridgewood, NJ
When: Monday, July 20th, 2009
6:00-7:30 p.m.
Where: A Mano, www.amanopizza.com
24 Franklin Avenue
Ridgewood, NJ 07450
Phone: (201) 493-2000
Reservations Required: Space is limited to the first thirty people. RSVP to Heidi Raker, [email protected] of Raker Goldstein & Co., (201)784-1818.
tell them you read it on the Ridgewood blog
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How far does a billion dollars go in New Jersey? Evidently, not very far. The NJ Schools Construction Corporation “lost” upwards of that amount, and how did they respond? Naturally, they demanded billions more from taxpayers. Yet, the SCC is only emblematic of far greater corruption. Bob Bowdon exposes pervasive graft and outright collusion between the New Jersey educational bureaucracy and the NJEA, the state teachers’ union, in his devastating documentary The Cartel (trailer here), which screens during the upcoming Jersey Shore Film Festival.
Even though New Jersey is the number one state in America for school funding, the current governor has proposed further increases. Yet as Bowdon documents, precious little of that money will actually reach students, or even teachers in the classroom. After all, New Jersey is not called the Soprano State for nothing. Still, the corruption in the New Jersey school system is absolutely staggering. In addition to the scandal of the disappearing SCC funds, a KMPG audit of the so-called Abbott districts (economically depressed school districts which receive massive amounts of state aid) revealed twenty-nine percent of expenditures were suspiciously excessive or insufficiently documented.
As scandalous as such potentially criminal financial shenanigans are, the abuse of power at the local level is arguably worse. Bowdon’s interview subjects have plenty of horror stories, like the principal who was unable to fire teachers for watching porn while on duty, because they were politically connected (perversely, he would be the one let go). For fun, Bowdon counts the number of luxury cars in the Jersey City Board of Ed parking lot. (Rather than spoil it, let’s just say the sequence takes a full thirty seconds, which is a considerable amount of screen time.)
There is no question beleaguered NJ taxpayers are taking it in the wallet and shins, but Bowdon always makes it clear the biggest victims of such institutionalized dysfunction are the students themselves. The bottom-line is far too many public school students cannot read at grade-level or perform basic arithmetic, leaving them ill-equipped for the future job market. His touchstone image for the film comes from the annual lottery for a prized place in one of Jersey’s few charter schools. For those kids and their parents, getting out of their “zip-code” school is considered their only chance for a future. Those who win a spot are truly overjoyed, while those who do not literally cry tears of sorrow.
Bowdon is a legitimate journalist, who worked as an on-air correspondent and producer for recognizable Tri-State outlets like WB11. While he conducts several on-camera interviews with union and school board bureaucrats, he is always fair, resisting the temptation of cheap gotcha tactics. In truth, he hardly needs such theatrics, given the strength of the scrupulously reasoned case he presents. Unfortunately, some viewers might dismiss his arguments on behalf of school vouchers as too “ideological,” even though he presents his case with unassailable logic. Yet, in doing so, he offers solutions instead of merely bemoaning the horrendous state of New Jersey schools.
Bowdon repeatedly makes the point that the distressing trends detailed in the film apply nationwide. While that is no doubt correct, the abuses are particularly egregious in the Soprano State. One would anticipate disturbing anecdotes in a documentary about the public school system, but The Cartel surpasses all expectations. It is an important documentary and a valuable alarm bell that both parents and taxpayers need to heed. After winning the Audience Award at this year’s Hoboken International Film Festival, The Cartel screens again at the JSFF on July 8th, July 14th, and July 15th.
>by Susan K. Livio/The Star-Ledger
Tuesday July 07, 2009, 8:04 PM
https://www.nj.com/news/index.ssf/2009/07/bloods_street_gang_targets_nj.html
TRENTON — Using laptop computers and digital cameras, the Bloods street gang took its violent operation high-tech, faking nearly 200 payroll checks and attempting to cheat banks out of $654,000 over a two-year period, said Attorney General Anne Milgram, who today announced the involvement of 33 people in the conspiracy.
Milgram said her agents uncovered a scheme that struck eight banks in 13 counties across the state between June 2005 and March 2007, netting $341,000 in proceeds. The arrests were made after a three-year investigation dubbed “Operation Bloodbank.”
Some banks caught on to the deception and did not pay the remaining $313,000 the defendants sought, she said. According to investigators, the managers of the operation recruited people who worked at legitimate companies to turn over a copy of their payroll checks. The managers used them to forge copies and issue bad checks. If caught, the employees were told to claim they had been victims of identity theft, Milgram said.
“This investigation reveals the Bloods on new turf, defrauding banks of hundreds of thousands of dollars using counterfeit checks,” Milgram said. “We’ve taken the battle to a new front. If gangs are going into white collar crime, we will go there too and shut it down.”
The operation recruited accomplices such as college students and others whom they knew to have money troubles to cash the phony checks at banks from which the check appeared to have been drawn, investigators said. The cash would be split between the person cashing the check and the recruiter.
The affected institutions are branches of Bank of America, PNC Bank, Valley National Bank, JP Morgan Chase Bank, Commerce Bank, Wachovia Bank, Bank of New York and Sovereign Bank, according to the attorney general’s press release.
A spokesman for PNC Bank declined to comment last night, citing company policy that prohibits discussion of an ongoing criminal case.
Eight gang members led the scheme, recruiting people to cash fraudulent payroll checks valued between $400 and $9,000 from approximately 40 to 50 employers, Milgram said. Those employers include Cranford Township; the N.J. Democratic State Committee; the New Jersey Turnpike Authority; the Blood Center of New Jersey, East Orange; Valley Hospital Health System, Ridgewood; and the Ken Smith Lincoln Mercury dealership, Ridgewood, according to an indictment.
Under indictments handed up June 30 and unsealed today, six members of the Nine Trey Gangsters associated with the Bloods gang were named as the scheme managers and face charges of racketeering and theft by deception. They are Ernst Francois, 36, and Albens Victor, 27, both of Irvington; Kenneth Tione Roberts, 34, Woody Armand, 33, both of East Orange; Roosevelt Thelusma, 24, and Jeffery Dieurilus, 25, both of Newark.
Six so-called recruiters in the scheme also were indicted on charges of racketeering and theft by deception in connection with cashing counterfeit checks and allowing their bank accounts and ATM cards to be used.
The latest indictment, issued today, named 19 other accomplices who allegedly also allowed their ATM cards to be used or cashed the phony checks.
Additionally, two men authorities identified as members of the Nine Trey Gangsters set of the Bloods pleaded guilty to second-degree racketeering charges last year, while investigators continued to build a case against the 31 others. Milgram said some of the gang members have been arrested and are in jail, and others are fugitives.
The State Police Street Gang North Unit, which monitors New Jersey’s northern counties, led the investigation along with the Division of Criminal Justice’s Gangs & Organized Crime Bureau and the Monmouth County Prosecutor’s Office.
The case grew out of an indictment on murder, racketeering, money laundering and drug trafficking charges against 46 members of the Nine Trey Gangsters in 2007, authorities said.
https://www.nj.com/news/index.ssf/2009/07/bloods_street_gang_targets_nj.html
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In 2005, The Women Gardeners of Ridgewood (also referred to as, “The Women Gardeners” or “the Club”) celebrated its 80th year of operation. The organization owes its name to the fact that a “Garden Club of Ridgewood” was organized in 1914, but its membership was restricted to men. Resentment at this exclusion motivated a group of dedicated women to form “The Women Gardeners of Ridgewood” under the leadership of Mrs. C.W. Stockton in 1925. The club had twenty members and was a charter member of The Garden Club of New Jersey when it was organized. No record of the men’s club remains.
During the Depression years of 1932-33, The Women Gardeners of Ridgewood was unable to pay dues to the state organization and instead became part of the Garden Department of the Women’s Club of Ridgewood. That relationship continued until 1945, when membership in The Garden Club of New Jersey was reinstated.
Some of the longest continuing members of The Women Gardeners of Ridgewood remember serving as joint Hospitality Chairmen. Since the club met in member’s homes, part of the position included hauling borrowed chairs from Van Emburgh’s Funeral Home to the home of the meeting hostess and back.
The Club has a long tradition of community service. For many years members would travel to the Veteran’s Hospital in East Orange, where they would decorate the day rooms and chapel and make tray arrangements.
That tradition continues on the local level today. The Women Gardeners designed and maintain the plantings at the Ridgewood Public Library and provides weekly flower arrangements for the library lobby. The Club designed the garden for the Share house for elderly residents on Prospect Street and supported the garden at the Children’s Services and Family Counseling building.
The Women Gardeners of Ridgewood also provides tray favors for Meals on Wheels during the holiday season and makes centerpieces for the fundraising activities of various local charities. The Club has participated in the showhouse at Skylands Manor, considered an exhibition opportunity for area garden clubs.
The Club is proud of its most recent addition, a Junior Program, “Green Kids” which was started September 2007. Designed for children Grades 3 through 6, this program meets monthly to explore and discover nature, science, gardening, art, birding, weather, recycling, environment and our senses.
As part of its public education efforts, The Women Gardeners present semi-annual Garden Education Day featuring major speakers, workshops and/or boutiques.
The activities of the club are supported by a semi-annual garden tour called “SECRET GARDENS OF RIDGEWOOD.” Begun as part of Ridgewood’s bicentennial celebration in 1994, Secret Gardens of Ridgewood has become one of New Jersey’s premier garden tours, with visitors coming from all over the metropolitan region. More than 800 visitors toured the gardens in 2008.
https://njclubs.esiteasp.com/womengardenersofridgewood/home.nxg
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For more than 200 years, buried deep within Thomas Jefferson’s correspondence and papers, there lay a mysterious cipher — a coded message that appears to have remained unsolved. Until now.
The cryptic message was sent to President Jefferson in December 1801 by his friend and frequent correspondent, Robert Patterson, a mathematics professor at the University of Pennsylvania. President Jefferson and Mr. Patterson were both officials at the American Philosophical Society — a group that promoted scholarly research in the sciences and humanities — and were enthusiasts of ciphers and other codes, regularly exchanging letters about them.
University of Pennsylvania Archives
Robert Patterson
In this message, Mr. Patterson set out to show the president and primary author of the Declaration of Independence what he deemed to be a nearly flawless cipher. “The art of secret writing,” or writing in cipher, has “engaged the attention both of the states-man & philosopher for many ages,” Mr. Patterson wrote. But, he added, most ciphers fall “far short of perfection.”
To Mr. Patterson’s view, a perfect code had four properties: It should be adaptable to all languages; it should be simple to learn and memorize; it should be easy to write and to read; and most important of all, “it should be absolutely inscrutable to all unacquainted with the particular key or secret for decyphering.”
Mr. Patterson then included in the letter an example of a message in his cipher, one that would be so difficult to decode that it would “defy the united ingenuity of the whole human race,” he wrote.
There is no evidence that Jefferson, or anyone else for that matter, ever solved the code. But Jefferson did believe the cipher was so inscrutable that he considered having the State Department use it, and passed it on to the ambassador to France, Robert Livingston.
The cipher finally met its match in Lawren Smithline, a 36-year-old mathematician. Dr. Smithline has a Ph.D. in mathematics and now works professionally with cryptology, or code-breaking, at the Center for Communications Research in Princeton, N.J., a division of the Institute for Defense Analyses.
A couple of years ago, Dr. Smithline’s neighbor, who was working on a Jefferson project at Princeton University, told Dr. Smithline of Mr. Patterson’s mysterious cipher.
Dr. Smithline, intrigued, decided to take a look. “A problem like this cipher can keep me up at night,” he says. After unlocking its hidden message in 2007, Dr. Smithline articulated his puzzle-solving techniques in a recent paper in the magazine American Scientist and also in a profile in Harvard Magazine, his alma mater’s alumni journal.
The “Perfect” Cipher?
The 1801 letter from Robert Patterson to Thomas Jefferson The code, Mr. Patterson made clear in his letter, was not a simple substitution cipher. That’s when you replace one letter of the alphabet with another. The problem with substitution ciphers is that they can be cracked by using what’s termed frequency analysis, or studying the number of times that a particular letter occurs in a message. For instance, the letter “e” is the most common letter in English, so if a code is sufficiently long, whatever letter appears most often is likely a substitute for “e.”
Because frequency analysis was already well known in the 19th century, cryptographers of the time turned to other techniques. One was called the nomenclator: a catalog of numbers, each standing for a word, syllable, phrase or letter. Mr. Jefferson’s correspondence shows that he used several code books of nomenclators. An issue with these tools, according to Mr. Patterson’s criteria, is that a nomenclator is too tough to memorize.
Jefferson even wrote about his own ingenious code, a model of which is at his home, Monticello, in Charlottesville, Va. Called the wheel cipher, the device consisted of cylindrical pieces, threaded onto an iron spindle, with letters inscribed on the edge of each wheel in a random order. Users could scramble and unscramble words simply by turning the wheels.
But Mr. Patterson had a few more tricks up his sleeve. He wrote the message text vertically, in columns from left to right, using no capital letters or spaces. The writing formed a grid, in this case of about 40 lines of some 60 letters each.
Then, Mr. Patterson broke the grid into sections of up to nine lines, numbering each line in the section from one to nine. In the next step, Mr. Patterson transcribed each numbered line to form a new grid, scrambling the order of the numbered lines within each section. Every section, however, repeated the same jumbled order of lines.
The trick to solving the puzzle, as Mr. Patterson explained in his letter, meant knowing the following: the number of lines in each section, the order in which those lines were transcribed and the number of random letters added to each line.
The key to the code consisted of a series of two-digit pairs. The first digit indicated the line number within a section, while the second was the number of letters added to the beginning of that row. For instance, if the key was 58, 71, 33, that meant that Mr. Patterson moved row five to the first line of a section and added eight random letters; then moved row seven to the second line and added one letter, and then moved row three to the third line and added three random letters. Mr. Patterson estimated that the potential combinations to solve the puzzle was “upwards of ninety millions of millions.”
Thomas Jefferson
After explaining this in his letter, Mr. Patterson wrote, “I presume the utter impossibility of decyphering will be readily acknowledged.”
Undaunted, Dr. Smithline decided to tackle the cipher by analyzing the probability of digraphs, or pairs of letters. Certain pairs of letters, such as “dx,” don’t exist in English, while some letters almost always appear next to a certain other letter, such as “u” after “q”.
To get a sense of language patterns of the era, Dr. Smithline studied the 80,000 letter-characters contained in Jefferson’s State of the Union addresses, and counted the frequency of occurrences of “aa,” “ab,” “ac,” through “zz.”
Dr. Smithline then made a series of educated guesses, such as the number of rows per section, which two rows belong next to each other, and the number of random letters inserted into a line.
To help vet his guesses, he turned to a tool not available during the 19th century: a computer algorithm. He used what’s called “dynamic programming,” which solves large problems by breaking puzzles down into smaller pieces and linking together the solutions.
The overall calculations necessary to solve the puzzle were fewer than 100,000, which Dr. Smithline says would be “tedious in the 19th century, but doable.”
After about a week of working on the puzzle, the numerical key to Mr. Patterson’s cipher emerged — 13, 34, 57, 65, 22, 78, 49. Using that digital key, he was able to unfurl the cipher’s text:
“In Congress, July Fourth, one thousand seven hundred and seventy six. A declaration by the Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled. When in the course of human events…”
That, of course, is the beginning — with a few liberties taken — to the Declaration of Independence, written at least in part by Jefferson himself. “Patterson played this little joke on Thomas Jefferson,” says Dr. Smithline. “And nobody knew until now.”
Write to Rachel Emma Silverman at [email protected]
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July 4th Fireworks Tickets
Support the Tradition
The Ridgewood Fourth of July Celebration is organized by the Ridgewood Fourth of July Celebration Committee, an all-volunteer community group. The Committee is not part of the Village of Ridgewood government and receives no direct funding from the Village. All aspects of the Celebration including fireworks, parade bands, evening performers, insurance, police and fire personnel, are funded by the sale of fireworks tickets and more importantly by voluntary contributions from individuals and businesses. To make a donation to the celebration please send your check to Ridgewood Fourth of July Celebration, PO Box 140, Ridgewood, NJ 07451. Tickets for the evenings festivities are on sale now. The pre-event price is $5 (at the gate, tickets are $10 adults, $5 children 6-12, 5 & under free) They are available at the following volunteer vendors in Ridgewood Alice-Alice-Alice, Artventure Gallery, Backyard Living, Daily Treat Restaurant, Goffle Brook Farm, Harding Wine and Spirits, Hillmann Electric, Hoskins Propane, Irish Eyes Imports, Ridgewood Cycle Shop, The Wine Seller, and Town & Country Apothecary & Fine Cosmetics. In Glen Rock you may purchase tickets at Ridgewood Auto Wash & Herold‘s Farm and Garden Center. Ticket vendors in Midland Park are La Strada Delicatessen. J T’s Wine & Spirits in Ho-Ho-Kus also carry fireworks tickets. Ticket will also be available at the Ridgewood Library from June 26 through July 2. The Celebration Committee thanks HILT for volunteering to handle this sale. Volunteers from HILT will be at the library from 9:00AM until 3:00PM each day except Sunday June 28 when they will be there from 1:00 – 4:00PM. Tickets may also be purchased online for $7 which includes shipping and handling. For online ticket sales as well as more information on the celebration go to https://www.ridgewoodjuly4th.org/ Ridgewood Fireworks Tickets are a Bargain For the low price of $5, you can dance to the Dad’s Night Band, watch the amazing Illumination Twirlers, listen to the incomparable Ridgewood Concert Band, watch the ever popular skydivers all before the wonderful fireworks show you can only get in Ridgewood. How is this possible, you ask? Just buy your fireworks tickets at one of our volunteer vendors. (at the gate, tickets are $10 adults, $5 children 6-12, 5 & under free) The Ridgewood Fourth of July Celebration Committee is pleased to announce that it will sponsor its 99th annual celebration on Saturday, July 4, 2009. The theme of this year’s celebration is “50 States…One Nation.” The day’s events include the flag raising at Wilsey Square at 9am, parade, evening entertainment and fireworks. The parade is held rain or shine. The fireworks will be held Saturday evening, with an alternate date of Sunday, July 5.ridgewoodjuly4th.org
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June 26, 2009
Friends,
I’m writing you in a special Garrett Gazette to raise your awareness about the national energy tax proposed by House Democrats that will likely be voted on in the House of Representatives today. This national energy tax is certain to raise electricity prices, increase gasoline prices, and ship American jobs overseas.
If you drive a car, buy food or a product manufactured in America, or flip on a light switch, you’ll pay more under the Democrats’ national energy tax. Here’s what the longest-serving Democrat in the House, Rep. John Dingell (D-MI), had to say about the tax: “Nobody in this country realizes that cap and trade is a tax. And it’s a great big one.”
The National Energy Tax Will Cause Electricity Bills to “Skyrocket”
The national energy tax will increase electricity bills for every American and small business. President Obama even admitted that it would cause electricity rates to “necessarily skyrocket.” And Duke Energy, a major utility company that would receive free allowances under the Democrats’ plan, has already requested a rate hike of 13.5 percent in anticipation of the energy tax.
The National Energy Tax Will Cause Gasoline and Diesel Prices to Spike Further
Gasoline prices have spiked in recent weeks, yet the national energy tax will make gasoline and diesel even more expensive for families and small businesses. The Heritage Foundation estimates that it will raise inflation-adjusted gasoline prices by 58 percent. Not only is that troubling to middle-class families trying to make ends meet, but small businesses – such as America’s truck drivers who are responsible for transporting food and other products across the country – are especially vulnerable during an economic recession. In fact, Tommy Hodges, First Vice Chairman of the American Trucking Association, recently warned that the House Democrats’ national energy tax on America’s truck drivers will leave America’s truck drivers, exposed to dramatic and sudden fuel price spikes.
The National Energy Tax Will Cost American Jobs, Shipping Them Overseas According to a study by the National Black Chamber of Commerce, the Democrats’ national energy tax will cost 2.3 to 2.7 million jobs each year, even after the creation of new so-called “green” jobs. It will impose tough new requirements and increased costs on American manufacturers – higher costs that they won’t face overseas, in places like China, India, or Mexico. This will cost American jobs in two ways: either domestic manufacturers will move overseas directly, or American companies in energy-intensive industries will be driven out of business by overseas rivals that undercut their prices. These job losses, and their ripple effects throughout our economy, were excluded from an incomplete analysis recently completed by the Congressional Budget Office. The Brookings Institute recently released a report that confirmed a national energy tax would reduce economic growth, increase costs, and kill jobs. The following chart shows the projected job loss in every single region, with especially large job losses in areas of the country already hit hard by the recession:
Additionally, the national energy tax could reverse our chances for economic recovery as we are trying to climb out of this recession. Mother Jones warned that if the national energy tax “is signed into law, it will generate, almost as an afterthought, a new market for carbon derivatives. That market will be vast, complicated, and dauntingly difficult to monitor. And if Washington doesn’t get the rules right, it will be vulnerable to speculation and manipulation by the very same players who brought us the financial meltdown.”
Instead of supporting a tax that will kill jobs and increases energy costs for Americans, I am a proud sponsor of The American Energy Act. This legislation establishes an ‘‘American Renewable and Alternative Energy Trust Fund” in the Treasury consisting of the receipts from oil and natural gas leasing provided by the bill. Amounts in the Trust Fund would be available to carry out research and development programs created by of the Energy Policy Act of 2005, and the Energy Independence and Security Act of 2007, including: oil shale, tar sands, other strategic unconventional fuels and clean coal. This legislation also expands an existing energy investment tax credit for renewable energy equipment to include clean coal equipment, and repeals section 526 of the Energy Independence and Security Act of 2007 which bans Federal agencies from procuring fuels derived from alternative energy such as liquid coal, tar sands, and oil shale. Repealing this provision will help spur a market for liquid coal fuels and foster technological innovation.
The American Energy Act also allows the Secretary of Interior to enter into long term coal-to-liquid fuel purchase contracts (for periods of five, ten, fifteen or twenty years) and to enter into standby loan agreements with up to six qualifying coal-to-liquid projects, helping to further generate a market for such technology. It makes permanent the tax credit for the production of electricity derived from Indian coal and refined coal and contains a regulatory reform component which amends the Clean Air Act by stating that the term “air pollutant” does not include carbon dioxide and certain other greenhouse gases and shall not be used to regulate climate change. The bill also prohibits any consideration of the impacts of greenhouse gases on any species of fish or wildlife or plant, ensuring that the Endangered Species Act shall not be used to regulate climate change. This section denies the Environmental Protection Agency the ability to regulate carbon emissions, which would negatively affect the competitiveness of coal-fired power plants.
Today’s vote on the national energy tax will have consequences for every American. It is a bad deal for America. And the American people will remember how their Members of Congress vote.
Sincerely,
Scott Garrett
Member of Congress
>I had to post this its just too funny ….
“the real problem is that the renovation people on Que picked the most expensive and ridiculous solution to updating Graydon ,had they presented anything but the most audacious example of crazy free spending ,ushered in by the 100 year flood village hall rec-ovation gang you might have had a chance but alas its all DOA and back to the over priced drawing board ,most would agree to a nice update in character with the tradition and CLASS the Village used to be known for but “Action Park” surely Prof. Feynmen you must be joking.
solution : respectful moderation in pool redesign and updates and something a tad less than $13 million”
Shadow Ridgewood Olympic Committee
>https://www.northjersey.com/news/health/Hospitals_ask_state_to_dismiss_bid.html
Saturday, June 20, 2009
Last updated: Saturday June 20, 2009, 1:56 PM
BY LINDY WASHBURN
NorthJersey.com
STAFF WRITER
In the latest challenge to Hackensack University Medical Center’s bid to reopen Pascack Valley Hospital in Westwood, two Bergen County hospitals have demanded that the state health commissioner dismiss the application on legal grounds.
“The application fails to meet many significant and irrefutable requirements for the submission of a Certificate of Need application,” reads the 14-page letter, with voluminous attachments, from attorney Frank R. Ciesla to Health Commissioner Heather Howard. Ciesla wrote on behalf of The Valley Hospital in Ridgewood and Englewood Hospital and Medical Center.
“These requirements cannot be waived,” he wrote, “and we request that the application be dismissed at this time.”
Hackensack wants to reopen the hospital — which closed in November 2007 — as a 128-bed community hospital operated by a joint venture with Legacy Hospital Partners Inc. of Texas, a for-profit company.
A public hearing on the certificate of need application was held this month. The state Health Planning Board is to consider the application and recommend a decision to the health commissioner, who will then have 120 days to act.
Ciesla argued that “the State Health Planning Board’s review cannot continue at this time,” because it would violate state regulatory standards.
Not so, said Hackensack’s spokeswoman, Anne Marie Campbell. The application was “deemed complete” by the state Health Department, she said.
“We feel we have made a convincing case that a 128-bed hospital is needed in the Pascack and Northern Valley regions — a case that has received widespread public support,” she said. “We look forward to continuing the process.”
Ciesla’s letter said the application should be dismissed for several reasons, including:
* Under state law, a hospital’s license expires when the hospital ceases to function, he wrote. As a result, a letter from the previous state health commissioner “which purported to permit the license to remain valid for two years is void and of no force.”
* The application was signed by Hackensack’s chief executive officer and not by the joint venture that proposes to own and operate the hospital, as required, Ciesla wrote. Indeed, the joint venture agreement itself is still not final, but a letter of intent. The limited liability corporation that would own the hospital was registered as a business five months after the application was filed, he wrote.
* The applicant has to demonstrate it owns the site. Hackensack bought the property jointly with Touro University, which still retains its share even though it has decided not to open a medical school on the site. Touro did not endorse Hackensack’s application or sign off on the property, he wrote.
The health commissioner’s office said it would have no comment.
https://www.northjersey.com/news/health/Hospitals_ask_state_to_dismiss_bid.html
>On Wednesday, July 1st, a village Council meeting will take place in which a final decision will be made whether or not to proceed with plans to convert Graydon to a cement swimming pool. The RPP has sent out emails urging supporters of the project to email council members and the Ridgewood News that this conversion should be a “priority project”.
According to the RPP, the majority of residents surveyed wanted Graydon to maintain its spacious, sandy, natural, lake like appearance, yet they felt the current facility is unclean and unsafe. Despite the RPP efforts to recommend a facility that would provide the sandy spacious environment that most residents wanted, their research indicated that the only feasible solution was to convert Graydon to a much smaller concrete facility. Unfortunately, this design can not provide residents with the sandy spaciousness of Graydon, but it can allow for the perceived feeling of a “cleaner” and “safer” swimming environment. Ironically, all public swimming facilities pose both health and safety risks, concrete or otherwise.
For example, public cement bottom pools in Arizona, Texas and Upstate New York (to name a few) had to be shut down last summer because patrons were getting ill from a parasite found in human/mammal fecal matter called cryptosporidium, that was discovered in the water. This is just one of many clorine resistant parasites and bacteria that plague public swimming pools (MedicineNet.com). In addition, public pools that exceed their swim load capacity are much more likely to experience transmission of water borne illnesses.
Concrete pools also have inherit safety risks. Head and spinal injuries from hard pool bottoms and slippery surfaces are common. Drownings also occur in crowded public swimming pools, while lifeguards are on duty, everyday in the US (National Center for Disease Control).
My question is this. Since the proposed concrete facility can not provide the same natural appearance and spaciousness of Graydon and it can not eliminate the health and safety risks of a public swimming facility, then why take on the enormous financial burdan of converting it?
The RPP often compares Graydon to the public pool in Westfield, because of the similarity in demographics. I urge our Council before making any decisions about Graydon’s conversion to take the 30 minute ride down the Garden Stare Parkway and observe this hidden from public view pool on a sunny Sunday afternoon. The noise level is deafening and the pool is overwhelmingly crowded. Not to mention the fact that Westfield’s facility does not have to share parking with those using two athletic fields. Remember, in order to make this new facility self-funding, it has an 8,000 member quota to fill. Even in Graydon’s hayday it didn’t have 8,000 members. If I lived on one of the streets near Graydon, Vets or the Maple Ave field, I’d be concerned.
Speaking of similar demographics. Allendale has a sand bottom pool and residents there don’t feel a need to covert it to a cement bottom pool. Why? Is their membership declining? Is their pool operating at a loss? Is Graydon supposed to be a business or is it an amenity like a public library, community center, park or athletic field? I am always hearing how Graydon is operating at a loss. With a $14 million dollar bond to pay off, in addition to annual operating costs, how many years will it be before the “new Graydon” turns a profit?
Although I do not support the RPP iniative to convert Graydon to a concrete facility, I do feel that their efforts have been a catalyst for the many improvements that have been made over the past 3 years. Since many of the RPP supporters have stopped using Graydon, they have not experienced the changes that have been made like I have. The aeration system installed last year made a tremendous difference in water quality. A second aerator was installed this year. I was swimming in Graydon on opening day. Standing in chest high water, I could see my feet. That’s clearer than the ocean at the Jersey shore! The sand bottom, is now thoroughly dredged and cleaned before Graydon is filled for the new season. The goose population has also improved dramatically, thanks to the deligent, daily efforts of animal control. These changes have certainly helped to keep both the grounds and water cleaner.
So let’s not stop there. First off, lifeguards could routinely skim the water at the end of their rotations. Additional safety measures can be taken. A fence separating the 4 ft section of Graydon from the 12 ft section can be installed to better monitor those entering the deeper water. A lifeguard station should also be installed in the center of Graydon to better observe those swimming there.
I realize that Graydon’s membership has been declining over the past several years, with this year’s membership being at an all time low. I fear that many who normally would have joined Graydon have deliberatly boycotted this year in order to benefit their cause. Still and all, if all of these cost effective steps and improvements do not increase membership at Graydon, than raising membership fees from $77.00 per person to $100-$125.00 per person is still a bargain. The proposed fee for the “new Graydon” is $150.00 per person, which, I fear, will increase annually in order to offset the enourmos debt this reconstuction will incur.
I have emailed our Council members, [email protected]; [email protected]; [email protected]; [email protected]; [email protected]; as well as the Ridgewood News as a Letter to the Editor, [email protected]; including an email to Mike Sedon, who has been covering this topic for the paper at [email protected] and urge others to do the same.
With so many priority issues facing our community during these difficult economic times, it seems to me that the conversion of Graydon is not one of them.
Suzanne Kelly
Ridgewood
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Folks this is the real thing …..
RSA Hosts Special Needs Program
The Ridgewood Soccer Association has openings in its special needs program for children ages 5-14 who desire 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.
Volunteers from the Ridgewood High School Girls Soccer team serve as mentors for the players. The aim of the program is to develop skills, promote fitness, and emphasize the fun aspects of the sport. 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 for all RSA programs 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]
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