>Valley Renewal : Ridgewood Residents were BAMBOOZLED!
There will never be a redo. Ridgewood Residents were BAMBOOZLED! Ridgewood Residents have been DECEIVED! The original venue (for 6/21) of BFMS was moved to GWMS less than 2 business days before the meeting (afternoon Thursday 6/17). By this point the PB certainly should have coordinated the plan with the BOE/BFMS. How could there be such a serious breach of communication? Residents calling BFMS that afternoon (around 2pm)found no principal or administrator available to answer questions about this conflict. Multiple and differing excuses came for the PB and the BOE.
At first glance this could be construed as an honest conflict and so off to GWMS we will go. But let’s face it, on June 21 as people were planning to go to GWMS for the meeting an afternoon email, sent from the planning board, that no parking would be available near GWMS sent residents/ taxpayers scrambling to carpool. Meanwhile, Valley was already mobilizing employees to fill the auditorium.
Still let’s not be too cynical: some residents did arrive early and sat in the auditorium to save seats for friends and family. But they were kicked out by Joe Scala of GCA Services Group by order of Angelo DeSimone as authorized by the Planning Board. Scala, who was nasty to residents said he was ordered to secure the auditorium. Residents were forced to stand in the unsecured and sweltering vestibule as Valley Employees were herded in. The residents were being outnumbered quickly by out-of-town Valley employees. At one point a Village resident asked Scala which door would be opened for the public to enter the auditorium. She was told the door we (residents) were standing closest to would be opened as it was closest to the GWMS main doors. When the doors were finally opened it was those in front of where the Valley employees stood. The door by the residents remained locked and they began knocking asking someone to open the doors. A resident went in with the Valley group and opened it for her fellow resident/taxpayers. By this time half of the room was already filled by Valley. Meanwhile police from all over the county were mobilizing!
Cynical? Distrustful? Disbelieving? Suspicious? Don’t kid yourself there will be no redo. This was a concerted effort to suppress the Voices of the Villagers of Ridgewood.
