>Valley Renewal : Valley is Just Greedy
Valley’s latest PR salvo in the war over the Master Plan is a “personal” letter from a Doctor in Glen Rock sent to many Ridgewood homes.
The letter states that expanding to single patient rooms is in the interests of patients, calling the expansion an “imperative” for Valley.
While many people support the single patient room argument, the letter ignores the obvious point that Valley is trying to shoe-horn such a large construction into the residential Village of Ridgewood. If a seven storey building is approved and built, there is no turning back.
There are alternatives that the Village Council has control over via the ordinance process. Since Pascack Valley Hospital closed in 2007, patients from nineteen villages have been forced to travel across Ridgewood streets to visit Valley and overstress the emergency room. This was a financial windfall for Valley enriching already healthy annual surpluses in its accounts.
Over the last three years, Valley has argued at public meetings and before the PHV bankruptcy court that there are too many beds in Bergen County. The obvious solution to preventing the proposed over development in Ridgewood and the additional traffic created by PVH closing is for PVH to reopen its 128 beds and Valley to become a single patient room 350 bed hospital. Remember Valley was a very profitable operation before PVH closed. Denying the people of Pascack Valley access to local surgical facilities is unconscionable.
The Ridgewood Village Council has the power to make this happen so make your vote count on November 2 2010 and vote for a candidate that supports a reasonable compromise.
