>Council members presented Ridgewood Police Officer Douglas Henky with an Exceptional Duty Citation. Henky single-handedly apprehended two individuals who police suspect were responsible for committing a series of house burglaries in Glen Rock and Ridgewood.
Two residents spoke about rumors that athletic fields would be constructed at Grove Park and Pleasant Park. Mayor David T. Pfund assured the audience that no plans to construct additional athletic fields within the Village were currently before the Council. However, Deputy Mayor Betty G. Wiest advised the audience that all Village owned open space would be “in play” with respect to the on-going evaluation of properties potentially suited for the construction of more athletic fields.
An ordinance establishing procedures for filing sewer back-up claims with the Village; which would require the installation of a backflow prevention valve by the resident once a sewer back-up claim has been filed, was introduced. The ordinance would limit the Village’s financial obligations if a sewer claim is accepted. During a previous meeting, it was revealed that several homeowners have filed multiple claims, some in excess of $25K.
The Council voted unanimously to defeat a controversial ordinance which was intended to establish a “no knock” registry. During a November meeting, the proposed ordinance was challenged by several residents who felt that it would have negatively impacted the fund raising abilities of many local not-for-profits.
New lease agreements for both Village owned homes in the Irene Habernickel Family Park were approved. The larger home will rent for $4028 per month; the smaller one for $3803.
The parking lot expansion project at Village Hall is nearing completion. Once finished, an additional 13 spaces will be available for public use (including after business hours use of a portion of the employee lot now marked with “Do Not Enter” signs).
In support of a taxpayer’s comments regarding the lack of progress relative to a street light upgrade project in the Central Business District, Councilwoman Kim Ringler Shagin declared that she was “tired of being held hostage” by the Historic Preservation Committee’s inability to reach a decision. Mayor David T. Pfund directed Village Manager James M. Ten Hoeve to light a fire under the feet of those responsible. Village Engineer Christopher Rutishauser was identified as the Village employee who will be charged with getting the project rolling fast.
>I too have grown weary of Art Wrubel’s unwillingness to approve any of the currently available streetlight posts for installation within the CBD. It’s time someone in authority to tell Mr. Wrubel that public safety takes priority over his personal tastes in streetlights.
>Some clarification is in order regarding the description of the comments that were made at last night’s Village Council meeting about the construction of athletic fields in town…
1) The first resident suggested that there isn’t really a shortage of fields in town and that soccer and baseball are simply playing in the off-season (adding congestion) and that the issue is really “field envy” of all the towns around Ridgewood that have built “beautiful new (synthetic) fields”. He misquoted Jaques Harlow, saying that the number of children playing sports in town has decreased in the past 10 years. He also questioned the formality of the field assignment process, implying that it may be haphazard and inefficient. Finally, he suggested that volunteer coaches should get home at 4:30 once a week (like he does) to coach teams and that this would prevent the need for play at night.
Jaques Harlow and Mayor Pfund corrected him, citing that the “total number of children in Ridgewood has declined. However, the number of children PLAYING SPORTS has increased by at least 200%.” This resident is also unaware that members of the sports groups have been raising this issue for some time. In fact, the project at Maple Park began over five years ago, long before any of the neighboring fields were built. It is only in the past year ir two, after years of parents and children making due with overcrowrded and substandard facilities, that the topic has come to the forefront of the broader public consciousness.
The field assignment process is a lengthy collaborative process with the RHS Director of Athletics and members of all the sports groups (not just Ed Seavers). The result is a formal matrix (spreadsheet) that shows that every time slot is allocated at every field in town, every season.
As someone who works in NYC and has volunteered as a coach for years, I was offended by this resident’s suggestion that I should leave work earlier than I already do. First of all, most sports practice 2-3 days per week, not one. Secondly, the BOE has priority of ALL fields until 5:45 every weekday. So, the youth sports groups cannot realistically start earlier than about 6:00PM.
2) The second resident has spoken many times against the development of Grove Park, which she insisted was part of the “draft recommendations” by the consultants.
This resident was largely misinformed. Again, the Village Council made it clear that they do not know why the residents from this area continue to argue against “recommendation draft” that DOES NOT EXIST and HAS NEVER BEEN PRESENTED TO THE COUNCIL. Jaques Harlow explained how the process might look at Vets to see how fields could be reconfigured to be more efficient and that this was the focus of the Master Plan process. What residents saw at the public “informational meeting” in November was simply a presentation of the INVENTORY of VOR & BOE owned land that is currently used for passive and active recreation.
One of the residents who made comments also stated that a “typical survey response is about 10%” (which is actually high by marketing standards). He made a good suggestion that the Master Plan Committee make the level of responses received publicly available (maybe on the village website) between now and December 29th.
Given the response rate referenced above, it was VERY interesting to hear that a resident from the Hawes area has requested and received over 1300 Master Plan surveys from the village and has requested even more. This number represents over 14.5% of the total number of households in Ridgewood (approximately 8,750). Supposedly, he has distributed them to concerned residents in Hawes. So, this raises the following questions… Does Hawes represent over 14.5% of the households in town? How many households are actually in the Hawes area? Is this a manipulation of the intended spirit of the survey process (i.e. ballot stuffing)?
>Good job to Det. Henky and the Ridgewood PD for catching these burglars.
>Nicely done Detective Henky!
>CONGRATULATIONS TO DET. HENKY, A JOB WELL DONE. DET. HENKY IS AN ASSET TO THE RIDGEWOOD POLICE, UNFORTUNATELY THAT CAN NOT BE SAID ABOUT MOST OF THE POLICE DEPARTMENT. RUMOR HAS IT THAT DET. HENKY WAS NOT NOTIFIED OF THE AWARD UNTIL THE DAY OF THE COUNCIL MEETING.ANOTHER GREAT JOB BY CHIEF CORCORAN! THE CHIEF WAS PROBABLEY TOO BUSY AT A CHIEFS ASSOCIATION MEETING TO GIVE DET. HENKY ADVANCED NOTICE OF HIS AWARD, SO HE COULD LET FAMILY AND FRIENDS KNOW ABOUT IT. JUST ANOTHER INDICATION OF HOW OUT OF TOUCH HE IS WITH THE DEPT HE IS SUPPOSED TO BE IN CHARGE OF. DET. HENKY AND THE OTHER MEMBERS OF THE RIDGEWOOD POLICE DESERVE MUCH MUCH BETTER.
>Excuse me, to CORRECT the 10.28AM anonymous poster comments – there has been NO ballet stuffing. Those Accusations are False and Not appreciated. Record has it that first only received 300 copies, were hand delivered to houses, then received another 500 copies surveys and they also were hand delivered to houses by resident volunteers. A TOTAL of 800 Surveys were hand delivered. This was necessary, as the the Village at the time had no copies available for the public at town hall, stable, or library, or council meeting. Only after the December council meeting, it was brought to their attention, did the Village make copies available for the public at those locations. It seems as if they really wanted input from the residents of this town, they would have made a concerned effort to either make copies of the survey appropriately available,other than the website, which survey was taken down, poof, gone, then revised and reposted, or posted them via residents mail.