Planning Board Sued over Valley Expansion, New School Staff in Ridgewood: It's the Weekly Roundup

It's Labor Day weekend and the village is pretty sleepy today. The streets are quiet, stores are closed and a few kids are out enjoying their last weekend of 'freedom' this year. This lull punctuates a pretty busy week for the village; particularly on the always-divisive Valley expansion project front. With school starting up on Tuesday, don't expect it to be any quieter in the weeks ahead. So while you still can, relax and take a look at some of the highlights from the last real week of summer.

We learned that on Monday, the Ridgewood planning board was officially taken to court by anti-Valley expansion group Concerned Residents of Ridgewood on the grounds that members of the planning board had conflicts of interest (notably former mayor David Pfund), and that the amendment allowing Valley to sponsor changes to the Master Plan was not within the bounds of the law, among other charges.

Paul Gould, the spokesman for the CRR said that ultimately this issue will be decided by the courts, and not with the back-and-forth between the opposition group and Valley. It may also even delay when the village council can review the amendment; they were scheduled to start going over the process next year after elections and the new member got up to speed on the particulars of the issue.

While Valley is obviously the big story of the week, it wasn't the only thing that happened. Remember Ronald O'Malley? He was the former chair of the Bergen County Improvement Agency and also part-owner of Residential Mortgage Corporation, and was accused in federal court last June of using his position at the agency to commit widespread fraud to better his private business. O'Malley was formally indicted by the U.S. Attorney's office on 68 counts of fraud and intent to commit fraud.

While some in the community are accused of taking, others are accused (and guilty as charged!) of giving. A Ridgewood couple traveled all the way to New Orleans as part of the Ridgewood-based Rebuilding Together goal to help rebuild homes destroyed in the wake of the deadliest natural disaster in American history.

Others saw the opportunity to beautify what had become a derelict, filthy bus stop scalded by graffiti. Cottage Gardens, a local nursery, had been troubled by the unsavory bus Park & Ride on Route 17 North. So they did something about it. When NJDOT ignored their phone calls and pleas to clean up the stop, the nursery cleaned it up for free (the cleanup cost + labor is estimated to be about $3,500). Now it's the prettiest bus stop in town.

In a scary moment, a woman presumably attempting to pull into a parking space at the Quick Stop Liquor and Wine store on Godwin Ave instead hit the accelerator, shooting the Land Rover into the building. The wall was indented, a structural column was severely damaged and the windows shook, witnesses reported. Worse, a small child was onboard though witnesses reported that the child appeared in good condition.

The Board of Education met for its last meeting before school's September 7th opening. It will be introducing six new staff members to the district, after budget problems forced the board to axe well over 50 staff members. The board also updated the public on how the bond referendum construction projects are going. The status? Overall, despite some "speed bumps," pretty well.

Finally, we'll be introducing a new featured column next week. By now you're accustomed to our regular columns. They usually run once a week, or bi-weekly, or even less frequently. This will be different. While there are a lot of news stories we cover, some things just don't always make the news. We report a lot of what you should care about, but what about the things you do care about? Admittedly, a lot of these things probably fall between the cracks.

Having said that, I'm excited to introduce our new idea: it's called "About Town" and it will be a bit blog-y in style. Fun, whimsical, quick (but still informative!) and more 'slice of life' than our fleshed out, larger news stories with singular focus.

Did you see something happen with the construction by the train station or at one of the schools? Meet someone really interesting today? See a great deal at a store downtown? Overhear a nice little fact you didn't expect to be true? Curious to know how that event from the other night went? You might find it in About Town. I encourage you all to send me tips, ideas, musings, little things you noticed in the village or just general thoughts. I can be reached at james.kleimann@patch.com

Labor Day is tomorrow, folks. Don't work too hard. And make sure to wear white.