Evacuations, Confirmations, Trees Maybe Moving Back to Train Stations: It's the Week in Review

For some, a tree is not just a tree. The Ridgewood Chamber of Commerce formally asked the village council to grant them a request that the holiday tree lighting ceremony be moved back to where it once was, near the train station on Broad Street.

Paul Vagiano, owner of It's Greek to Me and member of the chamber, spoke passionately to the council, saying that while in spirit the idea to move the tree to Van Neste Park two years ago was a good one, the "experiment is not working" and businesses are hurt by the live tree not attracting shoppers and diners to village shops and restaurants.

Although council members said there are issues with process and substance, they'd hear the matter next week.

We had quite a discussion in the comments section of the article, so if you have a thought on the matter (and it seems to be an issue everyone has an opinion on), please chime in!

Other things of note from this past week:

Residents were evacuated from the Oak Manor apartments on Thursday morning after workers from Ridgewood Water hit an unmarked gas main, spraying natural gas into the air. Residents were transported in vans to Village Hall and were allowed to return to their homes a few hours later while workers from PSE&G and the village repaired the severed line. One worker from Ridgewood Water was injured, though his injuries were not life threatening.

John Ward was officially sworn in as the Chief of Police this week at Wednesday evening's village council meeting. The 27-year veteran of the force took over as senior officer in charge and then acting chief after departing chief John LiPuma announced that his last work day would be in July. Ward said he'll be focusing more on community policing and is very excited to continue working for the citizens of Ridgewood.

Goffle Road also , which will divert traffic on both ends of the road–from Wyckoff Ave. to Rock Rd.–through Wyckoff and will likely impact businesses on both the Wyckoff and Ridgewood sides of the road.

The because of the on-again, off-again nature of the work performed by PSE&G to repair on the county road, it will be almost "literally impossible to let the motoring public know what they'll encounter on any given day," Wyckoff's top cop said. Sgt. Brian Pullman of the Ridgewood Police department confirmed that the Ridgewood police will be on duty throughout the process, along with Wyckoff officers. The work is expected to continue through mid-November, though PSE&G says complete closures will not be the norm.

We also took a look at how some of the boutiques and clothing stores in the village are surviving in a still-shaky economy. The secret? Personalization. "Finding out what your client wants and providing it is the key to being successful [in Ridgewood]," said one vendor.

The Board of Education held its first meeting of the school year and superintendent Dr. Daniel Fishbein reported that the district has 145 new faces, far more than the usual amount, generally around 60 students. Willard School will be the hardest hit, Fishbein said, with 45 new students. Because of the small physical space of the school, the real challenge will be more in physically maneuving, not the quality of instruction, he said. The board was also given a run down of construction progress at the schools, as well as future expansion projects as part of the bond referendum, and the board's business administrator, Angelo DeSimone, discussed some of the new technology systems the district is using. Also of note is that there might be a hiccup with the Hawes Special Education Language Arts program not meeting state standards.

It was a mixed week for high school sports. The girls volleyball team really put the screws to an overmatched Kearney team, but the boys football team just could not keep pace with the bigger, faster, stronger and defending national champion Iron Men of Don Bosco. The boys soccer team lost a shootout to perenial hotshots Ramapo, and the girls also lost a heartbreaker to the Lady Raiders, losing in the last two minutes of an extremely exciting game. The girls recovered to defeat Passaic County Technical School 3-0.

Of course, much more happened throughout the week. Go through the news tab to see the full gamut of what we've covered.

Our new column, About Town, was updated at least twice a day during the workweek and it's been a very, very popular feature on the site. I want to thank my freelancer Linda Lynwander for her excellent work helping keep it together (it demands a lot more time, patience and work than it might seem) and all of the users who have been commenting, sending e-mails and reading the column.

Please, if there are other things you think are interesting going on in town and it may not necessarily be a full fleshed-out news story but is interesting nonetheless, please shoot me an e-mail at james.kleimann@patch.com