Fair Lawn Opens Memorial Pool to Ridgewood Residents with Disabilities

With work on a handicap ramp at Graydon Pool not expected to begin until at least the fall, Fair Lawn officials have opened up the borough's sandbottom pool this summer to Ridgewood residents with physical challenges.

At a public forum on Monday, DEP officials told village officials and residents that they have yet to sign off on a controversial handicap ramp to Graydon. The ramp has been the subject of intense debate for several years.

The council voted late last year to  at the 2.6 acre site. But the DEP process has been frought with delays.

Ridgewood residents with physical challenges will still have the option to spend a day at a beach in Bergen County thanks to neighbors in Fair Lawn.

"The Council discussed the fact that the accessible ramp at Ridgewood’s Graydon Pool has been delayed, and I am happy to report that there was unanimous consensus to allow disabled residents from Ridgewood and their families to use Memorial Pool this swim season," Mayor John Cosgrove wrote in a letter to Ridgewood Mayor Paul Aronsohn on Wednesday.

Non-resident family rates at Memorial Pool are $325; individual membership at $160; senior membership at $95; and daily rates per guest on weekdays at $10 and $20 on weekends.

Supporters and detractors of the Graydon ramp each turned out Monday night. Supporters of the ramp said they were "embarrassed" and "outraged" that there's been such strong opposition to the ramp.

Detractors, many being members of grassroots group Preserve Graydon Coalition, have maintained there are better ways to develop accessibility options, while also expressing concerns the ramp would destroy Graydon's historic beauty.

Historic Preservation Committee Chairman Art Wrubel also wrote a letter opposing the ramp.

"No one is against accessibility," village resident Sally Brandes saidMonday, according to The Record. "It is too long for people who have other disabilities, other than those in wheelchairs, and it takes away from Graydon."

Though the village won't have the ramp in tow by summer but are expected to have Mobi-Mat and the Mobi Chair.