July 15th, 2025 Council Meeting Blog
Hey Ringwood! Check out what happened at July’s Council meeting!
We have received over $173,000 in grant money thus far this year.
Since we were not awarded the ADA compliant bus grant last year, we reapplied for the grant. We hope for a better outcome this year.
We received a Fire prevention grant which means we have an allowance for free smoke detectors, and CO2 monitors for our residents!
We are applying for the Cops Now grant, a Federal grant, which awards $125k over a 3 year period to help us cover the cost of a new officer. (Note: The grant must have us keep the officer on staff for at least 5 years.)
There has been a problem at Hewitt school with their water, the well at Hewitt is antiquated and sometimes shuts down. The Borough has been working on installing a water line to remedy the issue. There will be 800 feet of water lines along Sloatsburg Road plus two fire hydrants. This costs $130k for DPW to do the work instead of the water company having a contractor do it for $300k. This saves our BOE substantial amount of money and the BOE will be paying for it.
We are happy to announce that the Affordable Housing case has been resolved. There will not be any affordable housing built on Skyline Drive. We took the necessary steps to avoid being sued by a builder who would have sought to force Ringwood into building high-density housing.
Skyline Drive Closure- There was a recent overturned truck filled with meat on Skyline Drive. The truck was not in compliance with Skyline weight limits, and shouldn’t have been on Skyline Drive. The trucking company was issued multiple violations by the police dept, paid for cleaning it up, and for a tow. A special cleaning company had to come and clean it up with the assistance of the Passaic County Health Department, the DPW, Police, and the Sheriff’s Department. Borough Manager, Scott Heck is working with our attorney to ensure the trucking company pays for expenses incurred as a result of this incident.
Azarian Update:
We are planning another town hall meeting, which will provide update on the revitalization.
A new chiropractor and an acupuncturist are planning on moving into the shopping center.
Stonetown Ball Field/Turf Field Update:
At first, Ringwood was denied a turf field at Hewitt due to the natural wetlands which exist near the field.
The Borough then designed a new field at Stonetown, but there are also wetlands infringing on this property.
Mr. Heck had a recent and productive call with engineers to re-evaluate the plans to upgrade the Stonetown Ball Field and playground area.
We would like to thank Kristen Holton and everyone else that made our new concert series, Concert in the Woods possible. The first band played this past week and we had a great turnout! Our concert series is a free public event. We look forward to seeing you there! Remember to bring your chairs!
You can find the concert series schedule here: https://www.ringwoodnj.net/qcontent/NewsFeed.aspx?FeedID=1640
We would also like to thank Wendy Stanford for her many years of service as a librarian and we would like to congratulate her on her retirement. We are preparing a proclamation for her at our next meeting in August.
Councilwoman Echols attended the open space and farmland meeting. The county’s open space grant for $150k grant was approved for our Stonetown playground.
Councilman Kiraly wants to look into an E-bikes educational grant. He wants our youth to be educated in e-bike safety training including helmets, reflectives, and overall riding safety.
We would like to congratulate Councilman Rubacky for earning a congressional Hometown Hero award for Ringwood! Mayor Matteo-Landis and Deputy Mayor Kerr attended Josh Gottheimer’s 5th District Hometown Hero presentation where Councilman Rubacky was celebrated.
