In order for our residents and other readers of the Suburban Trends to get a true understanding of the events and occurrences in Riverdale as reported in the newspaper, we will attempt to correct their mistakes, misrepresentations and typographical errors. We understand that we all make mistakes, but those presented in the media as facts tend to cause disproportionate confusion among the citizenry.
"All successful newspapers are ceaselessly querulous and bellicose. They never defend anyone or anything if they can help it; if the job is forced on them, they tackle it by denouncing someone or something else." H.L. Mencken
On Monday evening, at a meeting of the Riverdale Mayor and Council, Christopher Scilingo, a U.S. Marine, who just returned from Iraq for a two week visit, was honored for his service to our country. All the newspapers and electronic media were notified. Certificates of Appreciation were presented to Chris on behalf of the Mayor and Council and our representatives from the 26th Legislative District, Senator Robert Martin, Assemblymen Alex DeCroce and Joseph Pennachio. A letter of congratulations and an invitation to receive a service medal was read on behalf of the Morris County Freeholders.
Unfortunately, the only print media we have seen was the Trends. I don't know what is worse, ignoring the story or treating it as something so insignificant that it is considered no more than a "by-the-way" story - a filler. See for yourself if this story deserved more than given it by the Trends. Iraqi Freedom War Veteran
If you would like to see some of the photos taken that evening check them out on our website, the homepage under Welcome Home, Chris Scilingo, or Chris Scilingo Photo Album
Subject: That's It?
This is a copy of an email I received from a member of the Recreation Committee. So you see, dear editors, I am not the only one who perceives this inadequacy in your news coverage when it comes to Riverdale.
"The Trends never ceases to amaze me when it comes to coverage of Rec stuff in Riverdale. If anyone saw the Trends this morning, Fright Night only got one picture of a Carved Pumpkin by the DJ Stand. I saw, met, and spoke to the Trends Photographer Saturday who was snapping away and still, Rec only gets one pic in the paper. Other towns will get an entire page for their event! Oh well....congratulations to him who carved the pumpkins shown in the picture!!" (Rob Schrock).
"TCR project may be DOA" claimed the front page headline in the Trends.
Where to begin?
Trends: "...the developers refused to sign the contract because they did not want to pay a $3.6 million connection fee."
FACT: $1.6 million
Trends: "This $3.6 million was determined by a state formula, the mayor said. 'At $25 a gallon, they are buying 144,000 gallons.'"
FACT: The $3.6 million dollars represents the cost to be paid to Lincoln Park for the purchase of the 144,000 gallons for TCR. It is not a state formula, merely free market pricing.
TCR said after the meeting that they would sign the contract.
Throughout July and August the Borough of Riverdale provided free Summer Concerts in the Park. We had professional recording artists, including the Shirelles, perform in Freedom Park. Thousands attended the seven concert series, but to the Trends it was a non-event.
On Saturday, August 25, the Fire Department celebrated its 100th Anniversary, which included the memorial dedication to one of our fallen heroes, "Papa" Joe Ezzo. That date happened to be the 25th anniversary of his death. His family was here to take part in the service. No story in the Trends.
On that day a lamp post was dedicated to Fireman Daniel Sturm, Jr. for his 50 years of service to the department. His family was there to witness his proud moment. No story in the Trends.
See for yourself some of the photos from this memorable day:
Fire Department's 100th Anniversary
They did it again! The Riverdale feature in this edition was a photo, Nice Yard. We finally get a positive photo in the Trends, but they couldn't even get the caption correct! (There was no accompanying story, just the photo and caption.) The caption read, "The Riverdale Recreation Department held a best garden contest and the winner was June Carello and Russ Maria of 25 Cotluss Road. Carello and Maria can both be seen outside tending to their yard almost every day."
Two (?) mistakes:
It is not June Carello, the correct spelling is Carelli.
More importantly, it isn't a picture of June Carello-Carelli. It is a photo of Elfriede and Russ Maria. They are the ones who work on their yard almost every day. As far we are aware June Carelli, our Recreation Director, has never been known to work on the Maria's yard ever, let alone almost every day. June was not even present when the picture was taken, but if the Trends can find a way to get something wrong, it does.
Photo of Elfriede and Russ Maria
Riverdale Board of Health Chairman Larry Feld had responded, by way of a letter to the editor, to a Trends article that did not present a balanced representation of the facts and the deliberations supporting the Board's decision to take part in the shared nursing services with the Township of Pequannock. The Borough of Riverdale had no intention of eliminating or reducing public health nursing to its residents; the Board merely decided to find an alternative way, at a savings of $24,000 per year, to meet its state mandates. Since the Trends, whose editor personally assured Mr. Feld that his letter would be printed, has, for whatever reason, unilaterally determined that the letter was non-newsworthy, the Borough is making this forum available to our chairman to inform the residents of Riverdale of this important decision.
Chairman Larry Feld's Letter to the Editor of the Trends
A story entitled: "Nurse says seniors helped save her job" had its usual amount of errors.
Trends: Referred to Board of Health Chairman Larry Fled.
FACT: His name is Larry Feld
Trends: "The borough would have saved slightly less than $9,330 by eliminating this position and leaning upon Pequannock for its registered nurse services through a joint contract with that town."
FACT: The borough would have saved $24,000 per year by contracting with Pequannock for the nursing services.
Trends: "Decreasing the hours saved just over $3,000 per year."
FACT: Decreasing the hours would have saved the borough $5,000 for the remainder of this year or $11,000 per full year.
While perusing the last two issues the reader gets the impression that just about every community had a Memorial Day Parade, except for Riverdale. Since the Trends claims to be At the Center of Your Community, one would gather that Riverdale went parade-less. The Truth is we did have a parade, the first one in nearly twenty years, which should make it a newsworhty event. June Carelli, our Recreation Director, put it together and we are extremely grateful for her and her committee's work. Jame McMichael organized his last Memorial Day Ceremony; he's "retiring". With his entire family present, he was given a Certificate of Appreciation from the Mayor and Council and presented an American Flag that was flown above the U.S. Capitol, sent to us by Congressman Rodney Frelinghuysen.
If the Trends had sent a reporter and photographer to Riverdale, these are some of the sights you would have seen (just click below):
Memorial Day Parade - Page 1 Memorial Day Parade - Page 2
To see photos from the Memorial Day Ceremony click:
Memorial Day Ceremony
This is the section of today's Trends preparing for Memorial Day. Apparently they could not find pictures more worthy in honor of those who gave their lives if defense of our country. Click the prompt below to view a picture the Trends chose instead of any of those available on our website.* Trends' Photo
Click the prompt below and view photos of our monument dedicated to Riverdale's fallen heros. Riverdale's War Memorial
To view the photos in the Riverdale Photo Album, just click below:
Photo Album
Additional Photos
*They could have used some of the photos from our website, since they obviously don't mind plagiarizing material. On Page D2, the notice, Parade, is taken verbatim from our website. It is said that imitation is the highest form of flattery. We are flattered.
All news worth printing is in the Trends each week. Since there is no news about Riverdale these past two issues, nothing of note must have happened in Riverdale.
A News Brief, Senior Center Fees is, non-editorially speaking, incorrect.
TRENDS: The revised ordinance prohibits non-residents, individuals, groups, and organizations from using the center for private functions.
FACT: This is a new ordinance, not revised. The ordinance reads: § 159-2. Use of the Senior Community Center by private groups, organizations, or individuals shall be subject to rules and regulations established by the Mayor and Borough Council and it shall be a violation of this Ordinance and the failure to comply with the rules and regulations shall be a violation of this Ordinance. There is no mention of prohibiting anyone from using the center for private funcitons. The Borough is encouraging the private use of the facility for private functions, which is one of the original reasons for the center.
Not expecting much from the Trends, we weren't disappointed. Maybe the relevant news will make the paper before it is too late. See ya' Sunday!
There is an entire story about the school's budget presentation on March 28 in this issue of the Trends. Unfortunately, for those interested in getting the entire story, the reporter, who wrote the article, wasn't at the meeting. Discussions of critical importance to the taxpayers of Riverdale were obviously omitted. It is hard to accurately report the news when you aren't where the news is happening. Let's hope that the next issue of the Trends fills in the missing blanks.
Today's paper had no news reports concerning Riverdale; therefore there were no mistakes in today's newspaper. Check back on Sunday.
We don't understand this. We appoint new patrolmen to the Police Department, we award time of service awards to employees, we have free concerts in the park during the summer, we have an Easter Egg Hunt, we have a Fright Night for Halloween, we present service awards to residents for donating time and expertise to the Borough, we swore in two councilpersons at our reorganization meeting this year, we have young men receiving their Eagle Scout award, we open a new Senior Community Center, we do all this and a lot more. Hardly any of these events make the news, but almost never do we see a photograph of the events. So what did the Trends put on the front page of today's paper? A picture of a pile of dirt!
TRENDS: Throughout the article the reporter referred to Sam Dideo.
FACT: His name is Dedio. This is the family name of the former mayor, who served this town for more than 25 years. You would think they would have had his name in spell check by now.
This newspaper never ceases to amaze us.
TRENDS: "A proposed ordinance to rezone 102 acres remains in limbo.
"...The council sent the ordinance to the Planning Board for review, but planners bounced back to the council for further recommendations."
FACT: Nothing is in limbo. The Planning Board did not bounce anything back to the Council. The Planning Board did review the ordinance and recommended to the Council for the adoption of the ordinance as written. This procedure is required under the New Jersey State Municipal Land Use Law. How the reporter was able to make the above statement is beyond us.
As far as the basic arithmetic concerning the size of acres, potential building capabilities, etc. see the previous corrections.
I would like to think that in the interest of fair play the Trends would find it within itself to contact someone in the Borough to corroborate the wild accusations made by a disgruntled person in the audience. These accusations were made outside of the meeting, giving no one a chance to challenge them.
TRENDS: "There is a 102 acre tract of land on the south side of Route 23....This site is zoned Residential 40, allowing each home to be built on a minimum lot size of 40,000 square feet for a potential 24 single-family dwellings."
FACT: On a site that large, and after subtracting the land needed for roads and other public improvements, the site has a potential building capacity of 81 single-family dwellings! The potential damage to the environment is greater than led to believe by the article.
TRENDS: "...would rezone this portion of the borough to R-120, requiring a minimum lot size of 120,000 square feet, or 3.5 acres."
FACT: 120,000 square feet is in actuality 2.75 acres.
TRENDS: "...but the R-120 zoning would provide space for just eight houses."
FACT: If only it were true! But the zone change would still allow for a potential 27 houses.
In an article on the 100th Anniversary of the Riverdale Volunteer Fire Department the following mistakes were made:
TRENDS: referred to Fireman Bill Dowersox throughout the article.
FACT: His name is Bowersox.
TRENDS: referred to Fire Chief Pat Clearly.
FACT: His name is Cleary.
TRENDS: referred to Fire Department Dispatcher Laura Stern.
FACT: Her name is Laurie Sturm.
TRENDS: referred to the fireman who died in the line of duty as "Poppa" John Ezzo.
FACT: he was known as "Poppa" Joe.
TRENDS: "Taking a future look, the borough expects to double its population with the construction of the 2,500-unit housing complex called the Grand at Riverdale off Route 23 North."
FACT: the approval was for 558 units, no more.
TRENDS: "...said the company has started to use the sodium-chloride mixture..." sodium-chloride was used throughout the article
FACT: The mixture used is liquid calcium chloride.
TRENDS: "This retention pond would hold 25,000 gallons of water."
FACT: It would hold 2,500,000 gallons of water or any other liquid.
TRENDS: "...TCR got preliminary approval to build two 212-unit housing structures..." for a total of 424 units.
FACT: There are four buildings total, for a total of 424 units.
TRENDS: "...the developer requested that the borough provide a waiver for the 9,000 gallon sewage capacity..."
FACT: The project requires 90,000 gallons of sewage capacity.
Trends: The Annual Christmas Wish List: "That Riverdale's infusion of new townhomes doesn't force the borough's school taxes through the roof. The town seems likely to double its population and may have to build a new school if too many school-age children move into town."
FACT: In spite of numerous demographic studies and actual counting of school children from multi-family developments in the area, the Trends continues to beat the drums of fear-mongering to an extent bordering on irresponsible journalism. Demographics predict 1 student for every 10 condominium units. From Rock Creek with its 172 units we have 18 students going to school, K -12.
With nearly 200 units occupied at the Grande in Riverdale we have a total of, as of February 2007, zero school children!
FACT: We have approvals for condominiums, not townhomes as indicated by the editor. Townhouses tend to be larger with families living in them longer before moving to the American Ideal, a single family detached dwelling. Condominiums, on the other hand, tend to be smaller, more like apartments, limited to two bedrooms maximum, which means families with children are less likely to stay in such a dwelling for any period of time.
