Ridgewood October 19, 2011 THE VILLADOM TIMES II • Page 7 Village to reach out to O’Toole on flooding issue by John Koster Ridgewood Mayor Keith Killion told residents with flooding problems that he and other village officials will meet with State Senator Kevin O’Toole and ask him to convince the New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection that at least some dredging in Ho-Ho-Kus Brook is mandatory to protect nearby homes. “I don’t want to see that water moving at 100 miles an hour -- I don’t want to see Niagara Falls -- but I want to see it moving,” Mayor Killion said at last week’s council meeting. Resident Boyd Loving asked to be informed as to the hours of Senator O’Toole’s visit, now scheduled for Oct. 26, so he and other residents can be on hand to offer advice, instead of merely picketing and waving placards. “When I know, you’ll know,” Mayor Killion told Loving. The DEP had previously indicated that dredging of Ho-Ho-Kus Brook was not an option either for their own crews or for Ridgewood because, in theory, dredging the Ridgewood section of the brook could increase flooding farther downstream in Glen Rock and other communities. Killion, after looking at photographs shown by residents during the first part of the council meeting, said that while dredging the entire length of the brook might not be an option, the removal of sandbar islands and fallen trees that block the flow of water and contribute to local flooding of yards and homes made perfectly good sense, and he hoped to convince O’Toole to explain that to the DEP. Mayor Killion also said that senior citizen activities for the remainder of 2011 had been relocated to the Ridgewood Christian Reformed Church, which offered its space to the seniors because the senior citizen and youth facilities on the first floor of Ridgewood Village Hall had been so heavily flood damaged that they are in need of permanent and flood-resistant repair and refurbishment. The flooding was the result of Hurricane Irene.