Page 4 THE VILLADOM TIMES II • August 8, 2012 Ridgewood Fire department earns Class 2 rating, savings expected by John Koster Ridgewood Fire Chief James Van Goor told the Ridgewood Village Council that an upgrade in the municipality’s fire protection ratings will lead to eventual savings in insurance costs in addition to peace of mind for residents and business owners. “Having a Class 2 fire department should give the residents a feeling of security and a greater peace of mind,” Chief Van Goor told the council at last week’s work session. “This achievement has not come without hard work from village employees.” The chief said Village Manager Ken Gabbert called on him to brainstorm what measures the village could institute to achieve a lower rating. “With improvements in the fire department operations and help from Eric Fooder from the village water department and Jack Tancos from Central Dispatch, the fire department reapplied to the ISO (Insurance Service Organization) and was awarded a Class 2 rating,” Van Goor continued. The chief explained that a Class 2 rating is the second highest rating available. On a national basis, a Class 2 rating is considered excellent -- and quite rare. He explained that the ISO assigns a Public Protection Classification from Class 1 to Class 10, with Class 1 being the highest and Class 10 being the lowest rating. The Insurance Service Organization, Chief Van Goor said, evaluated 47,242 communities nationwide and only 592 were rated as Class 2, while only 61 communities in the entire nation rated as Class 1. In New Jersey, where the ISO rated 668 communities, only 10 communities received a Class 2 rating and only a single community -- Hoboken -- earned a Class 1 rating. “This accomplishment has placed the Ridgewood Fire Department as one of the top 11 fire departments in New Jersey,” Chief Van Goor said. “A community’s investment in fire protection is a proven and reliable predictor of future fire losses. Statistical data on insurance losses proves that there is a relationship between excellent fire protection and low fire losses. Not only does a lower clas- sification lower the insurance rate for homeowners and businesses, it also justifies the investment that the village has put into fire protection.” The Ridgewood Fire Department presently has 39 paid firefighters who man the firehouses, backed by volunteers who turn out as available. The chief said the status change will become official Sept. 1, and insurance calculations should be effective some time afterward. Members of the Ridgewood Village Council and the public were pleased to hear that the insurance rate would be decreasing due to the excellent evaluation. Village declares surplus, plans for revenue The Ridgewood Village Council officially designed some used equipment as surplus so the equipment could be sold to the highest bidder -- and could bring in some revenue for Ridgewood. At the Aug. 1 work session, the council designated two municipal cars and five water company cars as surplus because, as Village Manager Ken Gabbert explained, the odometers suggested that future repairs would become more expensive than the outright replacement of the cars. Gabbert also successfully recommended the declaration of two telephone booths as surplus so they might be offered for sale instead of discarded as junk. “What’s great is that one of them actually has Superman stuck in the booth,” Gabbert joked, alluding to the 1950s television show. The proliferation of cell phones has obviated the need for telephone booths as public appurtenances. Fire Chief James Van Goor, who had explained earlier at the same meeting that Ridgewood would eventually achieve some savings on insurance because the department’s insurance status had been upgraded, agreed that two refrigerators at the firehouse, one of them 22 years old, could also be added to the surplus list. J. KOSTER Resident approves of stream clearance work Ridgewood resident Paul Woodburn praised some of the stream clearance work that Public Service Electric & Gas and Ridgewood have done at the Ho-Ho-Kus Brook, but added that the combination of natural goose droppings and manmade plastic grass is unpleasant. “The PSE&G right of way had been cleared of logs that had been there since (Tropical Storm) Floyd,” Woodburn told the Ridgewood Village Council on Aug. 1 with approval. He added, however, that a log that has been lodged against a footbridge near Veterans Field since Hurricane Irene is still in place, and said he would like that timber removed before it breaks up during a subsequent storm and is carried down to other bridges by the current. “We would like to get that cleared up,” he said. “We don’t want it to crack during the next flood and hit the next bridge, or the one by the high school.” Woodburn also commented on another issue. He noted that when about 40 Canada geese leave their droppings on the artificial turf field, the droppings do not turn into natural fertilizer as they eventually do, but instead remain on the surface. Members of the council were pleased that he was happy with results stream cleaning so far, and said they would look into the other matter. J. KOSTER