Page 2 THE VILLADOM TIMES I, II, III & IV • February 13, 2013 Villadom Happenings Irish Unity Conference to meet th The 5 and 9th Chapter of the Irish American Unity Conference will meet on Wednesday, Feb. 13. The meeting will be held at 7:30 p.m. at Christ Church, 105 Cottage Place in Ridgewood. All are welcome. For information, call (201) 384-7911. The IAUC is a human rights organization working for peace with justice in a reunited Ireland. World Day of Prayer set Church Women United of Ridgewood, Glen Rock and vicinity will host the 2013 World Day of Prayer on Friday, March 1 at Upper Ridgewood Community Church in Ridgewood. A potluck luncheon will begin at 11:30 a.m. followed by the prayer service at 1 p.m. Participants are asked to bring a favorite main course, vegetable, salad, or dessert to share. Beverages will be provided. World Day of Prayer is a worldwide ecumenical movement of Christian women of many faith traditions who come together to observe a common day of prayer on the first Friday in March. Observers gather to pray at services all over the world, from sunrise to the last rays of the setting sun. This year’s service is written by the women of France who have chosen the theme, “I was a stranger and you welcomed me.” The committee looks for a Christian response to struggles concerning immigration. The Upper Ridgewood Community Church is located at the corner of Fairmount and Hillcrest Roads in Ridgewood. For more information, contact Laurie Degerdon at (201) 444-0168 or Barbara Dexter at (201) 444-9389. Beefsteak Dinner to benefit Children’s Retreat The Eastern Christian Children’s Retreat will host its Annual Beefsteak Dinner & Special Auction on Tuesday, March 5 at the Brownstone in Paterson. The evening will begin at 6:30 p.m. and feature food, an auction, and prizes. The event will benefit the Eastern Christian Children’s Retreat, a non-profit organization providing residential programs and services for individuals with developmental disabilities. The retreat has facilities in Wyckoff, North Haledon, Hawthorne, and Midland Park. To attend the beefsteak, or to donate tickets, call (201) 848-8005 or visit info@eccretreat.org. Tickets are $60. Find your New Jersey ancestors GSNJ newsletter editor Melissa Johnson will present “Researching Your New Jersey Ancestors” to the Genealogical Society of Bergen County on Monday, Feb. 25. The program will be held at the Ridgewood Public Library at 125 North Maple Avenue in Ridgewood at 7:30 p.m. Johnson’s discussion will include information about The six original members of the Northwest Bergen County Utilities Authority have begun the formal process for trying to reclaim the moneys they paid into the authority debt service reserve when it was organized in 1965. Representatives of the six municipalities - Allendale, Ho-Ho-Kus, Midland Park, Ramsey, Waldwick and the Township of Wyckoff - met recently and agreed to jointly hire legal and bond counsel to determine what their rights are. “We went over the background involved and are now knee deep in fact finding to gather the information we need,” said Waldwick’s Borough Administrator Gary Kratz. Waldwick has taken the lead role in the effort to recover the funds. Waldwick’s Borough Attorney Craig Bossong said they are awaiting information from the sewer authority in regards to the establishment and use of the bond reserve fund as well as the financing history throughout the years. Several bonds have been issued since the initial bond sale and research will determine if and whether the language in the successor bonds affects the original bond. The information will then be turned over to the bond counsel, Steve Rogut of Cranford, for an opinion. Rogut is presently the bond counsel for all the affected municipalities except Waldwick, so he was a natural to be assigned this project, Kratz said. Towns united in sewer fact finding “We are trying to resolve this amicably. Everyone is being very cooperative,” Kratz said. “We are trying to determine how exactly the reserve was funded and what it can be utilized for,” he said. As much as $22 million may be at stake. The six towns put up the original funds, and now that the bonds have all matured, the towns want their money back with interest. The NWBUA plans to use some of the money to fund current capital improvements and to offset future rate increases. The utilities authority’s 2013 operating budget includes a $2,962,535 transfer from the debt service reserve “to be used to fund capital projects ($850,000) and to support a 2 percent reduction in annual charges to members ($274,571). In addition $1,598,983 will be reserved to stabilize future municipal service charges. The balance will be utilized to offset decreases from other revenues sources.” The six original funding towns object to late comers to the authority benefitting from the reserve funds without having contributed to its establishment, in essence punishing the original contributors, according to Kratz. The current members, in addition to the six original towns, are Franklin Lakes, Mahwah, Ridgewood, Saddle River and Upper Saddle River. The goal of the founding municipalities is to have the unencumbered debt service reserve funds returned directly to only those communities that contributed based upon each community’s level of contribution. narrowing and/or blockage of the coronary arteries, resulting in a heart attack. Join Marcus Williams, M.D., cardiologist with The Valley Hospital, and learn the recommendations for this screening, what is involved, what the results mean, and the treatment options available if the test score comes back high. Registration is required. For more information, and to register, call 1-800-VALLEY 1 or visit www.valleyhealth. com/events. Space is limited. (continued on page 26) records available at the New Jersey State Archives and Department of Health; county, state, and municipal records at the New Jersey State Archives; New Jersey court records, including divorce records; Rutgers University Library, including GSNJ’s collections; and the holdings of New Jersey religious repositories like Seton Hall in South Orange and the Methodist Archives in Madison. She will also discuss state publications past and present, other lesser-known resources, online resources, and a few outof-state resources that pertain to New Jersey, including the Presbyterian Archives in Philadelphia, which has records for churches in the United States. This program is are free and open to the public. For more information, visit www.njgsbc.org. Learn about the Coronary Calcium Score The Valley Hospital Community Health Education Department will host “What Is the Coronary Calcium Score?” on Thursday, Feb. 28, at 7 p.m. This free program will be held at The Valley Hospital Conference Center, 223 North Van Dien Avenue in Ridgewood. The coronary calcium score test detects calcium deposits in atherosclerotic plaque, which can lead to dangerous