November 5, 2014 THE VILLADOM TIMES II • Page 3 Ridgewood Village, not its water company, donated to teams by John Koster The Ridgewood administration super- vised by the Ridgewood Village Coun- cil, not the Ridgewood Water Company, donated $59,000 to recreational sports groups before Village Manager Roberta Sonenfeld curtailed the technically illegal donations a few weeks ago. The Ridgewood Water Company, as a quasi-separate entity, actually donated $2,000 a year from 2011 to 2014 to vari- ous sports groups for a total of $8,000. Village Manager Sonenfeld, once apprised of the donations and the fact they were technically illegal under state law, curtailed them and last week clarified the actual amounts in writing. The report that the Ridgewood Water Company had donated $59,000 for more than a decade as previously published was incorrect and the actual amount donated was $8,000 over the past four years, as Sonenfeld explained last week. “Municipalities, by state law, cannot make donations to charitable institu- tions,” Sonenfeld said. “There are very few exceptions to this.” “We have been making donations to Social Services of Ridgewood and Vicin- ity. Last year’s contribution was $4,500. We have been making donations to Social Services for over 10 years. This practice will not be continued,” she said. “We have also been providing funds to Children’s Aid and Family Services; last year’s amount was $5,000. In this case, there was a contract that calls for Children’s Aid to provide counseling services to Ridgewood residents during crisis situ- Parents & guardians alerted to ‘surprise’ K-9 operation Ridgewood parents and guardians received written notice that a Ridgewood Police-supervised “surprise” visit from the Bergen County K-9 unit was to be anticipated some time this autumn at a date not known to anyone in the school system. Students will be secured in their aca- demic classrooms during the visit and their interaction with the police and the dog or dogs is not expected. “While it is a drill, any positive find- ings will be handled directly and appro- priately by the Ridgewood High School administration, in accordance with New Jersey statute, board of education policy, and police regulations,” said a letter jointly signed by Superintendent of Schools Dr. Daniel Fishbein and Ridgewood High School Principal Dr. Douglas Gorman. ations. This service has not been widely used and we will not renew this for next year. We have been providing funds to Children’s Aid for over 10 years as well. “In both of the above cases, the context was that these organizations do, in fact, provide services to some Ridgewood resi- dents. “As far as sports teams are concerned: The village has been providing monies to Ridgewood sports teams for over a decade and more -- these teams may be 501c3s or not. The amount of monies provided has decreased over time. Last year, the village gave $3,000 (Ridgewood Soccer $500, Ridgewood Junior Football $500, Ridgewood Lacrosse $500, Ridgewood Biddy Basketball $500, Ridgewood Base- ball/Softball $500, Ridgewood Hoops Club $500). In prior years, the village also provided funding to Ridgewood Junior Wrestling and Ridgewood Roller Hockey. Between 2008 through 2014, sports teams were given approximately $59,000. Again, I think the intent was right-minded as we do run recreational programs for our youth, but to avoid any semblance of 501c3 donations we will stop these contri- butions top the sports teams. (continued on page 6)