20230317 - Ridgewood Access Committee Minutes

Ridgewood’s Community ACCESS Committee

Meeting Minutes March 17, 2023

The ZOOM meeting opened at 2:03 pm.

Present: Ines Bunza, Robin Ritter, Siobhan Winograd, Lisa Gardner, Surbhi Kapadia, Deanna Schablik, Joanne Van Sant, Jan Philips, James Ochoa (reporter for TAP), Erica Dunckley

Item 1: Welcome

Ines welcomed everyone to the meeting. Motion to approve by Robin, Seconded by Diana. Motion passed.

Ines introduced James Ochoa to the meeting. He is in a library and is not able to speak.

Item 2: Report of Village Liaison, Siobhan Winograd

SW reached out to Sheri re the bakery. She had been trying to connect with SpecWire who does the art show at the stable - Noelle Cocalesco. Siobhan and Noelle took a road trip to Sheri’s temporary space in Nyack. Commercial kitchen with an upfront bakery on main street. SW was very impressed with her operation. They’re on the stipend program. She assigns jobs to her workers’ strengths. All jobs are meaningful. Different tiers of work. SW brought cookies and T-shirts from there. Wants to find a location in Ridgewood or GR. Sheri is mindful of having housing first and then skill-training jobs. SW sent Sheri’s proposals to the Chamber and to the Guild, which started some great conversations. And to the Parks Committee, the Village Mgr and our lawyer because one of the ideas she had was to possibly use the Schedler House which has a commercial kitchen. SW wanted to bring Sheri down and do a walk-thru but a waiver is needed to bring people in there. SW likes the idea for a couple of reasons: 1) it fits within our parks and rec program, 2) it fits within the essence of ACCESS, and 3) many of the special needs workers don’t drive so parking would not be necessary. Parking is always a big issue in Ridgewood.

She cannot commit to this idea just now because the Village has not made a decision about the future use of Schedler. She has asked Heather to provide her with a blueprint to see if it is possible. And in addition, she and Sheri thought it might be a good idea to expand the commercial kitchen search to Glen Rock as well. She met with another new council member in GR, Paula Gilligan, and they will reconnect and have another field trip in April. Sheri was picked up by NBC News and SW thinks she would fit very nicely with us. She also would like her to meet with Stacey Antine. SW was very excited to meet with her and feels very hopeful that this program would be terrific for Ridgewood’s special needs villagers who now have appropriate housing and could have the potential of satisfying employment. SW encouraged us to go meet with her and see her operation. 

She brought it up at the VC meeting last week. Our lawyer has been very supportive but is a bit nervous that SW will make a commitment but she has assured him that she will not do that. 

During this time SW became aware of several local investors who have a restaurant with a similar business plan in Paris. She mentioned Kathy Jochs who makes specialty baked goods. 

SW said once they get the budget and the floor plan of Schedler, she can move ahead. 

Ines said that Lela Alter is a RE estate and said the space might cost $1,600/mo rent. Right now Sheri pays nothing in her space in Nyack. SW didn’t talk finances with her. She would like to set up a walk-about with her with any other spaces in our area. SW said next steps would be to get GR on board and if anything we could explore with Sheri. And to make a more meaningful connection with the Sheehy’s, based on their marketing material. Ines said that Karen is one of our founding ACCESS members and they are very supportive. Frank is on the board at Valley. SW suggested that when the hospital moves to its Paramus location, Kurth Cottage could be a possibility. SW thinks the most important thing for us as a committee is to be proactive because she would like it to happen here in the village. And Sheri needs to find a space soon. If anyone has a connection please speak up.

Jan Philips says that the SHARE house has 2 kitchens. 

Sheri does have 2 portable ovens. She may be able to bring more capital into an existing kitchen. Her order of importance: Kitchen first, learning trade of baking; ability of workers to interact with the community. She’s very committed to her vision. Re Schedler - it isn’t walkable but maybe could have a tea room in front? 

Joanne visited one in Little Falls too. She wanted to see the business model and observe the operation. It sounds similar to the Nyack operation.

Walkability would be a major plus, especially in Ridgewood or GR. The communities are on-board. The challenge is finding investors and space.

Ines thanked SW for all her hard work. SW was very enthused about the whole experience and will send us the NBC video and link to the Paris restaurant.

Item 3: Treasurer’s Report 

Everything is the same. No change. 

Siobhan asked if we have an auxiliary charity; that if we wanted to do some fund-raising, i.e. have a partner to do it with. Lisa said no, we just go to the banks and restaurants and ask for donations. Lisa will give SW a copy of the solicitation letter that we used for our weekend. 

SW thought that if we could maybe start a little earlier to promote our message, like the American Legion did with their banners on the light posts. Ines said that in the past we always

received much support in the special needs community from the county with Jim Thebery. And maybe that’s where we could use some help. Annika Davis, his successor, has been invited a few times and she did come but didn’t speak. Robin thinks she has been given additional responsibilities at the County level so is doing a lot more outreach, and is spread a little thin.

SW said that she would be happy to help re-establish that relationship. She would be happy to do more outreach for our committee. Maybe we could reach out to the Girl Scouts at the high school who are looking for ideas for their Gold Award. She mentioned the Wheelchair Challenge, where our committee could partner with them and public officials would be in a wheelchair for a day and discuss the issues around that. She asked if she could receive the contact info for Annika and she could reach out to her. And maybe SW could bring the Girl Scouts to our meeting and discuss some of their ideas.

4. Old Business

Ines asked if anyone had something to discuss. Not at this time.

5. New Business

Ines has been having a problem getting an automated return when she sends emails to ridgewoodnj.net. It seems to be hit or miss. Joanne said it’s because there are too many in the to: and also something else Deanna said about external emails. She said Dylan probably put something into place to prevent spam. SW suggested taking a screen shot and send it to SW and she can figure it out.

Ines also wanted to thank Surbhi for her work. ACCESS has traditionally been for our special young adults, and that’s where we focus, and the schools have been handled by the Learning Services HSA. So Surbhi and Ines have been communicating back and forth with emails because the parents of the schoolchildren don’t seem to get information about ACCESS. The way that LSHSA operates is that every school has a representative so that if something happens at the meeting it is reported back to the committee at the individual school. So maybe it would be beneficial for the LSHSA to assign a representative to attend our meetings. Those parents need to have important information about transitioning out of high school. For instance, if their senior accepts a diploma on graduation day they sever their relationship with the school system and they’re basically on their own. The school no longer has an obligation. So then these students can wind up in an inappropriate program because the parents don’t have any idea of where they can send them.

Surbhi said she would be happy to reach out to some of the parents she knows in Learning Services and let them know how she can help them. Mic problems

Deanna Parks and Rec classes: LEAP Program - 12-24 yo Christina Dogherty under Katie Frey’s direction.

Feb - karate program through Special Dragons. TikTok video doing Kung Fu song.

Mar - Art program with students from IHA, ceramics

Apr - Health Barn cooking program for 3 weeks

May - offsite at Unique Athletics in Fair Lawn

June - gardening here with Leslie Kolbec

All programs available through Community Pass. They’re $40-50/month; 5-8 participants in each program. Ridgewood Parks & Rec FB page and on TikTok too.

SW said they also won a State Award! They’re doing a lot more media presence. Deanna was in AC for the awards ceremony. It was about the Stable video. Exciting!

SW asked who the current LSHSA chair is. She asked if we just include them in our minutes even if we don’t know who the chair is. SW said she could invite them to our next meeting. She suggested inviting both the rep from the Glen school and the rep from Federated. Surbhi will do the outreach through the parents. It’s an open meeting so they can come and listen.

Also Ines said that parents may not even know that their children are eligible at 18 to receive Social Security, Medicaid and other services. And the high school doesn’t promote it!

Surbhi came on. She relayed the story of her son who was in the Red program in preschool. He was about to enter the elementary school system. Hearing Ines speak of Doug’s situation leaving RHS brought back her experience leaving Glen. She will reach out to parents and have this dialogue about transitions throughout the system. 

Joanne spoke about community activities in the fall. Community Plaza will be back in place. There will be a Heritage festival in Van Neste Square. Maybe we could coordinate them together in order to give more visibility to ACCESS. We wouldn’t have competing events. October is the “Old World” festival. They will have a stage that we could use for the fashion show. Ines said she should go ahead and include us in her planning.

The meeting ended at 3:08 pm. 

The next ZOOM meeting will be Friday, April 21 at 2:00 pm.