Follow up on the "March for Quality Health care"

As about 50 people ascended on Westwood borough hall at 1 p.m. on May 2, the buzz was the march originally intended to go into Ridgewood would instead stop at the Village’s border.

Village of Ridgewood officials delivered a formal letter to Westwood officials stating legal action would be taken if the march made it to its planned destination: The Valley Hospital in Ridgewood.

Westwood Mayor John Birkner said the threat was a violation of the citizen’s constitutional rights. This quote from a speech he gave on the steps of borough hall:

“Yesterday at about 4:40 [p.m.] I got a letter from legal counsel in the Village of Ridgewood. They hired special legal counsel. And what they told me is that if I lead a walk into the Village of Ridgewood today, then they will take any and all legal action against me and you. They’re obstructing our first amendment freedom of speech. How do you like that folks?”

“Boo’s” from the crowd ensued.

Additionally the Mayor was outraged by the response from the Public Relations Team at Valley Hospital.

“Valley Hospital likes to make fun of what we are doing today,” said the Mayor. “They’re poking fun at us. They’re laughing at us .They’re sticking their tongue out at us and they’re laughing. Because they said, ‘Well that just proves that Valley Hospital is within walking distance.’ Well that’s a bunch of bologna because you’ve got to be in pretty darn good shape to walk from here to Valley Hospital. That just is something else."

The walk is 4.8 miles and marchers stopped about two thirds of the way there.

At Valley, a team of hospital leadership were awaiting the marchers with literature and water bottles and did not know that the march had stopped at the border. A Valley hospital representative said this to me:

“We believe that [the march] demonstrated that quality and accessible health care service that we’ve been proud to deliver to the residents of the Pascack Valley community for the past 18-months since the PVH went bankrupt are very close to home and in fact that these services could be accessed today by walking here.”

More to follow.