An aerial view of the Red Bank Senior Center property, located at 80 Shrewsbury Avenue. (Photo from Google Maps. Click to enlarge.)

By JOHN T. WARD

Following what one critic called “the old switcheroo,” Red Bank’s soon-to-be-unseated council pushed through a measure to include the Senior Center property in a state conservation program Wednesday night.

The 11th-hour, unadvertised move was opposed by Mayor Billy Portman and at least four members of the council that’s slated to take office July 1, setting the stage for possible reversal.

According to the agenda posted Monday, the council was expected to introduce an ordinance to deed-restrict the Senior Center property, at 80 Shrewsbury Avenue. The restrictions were aimed at barring development of the portion of the site that abuts the the Swimming River.

The expected action appeared consistent with a June 5 planning board rejection of another attempt to preserve the waterfront portion: designating it as a new tax-map lot it and placing it on the borough’s Recreation and Open Spaces Inventory, or ROSI.

Board members had said that approach would cede too much control of the site to the New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection, when other conservation tools would not.

But residents arriving at Wednesday’s sparsely attended council session learned of a late addition to the agenda: resolution 23-164, which would instead place the entire property on the ROSI.

The resolution was not included when the online agenda was amended at 4:06 p.m., suggesting it was added afterward. redbankgreen, which attended the meeting via Zoom, was unable to obtain the text of the measure before publication.

Residents Linda Hill of McLaren Street and former councilmember Cindy Burnham, of Wallace Street, spoke in favor of the full-site ROSI addition as necessary to ensure the property does not get sold in the future.

But, rising from the audience, four councilpersons-elect – Kristina Bonatakis, Nancy Facey-Blackwood, Ben Forest and Laura Jannone – pushed back.

The four, along with Portman and fellow council members Kate Triggiano. and David Cassidy, will be seated July 1 when a new form of government is organized.

Bonatakis and Facey-Blackwood both addressed what they termed a long-running “conspiracy theory,” that there’s a secret plan to sell the site.

“There’s no one in this town that would like to see the Senior Center sold,” said Facey-Blackwood. “Personally, I don’t think this is a good use of government time. I don’t think its effective and efficient to support a conspiracy theory.”

Branch Avenue resident Stephen Hecht did not get an answer when he asked who had placed the resolution on the agenda. None of the three council members in attendance – Ed Zipprich, John Jackson and Jacqueline Sturdivant – responded, or commented on the measure. All three voted in favor of its adoption.

“Nobody has the integrity to stand up and say they did it,” said Hecht, who referred to the late addition as “the old switcheroo.”

Councilman Michael Ballard, who had pushed for the subdivision and ROSI listing, was absent, as were members Angela Mirandi and Triggiano.

Ballard, Jackson, Sturdivant and Hill were on the losing Red Bank Together slate in the in the May 9 election. Zipprich, who was honored at the meeting with a proclamation for 15 years of council service, opted not to seek another term.

Portman said he was “less concerned” about placing the site on the ROSI than “the process. This last-minute addition to the agenda is just not the way we want to do things anymore.”

When the incoming council slate headed by Portman ran, “this was the change we were talking about,” he added. “We’re just not going to do things this way anymore. It’s secretive, it’s not transparent, and I don’t think it reflects the will of the voters of Red Bank.”

The council has one final, regularly scheduled meeting, on June 28, under the “borough” form of government that’s been in place since 1908. The new “council-manager” form is to begin July 1.

If you value the news coverage provided by redbankgreen, please become a financial supporter for as little as $1 per month. Click here to set your own level of monthly or annual contribution.