Glenn Carter and OceanFirst Bank’s Robin Fitzmaurice at the Mayor’s Ball at the Oyster Point Hotel in 2018. (Photo by John T. Ward. Click to enlarge)
By JOHN T. WARD
A familiar face has been hired to run Red Bank RiverCenter, the downtown promotion organization: former borough planning director Glenn Carter.
Laura Kirkpatrick addressing the Red Bank council in March, 2020. (Photo by John T. Ward. Click to enlarge)
[See UPDATE below]
By JOHN T. WARD
For the second time in just 17 months, the downtown promotion organization Red Bank RiverCenter is losing its executive director.
After just one, pandemic-filled year, Laura Kirkpatrick has resigned as operational head of the agency that manages the borough’s special improvement district, redbankgreen has learned.
Among the many events organizers hope to bring back in 2021: the Red Bank Classic 5k, slated for June 19. A list of event dates is up for approval by the council. (Photo by John T. Ward. Click to enlarge.)
By JOHN T. WARD
Red Bank’s borough council meets with a busy agenda of financing actions, hirings and more Wednesday.
There’s also something missing, though numerous commenters have demanded it: changes to the meeting protocol covering… public comment.
It’ll go down as the pandemic parade, but the 73rd annual Red Bank Halloween Parade held Sunday was a delight for hundreds of kids and kids at heart.
Check out redbankgreen‘s photos from the event below
The annual Red Bank Halloween Parade is on for Sunday, October 25, though COVID-19 will take a bite out of the festivities. (Photo by John T. Ward. Click to enlarge.)
Two weeks after they were announced, six paid-admission concerts over the next two Saturdays in Red Bank’s Riverside Gardens Park have been cancelled.
The Weeklings, who’ve performed at past food festivals in town, will get a starring slot at a concert in Riverside Gardens Park. (Photo by John T. Ward. Click to enlarge.)
By JOHN T. WARD
The sun has set on the possibility that downtown Red Bank will host one or maybe even two food festivals this autumn.
Instead, business promotion agency RiverCenter has put six outdoor concerts on the district’s dance card – but you’ll have to pay to attend.
The plan calls for a new parking lot on the former site of the Marine Park tennis courts. (Image by CME Associates. Click to enlarge.)
By JOHN T. WARD
A new parking lot in Red Bank’s Marine Park is among the topics slated for discussion by the council Wednesday night.
So is an issue put on hold five months ago: increasing the hours of paid parking downtown.
The traditional summer-ending Fair Haven Firemen’s Fair has been canceled, volunteer fire company President Jim Cerruti announced Tuesday.
The annual Guinness Oyster Fest in September could be followed just three weeks later by the International Beer, Wine & Food Fest, usually held in April. (Photo by John T. Ward. Click to enlarge.)
By JOHN T. WARD
With a calendar decimated by the COVID-19 crisis, Red Bank appears to be in for an unusually quiet summer.
But as summer edges into autumn, two of the town’s largest annual food festivals could occur within three weeks of one another, redbankgreen has learned.
Here’s a lookahead at the pandemic’s impacts on the summer calendar.
Laura Kirkpatrick addressing the Red Bank council Wednesday night. (Photo by John T. Ward. Click to enlarge)
By JOHN T. WARD
Laura Kirkpatrick has been named executive director of Red Bank RiverCenter, the semi-autonomous agency that manages the borough’s special improvement district.
The study is to examine traffic and on-street parking downtown. (Photo by John T. Ward. Click to enlarge.)
By JOHN T. WARD
Expect the Red Bank council to initiate a proposed ban on mass balloon releases at its next regular meeting Wednesday night.
Also on deck: the award of a contract for a traffic study.
Jim Scavone, left, with Mayor Pasquale Menna and Visitors Center director Margaret Mass at the opening of RiverCenter’s offices on Broad Street in October, 2018. (Photo by John T. Ward. Click to enlarge)
By JOHN T. WARD
Jim Scavone, who led Red Bank RiverCenter for the past six years, is leaving the downtown promotion organization.
He won’t be going far, though: he’s taking a job at Hackensack Meridian Health at Riverview Medical Center, just on the edge of special improvement district he managed.
Campaign balloons given out at the 2014 Halloween Parade prompted complaints that the event was being politicized. (Photo by John T. Ward. Click to enlarge.)
By JOHN T. WARD
The Red Bank council may soon take up a proposed ban on mass balloon releases, its members agreed at their workshop meeting Wednesday night.
Sunshine and feels-like temperatures around 80 degrees put thousands of visitors in a dancing, eating and drinking mood at the 10th annual Guinness Oyster Festival in Red Bank Sunday.
This year’s event, held as always in the White Street parking lot, raised funds for three Red Bank-based benefactors: Monmouth Day Care Center, T. Thomas Fortune House, and Red Bank RiverCenter, the event sponsor.
Were you there? Look for yourself and your friends in redbankgreen‘s photos. (Photos by John T. Ward. Click to enlarge)
The mild, sunny weather that’s ushered autumn 2019 onto the Greater Red Bank Green will continue through the coming weekend and well into next week, according to the National Weather Service.
That sets the stage for one of Red Bank’s biggest festivals, the Guinness Oysterfest, which gets its tenth annual staging Sunday. Temperatures are expected to peak in the mid-70s when headliners Almost U2 and The Weeklings take the stages at the opposite ends of the municipal parking lot.
Check out the extended forecast below. (Photos by John T. Ward. Click to enlarge.) More →
Except for a few punchlist items, a four-month, $1.53 million streetscape project in downtown Red Bank is now completed, according to business promotion agency Red Bank RiverCenter.
What’s Going On Here? Read on.
A summer-long streetscape project in downtown Red Bank neared completion this week. But it will take one last, extended disruption to get there, says Red Bank RiverCenter.
What’s Going On Here? Read on.
Heavy construction equipment began tearing up one end of White Street in Red Bank Monday morning. What’s Going On Here? Read on.
A shot from the Red Bank Centennial parade held May 17, 2008. (Photo by John T. Ward. Click to enlarge.)
By JOHN T. WARD
If it seems like ages since Red Bank had a parade other than its annual Halloween costumefest, well yeah. Was the last civic parade really 11 years ago, to mark the borough’s first century as an independent entity?
The Parks and Rec department hopes to end the dry spell by bringing back a lost tradition two weeks from today: the Memorial Day parade.
The International Beer, Wine & Food Fest scheduled for Sunday in Red Bank has been cancelled in the face of a forecast of heavy rain in the afternoon. There’s no rain date.
The plan calls for a new parking area on the current site of tennis courts, shown at upper left, and a new entry plaza, at lower left. (Photo by John T. Ward. Click to enlarge.)
By JOHN T. WARD
Red Bank’s Marine Park would lose its clay tennis courts to a parking lot in exchange for new green space under a concept plan informally adopted by the council Wednesday night.
A consultant hired last year by Red Bank to reimagine the future of Marine Park is scheduled to unveil a new concept plan Wednesday night. (Photo by John T. Ward. Click to enlarge.)
Red Bank RiverCenter brought bit of seasonal sparkle downtown Sunday with its first-ever Winter on Broad Street event, which included a portable ice rink and giant snowglobe for family-sized selfies. Check out redbankgreen‘s photos. (Photo by John T. Ward. Click to enlarge.)
A blustery, chilly autumn afternoon provided ideal conditions for the the 71st annual Red Bank Halloween Parade Sunday.
Check out redbankgreen‘s photos from the event below to see who you recognize, or sort-of…