RED BANK: PAVING TO CLOSE ROAD OVERNIGHT
One of Red Bank’s main east-west thorughfares is up for repaving this week, with two overnight closings planned, borough police announced Sunday.
RED BANK: BROADWALK SET FOR RETURN
An employee of Catch 19 setting up tables Friday. (Photo by John T. Ward. Click to enlarge.)
By JOHN T. WARD
With borough workers and contractors putting finishing touches on an eight-month-long streetscape project, a handful of restaurants hastily set up for a return of Red Bank’s Broadwalk plaza Friday.
Outside the traffic-free zone, however, none of the parking-space streateries used over the past two summers have returned, following a sixfold increase in fees by the borough council.
RED BANK: LAWN-WATERING RESTRICTED
A Red Bank man watering his lawn during a light rain in July, 2013. (Photo by John T. Ward. Click to enlarge.)
Amid the hottest stretch of weather so far this summer, Red Bank’s water supplier has instituted a water conservation restriction.
New Jersey American Water Company, which supplies borough users for half the year, issued a mandatory odd/even lawn-watering and outdoor water-use schedule Thursday.
RED BANK: TOURS ADDED TO APP
Press release from the T. Thomas Fortune Cultural Center
In the spring of 2022 students Rhea Kripalani and Emily Luo, of Monmouth County High Tech High School in Lincroft, New Jersey, created three more tours for the Red Bank History app. The new tours include “Arts and Entertainment in Red Bank,” “Expansion of the African American Experience” and “Industry and Transportation of Red Bank.”
RED BANK: BROADWALK RELAUNCH “ON TRACK”
Gleaming new retractable security bollards are expected make their debut on Broad Street in downtown Red Bank with the return of Broadwalk Friday.
But will businesses be ready for the late-starting third season of the dining and shopping plaza?
RED BANK: PAVING TO BRING DAYS OF DETOURS
A crew from Montana Construction adjusting one of the new retractable bollards on Broad Street Friday. (Photo by John T. Ward. Click to enlarge.)
By JOHN T. WARD
Accustomed to detours and dust from an eight-month-long rebuilding of Broad Street, merchants and motorists in Red Bank will face what officials hope will be one last series of shutdowns next week.
Weather permitting, several days of paving and striping should all but finish the streetscape project.
RED BANK: BROADWALK CURTAILED, FEES UPPED
Businesses readied for the second year of Broadwalk in May, 2021. (Photo by John T. Ward. Click to enlarge.)
By JOHN T. WARD
Delayed by months, the third season of Red Bank’s Broadwalk shopping-and-dining plaza may finally get going July 22.
This year’s edition, however, is slated to run only through Labor Day. And new fees for in-street dining will cost restaurateurs twice what they paid over the past two summers, said Bob Zuckerman, executive director of the downtown promotion agency Red Bank RiverCenter.
RED BANK: BROADWALK ACTION EXPECTED
Newly installed retractable bollards will allow for upper Broad Street to be converted quickly to a vehicle-free Broadwalk. (Photo by John T. Ward. Click to enlarge.)
By JOHN T. WARD
Red Bank’s council is scheduled to hold two meetings Wednesday night, its only sessions in July.
Though not on the agenda for either the workshop or regular meeting, action to enable a third season of Broadwalk is anticipated by the downtown business community.
RED BANK: BROADWALK CONCERNS AIRED
A view of Broadwalk at lunchtime last October. (Photo by John T. Ward. Click to enlarge.)
By JOHN T. WARD
Red Bank merchants and residents pressed officials with concerns regarding a third season of Broadwalk at a community forum Wednesday night.
With less than a month to go before a disruptive streetscape makeover project wraps up, they called for efforts to address litter, traffic, speeding on residential streets and more.
RED BANK: LBGTQ PRIDE, IN VIVID COLOR
Red Bank’s third LGBTQ Pride in the Park event drew hundreds of colorfully clothed celebrants to Riverside Gardens Park Sunday.
Organized by the borough’s Parks and Rec department, the gathering featured health information booths, juggling lessons, hula-hooping and dancing. Check out additional photos below. (Photos by John T. Ward. Click to enlarge.)
RED BANK: BROAD STREET PROJECT NEARS END
Retractable bollards were installed on Mechanic Street near Broad Street Wednesday. (Photo by John T. Ward. Click to enlarge.)
See UPDATE below
By JOHN T. WARD
A messy, overdue and over-budget makeover of upper Broad Street in Red Bank is expected to conclude in late July, acting borough Administrator Darren McConnell said Wednesday.
The project, which began last November, marked a milestone with the installation this week of retractable hydraulic bollards that will enable quick closure of the street to vehicular traffic.
Still to be determined is when the Broadwalk dining promenade will return for a third, if abbreviated, season.
LITTLE SILVER: FEMINISTS SEEK CLUB STATUS
Members of the Young Feminists outside Red Bank Regional High in February. (Photo by John T. Ward. Click to enlarge.)
By JOHN T. WARD
Frustrated by bureaucracy, representatives of a new Young Feminists group pressed the Red Bank Regional High School board of education for clarity on how to achieve club status last week night.
RED BANK: MERCHANTS BLAST FEE HIKE
Red Tank Brewing owner John Arcara speaking at Wednesday’s council session. (Photo by John T. Ward. Click to enlarge.)
By JOHN T. WARD
The Red Bank council voted Wednesday to boost the fees charged to restaurants to maintain tables in parking spaces converted to streateries.
The action followed claims by two business owners that the hike was onerous.
RED BANK: SINKHOLE OPENS ON BROAD
A sinkhole opened on Broad Street in downtown Red Bank Monday night, caused a parked vehicle to sink about a foot.
RED BANK: STREATERIES ON HOLD
Borough workers created a streatery outside Bombay River and Tacoholics restaurants on Broad Street in July, 2020. (Photo by John T. Ward. Click to enlarge.)
By JOHN T. WARD
At the Red Bank council’s first in-person session in more than two years last week, a lone member failed to advance a pandemic-era fix said to be favored by two merchant organizations: street eateries.
RED BANK: HYBRID SESSIONS TO BEGIN
A sampling of screen grabs from council sessions since April, 2020. (Click to enlarge.)
By JOHN T. WARD
After 26 months of sequestration in ‘Hollywood Squares’-style boxes, the Red Bank council has scheduled an in-person session for next week.
But participation-from-home, a format adopted to minimize transmission the COVID-19 virus, will continue, the borough administration announced Wednesday.
RED BANK: BROADWALK PANEL FORMED
Navigating sidewalks on Broad Street in downtown Red Bank is a bit of a challenge these days.
What’s the latest on the streetscape project that’s been underway since November in the streets northernmost blocks? Read on.
RED BANK: COUNCIL SPARS OVER BROADWALK
Curb replacement work underway as part of the Broad Street streetscape project last week. (Photo by John T. Ward. Click to enlarge.)
By JOHN T. WARD
An ongoing split among Red Bank council Democrats played out as a power struggle Wednesday night over who will steer the reopening of the seasonal Broadwalk dining and shopping plaza.
RED BANK: ASBESTOS FOUND AT BASIE PARK
Officials said the loose asbestos was limited to a boiler room and transformer room beneath the main grandstand. (Photo by John T. Ward. Click to enlarge.)
By JOHN T. WARD
Red Bank’s interim business administrator said Friday there is “no cause for concern” as the town moves forward with a plan to address recently discovered asbestos in an area beneath the grandstand at Count Basie Field.
RED BANK: BROADWALK MAY RETURN IN JULY
Diners enjoying lunch in the Broadwalk zone in October. (Photo by John T. Ward. Click to enlarge.)
By JOHN T. WARD
Delayed by street a reconstruction project, Red Bank’s Broadwalk outdoor dining plaza will return this summer, borough officials agreed Wednesday.
The informal consensus of the council was the first indication that the downtown car-free experiment, launched in the early months of the COVID-19 pandemic, would get a third edition.
RED BANK: PLAQUE HONORS A ‘FIGHTER’
Freddie Boynton, in blue shirt, looks on as Mayor Pasquale Menna unveils a plaque honoring him at Johnny Jazz Park. (Photo above by John T. Ward. Click to enlarge.)
By JOHN T. WARD
A two-time Golden Gloves champ, Freddie Boynton didn’t quit fighting after his professional boxing career ended in the 1980s.
Instead, he got into a truck, and found ways to fight for his neighbors on Red Bank’s West Side.
RED BANK: MASTER PLAN INPUT SOUGHT
The borough’s Master Plan consultant has created a website for public input. (Click to enlarge.)
By JOHN T. WARD
Love it? Want to change it?
Red Bank residents and visitors can now weigh in on the borough’s Master Plan update-in-progress.
RED BANK: HYBRID SESSIONS PLANNED
A screen grab from the council’s March 23 session via Zoom. (Click to enlarge.)
By JOHN T. WARD
After two years of meeting on laptop screens, the Red Bank council is moving closer to a return to borough hall, while continuing to offer participation from home.
RED BANK: DANNY EASING OUT OF DANNY’S
Danny Murphy, owner of Danny’s Steakhouse, behind the bar Monday. (Photo by John T. Ward. Click to enlarge.)
By JOHN T. WARD
From the moment it opened in Red Bank in 1969, what’s now known as Danny’s Steakhouse has been the alter ego of its creator.
By next month, however, restaurateur Danny Murphy will have begun “transitioning out” of the Bridge Avenue establishment he’s run and lived above for more than half a century.
RED BANK: LOCALS GATHER FOR UKRAINE
A Ukraine flag painted on the grass shone in the sun as about 150 Red Bank area residents gathered at Riverside Gardens Park Friday afternoon in support of the victims of Russia’s brutal invasion.