RED BANK: SKATE SHOP ROLLS OUT OF TOWN
After less than three years in downtown Red Bank, Feet First Skate Shop has closed its doors.
RED BANK: HISPANIC HERITAGE CELEBRATED
Dreamers Club executive committee members Selena Martinez-Santiago, Madelyn Sanchez-Berra and Bethzy Vera Varela looked on as president Edith Lozano Zane addressed the RBR board on September 11. (Photo by John T. Ward. Click to enlarge.)
UPDATE: Because of rain in the forecast, this Saturday’s Hispanic Heritage Celebration in Riverside Gardens Park has been rescheduled for September 30.
By JOHN T. WARD
Kicking off Hispanic Heritage Month, Red Bank’s mayor and council trained a spotlight on four young Latina students at Red Bank Regional High School last week.
The self-styled “Dream 4” were fresh off an emotional revival of a school club that advocates for Hispanic and Latinx students.
LITTLE SILVER: RBR DREAMERS REGAIN STATUS
Dreamers Club executive committee member Selena Martinez-Santiago delivers a petition in support of the group to RBR board president Patrick Noble. (Photo by John T. Ward. Click to enlarge.)
By JOHN T. WARD
Reversing an action that sparked a civil rights complaint and community outrage, Red Bank Regional High School’s board of ed restored funding for an immigrants’ advocacy student group Monday night.
At special session in the Little Silver school’s cafeteria that drew a large crowd – including Red Bank’s entire governing body – speakers voiced support for the Dreamers Club while denouncing a lone board member’s vote that they said imperiled years of progress.
LITTLE SILVER: DREAMERS FILE BIAS CLAIM
Three of the four members of the Dreamers Club executive committee volunteering at Dog Days on Saturday: from left, Madelyn Sanchez-Berra, Selena Martinez-Santiago and Bethzy Vera-Varela. Below, club president Edith Lozano Zane. (Top photo by John T. Ward. Click to enlarge.)
By JOHN T. WARD
The Dreamers Club at Red Bank Regional High School has filed a complaint with the New Jersey Division of Civil Rights alleging it has been “singled out for nine years” of discrimination, the group announced Friday.
The allegations of bias are expected to be in the spotlight when the RBR board of education meets in a special session Monday night. Meantime, Superintendent Lou Moore said he’s “hopeful” the board will reinstate the club by reappointing its advisor.
RED BANK: PARK WORK STARTS WITH MISHAP
A backhoe en route to start work on a park makeover project tipped off a trailer in Red Bank Wednesday morning.
RED BANK: 800 ENJOY LUNCH BREAK PICNIC
Gwen Love, center, with the Defined Logic team the Lunch Break picnic. Below, nearly 600 children received backpacks and school supplies. (Photos by Millie Jeter/Lunch Break. Click to enlarge.)
Press release from Lunch Break
More than 800 people came to enjoy a perfect summer day, delicious food, fun and games, receive much-needed school supplies and cheered for the winning softball team at the Lunch Break Annual Community Picnic, Softball Classic Tournament & Backpack Giveaway on August 19 at Count Basie Field.
Joining Lunch Break for the Community Picnic were our cancer survivor warriors Millie Jeter and Judith Pandi, who ushered in the softball tournament by throwing the ceremonial first pitch in honor of their heroic achievements. More →
RED BANK: A COOL, SUNNY CLASSIC 5K
Sunny skies and cool temperatures provided ideal conditions for more than 1,100 runners, walkers and wheelchair racers who participated in the fourth edition annual Red Bank Classic 5K Saturday.
Check out redbankgreen’s favorite photos from the event below. (Photos by John T. Ward. Click to enlarge)
RED BANK: CLASSIC 5K TO TAKE NEW ROUTE
The annual Red Bank Classic 5K is scheduled to return Saturday with a new course, and, possibly, rain and puddles.
RED BANK: 1980s SEX ASSAULTS ALLEGED
The victim alleges some of the 200 assaults occurred in an office at Count Basie Fields. (Photo by John T. Ward. Click to enlarge.)
UPDATE: This post has been edited to remove the name of the victim, which appeared in the original version. The court documents previously included have also been removed.
By JOHN T. WARD
An Ocean County woman is suing Red Bank borough government over sexual assaults committed against her in childhood by a borough employee in the mid-1980s.
RED BANK: ICELESS WINTER FOILS ICEBOATERS
In decades past, members of Red Bank’s North Shrewsbury Ice Boat & Yacht Club, the oldest organization of its kind in America, could count on winters packed with racing and casual sailing.
No more. What’s now called the Navesink River has not frozen well enough for iceboating for five years straight, sending the club’s members, including Mark Petersen and Steve Foster, right, north in search of ice elsewhere. And even that hunt is often futile, as borough resident Brian Donohue reports in his latest ‘Positively Jersey’ video essay for News12. Watch the short video here.
There’s no hope of ice crystals forming Thursday, when local daytime temperatures are expected to crack 60 degrees again (following Wednesday’s peak of 69), according to the National Weather Service. Check out the extended forecast below.
RED BANK: PARK TO GET PICKLEBALL COURTS
The tennis courts in Red Bank’s Eastside Park will be remade into a hybrid of tennis and pickleball surfaces under plans that advanced last week.
RED BANK: EASTSIDE PARK PLANS SLATED
A public hearing on plans for upgrades to the basketball and tennis/pickleball courts in a Red Bank park has been rescheduled for next week, the borough announced Wednesday.
RED BANK: EASTSIDE PARK UPGRADES SLATED
“Draft plans for upgrades” to the basketball and tennis/pickleball courts in a Red Bank park are to be aired for public comment this week, the borough announced over the weekend.
UPDATE: This meeting has been cancelled. According to a post on the borough website Wednesday afternoon, it will be rescheduled “as soon as possible, after the Parks and Rec committee has reviewed the plans.”
RED BANK: SOCCER TEAMS HONORED
Members of two Red Bank soccer teams, both of which went undefeated in the fall season, were recognized by Mayor Pasquale Menna and the borough council Wednesday night,
Parks and Rec director Oscar Salinas said the boys’ fifth- and sixth-grade team and the seventh-and-eighth-grade coed team won their respective divisions in the Northern Monmouth Soccer Association League. (Photo by John T. Ward. Click to enlarge.)
RED BANK: SUNSETS ON AGENDA
Mayor Pasquale Menna and Councilwoman Kathy Horgan are slated to attend their final session as elected officials. (Photo by John T. Ward. Click to enlarge.)
By JOHN T. WARD
Red Bank may inch closer to turning its onetime landfill on the Swimming River into an eight-acre park under a proposed action on the agenda Wednesday night.
The session, which marks the sunset of Mayor Pasquale Menna‘s 16-year tenure, also includes potential action on short-term rentals.
LINCROFT: SHEEHAN TAKES BRONZE AT CBA
Tim Sheehan, at podium, with his brother, George III, and the new statue of their late father. (Photo by Larry Levanti/CBA. Click to enlarge)
Christian Brothers Academy press release
Over 60 years ago, Dr. George Sheehan Jr. believed in a vision for an all-boys, Catholic preparatory school in Monmouth County.
Together with Peter Fleming and John Henderson, he founded Christian Brothers
Academy in Lincroft, with help from the Brothers of the Christian Schools. A nationally-competitive running program soon followed thanks to Sheehan, and on December 4, his impact on CBA and the running tradition was symbolized with a larger-than-life statue on campus. More →
RED BANK: LUNCH BREAK PICNIC DRAWS 500
Jon Stewart, in blue shirt, at the Lunch Break picnic in Red Bank Saturday. (Photos by Millie Jeter/Lunch Break. Click to enlarge.)
Press release from Lunch Break
More than 500 people came to cheer for the winning softball team at the Lunch Break Annual Community Picnic Softball Classic Tournament & Backpack Giveaway at Count Basie Field in Red Bank Saturday.
Joining Lunch Break for the softball classic was producer, screenwriter and supporter Jon Stewart. Stewart ushered in the beginning of the tournament series by throwing the ceremonial first pitch.
RED BANK: FOOTBALL, CHEERLEADING OPEN
Registration is now open for the Red Bank Bucs‘ American Youth Football/American Youth Cheerleading teams.
The nonprofit Red Bank AYF AYC accepts children between the ages of 5 and 14 years old as of July 31 of the current season, which begins July 25.
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: CLASSIC 5K BACK ON THE ROAD
The return the Red Bank Classic 5K after a two-year pandemic hiatus brought out a motley mix of nearly 1,100 runners, wheelchair racers, walkers, muscle flexers and two jogglers Saturday.
Check out redbankgreen’s photos below to see if you recognize any.
RED BANK: ASSAULT ALLEGED, BUT NOT BIAS
By JOHN T. WARD
Three men have been charged with assaulting a 16-year-old Red Bank athlete in what he claimed was a racially motivated attack outside a party in Oceanport last month.
Police, however, made no allegation of racial bias in complaints filed June 10 and obtained by redbankgreen Friday.
Among those charged were two Red Bank Catholic High School football players, including Alex Brown, the quarterback who made national headlines for his onfield performance just a day after his mother died last November.
RED BANK: TEEN ALLEGES RACIAL ATTACK
Raymond Jackson suffered a bone fracture above his eye that will require surgery, his father said. (Photo by John T. Ward. Click to enlarge.)
By JOHN T. WARD
A 16-year-old Red Bank athlete was badly beaten in a racially charged attack in Oceanport Saturday night, he told redbankgreen.
Police, however, say they have found no racial motivation in the alleged assault, which remains under investigation.
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: RAIDERS FIELD TWO SPRING TEAMS
Press release from the Red Bank Raiders
Hoping to continue the legacy of Red Bank baseball excellence demonstrated by
last year’s 16-Under USABL championship team, the Red Bank Raiders are fielding two 13-Under teams (Black and Silver) to compete in the USABL Spring 2022 season.
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.