Lifeguards play a key role in ensuring a safe environment for swimmers at pools and public beaches, says the YMCA of Greater Monmouth County. (Photo by Joshua Reed.)
It’s now the busy season at beaches, pools, and lakes, and the YMCA of Greater Monmouth County is reminding parents, caregivers, and everyone in our community to make water safety a priority.
The Red Bank nonprofit says no families of kids now in a free membership program will be turned away. (Photo by John T. Ward. Click to enlarge.)
By JOHN T. WARD
Red Bank’s volunteer firefighters will get to keep their free memberships to the local YMCA, the organization announced Wednesday.
Police will still have to pay, though now at a discount, a spokeswoman for the nonprofit said. But there’s no change to the plan unveiled last week to end across-the-board free memberships for borough schoolchildren.
Red Bank Mayor Pasquale Menna speaking at the the Memorial Day ceremony last month. (Photo by John T. Ward. Click to enlarge.)
By JOHN T. WARD
Red Bank Mayor Pasquale Menna on Thursday blasted a decision by the Community YMCA to end free memberships for borough schoolchildren and emergency first-responders.
Menna went on the offensive after the Y’s “unilateral” action, which he said was made without any advance notice to or discussion with his administration.
The Red Bank YMCA says affected families can apply for subsidies to replace the free memberships. Below, the letter sent to parents of children in the Healthy Kids program. (Photo by John T. Ward. Click to enlarge.)
By JOHN T. WARD
Red Bank’s schoolchildren and emergency first-responders will lose their free access to the borough YMCA in September.
The Maple Avenue nonprofit’s executive director, Katie McAdoo, tells redbankgreen the change was driven by its need to be “accountable” to funders.
Muralist Beau Bradbury at work last week on an mural at the soon-to-open Detour Gallery on Clay Street in Red Bank. The image, he said, mixes references to local lore, such as William ‘Count’ Basie and the Lenni-Lenape, with pop culture imagery.
After a string of days with temperatures in the 90s, things will cool off a bit on the Greater Red Bank Green Wednesday, according to forecasts. Under sunny skies, temperatures will peak at about 88 degrees, according to the Weather Underground, which should make work a bit easier for the crew refurbishing the cupola atop the United Methodist Church on Broad Street in Red Bank. (Photo by John T. Ward. Click to enlarge)
Tuesday’s camp activity schedule for Victory Park in Rumson was canceled after high winds and heavy rain tore through town Monday evening, leaving wires downed on Lafayette Street, above, and South Ward Avenue, right. Dozens of homes in Rumson, and hundreds in Middletown, lost electrical power in the storm, but nearly all were back online by dawn Tuesday, according to JCP&L.
Tuesday’s weather outlook is for most sunny skies and temperatures in the mid-90s. (Photo by John T. Ward. Click to enlarge)
Two lifeguards bring in a rescued “victim,” in the form of a weighted mannequin, during a certification drill conducted by Sea Bright lifeguard Captain Mike Hudson, seen at left. Below, Hudson offering final instructions to the class at Surfrider Beach Club. (Photos by John T. Ward. Click to enlarge)
By JOHN T. WARD
Eleven months after a teenager drowned nearby, nearly two dozen lifeguards from Sea Bright’s private beach clubs completed a training program Tuesday aimed at preventing ocean fatalities.
Guards from all seven of the town’s waterfront clubs spent three nights a week for the past three weeks in a first-ever advanced certification program that concluded with simulated emergencies on the beach at Surfrider Beach Club.
For the first time in its two-decade history, the snack bar in Red Bank’s Riverside Gardens Park is operating as a regular daily business.
Gracie and the Dudes Organic Ice Cream of Sea Bright opened in the West Front Street facility without fanfare last weekend under a two-year contract entered with the borough in April following a bid process. For most of its existence, the building was open only sporadically during borough events.
The contract is for two years, with a three-year renewal option. (Photo by John T. Ward. Click to enlarge)
Chop, aka “Jimmy,” a month-old pet Orpington duck belonging to Tyler DeScenza of Sea Bright, took in some bocce action along the sea wall there on Monday as the family closed out the Independence Day weekend.
Regular life resumes Tuesday with weather ducks won’t mind: rain. (Photo by John T. Ward. Click to enlarge)
Somebody’s giving away tomato plants on Branch Avenue between East Bergen Place and Brown Place in Red Bank.
Thirsty tomatoes and other plants will like Tuesday’s weather forecast, assuming the stray showers in the forecast come through. (Photo by Trish Russoniello. Click to enlarge)
A cyclist and surfers took advantage of the summery weather on either side of the sea wall in the North Beach section of Sea Bright Wednesday morning.
Thursday’s outlook: a 50-percent chance of showers in the morning and possible scattered thunderstorms in the late afternoon, according to the Weather Underground. (Photos by John T. Ward. Click to enlarge)
Though the sun was beating down and temperatures were heading to the high 80s, an awning installer from Bayshore Awnings in Middletown wasn’t necessarily looking for shade Monday: he was just doing his job at a home on East Bergen Place in Red Bank.
Tuesday, the first full day of summer, will again feature temperatures in the high 80s, but with isolated thunderstorms in the morning and partly cloudy skies in the afternoon, according to the Weather Underground. (Photos by John T. Ward. Click to enlarge)
A half-dozen or so early risers were drawn to Anchorage Beach in Sea Bright to witness the dawn of the longest day of the year Monday.
According to NJ.com, the solstice, marking the official start of summer, occurs at 6:34 p.m. today on the East Coast, and will be followed by an unusual “strawberry moon,” or full moon. Meantime, the day will offer plentiful sunshine and temperatures peaking at a summery 84 degrees, says the Weather Underground. (Photos by John T. Ward. Click to enlarge)
Sunlight on the Atlanic Ocean and Shrewsbury River, as seen from the Rumson-Sea Bright Bridge Tuesday morning.
Most of Wednesday will be another pretty sparkly day, with lots of sunshine and temperatures peaking in the mid-80s, before giving way to cloudy skies in the evening and a chance of rain overnight, according to the Weather Underground. (Photo by Trish Russoniello. Click to enlarge)
The Community YMCA’s Aquarockets swim team celebrates its NJ state championship at last week’s competition in Lancaster, PA.
Press release from The Community YMCA
For the first time, the Aquarockets swimmers of The Community YMCA won the New Jersey YMCA State Championships, an annual competition comprised of two meets. The swim team for ages 13 and up represents the membership of the Shrewsbury-based CYMCA organization and its Monmouth County facilities, which include the Family Health and Wellness Center on Maple Avenue in Red Bank.
A total of 139 swimmers from the Aquarockets team competed in the state championship meets. The competition for ages 13 and over took place March 10 through 13 at Franklin and Marshall College in Lancaster, PA, while the 12 and under meet took place February 26 through 28 at the Ocean County YMCA in Toms River.
With the basement meeting room already full, an overflow crowd gathered on the library’s main floor hoping to be allowed in Wednesday night. Below, the sanctuary would include Sandy Hook Bay, the Navesink and Shrewsbury rivers and their tributaries. (Photo by John T. Ward. Click to enlarge)
By JOHN T. WARD
The main proponent of a “marine sanctuary” that would include some 12,500 acres of northeastern Monmouth County waters found himself pounded by wave after wave of criticism Wednesday night.
With 75 or so commercial and recreational fishermen, clammers, hunters and others packed into a basement meeting room at the Red Bank Public Library, and a comparable number turned away due to crowding, maritime historian Rik Van Hemmen got a cold reception for his proposal for a Sandy Hook Bay National Marine Sanctuary, which he hopes will win federal approval.
“We’ve got enough layers of bureaucracy,” Jim Donofrio, executive director of the Recreational Fishing Alliance, told Van Hemmen. “This is going down. We’re going to fight it.”
An effort to create a “water-based equivalent of a National Park” covering Sandy Hook Bay, the Shrewsbury and Navesink rivers and their tributaries is the subject of upcoming informational sessions, one of which is scheduled for Monday night.
If enacted by federal authorities, the Sandy Hook Bay National Marine Sanctuary would add more than 12,500 acres of public-use parkland to eastern Monmouth County, according to proponents. Among them are the Navesink Marine Heritage Association, whose website has extensive information on the proposal.
Tonight’s presentation is slated for 7 p.m. at Crawford House at Tinton Falls. The Red Bank Public Library plans to host another on March 16 at 7 p.m. (Click to enlarge)
Standout athletes from the golf, soccer and swimming programs at Red Bank Catholic formalized big decisions about their futures Wednesday. Shore Sports Zone was there, and has extensive coverage of signing day across Monmouth and Ocean counties.
![Weather Underground](http://<a href="https://www.redbankgreen.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/06/shrewsbury-mannequins-061016.jpg"><img class="alignnone size-large wp-image-104391" src="https://www.redbankgreen.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/06/shrewsbury-mannequins-061016-500x375.jpg" alt="shrewsbury mannequins 061016" width="500" height="375" /></a><em><strong>A pair of mannequins stood covered with plastic while contractors worked to prepare a new swimwear shop at the Franklin Commons strip mall on Broad Street in Shrewsbury last week.</strong></em> <em><strong>After a night of windows-open natural air conditioning, when temperatures dipped into the upper 50s, the Greater Red Bank Green is back into swimwear weather, with ample sunshine and peak temperatures in the vicinity of 80 degrees Monday, according to the Weather Underground.</strong> (Photo by John T. Ward. Click to enlarge)</em>){kind=link}