Red Bank Administrator Stanley Sickels, left, discussed sewer lines with the DEP’s Bob Schuster after the meeting at Shrewsbury’s borough hall Thursday night. (Photo by John T. Ward. Click to enlarge.)
By JOHN T. WARD
Hoping to curb high levels of bacteria associated with human and animal waste in the Navesink River, a New Jersey environmental official offered local mayors and environmental activists evidence of minor success Thursday night.
Following up on a packed-house event held in June, Clean Ocean Action and other environmental groups are planning a ‘Rally to Save the Navesink’ from fecal coliform and other forms of runoff-borne pollution this month.
Clean Ocean Action founder Cindy Zipf addresses a packed Bingham Hall in Rumson, where the topic was degradation of the Navesink River. Below, a map showing areas where shellfish harvesting is prohibited. (Photo above by John T. Ward. Click to enlarge)
By JOHN T. WARD
An alarming rise in bacterial pollution levels of the Navesink River drew more than 100 people to the historic Bingham Hall in Rumson on a humid summer night Tuesday.
Among many questions to be addressed were what’s causing a rise in fecal coliform levels, and how can it be stopped?
“We all know what the smoking gun is: stormwater runoff,” Christopher Obropta, a specialist in water resources with the Rutgers Cooperative Extension. More →
Presenting its fifth anniversary edition in 2016, the annual Canterbury Art Show…a Tapestry of the Arts returns to St. George’s by the River Episcopal Church for a premier local exhibition and sale of juried and non-juried artwork.
The three-day event will take place Labor Day Weekend at the historic church property, located at 7 Lincoln Avenue in Rumson. Event dates are Friday through Sunday, September 2-4, with a preview and Meet the Artists reception on Thursday, September 1 from 7 p.m. to 9 p.m.
Hundreds of attendees and art patrons have enjoyed the Canterbury Art show since its inception in 2011. Each year, over 600 works by artists from all over New Jersey and beyond (including Fair Haven favorite Mike Quon, whose “Sailing Out to Sea” is pictured here) are featured, with 38 new artists participating for the first time this year, according to event chair Coni Lefferts. Proceeds from the sale directly benefit St. George’s-by-the-River and its outreach grants to more than 30 local agencies serving the needy of Monmouth and Ocean Counties.
A view of the Navesink River from the Red Bank Public Library. Below, a map of showing where shellfish harvesting is banned or suspended. (Photo above by John T. Ward. Click to enlarge)
By JOHN T. WARD
Eighteen months after the the New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection suspended shellfish harvesting in 566 acres of the Navesink River because of unacceptably high levels of fecal coliform, Clean Ocean Action plans to host a public meeting on the issue.
The Rumson event will offer an overview of the DEP’s rationale for the January, 2015 downgrade, attributed in park to stormwater runoff, and mark the release of a Clean Ocean Action report on bacterial pollution in the river, according to a press release by the Sandy Hook-based nonprofit. More →
The live event production company Peak Projects has announced a brand new road race, taking place at one of the Jersey Shore’s most iconic places, Sandy Hook. Scheduled for the morning of Sunday, May 15, Run The Hook will commence its inaugural run — and the start of a new Shore tradition — from the historic Fort Hancock area at the north end of the Hook. The 11 a.m. race action will include 5K and 10K distances for runners of all abilities, and a portion of proceeds will benefit Clean Ocean Action, the local nonprofit dedicated to improving and protecting the quality of the waterways in the New Jersey and New York region.
According to Daragh Kneeshaw, co-founder with Joey Garafalo of Peak Projects and Run the Hook “Our hometowns and beaches have seen more than their fair share of hardships over these past several years, so it’s a thrill for us to be able to showcase Sandy Hook in our debut event, and simultaneously help the area through our partnership with Clean Ocean Action.”
According to a December 2015 report by the New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection (NJDEP), only 55 percent of New Jersey’s waters fully support one of the department’s five designated uses of water resources: water supply, recreation, aquatic life, shellfish harvest and fish consumption. The other forty-five percent support none.
What does this mean to our daily life here in the Garden State? How do watersheds function? What do we need to do to protect our supply of drinking water? And could what happened in Flint, Michigan also occur here?
On the evening of Wednesday, April 13, Brookdale Community College invites all members of the community to hear answers to these and other questions, during a free panel discussion on local drinking water, water quality and the potential risks to statewide water supplies.
A group of students from the Environmental Club at Red Bank Regional discovered a dead osprey while taking part in an October 24 Beach Sweep on Sandy Hook. The bird was studied later, to determine whether pollution-related causes were responsible for its death.
Press release from Red Bank Regional High School
On October 24, as part of a Fall Beach Sweeps initiative organized by the nonprofit Clean Ocean Action, more than 50 Red Bank Regional High School students and their friends descended upon Sandy Hook, collecting trash and data to help determine and reduce sources of pollution on the peninsula.
“So many of our RBR students enjoy summers at the beach, fishing, kayaking, and surfing,” explained RBR science teacher and Environmental Club advisor David Hussey. “These students took the opportunity to give back to their local marine environment that they love so much.”
The annual Shore Paddle fundraiser for Clean Ocean Action travels upriver to Red Bank’s Marine Park for the first time Saturday.
The brief, sunlit window of Local Summer may be giving way to the first flush of fall, but the communities of the Greater Red Bank Green are hardly ready to throw in the beach towel on outdoor delights.
Witness the return on Saturday of a favorite riverside diversion: Shore Paddle in Marine Park in Red Bank.
The summer SEAson is almost over, but it’s still a great time to be on the water, as well as to enjoy one last paddle with friends at Shore Paddle, the annual fundraising Stand Up Paddle event that presents its 2015 edition on Saturday, September 26 — and in a brand new location.
Hosted by Paddleguru, this final event of the SUP season offers something for all ages and experience levels, and benefits Clean Ocean Action, an environmental nonprofit dedicated to protecting our coastal ecosystems and waterways, keeping them safe and clean for all paddlers, swimmers, and beachgoers. While the setting for Shore Paddle remains the beautiful Navesink River, the event’s continued growth and popularity has resulted in its moving a few miles upriver this year, to Red Bank’s Marine Park.
Rowers, kayakers, canoers, standup paddlers and others gathered at Red Bank’s Maple Cove Saturday afternoon for the fifth edition of Paddle the Navesink Day. The free, get-aquainted-with-the-waterway event runs until 4 p.m., rain or shine. (Photo by Trish Russoniello. Click to enlarge)
Rowers, kayakers, canoers, standup paddlers and the just-plain-interested are invited to Maple Cove this Saturday, when Paddle the Navesink Day offers area residents a new perspective on Red Bank’s most beautiful asset and resource.
It’s about kayaking, canoeing, sailing, rowing, standup paddling. Actually, it’s about the history, culture, and ecology of the waterway from which a vibrant community took shape. Or perhaps more to the point, it’s about the opportunity to get acquainted — or to fall in love all over again — with the greater Red Bank Green’s most beautiful asset, resource, pride and joy.
When the event known as Paddle the Navesink Day returns for a fifth edition this Saturday, September 12, the rain-or-shine, late-summer “free community-wide celebration” will once again represent a unique convergence of local businesses, boating clubs and nonprofit organizations that’s hands-on, oars-in, and ready to make a believer of anyone who might have taken the river’s charms for granted.
The Broadway Dolls, featuring Hollie Howard (center), bring the musical excitement to the Molly for A Taste of Broadway, a Monday night fundraising gala benefitting a group of Shore-based nonprofits.
It’s like something straight out of a Busby Berkeley musical: farm girl comes to the big city; goes from unknown to Broadway lead, and back to struggling trouper. Takes her career into her own hands by calling up her fellow under-employed ladies of the stage and crafting “an all-female revue with a sexy rock n’ roll twist” — one that becomes an international touring sensation, from here to such faraway whistle-stops as China and Dubai. Call it The Broadway Dolls and you’ve got a surefire hit.
Created by and co-starring former Hairspray lead Hollie Howard, the project known as Broadway’s Original Girl Group brings its mix of vintage showtunes, 60s girl group oldies and 21st century radio pop to Red Bank’s historic Molly Pitcher Inn on Monday, September 22 for “A Taste of Broadway on the Promenade,” a gala dedicated to the benefit of an array of locally based charities — and spotlighting the wares of several star-quality staples of the Monmouth County culinary landscape.
The collision between coastal development and severe weather in New Jersey and elsewhere is the subject of the documentary “Shored Up,” screening for free this Saturday at Holy Cross School.
As filmmaker Ben Kalina tells it, “I made Shored Up to explore what it means to live beside the beauty of the ocean — where, as we saw with Hurricane Sandy, we are always just one storm away from catastrophe.”
Filmed in late 2012 and 2013 on locations along the Jersey Shore and the North Carolina coast, the documentary feature hits close to home — and with a Category 5 wallop — for local residents who experienced firsthand the unprecedented and still-lingering effects of the superstorm that marks its second anniversary next month.
This Saturday evening, September 20, Holy Cross School in Rumson hosts a free screening of the film, a public-welcome event that includes a discussion with the director and panel of local coastal and environmental scientists.
Participants of all ages and skill levels are invited to take it to the river on Sunday, when Paddle the Navesink Day returns to cover the Red Bank waterfront. (Photo above by Peter Lindner; below by John T. Ward. Click to enlarge)
It’s called Paddle the Navesink Day — and it’s all about kayaking, canoeing, sailing, rowing, and just generally enjoying Red Bank’s picturesque riverfront from a whole different perspective.
When it returns for its fourth edition on Sunday after taking 2013 off, the rain-or-shine event will show its late-summer colors as “a free community-wide celebration of the Navesink River;” a convergence of local businesses, boating clubs and nonprofit organizations that’s hands-on, oars-in, and all about the history, culture, and ecology of the waterway from which a community took shape.
The documentary film SHORED UP, which examines the collision between coastal development and severe weather in New Jersey and North Carolina, will be shown September 20 at a special screening in Rumson.
Press release from New Jersey Future
On the evening of Saturday, September 20, New Jersey Future — a nonprofit organization which is working with Sea Bright and Highlands on long-term recovery planning in the wake of Hurricane Sandy — will sponsor a free public screening of the documentary feature Shored Up in Rumson.
Doors open at 6:30 pm for the screening, scheduled for 7 pm at Holy Cross School, 40 Rumson Road. At the conclusion of the film there will be a panel discussion and question-and-answer session, featuring the film’s director Ben Kalina, as well as several local coastal and environmental scientists.
The Broadway Dolls, featuring Hollie Howard (center), bring the excitement for Waves of Support, a September fundraising gala to benefit a group of ten Shore communities and locally based nonprofits.
Press release from Navesink Business Group
The officers of Navesink Business Group have announced that tickets are on sale for the organization’s annual Waves of Support fundraising gala benefitting locally based charities.
Presented under the theme “A Taste of Broadway on the Promenade,” this year’s event will take place on Monday, September 22, 2014, at the historic Molly Pitcher Inn. The evening begins with cocktails at 6 pm, and includes a silent auction, spectacular entertainment, and a five-course dinner featuring selections from some stars of Monmouth County’s culinary landscape.
Headlining the evening’s entertainment will be a performance by The Broadway Dolls, the dynamic “girl group” founded by Hollie Howard, and featuring cast members from such Broadway hits as Mamma Mia, Rock of Ages and Jersey Boys.
Dinner will include hors d’oeuvres and several courses prepared by some of Monmouth County’s top dining spots, among them Ama Ristorante, Danny’s Steak House, David Burke Fromagerie, Soul Kitchen, Teak, The Bistro, The Cheese Cave and Zoe, in addition the executive chefs from The Molly Pitcher Inn and The Oyster Point Hotel.
Paddlers and kayakers of all ability levels are invited to join a Shore Paddle on the Navesink event this Sunday, sponsored by Clean Ocean Action and Surfers Environmental Alliance.
You can do it by stand-up paddling (or, SUP) — you can get down and paddle it “prone” — or you can paddle your way by kayak. Whichever way you choose (and no matter how expert you’ve become at it), you’re invited to spend time with friendly competitors atop the waters of the Navesink River this Sunday, July 13, as a pair of locally based nonprofits team up to present a Shore Paddle event that commences from Rumson’s Victory Park at Lafayette Street.
Hosted by Clean Ocean Action and Surfers’ Environmental Alliance, the event runs two concurrent happenings — an 8-mile race that starts at 9 am, and a 3-mile Fun Paddle shoving off at 9:30 — with prizes awarded to the race winners, plus free SUP and yoga demos, eco-friendly crafts, and other all-ages activities in the park. The event will conclude with a “Beach Sweep” where participants will learn the importance of clean coasts.
It’s all for the benefit of COA and SEA, and it’s kickstarted on Thursday evening with a pre-party at Molly Maguire’s Gastropub in Rumson; a 6 pm soiree (with 10 per cent of proceeds dedicated to the orgs’ efforts to create cleaner, safer beaches throughout the region) that features music, drink specials, raffles of a wake board, paddle gear and more.
Over 65 coastal and waterfront sites, from Cape May to Middlesex Counties, will be cleaned by teams of volunteers during the annual Fall Beach Sweeps effort this Saturday, October 19.
From press materials furnished by Clean Ocean Action
More than 65 sites — including several in Red Bank, Sea Bright, and neighboring communities — will be descended upon by teams of volunteers this Saturday, October 19, as Clean Ocean Action (COA) invites citizens and organizations to participate in the 28th Annual Fall Beach Sweeps.
“Clean Ocean Action is excited to continue to integrate Beach Sweeps into the Waves of Action program, a year-long initiative to recover and restore the NY/NJ coastline after the devastation of Sandy,” commented Catie Tobin, Clean Ocean Action Ocean Advocacy and Education Fellow.
Boris Kofman, above, and Michael Paul Raspanti, below, during Saturday’s riverfront cleanup on Red Bank’s West Side. (Photos by Wil Fulton, above, and Sarah Klepner. Click to enlarge)
By SARAH KLEPNER
Duane Bowker stood in the wooded area above the Swimming River in Red Bank and pointed.
“Some roofer, this is his favorite place to throw his crap and drink beer,” he said. “Over here is a plumber’s favorite place to throw his crap.”
The occasion was Saturday’s cleanup effort by members of the borough Environmental Commission and the environmental nonprofit Clean Ocean Action. They teamed up to tackle a riverbank full of tires and construction debris at the western end of Drs. James Parker Boulevard.
Red Bank Administrator Stanley Sickels, left, discussed sewer lines with the DEP’s Bob Schuster after the meeting at Shrewsbury’s borough hall Thursday night. (Photo by John T. Ward. Click to enlarge.)
Hoping to curb high levels of bacteria associated with human and animal waste in the Navesink River, a New Jersey environmental official offered local mayors and environmental activists evidence of minor success Thursday night.
