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RED BANK: BOOKMARKS MARK FAVORITES

St. James first-grader Declan Duffy chose to draw Red Bank’s Molly Pitcher Inn as his favorite place in town, above. Below, the other winners by grade. (Click to enlarge)

[Press release from the Friends of the Red Bank Public Library]

The Sixth Annual Friends oft he Red Bank Public Library Bookmark Contest has announced this year’s winners!  At a well-attended party on May 20, the Friends presented the winners with certificates and gift cards to local businesses.

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RED BANK: ROCKET HITS THE ROAD

nsib&yc rocket 022815 1 nsib&yc rocket 022815 2 It may have been damp and sweltering out, but a vessel built for gliding on ice went for a ride over the weekend.

Over asphalt, that is, not frozen water. Still, the Rocket, the 127-year-old ice yacht owned and lovingly restored by Red Bank’s North Shrewsbury Ice Boat & Yacht Club, traveled to Wooden Boat Magazine’s Wooden Boat Show in Mystic, Connecticut, where it captured the award for Best in Show among restored vessels.

Back in the frigid days of March, the Rocket, built in 1888, raced on its home Navesink for the first time in 80 years against the Jack Frost, which belongs to the Hudson River Ice Yacht Club(Photo by John T. Ward. Click to enlarge)

 

 

 

RED BANK: ROCKET & JACK FROST AWAIT WIND

nsib&yc 022815 1 nsib&yc 022815 2With more than a foot of ice beneath their runners, the world’s two premier ice yachts had everything they needed to race on the Navesink early Saturday – except for wind.

The Rocket, the 127-year-old prized possession of Red Bank’s North Shrewsbury Ice Boat & Yacht Club, was set to race the Jack Frost, which belongs to the Hudson River Ice Yacht Club. The two yachts met last year for their first matchup in decades. And if the wind comes up before 3 p.m. Saturday, or sometime Sunday, “there will be no goodbyes” as the two teams head out onto the ice, said Red Bank’s John Oakley.

The club cannot allow the general public to access the river via its property because of liability issues, but the best viewing of a race would be from Marine Park anyway, said Oakley. (Photo by John T. Ward. Click to enlarge)

 

 

 

RED BANK: NEARLY NAKED FOR A CAUSE

112314 gonaked20112314 gonaked38Well on its way to earning the label “Red Bank tradition,” the fourth annual cancer awareness-raiser Go Naked and Check Yourself  took over the Downtown Sunday evening, offering raffles, entertainment and eyecandy for a cause. redbankgreen was there, naturally. We’ve got more photos after the jump… (Photos by Susan Ericson. Click to enlarge)

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RED BANK: GREEN LIGHT FOR GOTHAM

gotham 072114A passerby checks out new signage being installed Monday for Gotham, a speakeasy-themed gastropub that won approval from the Red Bank zoning board last week with no objections voiced by onlookers.

The club, which takes over the former Hamilton Jewelers space at 19 Broad Street, is expected to open by October, and will feature regular comedy, jazz and DJ shows, partner Joseph Squillaro tells redbankgreen. (Photo by John T. Ward. Click to enlarge)

GIANTS ON ICE, AS ROCKET MEETS JACK FROST

rb rocket 030114The Rocket, above in foreground, with the Jack Frost.  (Photo by John Oakley of Fantastic Signs. Click to enlarge)

The New York Times has a story in Monday’s edition on a rare meeting between two giant iceboats – the Rocket and the Jack Frost – on the foot-thick ice of the Hudson River Saturday.

The Rocket, the prized possession of Red Bank’s North Shrewsbury Ice Boat & Yacht Club, weighs more than a ton, and requires ice a foot thick to support its weight. Ditto for the Jack Frost, which belongs to the Hudson River Ice Yacht Club. There is only one other vessel their size in the world, and it’s in a museum.

Ice that thick being rare, the two 120-plus-year-old behemoths, capable of speeds in excess of 100 miles per hour, rarely sail. And they had not raced head-to-head in a century, the Times reports.

But then right conditions arrived over the weekend, and the members of the NSIB&YC postponed an open-house event scheduled for Saturday and made a beeline to Barrytown, New York.

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RED BANK: ANIME FANS GET CREATIVE

anime 1Librarian Stephanie Chadwick with participants in last month’s meeting of the anime club. Below, details of some mangas. (Photos by Isabel Halloran. Click to enlarge)

By ISABEL HALLORAN
Red Bank Charter School Intern

anime 3Four teenagers – Angela, Monteleone, Sam, and Alberto –  gather in a small room at the Red Bank Public Library and sit at a long table.

Across from this table is another lined with manga (pronounced MAHN-guh), Japanese comic books that often have a fantasy or sci-fi theme to them. These books are read from what we in the United States consider back-to-front.

Stephanie Chadwick, teen services librarian and group leader, welcomes the participants to the monthly meeting of the Anime Club and introduces the activity for the day: playing a game she calls “anime-opoly.”

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RED BANK: STILL GOING NAKED

It was nippy outside Sunday evening, but at Red Bank’s Red lounge, it was a place to Go Naked. Dozens came out to the third annual Go Naked and Check Yourself fundraiser and (ahem) educational event held to raise awareness about skin cancer, breast cancer, testicular cancer and other detectable ailments. Once again, Red Bank’s Sugarush cupcakes and Sweetest Sin lingerie shops put the bounce in the event, which had previously raised more than $20,000 for health-related charities. (Photos by Peter Lindner. Click to enlarge)

GOP CLUB CLAIMS WEBSITE HACKING

The GOP says its website was hacked to include a link to a site for Democrat Ed Zipprich, below.  (Click to enlarge)

By JOHN T. WARD

Why does the Monmouth County Affiliated Republican Club website contain a link to one for Red Bank Democrat Ed Zipprich?

“Someone has hacked our site,” club official Wayne Pomanowski tells redbankgreen via email. “They did a redirect to old Ed.”

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SEA BRIGHT TESTS THE WATER ON BEACH PLAN

A concept plan for the pool club that’s envisioned for part of the beachfront, below. (Click to enlarge)

By JOHN T. WARD

Years in the talking, the transformation of Sea Bright’s dowdy oceanfront into a moneymaker complete with a pool club and restaurant could begin early next year, officials say.

But first, the borough council is awaiting the results of an analysis aimed at gauging  the appeal of the project to businesses its meant to lure.

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‘MAGIC WAS HAPPENING’ AT BIG MAN’S WEST

clemons-big-mans-westClarence Clemons playing at Big Man’s West in Red Bank in an undated photo courtesy of Lewis Bloom Photo. The Monmouth Street space is now home to a gym. (Click to enlarge)

big-mans-westHe’s best known, of course, for his blaring, evocative saxophone solos as a member the E Street Band behind Bruce Springsteen.

But Clarence Clemons, who died of complications from a stroke at age 69 Saturday, also staked out a bit of turf as an impressario of sorts, right here in Red Bank.

Clemons’ club, Big Man’s West, at 129 Monmouth Street, managed to pack a lot of musical history into just a few years of operation in the early 1980s before it succumbed to financial pressures, says George McMorrow, a Red Bank business owner who managed the club through its final months.

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CHURNING UP THE NAVESINK

trafficTraffic was heavy in Maple Cove Sunday as rowers came and went during a morning of races. Below, scullers heading out to the start line. (Click to enlarge)

shells

The Navesink River Rowing club marked the end of its summer youth program with an in-house and invitational regatta that turned Red Bank’s Maple Cove into a busy depot for skinny boats Sunday.

The Sprints on the ‘Sink series of races for quads, doubles and singles drew dozens of racers, including a sculling contingent from Westfield.

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