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HOTEL LAWSUIT III: THIS TIME, IT’S PERSONAL

Lawyer Ron Gasiorowski clashing with Councilman Mike DuPont last week, above, and relaxing at Zebu Forno on Monday. (Click to enlarge)

By JOHN T. WARD

As an attorney, Ron Gasiorowski is used to verbal conflict. It’s inherent in the adversarial work of representing a client’s interests against someone who’s doing the same.

But as he prepares to file his third lawsuit against Red Bank over a proposed Hampton Inn, Gasiorowski is stewing over the reception he got when he appeared before the borough council last Wednesday.

Not the way he was treated by borough Attorney Dan O’Hern, who challenged him on procedural points at nearly every turn, but did so respectfully, Gasiorowski told redbankgreen last week. And likewise not by Mayor Pasquale Menna, who despite his resistance to Gasiorowski’s point of view, “is always a gentleman,” he said.

No, Gasiorowski said, he was put out by the the third lawyer up on the dais: Councilman Mike DuPont.

“In 40 years of practicing law, that was the most unprofessional and rudest I’ve ever been treated,” said Gasiorowski, a 71-year-old former Marine captain.

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July 31, 2012 - 8:59 am |

COUNCIL RAISES HEIGHT LIMIT AT HOTEL SITE

Attorney Ron Gasiorowski, with a rendering of the proposed Hampton Inn hotel he opposes, awaits the start of Wednesday’s Red Bank council meeting. (Click to enlarge)

By JOHN T. WARD

Two months after the Red Bank zoning board ruled that a proposed hotel on the site of a former Exxon station exceeded the height limit for its zone, the town’s governing body boosted the limit Wednesday night.

After a contentious hearing that was widely seen as a prelude to a third lawsuit over zoning changes affecting the site the of the proposed Hampton Inn, the borough council gave unanimous approval to a trio of ordinance amendments, one of which would allow a building 82.4 feet tall, or seven stories, in the zone.

Though characterized by council members and council Attorney Dan O’Hern as an attempt to clarify rules affecting the town’s entire waterfront development zone, the most immediate impact of the change is eliminate the most significant obstacle to the proposed hotel, eyed for the juncture of Route 35 and Rector Place at the foot of Cooper’s Bridge.

“I, too, am of the opinion that we need another hotel here, one that is affordable,” Councilman Mike DuPont said after sparring repeatedly with the attorney representing the hotel’s foremost objector.

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July 26, 2012 - 8:57 am |

MENNA: GROWING NONPROFITS HURT TOWN

Mayor Pasquale Menna says the loss of taxable property to nonprofits is an unfair burden on taxpayers in regional centers like Red Bank. (Click to enlarge)

By JOHN T. WARD

It’s become a familiar refrain of Red Bank officials: the borough is choking on nonprofits that provide services to a wide swath of Monmouth County’s citizenry but return nothing to the town’s coffers.

For all the societal good they do, a sprawling medical center, various churches and other do-good institutions occupy land that might otherwise generate tax revenue – and they increase the load carried by borough taxpayers each time they expand, says Mayor Pasquale Menna.

“Our residents have to pay for the deficiency,” he said. “That societal good is borne by those who are the least able to pay for it.”

Menna says that this year, he’ll be dialing up efforts to address what he considers a fundamental unfairness. But having gotten nowhere with earlier efforts, he’s retooled, and is now pitching a provocative idea: Make nonprofits pay when they acquire property now on the tax rolls.

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January 5, 2012 - 11:59 am |

DuPONT: TAX NON-PROFITS

dupontRed Bank Councilman Mike DuPont says it may be time to end tax-exemptions for most non-profits.

In the latest round of verbal sparring between Red Bank officials and the town’s representatives in Trenton, Councilman Mike DuPont has floated what he hopes is a solution to the borough’s fiscal woes that all can embrace:

Tax non-profits.

It’s done elsewhere, and is under consideration in additional locales, DuPont says in a March 18 letter he sent to state Senator Jennifer Beck.

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April 5, 2010 - 2:12 pm |

COUNCIL NIXES CALL FOR TAXPAYER SUMMIT

img_6886011110Councilman Mike DuPont, left, addresses his opponent in last year’s election, Kim Senkeleski, as Councilman Ed Zipprich listens. (Click to enlarge)

A proposal by 2009 Republican council candidate Kim Senkeleski for a “taxpayer’s summit” to gather direct citizen input on the Red Bank budget failed to find any support last night from members of the all-Democrat borough council.

They say there already is such an event held annually as the budget is being developed.

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January 12, 2010 - 10:24 am |

SENKELESKI CONCEDES SHE HASN’T CONCEDED

kim-senkeleskiKim Senkeleski: provisionally waiting.

By DUSTIN RACIOPPI

Prior statements by the candidate aside, it’s possible Tuesday night’s borough council election results didn’t spell the end of campaign ’09 for Republican Kim Senkeleski after all.

Early Tuesday night, Senkeleski conceded to incumbent Democrats Art Murphy and top vote-getter Mike DuPont.

But the Asbury Park Press reported later in the evening that Senkeleski was considering a ballot recount because she had narrowed the gap.

Senkeleski denied that report when contacted by redbankgreen later that night.

But she changed her tune when she posted a comment yesterday on redbankgreen‘s election story, writing that because provisional ballots have yet to be counted, she will not admit defeat.

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November 5, 2009 - 1:32 am |

COUNCIL CANDIDATE: SENKELESKI

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[audio:https://www.redbankgreen.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/10/senkeleski.mp3]

Today, redbankgreen brings you the fourth and final installment in a series of unedited audio interviews with each of the four candidates for two seats on the Red Bank Council up for grabs in the November 3 election.

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October 22, 2009 - 6:02 am |

COUNCIL CANDIDATE: MURPHY

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[audio:https://www.redbankgreen.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/10/murphy.mp3]

Today, redbankgreen brings you the third in a series of unedited audio interviews with each of the four candidates for two seats on the Red Bank Council up for grabs in the November 3 election.

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October 21, 2009 - 7:29 am |

COUNCIL CANDIDATE: LOMBARDI

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[audio:https://www.redbankgreen.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/10/lombardi.mp3]

Today, redbankgreen brings you the second in a series of unedited audio interviews with each of the four candidates for two seats on the Red Bank Council up for grabs in the November 3 election.

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October 20, 2009 - 6:53 am |

COUNCIL CANDIDATE: DuPONT

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[audio:https://www.redbankgreen.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/10/dupont.mp3]

Today, redbankgreen kicks off a series of unedited audio interviews with each of the four candidates for two seats on the Red Bank Council up for grabs in the November 3 election.

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October 19, 2009 - 9:23 am |
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