Mayor Joshua Halpern, second from left in top row, as seen during Monday’s virtual council meeting. (Screengrab from Zoom. Click to enlarge.)
By JOHN T. WARD
Five days into the job, Fair Haven’s new mayor forged a “compromise” Monday night in an effort to preserve funding for a road project that appeared dead a week ago.
“We’re looking for progress here,” Mayor Joshua Halpern said during a 47-minute special council meeting, his first as a public official.
Cooney Terrace, above, and part of Hance Road would remain sidewalk-free, and possibly curb-free, under a proposal up for a vote Monday night. (Photo by John T. Ward. Click to enlarge.)
Se UPDATE below
By JOHN T. WARD
A Fair Haven road project that appeared dead Tuesday may have been revived by the man who was named mayor that night.
Mayor Joshua Halpern on Friday called a special meeting of the council for Monday night to consider a plan to repave the northern end of Hance Road – but without sidewalks and maybe without curbs.
Delivery trucks and tree-removal equipment narrowed a stretch of Hance Road Wednesday morning. (Photo by John T. Ward. Click to enlarge.)
By JOHN T. WARD
After seven years of planning, and months of intense pushback, Fair Haven’s council killed a plan to install sidewalks and curbs in an area that residents likened to a “country lane” Tuesday night.
The action, on a 3-3 vote without a mayor in place to cast a tiebreaker, left unanswered what to do about streets that still need repaving, and whether to waive a $350,000 grant to pay for it.
A truck preparing to back into the brush-grinding site as a child rode a bike nearby last May. (Photo by John T. Ward. Click to enlarge)
By JOHN T. WARD
A brush-grinding facility that has irked Fair Haven neighbors for nearly a decade will see a 60-plus percent reduction in activity under a plan officials unveiled Monday night.
But one council member pressed for a permanent solution: moving it out of the residential area.
Greg Cannon, Fair Haven’s new borough attorney, at a Red Bank council meeting in 2017. (Photo by John T. Ward. Click to enlarge.)
By JOHN T. WARD
Now in the majority, Fair Haven’s Democrats swapped out the longtime borough attorney Monday night.
On a bipartisan vote at the annual municipal reorganization meeting, conducted via Zoom, the council replaced Sal Alfieri with Greg Cannon, who also serves as borough attorney in neighboring Red Bank.
The approval allows an upward expansion of the existing structure, seen below. (Rendering by Anthony Conduouris; photo by John T. Ward. Click to enlarge.)
By JOHN T. WARD
A one-story dance studio in Fair Haven is set to make a grand jeté to a second floor following zoning board approval Thursday night.
Board Chairman Todd Lehder praised the Kick Dance Studios plan as a harbinger of the borough’s future. He was also the only board member to vote against it.
The Fair Haven vote tally as shown on the Monmouth County Clerk’s website as of Monday evening. (Click to enlarge.)
Fair Haven Democrats have won their first majority on the borough’s governing body in recent memory.
Nearly three weeks after voting closed, official results posted on Monmouth County Clerk’s website late Monday showed incumbent Councilman Chris Rodriguez and running mate Laline Neff won the two open council seats, displacing three-term Republican Susan Sorensen.
By JOHN T. WARD
Fair Haven Democrats appeared headed to a council majority for the first time in memory Wednesday.
With vote tallies incomplete, incumbent Chris Rodriguez and running mate Laline Neff held wide margins over incumbent Republican Susan Sorensen, who ran solo in pursuit of a fourth three-year term.
Christopher Rodriguez. (Click to enlarge.)
Fair Haven voters will be asked to fill two three-year terms on the borough council in the November 3 election.
On the ballot are three candidates: incumbent Republican Susan Sorensen; incumbent Democrat Christopher Rodriguez; and his running mate, Laline Neff.
Here are Rodriguez’s written responses to questions posed to all three candidates recently by redbankgreen.
Susan Sorensen. (Click to enlarge.)
Fair Haven voters will be asked to fill two three-year terms on the borough council in the November 3 election.
On the ballot are three candidates: incumbent Republican Susan Sorensen; incumbent Democrat Christopher Rodriguez; and his running mate, Laline Neff.
Here are Sorensen’s written responses to questions posed to all three candidates recently by redbankgreen.
Laline Neff. (Click to enlarge.)
Fair Haven voters will be asked to fill two three-year terms on the borough council in the November 3 election.
On the ballot are three candidates: incumbent Republican Susan Sorensen; incumbent Democrat Christopher Rodriguez; and his running mate, Laline Neff.
Here are Neff’s written responses to questions posed to all three candidates recently by redbankgreen.