The American Littoral Society hung bags of recycled oyster shells from docks on the Navesink and Shrewsbury rivers in June to see if they would attract oyster larvae. (Photo by John T. Ward. Click to enlarge)
By JOHN T. WARD
After nearly three months, an effort to restore a once-thriving oyster ecosystem in the Navesink and Shrewsbury rivers has yet to detect the bivalve mollusk in the waterways, according to an update by the American Littoral Society.
Workers with the American Littoral Society drop a bag of recycled oyster shells into the river from the dock of a Red Bank home Friday. (Photo by John T. Ward. Click to enlarge)
By JOHN T. WARD
An effort to restore a once-thriving oyster ecosystem in the Navesink River got off to a small start last week with the help of scraps from restaurant diners’ plates.
The existing path, above, links the Red Bank Primary School to Locust Avenue via a wooded area. (Photo by John T. Ward. Click to enlarge)
By JOHN T. WARD
A long-sought emergency roadway to the Red Bank Primary School is nearing reality, borough officials said last week.
A framed photo in a locked display case at Red Bank’s Dublin House Pub may have been turned around by a ghost, according to Pat Martz Heyer, below. (Photos by John T. Ward. Click to enlarge)
By JOHN T. WARD
In her self-published new book, “13 Ghostly Tales and Yarns of the Navesink River,” Patricia Martz Heyer recounts the history of the house that’s now home to Red Bank’s Dublin House Pub: its origins on the Middletown side of the river and two subsequent relocations over the years.
Along the way, the place seems to have acquired a non-paying tenant, in the form of a generally benign if somewhat mischievous ghost named Mrs. Roberta Patterson. More →
Meg Paska, Beth Herbruck and Deb Stasi show off some of the produce grown at Paska’s farm. (Photo by Jim Willis. Click to enlarge)
By JIM WILLIS
Look carefully towards Hartshorne Woods as you cross the Oceanic Bridge from Rumson to Middletown, and you may catch a glimpse of something exceedingly rare in our area: a working farm providing local produce and eggs to area families and restaurants.
Meg Paska farms that property, at Seven Arrows East in Locust, but her farm and livestock may not make it through the coming winter. Despite a successful second growing season at a Community-supported agriculture enterprise that feeds more than 35 area families, Paska is struggling to keep her farm operational, in part because her business partner left unexpectedly last winter.
“His departure was a surprise, and I was left a little bit in a pickle,” Paska tells PieHole. “I’ve held it together this year, but we have taken a real beating. It hasn’t been as productive as it should have been this year because I had to run it by myself.”
Four boys from Parisppany crabbing on Claypit Creek at Hartshorne Woods in Middletown on August 16, 2014.
Check out all the Clippings from the Green here. (Video by Gerda Liebmann. Click to pause.)
More →
New Two River Times owner Domenic DiPiero watching the fireworks show he hosted for Riverview Medical Center at his mother’s home in Locust last month. Mickey Gooch, below with state Senator Joe Kyrillos, was also there. (Photo by John T. Ward. Click to enlarge)
By JOHN T. WARD
The Two River Times, a Red Bank-based broadsheet newspaper with a taste for photos of the moneyed set at society balls, has a new owner.
Domenic DiPiero, president of a borough-based retirement-plan consultancy, has acquired the 24-year-old weekly, the TRT reported in a brief article in the latest edition.
The seller was Mickey Gooch, who with his now ex-wife, Diane, acquired the paper from garrulous television personality Geraldo Rivera a decade ago.
Locust Place, as seen in 2012, above, links Locust Avenue with the Red Bank Primary School, as seen in the aerial below. (Photo by John T. Ward. Click to enlarge)
By JOHN T. WARD
For years, a narrow dirt path through a stretch of woods has been the best option for many Red Bank children trying to avoid a long walk to the primary school.
The path, snaking alongside the Navesink River from Locust Avenue to the school, has also been eyed by emergency responders as an alternative access route for firetrucks and ambulances, should something go wrong at the school.
“It’s been on the drawing board for 20 years,” said Mayor Pasquale Menna.
Now, the borough hopes to secure funding to make the $207,000 path a reality.
Now in its second year, the Family Fireworks Show, featuring some 1,500 shells launched from a barge, capped a fundraising party for Riverview Medical Center at the Navesink River Road home of Rose DiPiero.
“The main thing is that we’ve got fireworks back on the Navesink, and it’s good for the community and for a good cause,” said Dominick DiPiero III, one of the event’s hosts. (Photos by John T. Ward and Susan Ericson. Click to enlarge)
The council approved a bond to pay for a bulkhead to halt erosion at North Prospect Avenue, above. A change to another bond, for a possible spray park at Bellhaven Natural Area, below, drew criticism. (Photos by John T. Ward. Click to enlarge)
By JOHN T. WARD
Not for the first time and almost certainly not for the last, Red Bankers picked over a pair of big-ticket projects at Wednesday night’s council meeting.
One was a bond ordinance council members were in a hurry to approve in order to save two Navesink River yards from severe erosion.
The other: A possible spray park at Bellhaven Natural Area that has pitted environmental activists against West Siders desperate for a playground.
With power on along the west side of Broad Street, Starbucks was packed with laptoppers at noon Thursday. Below, an unidentified man tapped into the grid courtesy of a vacant storefront. (Click to enlarge)
They’re hungry for power.
With tens of thousands of homes still without electricity on the Red Bank area, data-starved residents are swarming facilities with electricity, wifi and, ideally, coffee Thursday.
Starbucks in Red Bank was packed at noon, nearly 24 hours after power was restored to parts of the downtown.
Other businesses are encouraging the public to stop by and charge up.
Just two days ago, it was riding high, towed around on the Navesink by a boater whose identity redbankgreen doesn’t know. By Monday, though, a custom-built anti-Obama floating ad was underwater at a dock in Red Bank.
Should we read anything into this about next week’s presidential election? And if so, who is sunk: Obama or Nobama? (Photo above by Michael McMahon; at right, by Dan Natale. Click to enlarge)
Strong winds peeled back the roofing atop the Grandville Tower high rise on Morford Place in Red Bank Monday afternoon, leaving it flapping over the edge of the 10-story building. (Photo by Ken Kalada. Click to enlarge)
Fido gets one of his most pressing needs tended to on East Front Street in Red Bank during a Hurricane Sandy downpour Monday afternoon. (Click to enlarge)
Emergency workers closed a stretch of Sycamore Avenue in Shrewsbury around 2 p.m. Monday after a tree limb took down some wires. An auto accident apparently occurred nearby, with a mistaken initial report of an entrapment, though it was not immediately clear if the two incidents were related, police Chief Lou Ferraro told redbankgreen. (Click to enlarge)
Yestercades owner Ken Kalada shared this shot of Marine Park, Red Bank. (Photo by Ken Kalada. Click to enlarge)
redbankgreen readers Ken Kalada and Deb Smith sent us these storm shots taken early Monday.
Have you got one you’d like to share? Feel free to email it to us, full-sized, with info about when and where it was taken, and who if anyone should be credited.
redbankgreen photographer Peter Lindner snapped this shot on Ocean Avenue in Sea Bright at about 10:30 a.m.
Water was at mid-thigh, Lindner reports. Wind is howling there, too. Still, a few sightseers were out. (Photo by Peter Lindner. Click to enlarge)
Wish you were there? Sea Bright beach, around 10:30 Monday morning. (Video by Peter Lindner. Click to enlarge)
A view of the fast incoming tide on the Shrewsbury River between Rumson and Sea Bright, as seen from Lincoln Avenue in Rumson at about 9 a.m. Monday. Photographer Peter Lindner says the West Park section of Rumson, which was ordered evacuated, has about a foot of water in many places. (Video by Peter Lindner. Click to enlarge)
The Navesink River washes into the parking lot of the Monmouth Boat Club and North Shrewsbury Ice Boat & Yacht Club in Red Bank at about 8:30 a.m. Monday. (Photo by Peter Lindner. Click to enlarge)
There was barely an unused square foot of ground at the Oceanic Marina Sunday afternoon, as all vessels were pulled from the water in advance of the storm. (Click to enlarge)
Though a mandatory evacuation order was in effect as of 4 p.m. Sunday, redbankgreen saw lots of lights and televisions glowing after 8 p.m. in homes along the streets that Rumson authorities warned are in danger of severe flooding as a result of expected storm surges.
A motorist stopped at a sign reading “Turn Around Now” at the foot of the Rumson-Sea Bright Bridge around 8:30 p.m. Sunday (Click to enlarge)
With a mandatory evacuation order in effect and a roaring storm expected to put the town “under water,” in the words of Mayor Dina Long, Sea Bright shut itself to the outside world Sunday evening, barring traffic across the two bridges that provide access. From the south, Ocean Avenue was reported to be flooded in Monmouth Beach as a result of ocean water overtopping the sea wall.
The folks at Sugarush figured a little sweet talk couldn’t hurt. (Click to enlarge)
The looming arrival of Hurricane Sandy lent an eerie vibe to an otherwise ordinary Sunday in autumn yesterday. Businesses in downtown Red Bank taped their windows as a precaution while the whitecapped Navesink River spilled over its banks at high tide, offering a preview of watery destruction yet to come.
Borough government and schools are to be closed Monday and Tuesday, with no sanitation or leaf pickups.
Illuminated by the headlights of their car, a couple snaps pictures of the Navesink River just as it breaches the deck of the Fair Haven dock around 9:30 p.m. Sunday. (Click to enlarge)
No evacuations were ordered in the riverfront town of Fair Haven, though borough offices and schools are to be closed at least through Monday, and will reopen when conditions “are deemed safe for employees to return,” according to a message on the town website. Also, garbage collection is suspended until further notice.
Sandbags outside Gianni’s Pizza, at Church Street and Prospect Avenue in Little Silver Sunday afternoon as the region braced for the arrival of Hurricane Sandy.
With flooding “expected to be severe” in low-lying sections of the borough, a voluntary evacuation was suggested by emergency management officials Saturday. Parking was made available to borough residents at the town-owned parking lot at the Little Siver train station.
Borough government and schools, including Red Bank Regional High, are closed Monday and Tuesday. (Click to enlarge)
