Boat Club Court, seen from Union Street, would become a one-way uphill toward West Front Street, but remain a two-way for a short stretch in the other direction. (Photo by John T. Ward. Click to enlarge.)
By JOHN T. WARD
A steep and narrow road serving Red Bank’s Marine Park and two Navesink River clubs would become a partial one-way street under an ordinance up for consideration by the borough council this week.
A runner passes one of two new murals on opposite sides of White Street in Red Bank last week.
Created by muralist Bob Mataranglo, at right, they depict Navesink River scenes with bas relief elements, including the Monmouth Boat Club, the Riverside Gardens Park archway and a sailboat.
With his son, Aydin, looking on, Jorge Torres embraces his wife, Lauren, after being sworn in as a police sergeant. (Photo by John T. Ward. Click to enlarge)
By JOHN T. WARD
A former chef became the newest sergeant on the Red Bank police force Wednesday night.
The promotion of Jorge Torres was one of several ceremonies that led the borough council’s semimonthly meeting Wednesday night.
Riverview Medical Center as seen from the Navesink River in 2017. (Photo by John T. Ward. Click to enlarge.)
By JOHN T. WARD
New signage marking Red Bank’s only hospital as ‘Hackensack Meridian Health Riverview Medical Center’ will include an illuminated sign on the Navesink River side of the facility, under a decision by the zoning board Thursday night.
Press release from The Community YMCA
In an annual meeting that took place on June 14 at the Monmouth Boat Club in Red Bank, The Community YMCA named several Red Bank area residents to official positions, and elected Jennifer Lakefield as chairperson and chief volunteer officer of the Shrewsbury-based nonprofit’s Board of Directors.
A resident of Colts Neck and managing director of Red Bank-based ZAIS Group, Lakefield will provide leadership to the 20-member board, which sets strategic direction and policy to guide the Y’s work of strengthening communities through youth development, healthy living and social responsibility. She succeeds Joseph Oriolo of Shrewsbury, and will serve a two-year term ending in 2019.
“Upscale” 26 West on the Navesink opened Monday night in a building previously occupied by a string of nightclubs and Mexican restaurants. (Photo by John T. Ward. Click to enlarge)
By JOHN T. WARD
Red Bank got a new, upscale seafood restaurant Monday, even as its owners were a few blocks away, at borough hall, getting approval for an expansion.
But not the approval they originally sought.
A rendering shows the proposed roof deck on the former 10th Ave. Burrito Company building, as seen from Union Street. (Rendering by Michael Unger. Click to enlarge)
By JOHN T. WARD
After two planning board hearings, a proposal to convert the former 10th Ave. Burrito Company space in Red Bank to an upscale seafood restaurant remained undecided Monday night.
Still at issue: the impact of a planned roof deck on residences in the condo building next door.
Busted sanitary sewer lines in two locations along Marion Street in Red Bank were significant sources of bacteria winding up in the Navesink off Fair Haven, investigators said. (Photo by John T. Ward. Click to enlarge)
By JOHN T. WARD
Environmentalists and government officials have found two culprits, just yards apart in Red Bank, believed to be contributing to a spike in human waste bacteria in the Navesink River, they said Thursday night.
And the mystery could not have been solved without a trio of specially trained sniffing dogs, an ecstatic Clean Ocean Action leader Cindy Zipf told redbankgreen.
A rendering of the remodeled former 10th Ave. Burrito Company building. An open-air deck proposed in January would now be enclosed under a revised plan. (Rendering by Cahill Studio. Click to enlarge)
By JOHN T. WARD
The proposed conversion of the former 10th Ave. Burrito Company in Red Bank to an upscale seafood restaurant will have to wait at least two more weeks to move ahead.
After a winter’s break, an initiative dubbed ‘Rally for the Navesink‘ to reduce levels of fecal coliform in our beautiful river resumes tonight with a community-welcome meeting in Fair Haven.
On the agenda: oyster beds and boat waste.
A makeover into a seafood restaurant with a roof deck is proposed for the site of Caliente Cantina, a short-lived restaurant at 26 West Front Street. (Photo by Trish Russoniello. Click to enlarge)
By JOHN T. WARD
Yet another Red Bank restaurant and bar is hoping to join the rooftop dining trend, and this one has a widescreen view of the Navesink River.
The plan to convert 26 West Front Street to a seafood restaurant follows the recent closing at that address of Caliente Cantina, itself a successor to the short-lived 10th Ave. Burrito.
Zach Lees of Clean Ocean Action talks about tracking bacteria along storm sewers upland from Red Bank’s Marine Park Wednesday night. (Photo by John T. Ward. Click to enlarge)
By JOHN T. WARD
Aided by a trio of specially trained sniffing dogs, environmental detectives have zoomed in on particular locations in three towns that may be at least partly responsible for a recent spike in bacteria levels in the Navesink River, they reported Wednesday night.
At the final Rally for the Navesink event of 2016 organized after a ban on shellfish harvesting from 566 acres of the river last February, a coalition of groups identified specific sites where leaking sanitary sewer lines or septic systems in Red Bank, Fair Haven and Middletown may be contributing bacteria from human waste.
Five months after the series began in response to a sharp increase in fecal coliform contamination, a final Rally for the Navesink event of 2016 has been scheduled.
Organized by Clean Ocean Action and a handful of environmental advocacy groups, the periodic rallies began in June, attracting sizable audiences and offering both science-heavy updates on water quality and practical tips on keeping pollutants out of the waterway.
Press release from Red Bank Charter School
Jayshawn Banks, an eighth grade student at Red Bank Middle School, peeks above the top of his laptop — just enough time to compare the sailboat blueprint he’s developing on his screen with the real dinghy that is being assembled just a few feet away.
Jayshawn’s classmate, Shelly Vasquez, a seventh grader at Red Bank Charter School, does the same. Both are intent on the task at hand: to build a sailboat. And while both students know they can get quick answers from their teachers in the room, they remain steadfastly independent, choosing to work with their peers instead.
“We feel like architects,” Jayshawn said. “And when we run into problems, we know we can ask the teacher, but we’d rather figure it out ourselves.”
This balance of independence and collaboration is a hallmark of the five-week RBCS Summer Institute, available to all elementary school-aged children.
Excursions to the area’s natural attractions offer opportunities for art and science-based learning activities, during Red Bank Charter School’s Summer Institute programs for grade levels 1 through 8.
Press release from Red Bank Charter School
Research has shown that summer months create a lapse in learning, and family socioeconomic status (SES) is highly correlated to the level of academic growth or decline over the summer. Two-thirds of the academic achievement gap in reading and language found among high school students has been explained through the learning loss that occurs during the summer months of the primary school years.
With that in mind, Red Bank Charter School has announced a wrap-around STEM-based curriculum for their Summer Institute program. Offered from July 5 to August 5 and divided into two grade level-based groups (grades 1-4, grades 5-8), the summertime activities are available both to current RBCS students and to non-students.
Ever have a yen to enjoy a Sunday morning breakfast in a historic setting with a spectacular view of the beautiful Navesink River? Come on down to the Monmouth Boat Club on March 6, when the clubhouse opens its doors to the public for an all-ages flapjacks-and-more fundraiser between the hours of 8 am and noon.
Sponsored by the Navesink Maritime Heritage Association (NMHA), the event is a benefit for Sea Scout Ship #5, the local chapter of the co-ed program of the Boy Scouts of America that teaches maritime skills to young people ages 14 to 21.
Coastal flooding was widespread on the Greater Red Bank Green Tuesday morning. Trucks and cars powered through deep water on Ocean Avenue in Sea Bright, above, and flooding closed Seven Bridge Road just north of Paag Lane in Little Silver, right. And once again, the Navesink River flooded the Monmouth Boat Club in Red Bank, below.
The National Weather Service forecasts tidal inundations won’t be as extensive in the Tuesday night and Wednesday morning high tides. (Photos above and right by Bob Kern. Photo below by Trish Russoniello. Click to enlarge)
It seems someone neglected to check the tide charts when leaving a red pickup truck in the parking lot shared by the Monmouth Boat Club and North Shrewsbury Ice Boat and Yacht Club in Red Bank. This reader photo, snapped at 7:40 a.m. Monday shows a red vehicle swamped by the Navesink River. The National Weather Service has issued a coastal flood warning. (Reader photo above. Photo at right by Trish Russoniello. Click to enlarge)
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.
Members of the Monmouth Boat Club make an irresistible “sails pitch” on Saturday for all who’d like to learn to sail. (Photo by John T. Ward. Click to enlarge)
While the Navesink River has been known to occasionally make itself at home inside the historic Victorian-style structure at the foot of Wharf Avenue, it’s not every day that Red Bank’s Monmouth Boat Club throws open its doors to non-members. But on Saturday, the 136-year-old clubhouse at the river’s edge welcomes all members of the public for a day of free sailboat rides, complimentary cookout fare, and tours of the landmark building.
Want to learn to sail? Motor on over to the Monmouth Boat Club on May 23. (Photo by John T. Ward. Click to enlarge)
Red Bank’s Monmouth Boat Club is scheduled to offer an open house event to provide free sailboat rides, and tours of the historic clubhouse on Saturday, May 23.
The event also includes an introduction to the adult sailing program.
Italian-born painter (and award-winning sailboat racer) Santo Pezzutti visits Canvas Studio Art this weekend for a retrospective of his work in oils, acrylics and watercolors.
It’s a method of painting that the artist calls “stream of consciousness,” an approach to portraits and nautical-themed seascapes that skirts strict photorealism in favor of a more impressionistic — some might say “fluid” — style.
When he’s not working in oils, acrylics, or watercolors, Santo Pezzutti can be found navigating the Navesink — where, as a longtime member of Red Bank’s Monmouth Boat Club, he’s been a serial champion sailboat racer whose unprecedented 10-year run of top honors (in the Sanderling class, from 2000-2009) has not only remained unmatched, but resulted in his well-engraved trophy being retired from further duty.
Back on dry land this weekend, the Italian-born Pezzutti is the center of attention and the guest of honor as Canvas Studio Art in Rumson presents a solo-show exhibit that showcases the 92-year-old artist’s waterworld of light and local color.
They lined up for a chance to kayak, row and sail our beautiful river when Paddle the Navesink Day returned after a one-year absence Sunday. Navesink River Rowing, the Monmouth Boat Club, Navesink Maritime Heritage Association and other organizations provided participants with hands-on recreational and educational experiences. More photos after the jump… (Photos by John T. Ward. Click to enlarge)
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.