Riverview Medical Center looms over one of two Irwin Marine properties flanking Marine Park. (Photo by John T. Ward. Click to enlarge.)
By JOHN T. WARD
Irwin Marine, a boating business with pilings sunk deep into the red clay waterfront that gave Red Bank its name, has been sold by the family that’s owned it throughout its 139-year existence.
Volunteer firefighters battled the blaze in close quarters on a dock and ramp. Below, onlookers at Riverview Medical Center. (Photos by John T. Ward. Click to enlarge.)
By JOHN T. WARD
No one was injured in the dramatic waterfront blaze that destroyed and sank a yacht docked at a Navesink River marina Thursday night, Red Bank Fire Chief Nick Ferraro told redbankgreen.
A dockside boat fire blanketed Red Bank’s Riverview Medical Center in smoke Thursday evening.
(See UPDATE below)
Fire destroyed at least one boat and damaged another in a predawn blaze at the Molly Pitcher Inn marina in Red Bank Saturday.
Jon Stewart serving lunch to construction workers from a food truck at the Count Basie Center for the Arts in 2018. (Photo by John T. Ward. Click to enlarge.)
By JOHN T. WARD
Political commentator and comedian Jon Stewart is selling one of the two side-by-side riverfront mansions he owns in Red Bank, according to a recent filing.
After years of controversy, plan changes and environmental issues, a combination play area and viewing stand in Red Bank’s Bellhaven Natural Area is finally nearing completion. redbankgreen got a sneak preview Thursday morning.
What’s Going On Here? Read on.
Like the rest of New Jersey, Red Bank may be on near-lockdown because of the COVID-19 pandemic, but work on a trio of closely watched municipal projects continues.
What’s Going On Here? Read on.
A sign alerting the public to an environmental cleanup appeared at Red Bank’s Bellhaven Natural Area a few weeks ago.
What’s Going On Here? Read on.
After years of discussion, some of it quite heated, Red Bank’s Bellhaven Natural Area is about to get a makeover.
Local officials lined the shoreline of the Navesink River for the park opening. Below, the house that formerly stood on the site, as seen in 2009. (Photos by John T. Ward. Click to enlarge.)
By JOHN T. WARD
More than a decade after it began, an effort to turn prime riverfront property in Fair Haven into a park ended with a ribbon-cutting Tuesday evening.
Dubbed “Williams, Albert and Robards Park” for the successive generations of the family that lived there, the site at the northern end of Denormandie Avenue will now serve as a place for “contemplation,” Mayor Ben Lucarelli told several dozen onlookers at a brief ceremony.
Consulting engineer Christine Ballard details the Bellhaven plan for the council last week. (Photo by John T. Ward. Click to enlarge.)
By JOHN T. WARD
After years of revisions, and no small amount of controversy, changes to the Bellhaven Natural Area in Red Bank could be completed by this summer, officials said last week.
Once again, the project has been scaled-back from a version of a plan that called for a spray park and triggered loud protests four years ago, they said.
Trees were taken down recently at Bellhaven Natural Area in preparation for an observation deck being built there, according to Business Administrator Ziad Shehady. (Photo by John T. Ward. Click to enlarge.)
By JOHN T. WARD
Red Bank officials have quietly started prep work for a project at a site once mired in controversy: the Bellhaven Natural Area overlooking the Swimming River.
The end result, however will be a “scaled-back” version of a plan that once called for a spray park and triggered loud protests three years ago.
The new concept plan for Bellhaven Natural Area includes an observation deck, similar to the one shown for illustration purposes above left; playground equipment; and a play area covered with a rubberized safety surface, shown in light green. (Click to enlarge)
By JOHN T. WARD
Two years after residents gave a thorough hosing to a plan for a spray park in a West Side wetlands, Red Bank officials unveiled a new plan for the Bellhaven Natural Area Wednesday night.
This one got a warmer reception.
After scrapping a controversial plan for a “spray pad” in a children’s play area at Bellhaven Natural Area two years ago, Red Bank officials plan to unveil a new plan for the site next week.
Bridge-crossing local residents, commuters and others get to weigh in on matters concerning a couple of drawbridges on the Greater Red Bank Green in coming weeks.
A 2012 image outlines the extent of wetlands at Bellhaven Natural Area at the western terminus of Locust Avenue. (Photo by John T. Ward. Click to enlarge)
By JOHN T. WARD
Two years after abandoning a controversial “sprayground” proposed for the Bellhaven Natural Area, the Red Bank borough council is moving ahead with plans for a playground at the site.
At its semimonthly meeting Wednesday night, the council approved nearly $20,000 in additional engineering costs for the site, a move that prompted fresh objections.
“This is deja vu all over again,” said Bill Meyer, owner of a downtown commercial building. The borough has already spent $73,000 engineering fees on the site, and “that money was burned and wasted,” he said. More →
Todd Thompson, seated at center, discussing bridge options with other attendees at the Rumson session. (Photo by John T. Ward. Click to enlarge)
By JOHN T. WARD
What should be done about the crumbling Oceanic Bridge between Rumson and Middletown?
Area residents were offered dozens of options Tuesday as Monmouth County officials hit the reset button on an earlier process derailed by a change in federal regulations.
The Oceanic Bridge between Rumson and Middletown is in “critical” condition, according to the Monmouth County Engineer’s office, and officials plan to unveil “conceptual alternatives” for its replacement or repair at meetings slated in each town today.
A stand-up paddler got close to the dolphin in the Shrewsbury River between Sea Bright and Rumson last week. Marine experts say humans and boats should keep away from the animal. (Photo by Scott Longfield. Click to enlarge)
By JOHN T. WARD
Without much public notice, a lone bottlenose dolphin has been plying the Shrewsbury River for the past seven months, according to wildlife advocates who are growing concerned about its safety as temperatures drop and its food supply diminishes.
As it has in the past, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s fisheries unit regards the dolphin’s presence as a not unusual, and said the animal appears to be healthy.
But Bob Schoelkopf, founder and director of the independent Marine Mammal Stranding Center in Brigantine, expressed frustration that NOAA hasn’t done anything to guide the dolphin northward through the strait that leads into Sandy Hook Bay, and that colder temperatures make such an effort more dangerous for humans.
An entrance to Bellhaven Natural Area on Locust Avenue. A proposed playground would be sited within the of loop the path shown above. (Photo by John T. Ward. Click to enlarge)
By JOHN T. WARD
A controversial plan for a spray park in Red Bank’s Bellhaven Natural Area has all but officially sputtered out.
The borough-owned riverfront lot at the western end of Locust Avenue is still envisioned as the site of a much-needed West Side playground, according to Councilwoman Linda Schwabenbauer, the governing body’s liaison to the parks and recreation department.
But a spray park or a splash pad that shoots jets of water skyward? That’s done, she tells redbankgreen.
A stand-up paddler and some jet-skiers share our beautiful Navesink River on a relatively cool – mid-70s – and sunny summer day, as seen from a bench outside the Red Bank Public Library Friday afternoon.
The forecast for the weekend includes mostly cloudy skies Saturday and a return of sunshine Sunday, with peak temperatures in the high 80s, according to the National Weather Service. (Photo by John T. Ward. Click to enlarge)
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)
Bon Jovi’s Middletown home, above, as seen in 2008. Below, Bon Jovi and his wife, Dorothea, with Red Bank Mayor Pasquale Menna and former mayor Ed McKenna in 2011. (Photos by John T. Ward. Click to enlarge)
Pop star Bon Jovi is planning to host a fundraiser for Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton, according to a report by NJ.com.
The report doesn’t give the location of the event, but notes that the pop star and his wife, Dorothea, live in Monmouth County.
Recreational boats and a New York Water Taxi sharing the Shrewsbury River off Bahrs Landing in 2012. Below, the whales as seen in a photo posted on the Bahrs Marina Facebook page Monday. (Photo above by John T. Ward. Click to enlarge)
Three juvenile Beluga whales were seen in the Shrewsbury River Monday, according to multiple reports.
The Facebook page of Bahrs Marina in Highlands, six hours after first reporting the possible presence of dolphins, “confirmed” the presence of three whales just 50 feet off the marina’s dock shortly after 4 p.m.
Critics contend the Bellhaven sprayground has little popular support. (Click to enlarge)
By JOHN T. WARD
It wasn’t on the agenda, but a proposed water playground on Red Bank’s West Side spewed back to the fore Wednesday night.
At issue: whether to keep spending money on prep work for the controversial four-year-old project, which has been temporarily derailed by the discovery of heating oil in the soil.
Counting at least three prospective “no” votes on the six-member council, Republican Cindy Burnham asked: “Why do we continue to use taxpayer money to pay [engineering consultant] T&M Associates for soil testing and permits?”