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RED BANK: PASTRIES TO FILL ‘CAKE BOSS’ SPOT

 A Staten Island-based pastry shop plans to set up shop in the former Carlo’s Bake Shop at 86 Broad Street. (Photo by John T. Ward. Click to enlarge)

By JOHN T. WARD

retail churn smallOne pastry shop replaces another; work to transform a century-old firehouse into an interior design shop gets underway; a boutique closes; and a gourmet lunch spot in Red Bank’s Riverside Gardens Park pulls down the shutters for the winter.

Read all about it in this edition of redbankgreen‘s Retail Churn.

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RED BANK: COPS NAB BURGLARS IN THE ACT

Thanks to a home security camera, Red Bank police caught two women, one of them a borough resident, in the act of burglarizing a house Saturday, Chief Darren McConnell tells redbankgreen.

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RED BANK: TWEET THIS PHOTO

luis santamaria 060816Red Bank Middle School seventh grader Luis Santamaria shows off his photo of baby birds waiting to be fed in their nest before he was honored by the borough council Wednesday night.

The photo was one of four selected as winners in the latest round of seasonal photo contests sponsored by the borough’s Parks and Recreation Department, and earned Luis a certificate as well as a portfolio review by professional photographers Liz and Bob McKay of McKay Imaging Photography on Monmouth Street.

Luis told redbankgreen he takes lots of photos, and for this one, got as close as he could to the birds without disturbing them and snapped the shot with his cracked-screen cellphone. (Photo by John T. Ward. Click to enlarge)

RED BANK: MOCKINGBIRDS GO BY THE BOOK

rbpl bird 071414 4rbpl bird 071414 1A vigilant pair of northern mockingbirds have set up house for their chirping newborns hidden in a bush near the entrance to the Red Bank Public Library. Though library staffers cordoned off the bush with yellow tape, the adult birds – which the National Audubon Society describes as “strongly territorial” occasionally swoop down on  visitors.

“You might experience a flutter of wings on your shoulder or back as they try to protect the nest,” a note taped to the library door explains. “They have startled people, but not harmed them.”

The note includes this passage from Harper Lee’s “To Kill a Mockingbird:”

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WHO FIXED THE NAVESINK OSPREY NEST?

OSPREY NEST 1 050214The osprey nest as see Friday morning, above, and a year ago, below. (Photo by John T. Ward. Click to enlarge)

osprey nest 050913 2A precariously leaning home to ospreys in the Navesink River has been fixed, according to a report on a conservation website.

The pole, a decommissioned channel marker between Fair Haven and Middletown, was nearly toppled during Hurricane Sandy, according to the original report by Ben Wurst, habitat program manager for the Conserve Wildlife Foundation of New Jersey.

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NAVESINK RIVER OSPREY NEST NEEDS TLC

osprey nest 050913 2The osprey nest as seen last May. Below, adult ospreys sunning on a Red Bank dock last April. (Photo by John T. Ward. Click to enlarge)

ospreys 3 042413Wildlife conservationists are looking for help to save the precariously leaning Navesink River home to an osprey nest before it falls over, according to a report on newsworks.org.

The pole, a decommissioned channel marker between Fair Haven and Middletown, was nearly toppled during Hurricane Sandy, according to the report, based on a blog post by Ben Wurst, habitat program manager for the Conserve Wildlife Foundation of New Jersey.

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IN RED BANK, A HORNET’S NEST OF ACTIVITY

Rich Hardy, of Red Bank’s public works department, warily eyes a hornet’s nest that a borough patrolman found lying in the roadway on Drs. James Parker Boulevard at Leighton Avenue around 9 a.m. Wednesday.

Hardy thought better of bagging the hornet’s nest, though, and left the job to the properly suited Dave Beers, below, of Chesapeake Exterminating, who arrived on the scene within minutes of being called.

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BACK TO THE SCENE OF THE FIRE

smolderingRed Bank firefighters returned to the site of Monday’s night’s house fire after a report of smoldering in the attic early Tuesday afternoon. The remaining embers of the South Street blaze, reported to have been started by the homeowner as he sought to remove a wasp’s nest, were quickly extinguished, fire personnel reported. (Click to enlarge)

TARGETING WASPS, OWNER SETS HOUSE AFIRE

south-st-house-fireSmoke pours from the gable end of the attic at 96 South Street. Below, homeowner Peter Chan with borough Fire Marshal Stanley Sickels. (Click to enlarge)

chanA smoky fire damaged a Red Bank residence Monday night after the homeowner tried to burn an insect nest, authorities said.

The fire, at 96 South, was reported at about 9:45 p.m., and appeared to be out by about 10:20.

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