RED BANK: POWER LINE STRUCK
A backhoe operator was lucky to be alive after his machine struck a live power line in Red Bank Tuesday morning.
RED BANK: WHITE STREET GAS LINE RUPTURED
The smell of natural gas from a line rupture on White Street in Red Bank could be detected as far away as the intersection of Harding Road and Broad Street Monday morning.
LITTLE SILVER: ROAD CLOSURE BEGINS
A partial road closure that’s expected to last three weeks is underway in Little Silver to accommodate gas line work on the Oceanport side of the Gooseneck Bridge, police said Wednesday.
RED BANK: GAS LEAK CAPPED
Responding to a gas leak reported shortly before 5 p.m. Thursday at the intersection of Rector Place and West Front Street in Red Bank, a crew from New Jersey Natural Gas Company stopped the leak at 5:44 p.m. Details about the incident were not immediately available. The Red Bank Fire Department also responded.
The intersection is one of two now closed to traffic for reconstruction in conjunction with utility work on the new Hubbard’s Bridge that has detours in place for two-to-three weeks, causing significant traffic delays. (Photos by John T. Ward. Click to enlarge)
RED BANK: COUNCIL OKS NEW HIRE
In a budget presentation, library director Elizabeth McDermott said the institution had recovered from events that “devastated” it in 2014. (Photo by John T. Ward. Click to enlarge)
By JOHN T. WARD
At Wednesday night’s bimonthly meeting of the borough council, Red Bank officials authorized a new hire, passed a passel of bond ordinances and got an update on the public library’s finances a year after a mass resignation of board members.
Those agenda items and more get the bullet-point treatment below…
RED BANK SCORES IN GAS VALVE BATTLE
An NJNG crew packs it in after being ordered by police to stop work on a nearly completed gas regulator valve replacement on Monmouth Street in October, 2012. Below, a Monmouth Street valve that was struck by a falling tree during Hurricane Sandy. (Click to enlarge)
By JOHN T. WARD
Remember the flap over the regulator valves that New Jersey Natural Gas Company moved above-ground along storefronts over the objections of Red Bank officials and merchants two years ago?
They’re unsafe, borough officials said. They’re ugly, too, said business owners and officials at RiverCenter, the downtown promotion agency. Mayor Pasquale Menna called them “monstrous carbuncles” forced upon the town by an “arrogant” utility company.
They’re also illegal, according to a state appellate panel ruing issued Tuesday.
GAS LINE WORK SNARLS LITTLE SILVER
Underground utility-line repair work on Branch Avenue caused significant traffic backups in Little Silver and Rumson Monday afternoon. Detours were briefly instituted as Branch Avenue was closed between Rumson and White roads, according to Little Silver police Chief Dan Shaffery, who said the roadwork was completed and traffic was moving as normal by 4 p.m.. (Click to enlarge)
LITTLE SILVER ROAD CLOSURE BEGINS
A partial road closure that’s expected to last through December took effect with the start of work on a gas line beneath Seven Bridge Road in Little Silver Monday morning.
The road will be closed daily from 7 a.m. to 5 p.m. from Rumson Road to Little Silver Point Road, though vehicles will be permitted to travel south along that stretch until 8:15 a.m., according to borough police. (Click to enlarge)
PROBE INTO DEADLY FIRE CONTINUES
The scene at 135 Statesir Place Tuesday morning. (Click to enlarge)
By DUSTIN RACIOPPI
The Monmouth County Prosecutor’s Office continues to investigate the deadly fire that ripped through a Statesir Place home early this morning, First Assistant Prosecutor Christopher Gramiccioni said.
The names of the four people who were killed in the blaze have not been released, pending notification of family members, he said.
“My people are out there doing their due diligence,” Gramiccioni said.
MENNA GASSED UP OVER REGULATOR PLAN
Imagine 80 more of these downtown. (Photo by Dustin Racioppi; click to enlarge)
By DUSTIN RACIOPPI
Mayor Pasquale Menna can’t say enough how much he objects to a plan by New Jersey Natural Gas to replace aging equipment in town, although he’s trying his best.
“New Jersey Natural Gas decided they wanted to be modern day Vandals of Red Bank,” he said of the company’s proposed “gas pressure regulator relocation project,” which “sounds very fancy but it’s very ugly.”
The plan, to open up downtown sidewalks and remove old gas regulators, then install new ones above ground, has sent Menna into a whirling tirade against the company, saying it’s acting out of corporate greed and counteracting years of work to preserve the historic downtown.