RED BANK: RIVERVIEW DROPS MASK MANDATE
Reversing a policy revived a month ago, Red Bank’s Riverview Medical Center has dropped a mandate for mask-wearing to impede the spread of COVID-19, according to a published report.
RED BANK: BROAD REOPENS TO TRAFFIC
After a four-and-a-half-month closure, the northern blocks of Broad Street in downtown Red Bank were reopened to vehicular traffic Monday.
RED BANK: RIVERVIEW REMANDATES MASKS
Red Bank’s Riverview Medical Center has revived its pandemic-era mask mandate for all staff and visitors “due to an increase in COVID-19 prevalence,” its owner announced Wednesday.
RED BANK: SETTLEMENT FORCES LOT RE-DO
Workers laying the sidewalk that blocked access to White Street from the Better Housekeeping Shop, the beige building visible at far right, in October, 2020. (Photos by John T. Ward. Click to enlarge.)
See UPDATE below
By JOHN T. WARD
Less than three years after a complete makeover, downtown Red Bank’s main parking lot would be reconfigured to comply with the terms of a lawsuit settlement up for approval Thursday night.
At issue: an 84-year-old appliance shop’s truck access to the street.
RED BANK: BROADWALK BOLLARDS GO BIG
Red Bank officials this week began to address one of the foremost complaints about the downtown Broadwalk zone: the presence of “ugly” orange safety barrels used to supplement steel bollards installed last year.
RED BANK: SIX-MONTH BROADWALK ON HOLD
RiverCenter’s proposal includes plans to boost weekday activity in the Broadwalk zone. (Photo by John T. Ward. Click to enlarge.)
By JOHN T. WARD
A six-month season for Red Bank’s Broadwalk dining plaza would feature enhanced efforts to boost weekday visitors and battle litter, a business representative told the borough council Wednesday night.
The council, however, withheld an immediate decision on the request.
RED BANK: DETOURS, FOUR-WAY STOP COMING
Motorists who travel Spring Street in Red Bank will need to adjust for some temporary changes resulting from road work this week and next.
And there will be a permanent change in place once the work is done: a new four-way stop intersection.
RED BANK: BOLLARDS, AND BARRELS, VANISH
Red Bank borough workers lowered safety bollards into their subsurface silos and reopened upper Broad Street to vehicular traffic Monday morning.
Marking the end of the abbreviated third season of Broadwalk, they also carted off the orange-and-white safety barrels used in conjunction with the bollards to keep vehicles away from the outdoor dining plaza.
RED BANK: BROADWALK ENDS SHORT RUN
The abbreviated third season of Broadwalk, Red Bank’s outdoor dining plaza on upper Broad Street, is scheduled to end Sunday night, with a reopening to vehicular traffic Monday.
Created by the borough council in 2020 in response to the COVID-19 pandemic and renewed in 2021, Broadwalk didn’t get a green light for this year until late July, delayed by a streetscape project. Then it was allowed to continue another month past its original termination of Labor Day, meaning the new vehicle-blocking retractable bollards (seen at right) vehicles would remain up.
Though the council has not yet determined the future of the economic experiment, Bob Zuckerman, executive director of the downtown promotion agency Red Bank RiverCenter, said he’s “hopeful” the endeavor will return in the spring of 2023.
Meantime, here’s some info on the season-ending activities. While Friday night’s weather appears conducive to a final raising of wine glasses, the rest of the weekend could be a bit chancy. Here’s the outlook:
RED BANK: BROADWALK GETS ANOTHER MONTH
With the extension, Broadwalk is now scheduled to continue through October 2. (Photo by John T. Ward. Click to enlarge.)
By JOHN T. WARD
Red Bank’s council unanimously approved a one-month extension of the Broadwalk plaza Thursday night. But at least three of its members weren’t happy about it.
RED BANK: BARGAINS TO FILL SIDEWALKS
It’s a summer tradition that for 67 summers past has helped sustain local business: the Red Bank Sidewalk Sale. And it returns for a three-day run starting August 19.
RED BANK: BROADWALK SET FOR RETURN
An employee of Catch 19 setting up tables Friday. (Photo by John T. Ward. Click to enlarge.)
By JOHN T. WARD
With borough workers and contractors putting finishing touches on an eight-month-long streetscape project, a handful of restaurants hastily set up for a return of Red Bank’s Broadwalk plaza Friday.
Outside the traffic-free zone, however, none of the parking-space streateries used over the past two summers have returned, following a sixfold increase in fees by the borough council.
RED BANK: BROADWALK RELAUNCH “ON TRACK”
Gleaming new retractable security bollards are expected make their debut on Broad Street in downtown Red Bank with the return of Broadwalk Friday.
But will businesses be ready for the late-starting third season of the dining and shopping plaza?
RED BANK: PAVING TO BRING DAYS OF DETOURS
A crew from Montana Construction adjusting one of the new retractable bollards on Broad Street Friday. (Photo by John T. Ward. Click to enlarge.)
By JOHN T. WARD
Accustomed to detours and dust from an eight-month-long rebuilding of Broad Street, merchants and motorists in Red Bank will face what officials hope will be one last series of shutdowns next week.
Weather permitting, several days of paving and striping should all but finish the streetscape project.
RED BANK: BROADWALK CURTAILED, FEES UPPED
Businesses readied for the second year of Broadwalk in May, 2021. (Photo by John T. Ward. Click to enlarge.)
By JOHN T. WARD
Delayed by months, the third season of Red Bank’s Broadwalk shopping-and-dining plaza may finally get going July 22.
This year’s edition, however, is slated to run only through Labor Day. And new fees for in-street dining will cost restaurateurs twice what they paid over the past two summers, said Bob Zuckerman, executive director of the downtown promotion agency Red Bank RiverCenter.
RED BANK: BROADWALK ACTION EXPECTED
Newly installed retractable bollards will allow for upper Broad Street to be converted quickly to a vehicle-free Broadwalk. (Photo by John T. Ward. Click to enlarge.)
By JOHN T. WARD
Red Bank’s council is scheduled to hold two meetings Wednesday night, its only sessions in July.
Though not on the agenda for either the workshop or regular meeting, action to enable a third season of Broadwalk is anticipated by the downtown business community.
RED BANK: BROADWALK CONCERNS AIRED
A view of Broadwalk at lunchtime last October. (Photo by John T. Ward. Click to enlarge.)
By JOHN T. WARD
Red Bank merchants and residents pressed officials with concerns regarding a third season of Broadwalk at a community forum Wednesday night.
With less than a month to go before a disruptive streetscape makeover project wraps up, they called for efforts to address litter, traffic, speeding on residential streets and more.
RED BANK: BROAD STREET PROJECT NEARS END
Retractable bollards were installed on Mechanic Street near Broad Street Wednesday. (Photo by John T. Ward. Click to enlarge.)
See UPDATE below
By JOHN T. WARD
A messy, overdue and over-budget makeover of upper Broad Street in Red Bank is expected to conclude in late July, acting borough Administrator Darren McConnell said Wednesday.
The project, which began last November, marked a milestone with the installation this week of retractable hydraulic bollards that will enable quick closure of the street to vehicular traffic.
Still to be determined is when the Broadwalk dining promenade will return for a third, if abbreviated, season.
RED BANK: SPRING FOOD FEST CANCELLED
A shot from the 2015 edition of the event. (Photo by John T. Ward. Click to enlarge)
[See UPDATE below]
By JOHN T. WARD
Red Bank won’t be hosting the annual International Beer, Wine & Food Festival scheduled for May 15 because of “left-over Covid issues,” the event’s organizer said Tuesday.
RED BANK: DANNY EASING OUT OF DANNY’S
Danny Murphy, owner of Danny’s Steakhouse, behind the bar Monday. (Photo by John T. Ward. Click to enlarge.)
By JOHN T. WARD
From the moment it opened in Red Bank in 1969, what’s now known as Danny’s Steakhouse has been the alter ego of its creator.
By next month, however, restaurateur Danny Murphy will have begun “transitioning out” of the Bridge Avenue establishment he’s run and lived above for more than half a century.
RED BANK: MASKS ‘STRONGLY’ URGED
Public meetings at borough hall will go remote again, and visitors and employees will be required to wear masks. (Photo by John T. Ward. Click to enlarge.)
By JOHN T. WARD
Red Bank issued a declaration Friday evening “strongly urging” mask-wearing in stores and restaurants to minimize transmission of the resurgent COVID-19 virus.
Mask-wearing in publicly owned buildings will be mandated.
RED BANK: MASK MANDATE EXPECTED
Mayor Pasquale Menna, right, and Congressman Frank Pallone were masked-up at the Red Bank reorganization January 1. (Photo by John T. Ward. Click to enlarge)
By JOHN T. WARD
Red Bank Mayor Pasquale Menna is expected to issue an executive order mandating indoor mask-wearing to slow the spread of the resurgent COVID-19 virus.
The order, which could come as soon as Thursday, was motivated by “the pain that is being felt in our community,” Menna said at the monthly council workshop Wednesday night.
RED BANK: SCHOOLS MUSTER FOR RESTART
Domenic Kalorin, left, was elected board president, succeeding Fred Stone, right. (Photo by John T. Ward. Click to enlarge.)
By JOHN T. WARD
With “a huge chunk” of their staff out on pandemic-related absences, Red Bank’s public schools mustered once again to provide instruction Tuesday, Superintendent Jared Rumage said that night.
VIRUS UPDATE: RBR ON REMOTE, BOROUGH NOT
Students and staff at Red Bank Regional are scheduled begin 2022 in remote mode Tuesday. (Photo by John T. Ward. Click to enlarge.)
By JOHN T. WARD
Red Bank borough schools will be open Tuesday, but the regional high school in Little Silver will go remote as shifting approaches to a surging COVID-19 virus arrived with the new year.
RED BANK: EARLY SPLIT AT REORGANIZATION
Jacqueline Sturdivant arrives for her swearing-in, with fellow council members Ed Zipprich at left and Erik Yngstrom at right. (Photo by John T. Ward. Click to enlarge.)
By JOHN T. WARD
Amid calls for comity, three Red Bank council members tried but failed to derail the appointment of a fourth to a ceremonial post Saturday.
The New Year also began with a resident accusing a council member of “lying” about his place of residence.