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: WHAT’S ON COUNCIL AGENDA
Leaving an unhitched trailer on the street “at any time” would be prohibited by ordinance. (Photo by John T. Ward. Click to enlarge.)
By JOHN T. WARD
At its semimonthly meeting Thursday night, the Red Bank council is expected to finalize its ban on “unhitched” trailers parked curbside throughout town.
LITTLE SILVER: RBR BOARD MEMBER INJURED
John Venino at the RBR board meeting on September 11. (Photo by John T. Ward. Click to enlarge.)
By JOHN T. WARD
Red Bank Regional High School board of ed member John Venino wound up with a black eye following a student altercation last week at a middle school where he works in Asbury Park, according to a TV news report Monday.
RED BANK: SKATE SHOP ROLLS OUT OF TOWN
After less than three years in downtown Red Bank, Feet First Skate Shop has closed its doors.
RED BANK: 75TH HALLOWEEN PARADE SHINES
On an autumn afternoon of cool temperatures, the 75th annual Red Bank Halloween Parade drew hundreds of costumed celebrants for its 75th smile-provoking tromp march down Broad Street Sunday.
Check out redbankgreen‘s photos from the parade, and one longtime celebrant’s memories, below.
RED BANK: FOOD, AND MORE, IN CHURN
Ivan Lopez and friend outside the newly opened Toro Rojo Parrilla Mexicana on Shrewsbury Avenue. (Photo by John T. Ward. Click to enlarge)
By JOHN T. WARD
Two food-based businesses departed Red Bank last month – one after 21 years, the other after just a few days.
But the shopping and dining scene also saw the quick revival of a vacant restaurant space, the opening of a new Pilates studio and more activity.
Read all about it in this edition of Retail Churn.
RED BANK: PARADE TO TAKE 75TH STROLL
The weather outlook appears ideal for Sunday’s 75th annual Halloween Parade, a delightfully frightful stroll through downtown Red Bank. More →
RED BANK: BASIE BOOSTS PARKER CENTER
The Parker facility on Shrewsbury Avenue is in the midst of an expansion. (Photo by John T. Ward. Click to enlarge.)
Red Bank’s Parker Family Health Center is the latest beneficiary of the Count Basie Center for the Arts‘ “Giving Year” program, which donates $1 from every event ticket sold during a specified month to a different charitable organization.
The designation will put up to $15,000 into the health center’s coffers, according to a Basie announcement last week.
RED BANK: DOWNTOWN DEER
A pair of whitetail deer was spotted crossing Wallace Street in downtown Red Bank Monday.
RED BANK: ROOF’S OFF. WHAT’S UP?
The roof is gone and the rest of a one-story building on a triangular slice of land at 301 Maple Avenue in Red Bank has been gutted. And recently, a bright orange sticker was slapped on one of the remaining windows.
What’s Going On Here? Click ‘read more’ for the answer.
RED BANK: THREE INJURED SLIGHTLY IN CRASH
Three people suffered minor injuries in a three-vehicle crash in Red Bank Thursday morning, police said.
RED BANK: CRIME & ARREST REPORTS
The crime and arrest reports below were provided by the Red Bank Police Department for September, 2023. This information is unedited; see below for additional information.
CRIMES
Criminal Mischief: On 09/06/2023 a patrol unit reported graffiti. In the area of Shrewsbury Av., a building was tagged with black in color spray paint. Ptl. Preston Mellaci.
Theft: A patrol unit took a report of theft from a motor vehicle in the area of Leighton Av. On 09/09/2023 the victim reported a TD Bank Visa debit card and a black and white in color umbrella were stolen from a vehicle. Ptl. Grace Maggiulli.
RED BANK: LIBRARY TO MARK A CENTENNIAL
The library has been based in the former West Front Street home of Sigmund and Bertha Eisner since 1937. Below, the 1880 catalogue of the original Red Bank Mutual Library, started in a Broad Street clothing store, listed only 144 books. (Photo by John T. Ward. Click to enlarge.)
By JOHN T. WARD
For years before it was given a magnificent home overlooking the Navesink River, and decades before it was “public,” Red Bank’s library was a hand-to-mouth membership operation kept alive by scrappy volunteers.
That changed 100 years ago next month, when borough voters approved a referendum to make the institution both a publicly owned asset and free to users. In the process, the town joined a wave in which access to information was being “democratized,” said Barbara Pickell, local history librarian and reference department head.
On November 10, the foundation that helps fund the library will kick off a yearlong celebration of the milestone with a reception.
RED BANK: COUNCIL TO TARGET IDLE TRAILERS
Unhitched trailers, like this one in front of the house at 90 Bank Street, have been the subject of complaints. (Photo by John T. Ward. Click to enlarge.)
By JOHN T. WARD
Responding to complaints, the Red Bank council plans to strengthen its law on work trailers left curbside.
RED BANK: NEW HPC EXPECTED ON AGENDA
The borough’s Washington Street Historic District, the location of many applications the HPC reviews, was created in 2009. (Photo by John T. Ward. Click to enlarge)
See UPDATE below
By JOHN T. WARD
After three months of inactivity, Red Bank’s Historic Preservation Commission is expected to get a re-start this week.
At its semimonthly meeting scheduled for Thursday night, the council plans to appoint new and returning members to the commission, Councilperson Kristina Bonatakis, said last week.
The council will also begin workshopping a revised historic preservation ordinance, she said.
RED BANK: NURTURING FORTUNE’S LEGACY
T. Thomas Fortune, below, and the cultural center dedicated to him in his onetime Red Bank home, above. (Above photo by John T. Ward. Click to enlarge.)
With an exhibit examining the history of America’s Black press opening October 28 at Red Bank’s T. Thomas Fortune Cultural Center, redbankgreen presents this feature story, written for CivicStory, about the center’s namesake.
By DEBORAH YAFFE
When the Black newspaper editor and civil-rights activist T. Thomas Fortune moved to Red Bank in the summer of 1901, his arrival was front-page news. “Mr. Fortune is one of the most noted colored men of the country,” the Red Bank Register reported.
But a century later, the elegant Red Bank home that Fortune’s family called Maple Hall stood vandalized and derelict, its brick foundation crumbling, its windows boarded up. Still, the once-grand old place caught Gilda Rogers’ eye whenever she passed by. “That home probably was something really special in its heyday,” she would think.
She wasn’t wrong.
RED BANK: MODERN HOME PLAN APPROVED
The house at 211 River Street, above, is to be demolished and replaced with the structure below. (Photo by John T. Ward; rendering by Catherine Franco. Click to enlarge.)
By JOHN T. WARD
A Red Bank bungalow would be replaced by a modern three-story home overlooking the Swimming River under a plan approved by the zoning board Thursday night.
Meanwhile, the owner of a postage-stamp-sized lot will have to wait to find out if a neighbor makes a purchase offer before he can proceed with his plans for a new house.
RED BANK: TRIAL BIKE LANES ASSESSED
Cyclists gathered at Canal Street and Hudson Avenue, above, and pedaling along East Bergen Place, at right, during the Red Bank Porchfest townwide music festival Sunday.
In addition to numerous pedestrians moving from stage to stage, the event appeared to bring out several hundred cyclists, many of whom used temporary bike lanes set up with assistance from the transportation nonprofit EZ Ride to get around town.
Earlier this week, redbankgreen did an email Q&A about the experiment with Councilwoman Nancy Facey-Blackwood, who helped coordinate the temporary lanes. Below are excerpts.
RED BANK: TWO HOMES ON AGENDA
See CORRECTION below
Plans for two single-family homes, both needing variances, are scheduled for review by the Red Bank zoning board Thursday night.
RED BANK: POLICE CHASE & NAB SUSPECTS
The incident began with a report of car burglaries in the parking lot at Grandville Towers, police said. ( Archive photo by John T. Ward. Click to enlarge.)
By JOHN T. WARD
Red Bank police arrested three men on car-burglary charges after hot pursuits on foot early Monday morning, Captain Mike Frazee said Tuesday.
At about 2:38 a.m., police responded to a report by a witness of “multiple males” wearing all black clothing and face masks burglarizing cars parked in the lot outside the Grandville Towers apartment high-rise on Morford Place, Frazee told redbankgreen in a statement.
RED BANK: BOARD OKS NEW HEIGHT LIMITS
Navesink Riverside Residences and Marina (formerly Riverview Towers), center, and the Atrium at Navesink Harbor, to its right, are in the waterfront zone. (Photo by John T. Ward. Click to enlarge.)
By JOHN T. WARD
Red Bank’s planning board made quick work of approving two pending ordinances Monday night.
At a meeting that lasted just 13 minutes, the board found proposed changes to maximum building heights, and fees paid by developers in lieu of planting trees, did not conflict with the borough’s Master Plan.
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: PORCHFEST ROLLS AND SHINES
For the second year in a row, the sun shone Red Bank’s Porchfest townwide music festival Sunday.
The five-hour event, a fundraiser for the housing nonprofit HABcore, offered peripatetic audiences opportunities to hear classical music, bluegrass, hard rock and more by 90-something acts (including a spotted lanternfly) performing on 25 porches, driveways, in back yards and at least one gazebo.
Among the throngs were numerous bicyclists, taking advantage of temporary bike lanes set up for the event.
redbankgreen stopped in at all 25 venues. Here’s some of what we saw; click photos to enlarge.
RED BANK: SKIES CLEAR, OKTOBERFEST ROCKS
Delayed a week by rain, and nearly drenched by more precipitation on its-rain-or-shine backup date, Red Bank Oktoberfest teemed with good cheer Saturday afternoon.
The first-time event went off just as skies cleared from a morning of rain, drawing some 2,000 attendees to sip locally made beer and liquor and enjoy food and music in Edmund Wilson Plaza, between Triumph Brewing Company and the Two River Theater. Volunteer firefighters were among the volunteers helping keep sample cups filled.
Based on the “incredible turnout,” Oktoberfest will be back in 2024, said Bob Zuckerman, executive director of organizer Red Bank RiverCenter.
Check out redbankgreen‘s photos from the event below.
RED BANK: STATE SLAMS PAYOUT CONTROLS
Interim borough Manager Darren McConnell disputed the state’s claim that the borough is not cooperating. (Photo by John T. Ward. Click to enlarge.)
By JOHN T. WARD
Red Bank is one of nine New Jersey municipalities that have failed to take action to prevent illegal sick leave and vacation payouts to departing employees, a state agency said Thursday.
In a press release, acting New Jersey Comptroller Kevin Walsh said the borough and eight other towns “are failing in their most basic responsibilities: To act as a fiduciary of taxpayer funds and to be transparent about how these funds are used.” They risk losing state funding if they don’t comply, he said.
But interim borough Manager Darren McConnell pushed back against some of Walsh’s assertions.