RED BANK: ROADWORK TO CLOSE PINCKNEY
Pinckney Road from Broad Street to Branch Avenue in Red Bank is to be closed to through-traffic for repaving this week – weather permitting.
But it’s not clear what the weather will permit.
RED BANK: SPRING STREET PROJECT ADVANCING
Parking is prohibited this week on the southern half of Spring Street in Red Bank as “minor concrete work and fire hydrant replacement” is scheduled to begin Monday, acting borough administrator and police Chief Darren McConnell tells redbankgreen.
RED BANK: BALLARD TOUTS NEW FEE LAW
Part of a recent building boom, 170 Monmouth Street is being converted from offices to residences, as seen in June. (Photo by John T. Ward. Click to enlarge.)
By JOHN T. WARD
Red Bank Councilman Michael Ballard says a newly enacted ordinance will help address the impact of “explosive development” on borough infrastructure and taxes.
But only if it doesn’t get thrown out by a judge, says Mayor Pasquale Menna.
RED BANK: SPRING STREET GETS STATE FUNDS
The cost of road rehabilitation work on Spring Street will be partially covered by a state grant. (Photo by John T. Ward. Click to enlarge.)
By JOHN T. WARD
Red Bank will get some of the $161.25 million in Municipal Aid Grants to be doled out for 2020 by the administration of Governor Phil Murphy, his office announced last week.
Other towns on the Greater Red Bank Green will also get slices of the pie.
LITTLE SILVER: NARROW LANE TO GO ONE-WAY
Bowing to the prevalence of giant passenger vehicles, Little Silver officials have agreed to make a short, narrow lane into a one-way. (Photo by Trish Russoniello. Click to enlarge.)
LITTLE SILVER: SPOTLIGHT ON NARROW LANE
Church Lane runs alongside the Embury Methodist Church cemetery. (Photo by John T. Ward. Click to enlarge.)
By JOHN T. WARD
Not for the first time, Little Silver officials have taken up the question of what to do with a short, narrow roadway that’s a vestige of 19th-century life.
Some residents want it turned into a one-way to address the issue of today’s “humongous” family cars.
RED BANK: REPORT DOMINATES FACE-OFF
From left, council candidates Kate Triggiano, Hazim Yassin, Sue Viscomi, Michael Clancy and Allison Gregory at the West Side Community Group’s forum Tuesday night. (Photo by John T. Ward. Click to enlarge.)
By JOHN T. WARD
A management study that found widespread “dysfunction” in Red Bank’s government provided fodder for contenders at the annual Candidates’ Night hosted by the West Side Community Group Tuesday night.
In the case of Pearl Lee, the first Republican to challenge Mayor Pasquale Menna since 2006, it provided the spark for her to run, she said. For Menna, it’s a document he accepts “ownership” of. And all five council candidates alluded to it.
LITTLE SILVER: STUDENT TO RATE WALKWAYS
Theo Cheevers at Church Street and Rumson Road, site of a recent sidewalk reconstruction. (Photo by John T. Ward. Click to enlarge)
By JOHN T. WARD
Where exactly in Little Silver are there sidewalks, and what condition are they in? How might crosswalks be improved?
A young borough man has decided to tackle those questions this summer. And while the effort sounds, um, pedestrian, local government officials are looking forward to his findings.
RED BANK READY FOR STORM, SAYS DPU HEAD
Plows will roll out of the borough DPU yard on Chestnut Street starting at about 3 a.m. Thursday, says a borough official. (Photo by John T. Ward. Click to enlarge)
By JOHN T. WARD
As recently as Tuesday morning, “we were begging for salt,” Red Bank utilities head Gary Watson tells redbankgreen.
But by the end of the day, his department obtained a load of salt – just enough, Watson expects, to get the town through the snowstorm forecast for Wednesday night into Thursday, when 6 to 10 inches are expected to fall.
“We’re OK for this event,” Watson said Wednesday afternoon, moments after wrapping a meeting at which plowing assignments were given out.
FAIR HAVEN OPTS FOR ‘COMPLETE STREETS’
The intersection of River Road and Fair Haven Road boasts some key features of “Complete Streets” design, including distinctive crosswalks. (Photo by Connor Soltas. Click to enlarge)
By CONNOR SOLTAS
A crosswalk-ahead sign, a crosswalk sign, a narrowing road, a yield-to-pedestrians sign in the median, a stop sign and a distinctive red crosswalk: all are elements of a “Complete Streets” policy adopted last week by Fair Haven’s borough council.
Echoing the language of a movement that aims to change the concept of streets as existing primarily for motor vehicles, borough engineer Rich Gardella said the policy’s goal is “to provide an attractive and safe access for all users and modes of transportation.”
In particular, that will mean equipping intersections with features like additional crosswalk signs and sand-colored shoulder barriers, all aimed at encouraging motorists to be more cautious around pedestrians, cyclists and the handicapped.
THREE MIDDLETOWN BRIDGES SWAMPED
Rushing water from Shadow Lake left a gaping hole in Hubbard Avenue, above. Below, a truck fords flooding at the Poricy Pond culvert on Navesink River Road, site of a 2010 washout. (Click to enlarge)
By JOHN T. WARD
Three Middletown bridges were overrun by floodwaters in Sunday’s storm, knocking at least two of them out of commission for the foreseeable future.
One of the three was the Navesink River Road culvert at Poricy Pond. This is the same culvert that Monmouth County had to close for rebuilding in 2010 after rushing storm flows undermined the roadway.
Its current condition wasn’t immediately known, but Middletown police have closed the bridge as impassable. In addition, there’s a fallen tree leaning on wires at that site.
HALFACRE: NOBODY TOLD US
Detours will be in effect for most of this month at Hance and River roads in Fair Haven, borough officials say. (Click to enlarge)
Fair Haven Mayor Mike Halfacre is miffed again.
Two weeks after complaining that borough residents served by the Red Bank water utility had no advance notice of a rate increase, he says the borough was caught off guard with road construction work that Monmouth County started Tuesday “without any notice to the Borough of Fair Haven, and without our input.”
The work, it seems, will require sporadic detours at the busy intersection of River Road and Hance Road over most of the month, he says in a post on his blog.