A shot from last year’s show.
Red Bank Fire Marshal Stanley Sickels, who decides whether the fireworks are safe to go or not, tells redbankgreen that the Kaboom Fireworks on the Navesink show “absolutely” will go on tonight.
Only winds over 20 mph or a “torrential” downpour will derail that plan, he says.
“We’ll shoot right through [a less than torrential rainfall] if we have to,” he says.
But he adds that he doesn’t think today’s off-and-on rains will persist past the 9:15p scheduled start of the show. “I think it’s going to push through,” he says of the weather system.
Here’s the latest from the National Weather Service:
Late Afternoon: A chance of showers and thunderstorms. Mostly cloudy, with a high near 80. West wind around 11 mph. Chance of precipitation is 30%.
Tonight: Partly cloudy, with a low around 63. West wind between 7 and 9 mph.
But even a modest rain is no impediment to the spectacle, as the shells will still loft and explode as designed, Chris Santore of Garden State Fireworks, the company providing the show, tells us.
Want any of the shots from tonight? I got about 400
Seemed like a significantly smaller crowd than in years past, Wonder what others thought.
Much smaller from my view point.
As I watched the fireworks last night I had a brief thought about all the negative posts concerning the fireworks this year, a very brief one indeed. it was replaced by WOW at at the massive array of color, every crackle and boom, at every cheer, at every smile from young and old. Great job all around. And yes I gave.
he’s the fire chief too ?
Yes, fire chief, administrator, consultant, ems coordinator, secretary, building inspector, town attorney, elementary school teacher, code enforcement official, etc.
Anyone out there clueless enough to think that Mr Sickles can actually perform all these duties? Is there anyone clueless enough not to see that he’s just bumping his salary for the pension ride on our tax dollars? Ah, more of the same.
One would think that the Man’s longevity is a testiment to his performance.
A Police Chief does not enforce the laws, and administrate(in most cases)one of the larger employee pools of a town, by him or her self.
Believe it or not, there are some high paying jobs( with great pension benefits,and stagering hours) out there that afford individuals to work other jobs that allow them to contribute to other funds like Social Security or, shall we dare to say “under the table” jobs.
Simple. Work, get paid, contribute, collect.
Key word is WORK !
hey you know what’s interesting no mention of the riot on chestnut, or the 100+ people arrested and the dozen of people taken to the emergency room, what a mess no matter they needed 200+ extra police officers. but the “swells” loved it, in their exclusive viewing areas. BS
yes, the swells love it… and we get dirty brown water yet again….
Does anyone know about an incident on Maple Ave?? I heard a bunch of kids pulled knives on some cops?? I live in that area and would like to know the details.
Exactly why we’re better off without the twentysomething crowd.
We noticed two distinct changes this year: a) the crowd seemed way younger and not as broad age-wise as it usually is and b)they came later.
Traditionally, we’ve seen families and older couples come into town earlier, enjoy dinner, do some shopping (looking really, cause no one wants to carry bags to the show - but that’s ok, if they want it they’ll come back)and then go to the show. This year we had very few people in, and we watched the crowds coming in down the street and there was definitely a lot more teens and early twenties heading in to the show. I left RB a little after 8 and turned from Maple onto Monmouth (trying to avoid the West Front crowds) and was hit by a wave of people coming down Monmouth from the train station in the middle of the street. It was amazing. Monmouth was only closed from Maple to Broad… in hindsite they really should have closed it from Bridge all the way down because the people were walking shoulder to shoulder down the middle of the street even though it was open to car traffic. I turned onto West in desperation and couldn’t believe the number of people coming across the Two River Theater’s parking lot between the buildings on West Street and filling that up.
I don’t think anyone expected that many people coming from the train station. We certainly didn’t and we’ve been doing this for years.
Maybe it’s the recession… free fireworks and an accessible train so no paying lots for parking might be irrestible to people - particularly younger ones.
The numbers coming in now indicate that the audience was up from years past, and my observations would support that.
The younger crowd came later than usual because they were more than likely drinking and waited until the very last moment to catch the train to Red Bank. If they came earlier then their alcohol buzz would wear off. I wasn’t in RB this year. My wife and I went to the Rumson fireworks. We went to the Oceanic Bridge to view them. Same exact display as RB and the bonus was you could see both towns fireworks going off simultaneously and in unison. Pretty cool. The crowd on the bridge was pretty congested but very orderly thanks to the police presence and the fact that most were families who weren’t inebriated.