A narrow borough-owned lot with a disused pumping station on it needs water access before it can be transformed into a community garden, town officials say. (Click to enlarge)

By JOHN T. WARD

The battle over a proposed Red Bank community garden abated Wednesday night when its main proponent appeared to accept to an offer of a vacant East Side lot as its location.

Now, it’s just a matter of finding water.

Led by garden organizer Cindy Burnham, garden backers came away from a March 28 borough council meeting scratching their heads over the governing body’s latest in a yearlong series of rejections of their request for a pilot plot on land adjoining the public library parcel, on West Front Street overlooking the Navesink River.

Though the gardeners say the location is ideal – wide-open, underutilized and centrally located – they’ve encountered persistent opposition. Elected officials and members of the town administration have raised questions about the potential need for state Department of Environmental Protection permits, parking, and the dedication of prime riverfront property to the use of a select few residents, among other objections.

At that meeting, council members Kathy Horgan and Ed Zipprich suggested the gardeners instead break ground on a town-owned lot on Marion Street, just a few steps west of Eastside Park, and the site of a disused pumping station.

At the latest meeting, Wednesday night, Burnham questioned the availability of water at the Marion Street lot.

Public works director Gary Watson said he would look into the feasibility of a metered water hookup. Zipprich said he was also looking into whether a pumphouse on the property might be outfitted with gutters and a rain barrel for supplementary water.

Officials flatly rejected Burnham’s suggestion of allowing a single gardener to have key-controlled access to a nearby fire hydrant to water the garden twice a week.

Burnham also asked if a strip of broken asphalt might be removed, and said a soil sample had been taken to test for contamination of the site.

But for the first time, she signaled that the fight over the location was lost.

“We’re going to take it, but we don’t feel this is the appropriate location by any means,” said Burnham, who lives in Fair Haven and owns property in Red Bank. And when she began revisiting her frustration over the council’s rejection of the West Front Street site, Councilwoman Sharon Lee cut her off with, “Thank you, Cindy,” and Burnham took a seat.

Afterward, though, Burnham fumed that the water issue, and thus the start of planting, was unresolved, and that she would continue to press the council.

“Sombody has to be the heavy, somebody has to be the bitch,” she told redbankgreen.

The site is bounded on either side by residences, and the owner of one, Cecilia Davis, spoke against the proposal, citing concerns about the security of her home.

By JOHN T. WARD

Community garden proponents assailed the Red Bank council Wednesday night for what they termed its “because-I-said-so” opposition to the creation of a farm plot at a borough-owned Navesink River site.

Revisiting the council’s 2011 rejection of a proposal for a pilot garden behind the borough library parking lot on West Front Street, residents challenged elected officials to articulate their opposition to the plan, and left as frustrated as they were going in.

“What we have a hard time understanding is that we haven’t really heard a good reason why not,” Locust Avenue’s Kathleen Gasenica told the governing body.

“It’s very simple,” replied borough Administrator Stanley Sickels. “The council doesn’t share your vision for a garden there.”

“That doesn’t really answer the question,” Gasenica said.

Marked by sharp exchanges and several instances of gavel-banging by Mayor Pasquale Menna, the hearing pitted gardening enthusiasts against council members they feel have irrationally dug in their heels against a spot proponents consider ideal for a garden.

The site, with ample upland area, is “underutilized” by the public that the council professes to want to keep it open for, said garden movement organizer Cindy Burnham, of Fair Haven, who previously led the push to save nearby Maple Cove from sale by the borough.

But officials questioned whether the site might be within the purview of the state Department of Environmental Protection, which borough Engineer Christine Ballard said has jurisdiction over all development within 300 feet of waterways – an assertion that prompted mutterings from the audience that gardening is not “development.”

Officials also questioned how the plots would be apportioned among residents who want to raise vegetables and flowers at the site; where gardeners would park without taking spaces reserved for library patrons; the accessibility of the site to handicapped; and plans for the restoration of a deteriorated bulkhead, possibly this year, that might require the destruction of the garden.

In the past, officials argued that the waterfront site should be preserved for use by all residents, and not the select few.

The session kicked off with councilmembers Kathy Horgan and Ed Zipprich offering a compromise, one they said they had arrived at after visiting every borough-owned parcel of vacant land over the weekend: Marion Street, near Eastside Park, the site of an old pump station.

“It seemed, in our uneducated opinion, to be the ideal spot,” Zipprich said.

But the suggestion elicited a welter of complaints by Burnham and others that the site could hardly be less centrally located for the use of all residents, a requirement that some on the council itself had insisted on last year.

“Marion is as far out on the East Side of Red Bank as you can get,” Burnham said. She said nearby residents are likely to oppose having a community garden next door, “and I don’t blame them.”

Horgan also suggested the gardeners approach New Jersey Transit about creating a plot on a triangular lot outside the train station on Monmouth Street, arguing it was unlikely to be vandalized because of the number of passersby. But she also wondered aloud whether an alternative offered by the proponents, at Maple Cove, might not be right for the same reason.

“There are a lot of people around. It could get destroyed,” she said.

Environmental Commission chairman Andres Simonson told the council that it was “missing the boat” by rejecting the library site. “What a great beacon that would be” for the town’s commitment to the community gardening concept, he said.

The sharpest attack of the night was leveled by Ernest Anemone of Riverside Avenue, who singled out Zipprich for what he and others called the council’s “because I said so” rationale for opposing the library site.

“This town doesn’t need to impress you,” he said. “You need to impress this town.”

By meeting’s end, the council had approved a resolution approving the Marion Street site, but leaving open the possibility that Maple Cove might be farmed for a year – even though farm engineer Tony Sloan, appearing on behalf of proponents, said the site would require “itty-bitty plots and itty-bitty walkways.”

The agenda for the bimonthly meeting of Red Bank’s council Wednesday night is a busy one.

On the docket:

• Red Bank RiverCenter comes in for approval of its annual budget. No details have yet been provided. Last year’s spending plan, like the two that preceded it, totaled $512,000. The business promotion agency, which manages the borough’s state-chartered Special Improvement District, is funded by a surtax on commercial properties within a defined zone and gets no money from borough coffers.

• Proponents of a community garden, who were shot down repeatedly last year in their request to farm a portion of the public library property overlooking the Navesink River, return to renew the plea, this time with a twist: that the town allow it for just one growing season.

• There’s an ordinance up for introduction to amend the rent control ordinance. There’s no information on the borough website, or the agenda itself, explaining what this is about.

• A bond ordinance to cover the costs of installing artificial turf fields at Count Basie Fields is up for final vote.

The council meets at 6:30 p.m. in the first-floor council chambers at borough hall, 90 Monmouth Street, corner of Maple Avenue.

Here’s the full agenda: Red Bank Council Agenda 032812

Last week’s photo showed some luscious greens in a raised vegetable bed. Did you recognize the location?

Our photo was taken in the Rumson Road, Little Silver front yard of Wendy Weiner, the Front Yard Farmer who we featured in these pixelated pages three years ago. Weiner’s agricultural skills are portable. For a fee, she’ll come to your home and teach you how to  build raised beds and tend your own little front yard farm.

Weiner helped create the vegetable and herb garden out in front of the pay-what-you-can-or-lend-a-hand Soul Kitchen on Monmouth Street in Red Bank.

Writing in were Yvonne MacDonald, Maria Sciarrino, Alicia Woods and her daughter, Jenn Woods, Karen Irvine, Joseph T. Kenney, Paul Sperber, Jeffrey Knight, Jill Ridenour, Trish DePonti, Sandra Talarico, Anna V. Higgins, Jackie Francisco Sapienza and Danielle Holter. Nearly all of them had the location right, and we thank each of them for chiming in.

Does this week’s photo (click to enlarge) ring any bells? If you know where it was taken, drop us a line, please.

Five months after securing state Register of Historic Places status, Little Silver’s 347-year-old Parker Homestead has been added to that list’s national counterpart, the Asbury Park Press reports Thursday.

The borough’s oldest surviving homestead, which includes a main house and three outlying barns, the Parker property was acquired by the borough from Julia Parker, the last descendant of the original family, who passed away in 1996.

Former Mayor Suzanne Castleman, who died in July, was a driving force behind the acquisition, heading a board dedicated to the home’s preservation.

From the Press:

The most pressing issue at the homestead now is stabilizing and repairing three barns on the property, estimated to cost $500,000. However Mayor Robert C. Neff Jr. said the listing on the national register now makes the homestead eligible for federal grants to do that work.

The board is scheduled to meet March 8 at 7:30 p.m. at borough hall.

By JOHN T. WARD

The Parker House, Little Silver’s oldest surviving homestead, has won addition to the state Register of Historic Places, Mayor Bob Neff tells redbankgreen.

Neff, a former journalist, sent redbankgreen the following dispatch on the case:

Little Silver – A state review board of noted architects and related experts on historic sites and structures today unanimously approved the nomination of the Parker Homestead to the New Jersey Register of Historic Places.

Inclusion within the register requires satisfaction of rigid criteria, helps protect the site, is an important qualification in grant and aid applications, and clears the way for national recognition.

Mayor Robert Neff Jr., who attended the hearing in Trenton, thanked the state Review Board for Historic Sites for its support for the nomination, which now goes to the State Historic Preservation Officer for listing on the register, and then to Washington, D.C. to be signed onto the National Register of Historic Places, according to Meredith Arms Bzdak, Ph.D, a partner with the borough’s consultant, Mills + Schnoering Architects, LLC.

Preliminary work at the site and the consultant’s fee is being funded through a $44,625 grant from the Garden State Historic Preservation Trust Fund.

“This is an important step on our journey to preserve this important landmark for future generations,” Neff said. “We continue to work with the original grant money, and intend to aggressively seek additional grant money now that the nomination is on its way.”

The Parker Homestead was built by Peter Parker in 1667, and has sections dating to 1720, the early and late 19^th Century, and the 1910s and 1920s. It is located on Rumson Road near Sickles Park. Little Silver, before separating from Shrewsbury, had been known as Parkerville.

Also attending yesterday’s meeting was Councilman Jon Bitman, liaison to the Parker Homestead Board of Trustees, chaired by Monte Edwards. Chester Apy, a member of the board, attended and spoke in support of the nomination.

“It was invigorating listening to the Review Board’s discussion, because they seemed so in support of it, commenting on the beauty of the main house,” Neff said. “This was substantiation by outstanding, objective professionals who truly understand historic structures that this is not just a nice old house, but an historic treasure warranting national recognition.”

The site was listed in 1976 on the state register, which at that time did not entail such a detailed and rigorous application, and did not qualify the site for inclusion on the National Registry, according to Bzdak.

The homestead, which includes a main house and three outlying barns, was acquired by the borough from Julia Parker, the last descendant of the original family, who passed away in 1996. Former Mayor Suzanne Castleman was the driving force behind the acquisition, and she was a strong supporter of the project until her death in July.

Criminal Mischief occurring between 6-27-11 and 6-28-11 at Monmouth Street-business. Victim reported that unknown person(s) broke window in business. Ptl. Michael Zadlock.

Theft occurring at West Bergen Place between 6-28-11 and 6-29-11. For the past several months’ young children of the Head Start Program have been planting vegetables and maintaining them in an enclosed pad locked area behind the building.

Staff reported that all vegetables had been picked and stolen by unknown person(s) who gained entry through the fence by placing hole in it. Ptl. Gary Watson. Criminal Mischief occurring at Broad St. on 6-30-11. Victim reported that unknown person(s) scratched trunk and side of parked vehicle. Ptl. Jorge Torres.

ARRESTS: 5 Contempt of Court

OTHER ARRESTS:

Four juvenile males ranging in age from 13 to 16, three from Red Bank and one from Fair Haven were arrested on 7-1-11 in the area of English Plaza for Violation of Curfew by Ptl. Dawn Shields, Ptl. James DePonte and Ptl. Paul Perez.

John Supp, age 45 male of Red Bank was arrested on 6-28-11 in the area of Bridge Ave. for Poss. of CDS, Oxycodone Pills by Lt. Joshua Berbrick.

Christen Turner, age 30 female of Leonardo was arrested on 6-27-11 in the area of Monmouth St. for Poss. of Hypodermic Syringe by Sgt. Robert Kennedy.

Brandi Jones, age 38 female of Newark, Delaware was arrested on 6-24-11 in the area of Broad Street for Shoplifting by Ptl. Heather Pubylski.

Not a word of objection was uttered Monday night as the governing body of the fed-up-with-deer borough of Shrewsbury gave the nod to the use of bows and arrows to thin burgeoning herds.

Then again, the move was a formality, as the council simply accepted the findings of a report that recommended that frustrated property owners do what they’ve been allowed to do for the past five years: kill the animals with arrows, provided they do so within New Jersey Division of Fish, Game & Wildlife regulations.

Now, the only question is how many residents take the suggestion.

“A few people in town are so fed up, they’re going to do it,” said Mayor Donald Burden, who this year tore out his own vegetable garden in surrender to the white-tailed creatures.

A startled trio in a Shrewsbury yard last October. (Photo by Peter Lindner; click to enlarge)

After three years of wrangling, two public meetings and a study showing 73 percent of respondents believe the town’s deer population needs to be reduced, the report by a handful of borough committees and departments concluded that the status quo was the way to go. No changes to borough ordinances were made.

The report also put to rest, for now, any debate about a “cull hunt,” or systematic pursuit of deer by hunters, said police Lieutenant Lou Ferraro, who shepherded the report.

“We have not ruled out an organized hunt,” Ferraro told redbankgreen. “Instead, what we’re doing is giving the people who are most impacted the choice” of whether or not to kill deer on their properties, provided they follow state hunting laws.

Property owners won’t need permits, and are asked to volunteer information to the police department about  how many deer are taken, Burden said. Hunters won’t be allowed within 50 yards of a habitable structure, and must shoot from an elevated position. Discharging of firearms is prohibited.

The report grew out of a rising number of complaints about garden destruction, motor vehicle accidents and the incidence of Lyme disease, its authors said. Since 2006, borough police have responded to an average 18 deer-related vehicle accidents a year, But calls for police to remove dead deer from roadways suggests that actual number of accidents is much higher, the report says.

“The deer are jumping out on major roads,” Burden said.

Still, despite “overwhelming support” for pushback against the deer, “I don’t think many people” will take up bows and arrows, or invite hunters onto their properties, he said. That’s because of  what he perceives to be an aversion to killing animals – the so-called Bambi factor – and the fact that few inland properties are large enough to comply with the distance rule.

The majority of the hunting activity is expected to occur on large properties on or near the Shrewsbury River, he said.

Here’s the report: deer-report-june-2011

By DUSTIN RACIOPPI

Fair Haven officials aren’t quite out of the woods yet when it comes to adapting to changes to the borough’s tree preservation ordinance. And now, they have a little company.

On Tuesday night, Rumson’s council suddenly found itself in the middle of a thorny debate over the efficacy of its tree preservation law after a Navesink Avenue property’s tree population was decimated last week, residents said.

Change to the ordinance and bolstered enforcement are likely, council members said.

Sparking the debate was Clean Ocean Action founder and executive director Cindy Zipf, who lives next door to 35 Navesink Avenue, where an “egregious act” of clear-cutting occurred a week ago, she told the council.  Saws and excavators tore through the vacant lot, which is slated to be built upon, leaving only eight trees, Zipf’s husband, Rick Jones, said. Neighbors estimate 84 trees came down.

Problem: only 23 “trees” were allowed by permit to be cut down. A tree is not technically a tree in Rumson unless it’s four-inches in diameter and at least four-and-a-half-feet tall, meaning a property owner can put an ax to any tree that doesn’t fit those requirements.

Under Rumson’s ordinance, which was adopted in 2002, a permit is required to cut down any trees that meet or exceed that requirement. Owners are not allowed to cut down more than 40 percent of a property’s tree population; that’s considered clear-cutting.

Neighbors say an illegal clear-cutting occurred at 35 Navesink, and they’re riled up.

“I saw what was a beautiful wooded lot disappear before my eyes,” said Bill Wilby, of Holly Tree Lane. “If that’s not a case of clear-cutting, I don’t know what clear-cutting is.”

But Rumson officials say the owner of the property, which is only listed as Petcon at 35 Navesink LLC, and its contractors followed the proper procedures outlined in the ordinance.

It was a lack of enforcement, and perhaps some bumps by an excavator into some perfectly healthy — and large — trees that caused what and instantaneously change the character of the area, near the east end of the Navesink River, several neighbors said.

Shade Tree Commission Chairman Doug Spencer said he agreed that “what was done is hideous.”

“There were a lot of omissions, obviously, and it needs to be looked at,” Councilwoman Joan DeVoe said.

Residents suggested the borough council review the ordinance — which they said works, for the most part — as well as look into adding more oversight of the permitting process and the work being done.

One point of contention Tuesday was the way permits are handled.

In order to obtain a permit, a qualified tree expert must visit the property and sign off on which tree are  to be removed. In Rumson’s case, the tree expert, Steven Becker, also was the contractor cutting down the trees on the property.

“It just seems backwards to me,” said Kate Grossarth, of Ward Avenue.

Mayor John Ekdahl, after hearing nearly two hours of concerns from the public, said he agreed that changes may be necessary, one of them being a third-party tree expert that’s not involved with the work being done on a property. He also said the property owner should sign the tree removal permit.

But he said the council, even though it has final say and oversight of the borough’s ordinance, doesn’t control changes to it. That’s up to the planning board, and he suggested residents provide input to that body.

As in Fair Haven, where the council is currently split on whether to revise its tree ordinance, Ekdahl said the borough is walking a fine line between what’s best for the community and personal property rights.

“It is sort of a work in progress, if you will, but we have to deal with it as we have it tonight,” he said. “I’m not saying it can’t be changed, because it can.”

Neighbors say change is necessary to prevent another case of a heavily wooded lot being reduced to a leveled property that doesn’t quite fit in with the rest of the area.

“The spirit, if not the letter, of the law was violated,” Zipf said. “We’ve got to fix this in this town because it’s happening again and again. And it’s got to stop.”

By DUSTIN RACIOPPI

The borough council Wednesday night unanimously adopted a resolution supporting a community garden in Red Bank.

Great, some said.

But when it came down to where the council might allow that garden to sprout, the council maintained a hard position that while it supports a community garden, it doesn’t support one where a group at least 40 strong want it: at a piece of borough property next to the library.

The clash between impassioned members of a community garden group and the council continued Wednesday night, without agreement, and none in sight, on its location.

It was more like a talking-to than a talking-with, as the council offered little feedback to a long line of speakers serving up suggestions, implicating political motives and asking questions that they feel still haven’t been answered.

Riverside Avenue’s Ernest Anemone  told the council, which looked out to a SRO crowd in the chambers, that it was making a “huge mistake” by not backing the plan to start the garden on West Front Street.

Anemone, who’s started an online petition pushing for the site — with 584 signatures  at 10 p.m. Wednesday, but only about 30 of them from Red Bank residents — told council members to look him in the eyes to understand how serious he is about the project, and asked the council to explain why the proposed location is off limits to the council.

“I haven’t heard one reason that’s justifiable,” he said, getting an applause then pointing to the crowd. “This is Red Bank. These are your constituents. For you to ignore us, that’s unacceptable.”

Councilwoman Kathy Horgan said aside from the council’s position of not wanting to give up one of the last available public pieces of riverside land, the library board has concerns about parking and emphasized that the library is not against the garden, but in the same breath said it does not endorse it.

As a counterpoint, resident and environmentalist Kathleen Gasienica said, “but if we don’t have support, what’s the opposite of that?”

The council has asked the group to pick different locations for the garden, and although propoents have submitted a list of about 20 potential sites, they haven’t budged on where they’d like the first one. And the council hasn’t budged on its position that it won’t allow that to be the start-up site.

A woman from Middletown, Linda Muhlhausen, said that as an outsider she couldn’t tell fo sure, “but you’re making it seem like there’s a hidden agenda on the council’s part.”

John de la Parra, of Riverside Avenue, asked the council what the group can do to convince members to allow the site at the library, to which Councilwoman Sharon Lee responded that the council gives the group its support on a garden, just not there.

The proposed library site is two lots away from Maple Cove, the dedicated nature area fought for by Cindy Burnham, who didn’t speak Wednesday night. But de la Parra told the council he hoped it didn’t think the groundswell of support was drummed up by Burnham, although she is a big proponent of the project.

“I know the elephant in the room is Cindy Burnham, but I am not Cindy Burnham, Ernest (Anemone) is not Cindy Burnham, all of these people here are not Cindy Burnham except Cindy Burnham,” de la Parra said. “These are people who listen to common sense.”

The council, despite the room packed with garden supporters and hearing a handful of speakers, appeared unswayed.