By JOHN T. WARD

Can a Jersey Girl whose work as a 22-year-old prostitute helped derail a political career in spectacular fashion return home and remake herself as a small-town retailer?

Four years after her high-priced hotel romps with Eliot Spitzer dynamited his tenure as governor of New York and made her infamous, Ashley Dupré says she turned a page Monday with the opening of Femme by Ashley, a lingerie and swimwear boutique on the choicest block in downtown Red Bank.

The shop, Dupré told redbankgreen in an exclusive interview, “is almost like the beginning of the rest of my life.

“I made a bunch of mistakes when I was younger, and I feel like, for the first time in my life, I’m growing into an adult, and I’m really excited about that,” she said.

The Broad Street boutique features lingerie, swimsuits and Victoria  Beckham sunglasses. (Click to enlarge)

Petite and wearing eyeglasses that made her appear somewhat more studious than she did in Girls Gone Wild videos made a decade ago, 27-year-old Dupré said she agreed to redbankgreen‘s request for a sit-down only at the urging of her boyfriend, TJ Earle, who thought it was important in establishing community roots. She said it would likely be her only interview on the topic.

Off-limits were questions about the events that made her a household name. Dupré also refused to allow redbankgreen to videotape the interview or even take her photo, saying she’d been “burned” in the past by the unauthorized release of images. Instead, she supplied a commissioned portrait.

“I’m just done with it,” Dupré said of her scandal-based persona. “I’m very private. People don’t believe that, but I’m a very private person. I don’t want that life. I’m not looking to be in the press. I’m just looking to get on with my life.”

Her focus, she said, is on becoming a business owner and “me doing what I enjoy for the first time, and not caring what anyone else has to say about it.”

Dupré’s image rehab effort might be traced to her hire two years ago as a sex -and-relationship advice columnist for the New York Post, which had previously reveled in labeling her a “ho” and “trollop” at every opportunity. In bringing her on board, the newspaper wrote:

She didn’t ask for fame, but, “Now that I have it, it’s up to me to take advantage,” she said.

Under the tag “Ask Ashley,” Dupré fielded questions that at first overtly traded on her notoriety. “How do I know if my daughter may be getting into trouble?” asked “Meredith, 40, Queens,” in the debut.

But the column later morphed into questions about keeping relationships fresh and exciting, Dupré said. “I think I have moved away from how I’m viewed to ‘how do I save my relationship?’ and ‘how do I make this work?’” she said.

The Broad Street store represents a continuation of that evolution, she said – and the likely end of the column, which she said has “run it’s course.”

Other than a confessional interview with Diane Sawyer on 20/20, a raunchy one with Howard Stern and a nude spread in Playboy, what else has Dupré been up to since the Spitzer scandal broke in March, 2008?

“I’ve been in a relationship,” she said. “I’ve just started my life over.” She and Earle, a paving industry exec, have lived in the Navesink section of Middletown for the past two months. She said she considers him her best friend, and his young daughters her family.

Growing up in Wall Township, Dupré said she was a frequent visitor to Red Bank. Moving back to the Shore after seven years in Manhattan and again visiting the town, “I just fell in love with the community as a whole,” she said. “It is like a little mini SoHo, and the people here are great.”

In creating Femme by Ashley, Dupré hired Amy Manor of West Front Street to design the space. Borough-based Frame to Please supplied oversized mirror frames and Solari Creative, also of Red Bank, did the website.

“We really kept it in the community. It’s like our own little networking circle here,” Dupré said. “It’s very important to me to have that.”

The resulting shop features white walls, ceilings and flooring. Long, silver velvet drapes form a pair of dressing rooms, each equipped with a plush purple chair so shoppers and their significant others can have some intimate time during a bikini or teddy try-on.

Dupré said the boutique’s merchandise, including labels Agua Bandita, Pily Q and Jenna Leigh, reflects her own evolving fashion sense.

“I’m  a girl, and I think every girl likes to shop and explore their tastes,” she said. “Getting into this business, I kind of explored all of these designers and fell in love with them.”

The shop offers swimsuits in the $180 to $200 range as well as some “special” underthings, Dupré said.

“I really wanted this to be a place where anybody could come in and get something and be able to afford it, but also to have the luxurious items, too,” she said.

Dupré said she plans to be in the store daily, and is braced for curiosity seekers.

“Well, I’m sure I’m going to see everybody,” she says with a laugh. “I’m sure a lot of interesting people are going to walk through those doors.”

Red Bank Mayor Pasquale Menna met recently with Dupré and Earle at their request, and said he came away impressed by their vision for the store and their enthusiasm about the town. Only one person, the wife of a retailer, had complained to him about Dupré’s arrival, he said. “I reminded her that none of us are exemplary in every aspect of our lives.” he said.

“We are a very diverse town,” Menna said. “We welcome everyone.”

Dupré, though, doesn’t expect everyone to be welcoming. She says she’s learned to shrug off whispers, which she finds prevalent “whether you’ve been involved in a scandal or not. People always talk about other people. And it’s sad that you don’t have anything more important to talk about in your life, but that’s just the way of life. Not everybody can like you, and it’s OK. I’m OK with that.

“What am I going to do, live in the past, regretting every mistake I’ve ever made?” she said. “That’s the sign of a weak person. You need to get over it and move on.”

Lucas Sileno, 8, played catch with his dad, Phil, below, as Red Bank fifth- and sixth-graders faced off in an opening-day game Saturday. (Photos by Danielle Tepper. Click to enlarge)

By DANIELLE TEPPER

Red Bank’s Parks and Recreation department held its second annual baseball/softball day at Count Basie Fields Saturday to promote the town’s sports programs and to entice kids to sign up.

After several years of rebuilding, the department was able to field a seventh- and eighth-grade boys team for the first time in decade, parks & rec director Memone Crystian tells redbankgreen.

“Our objective is to get Red Bank kids playing through to the high school level,” she said, to the background sounds of hardballs landing in leather mitts. “To do that, we need to get them interested, which is why we’re having a day like today.”

Next challenge: getting girls out on the diamond.

Crystian said the day, which doubled as a season opener and showcase for other sports, was organized in part to say “thank you to the players and to the families who believe in the rec programs. We hope to grow this bigger and bigger every year as our program grows.”

All around Count Basie Park, kids in different grades participated in either sanctioned or exhibition games while almost 200 people wandered the fields and sidelines.

“We have football sign-ups on one end, soccer tryouts on another,” said Crystian. “There’s free food and festivities, beautiful weather. It’s a great day to try to get kids to want to play outside.”

Crystian and Councilwoman Juanita Lewis both noted, however, that the program has seen one significant loss over recent years: female athletes.

“We’re losing our girls,” said Crystian. “They’re just not turning to sports for some reason, so for this upcoming year, that’s our focus. We’re going door-to-door, sending emails, doing whatever we can to get them to come out for softball.”

Crystian said this is not just a concern for Red Bank recreation, but is an epidemic spreading across neighboring towns as well. “Shrewsbury, Little Silver and Rumson have all cut their female teams completely because they had no one. We don’t want to do that. Girl athletes rock. We’re committed to making sure this program is there for the girls, too.”

Lewis says one possible reason is that girls just lose interest, and “we need to find some other ways to reach them, new ways to get them engaged.

“Recreation is very important. It unites the town and gives opportunities to our kids,” said Lewis. “We have a great director. She believes in Red Bank kids and does amazing things. She’s making more out of less because budget constraints are always looming, but she’ll go the extra mile.”

Information on Red Bank sports programs can be found here.

By JOHN T. WARD

Kathie Panepinto was leading a tour of the Red Bank Primary School property and lamenting the heavy growth that hides an adjoining pond Monday when groundhog that had been sunning itself in the grass scooted across her path and into the brush.

“Oh, look at that,” she said said excitedly, noting that up-close sightings of deer and other wildlife are common at the school, which sits on landfill in a former wetlands abutting the Swimming River.

It was the kind of moment that for decades has inspired talk of the school’s potential as natural sciences learning center. And it underscored the value of ongoing efforts by Panepinto and other volunteers in their most ambitious effort to date: creating a permanent physical link between the school and the inaccessible pond.

A concept plan shows a walkway out into the pond that the foundation hopes to win funding for. (Click to enlarge)

Since its revival from dormancy four years ago, the nonprofit Red Bank Borough Education Foundation has focused its efforts on small-bore projects: leading cleanups of the 17-acre primary school property, lending a hand and a few dollars to installations such as a butterfly garden, a small greenhouse and a human sundial clock.

Now, though, the all-volunteer group is raising its sights with a proposal to build an outdoor classroom in the form of a pier and observation deck on the pond. The structure would enable students at the K-3 school to see land and aquatic habitats up close, and “to do wet and muddy samplings,” said RBBEF member and Councilman Ed Zipprich.

“Most folks don’t even know there’s a pond back there,” said member Susan Berke.

“The idea is to make access to the pond not just for science, but for reading, writing, art,” said Panepinto, an RBBEF officer.

No cost estimate for the project has yet been worked up, and foundation members don’t even know if they would need and might obtain permits from the state Department of Environmental Protection for the structure, which may be subject to limitations on building in coastal areas.

Still, they’ve begun the process of trying to win a grant for as much as $460,000 from the National Science Foundation, said foundation president Doug Winning, an architect. “We’re going for the full enchilada,” he said.

Meantime, the organization has raised about $10,000 in each of the past two years through art auctions held at the Atrium at Navesink Harbor. This year, no such event is planned, though members hope to put together an Antiques Roadshow-type event for 2013.

Meantime, the group has produced a reusable canvas shopping tote featuring Red Bank student art that will soon be available around town for $5. For $10, residents get the tote and membership in the RBBEF.

“We’re still taking baby steps at this point, but we’ve got momentum going, and that’s the important thing,” said Zipprich.

Models showed off bridal gowns at Sassy Chic Boutique, above, while a passerby did a doubletake at the sight of human mannequin Stephanie Rogers at Barbizon Models during the fourth Wedding Walk in Red Bank Saturday.

Nancy Adams, executive director of event sponsor Red Bank RiverCenter, said the walk attracted about 30 percent more registrants than the March, 2011 edition, with some 600 shoppers thronging the streets in search of dresses, hair styling, DJs, photographers and more wedding-related goods and services. (Click to enlarge)

Matt DePonti of Powerhouse Signworks gets the word about Wedding Walk out above Broad Street last week. (Click to enlarge)

Here come the brides-to-be again, as Red Bank merchants reprise an idea that’s turned into one of the more popular recurring draws of shoppers and diners.

As with the first three editions of this shopping extravaganza, merchants of everything from formalwear to framing, from rehearsal-dinner restaurant meals to riverfront hotel suites will open their doors on Saturday to an expected swarm of soon-to-be-marrieds hoping to nail down details of their big day.

Organized by downtown promotion agency Red Bank RiverCenter, the free, one-day event is designed for prospective brides, grooms, their families and friends to come to town to plan their weddings, checking out more than 40 wedding-related businesses have to offer.

Florists, gown and tuxedo retailers, photographers, jewelers, hair and nail salons and banquet facilities are on board, RiverCenter says in an announcement. Most will be offering promotions, light refreshments, and libations and live music will be performed all day at three locations throughout town.

From RiverCenter:

The day begins at 9:00 AM with Registration/Check In and Continental Breakfast at the historic Molly Pitcher Inn, at 88 Riverside Avenue followed by a self-guided tour of the town’s participating businesses.  All registrants will receive a Wedding Walk map/passport and each registered couple will receive one complimentary tote bag to hold all the giveaways and information.

Free shuttle, limo and trolley service will also be available with stops at each of the downtown’s shopping areas. Guests must visit at least 16 businesses (including one from each zone) to be eligible for the prize drawings at the end of the day.

The day concludes with a fabulous champagne reception including hors d’oeuvres at the Oyster Point Hotel, a beautiful, waterfront, wedding venue at 146 Bodman Place at 3:00 PM.  The prize raffle will be held at 3:15 PM where guests can enter to win fabulous prizes with their validated passport including the Grand Prize of a 6-day vacation in Costa Rica!  The Wedding Walk will conclude at 4:00 PM.

Guests are strongly encouraged to pre-register @ www.OnlyOneRedBankWedding.com where they can browse the participating businesses and map out their itinerary to get the most out of their day.  Engaged couples, mark your calendars for the Red Bank Wedding Walk on Saturday March 24th! Your dream wedding awaits!

For more information go to www.OnlyOneRedBankWedding.com or call Red Bank RiverCenter at 732-842-4244.  Red Bank RiverCenter is a not-for-profit alliance of businesses, property owners, and residents working toward the economic vitality of the Red Bank Business District.  Please visit www.redbankrivercenter.org for additional information.

2/4/12

Lt. McGovern and Cpl. Waltz took a report of Criminal Mischief from a Grange Ave. resident reporting that screens to her home were damaged.

2/6/12

Thomas Mannion, 22 of Fair Haven, was arrested on 2/6/12 by Ptl. Patton and charged with DWI subsequent to a motor vehicle accident. Mr. Mannion was released with a pending court date.

2/13/12

Ptl. Reevey took a report of Criminal Mischief from a DeNormandie Ave. business.

2/18/12

Ptl. Reevey took a report of Burglary from a Lincoln Ave. resident who reported a bicycle was stolen from their garage sometime overnight.

2/20/12

Ptl. Schneider and Ptl. Lagrotteria took a report of a possible attempted Burglary from a Laury Dr. resident.

2/21/12

Det. Dykstra took a Burglary report from a Willow St. resident where multiple pieces of jewelry were taken from the victim’s home.

2/22/12

Ptl. Reevey took a report of Criminal Mischief from a River Rd. resident where damage was caused to lights on the victim’s property.

2/23/12

Cpl. Waltz arrested William Crawford, Long Branch on an outstanding warrant for being in Contempt of Court. Mr. Crawford was released on his own recognizance.

2/27/12

Lt. McGovern took a Theft report from a Denormandie Ave. resident where multiple pieces of jewelry were taken from the victim’s home.

2/28/12

S.O. Murray took a report of Lewdness from a Cliffwood resident that occurred at a Grange Ave. residence.

By JOHN T. WARD

Their lives were spared, and for that they are grateful. Their home, a 120-year-old exemplar of Victorian architecture, was destroyed, but insurance will provide for another home.

The loss that’s hardest to accept, Donna and Joe Loftus say, is that of the photo and video evidence of their four children’s lives. All of it went up in smoke when their Little Silver home burned to the ground last Saturday.

In a letter to community members, district schools Superintendent Carolyn Kossack writes:

The greatest loss experienced by the Loftus family is not one on which they can place monetary value. Rather, it is the emotional loss of their mementos. Mr. and Mrs. Loftus lost all of their pictures and videos of their four children, Brendan, 5th grade, Meg, a junior at RBR, and their two college students Patrick and Elizabeth. They lost all of the children’s school records and special projects and cards that parents keep forever.

In what Kossack calls a true community effort, she has appealed to parents of other children to scour their own photos and videos for any that might include images of the Loftus children, their school projects or their home.

She writes:

One way that community members can support the Loftus family is to provide copies of pictures, videos, projects, or any memorabilia that reflect the Loftus children and their home. If you have any photographs, etc. there will be a secure location within the main offices of each of the respective schools. A PTO volunteer will be checking the office drop box regularly.

Here’s the full letter: letter_to_parents_12-15-11

By JOHN T. WARD

Wednesday night’s meeting of the Red Bank Council could be a water-balloon fight of sorts.

Members of the Environmental Commission, an advisory group, say they were alarmed to learn recently that the borough Parks & Rec department is considering Bellhaven Nature Area, a wetland preserve created just eight years ago, as a possible location for a ‘sprayground,’ a play area that enables kids to get deliriously soaked by nozzles built into fixed apparatus.

Lou DiMento – the lone remaining commission member who was involved in the original preservation effort –  and others say they were shocked to learn that the town might pursue a $250,000 Monmouth County Open Spaces grant, which it would have to match, in order to build the sprayground.

“That stunned us,” especially after the borough government told the commission that it couldn’t come up with a few hundred dollars for a sign to designate the nature area, nestled against the Swimming River at the western end of Locust Avenue, DiMento said.

Memone Crystian, who heads Parks & Rec, said the idea for the sprayground arose as part of an effort to create a new play area in the upper West Side. Many resident children have no access to transportation and no one to accompany them across busy Shrewsbury Avenue to Count Basie Fields, a mile or so away, where they might play, she said.

“I think it’s criminal for kids to grow up on the river but only be able to see it through the reeds,” she said. “I remember being a mother with two young children and a third on the way, and not having a place to go with the children.”

Installing the splashground at Bellhaven, she said, would also bring kids down to the river, enhancing their understanding of nature.

The sprayground, she said, would require the installation of a rubberized platform and fixed tubing from which water would spray. There’s one in Dorbrook Park in Colts Neck, operated by the Monmouth County Parks System, and one in Long Branch, at the eastern end of Broadway.

Crystian distributed an email Monday night asking people concerned about children’s recreation to come out to counter opposition to the plan. She said she’s only looking for a “fair discussion” of the idea.

Proponents of the plan also say it would help drive out drug use, drinking and illicit sex alleged to occur in the  nature area. At the August 2 council meeting, during which talk of a grant application first became public, Mayor Pasquale Menna said the area is so overgrown with phragmites that police are unable to easily monitor the site.

But the nature preserve has never gotten the level of maintenance that the borough promised it would give when the area was set aside as an open-air learning center, complete with displays illustrating the workings of tidal basins and such, DiMento said. And the need for maintenance won’t vanish because of the presence of a playground, he said.

The commission’s response to the grant proposal, in the form of a resolution: build it at the former borough incinerator site if and when that West Sunset Avenue location is transformed into a park. Meantime, come up with a clear plan for maintaining Bellhaven.

Here’s the commission resolution:

The EC recommends that the Borough maintains Bellhaven as a nature area with the addition of river access. Maintenance requires a written plan that is regularly implemented to control invasive species within the circular path and at sites along the river for river access and views as well as security. The EC further recommends that the future Sunset Park would be a more appropriate location to include a spray pad for children of the West Side along with other active and passive recreational opportunities.

The spraryground idea has riled not only the environmental community, but others who see it as a waste of taxpayer money. West Side resident Freddie Boynton is organizing a September 13 community meeting to discuss the proposal, among other issues.

“People bringing their kids down here? It’s a damn swamp,” Boynton said Tuesday. “It’s the dumbest damn idea I ever heard.”

Here’s the council agenda: 8-24-11draftagenda

Space is tight at Lunch Break, the Red Bank soup kitchen.

Because of soaring demand for hot meals and canned goods, the need for pantry space has soared, too. Volunteers handling administrative duties share dining tables with clients who come for the meals. Every Saturday, bundles of clothing stored in the basement of the 25-year-old facility named for co-founder Norma Todd must be carted upstairs, out through a parking lot and back into the ground-floor dining room for distribution to clients in need.  When winter approaches, executive director Gwen Love has to clear out of her cramped office so clients can get flu shots in private.

The space shortage is more than just an inconvenience. It impinges on Lunch Break’s mission, says Love: to deliver services to those in need with a measure of dignity and respect.

So the recent donation of two houses adjoining Lunch Break’s home at 121 on Drs. James Parker Boulevard, just as the organization was about to embark on a search for additional space, was something of a “miracle,” says Love.

“Every now and then, it rains down blessings,” she tells redbankgreen.

Volunteers must often share coveted space in the dining room with clients because of the lack of space, Lunch Break officials say. (Click to enlarge)

The houses, at 113 and 115 Parker Boulevard, were sold to Lunch Break for $1 by Justin and Victoria Gmelich of Rumson in early June. The couple, who could not be reached for comment, repurchased the two properties, which they had previously owned, for $200,000 in April, according to Monmouth County property records.

The borough has the properties assessed at $269,300 and $275,600, respectively.

“Our board of directors had been discussing the need for expansion, and was just about to put together a search committee to find properties in town,” Love said, when she had a chance encounter with the Gmelichs’ property manager, who told her the couple was probably going to sell the houses, then rented out to tenants.

That led to a conversation with the couple that ended with the donation. It turned out the Gmelichs had been at Lunch Break’s 2010 gala, at which the need for space was publicly discussed, Love said.

Now, the pressure is on Lunch Break to plan, and win borough approval for, the conversion of the homes to charitable use, Love said. If that doesn’t happen by November, she said, the nonprofit will get stuck with a property tax bill it cannot carry.

The idea now being developed with the help of volunteer architects and other professionals is to devote one property to use as a full-time clothing boutique, and to use the other one “essentially as an office” for contacts between clients and social services providers.

Now, she said, clients have to “stand in line outside and pile in” on Saturdays for clothing, and something as simple as a free blood-pressure screening prompts a scramble for space.

Having separate spaces for those services “really would be more in line with our mission to treat people with dignity and respect,” Love said. “You want the services to be provided in a respectful, conscientious manner.”

The demand, of course, is being driven by economic conditions. Visits to Lunch Break’s food pantry are up almost seven-fold since 2008, and the demand for clothing has risen comparably, Love said.

“You’ve got people coming in who have worked all their lives and have never had to access a service like this,” she said. “You’ve got people who are working and feeling the pinch.”

So the additional space – “It’s a blessing,” said Love. “It doesn’t get any better than that. It’s right next door.”

Lunch Break will hold its annual fundraising gala on October 14 at the Two River Theater, with live entertainment and cuisine by Lunch Break kitchen mainstay Branches Catering of West Long Branch. Tickets are $125 per.

For the second year in a row, former Red Bank residents, newcomers and old-timers gathered for a “family reunion” block party on Drs. James Parker Boulevard Saturday. Photographer Stacie Fanelli was there for redbankgreen.