Kathleen Fox-Smith chats with a customer on opening day of her Little Silver shop last Friday. (Click to enlarge)

By DANIELLE TEPPER

Home Depot, Costco, PetSmart: With their enormous inventories, the big-box-stores that transformed American retailing in the 1990s destroyed innumerable small, local businesses along the way. They also forced customers to travel farther for the privilege of finding what they need at unbeatable prices.

Kathleen Fox-Smith has chafed against the tradeoff for years.

“I have three dogs, and the nearest major pet store is PetSmart on Route 36″ in Eatontown, says the Little Silver resident. “It’s not that far, but it’s just a nuisance to go over there.”

So, answering a deep desire to own an animal-related business and her belief that area pet owners are ready to again shop locally, Fox-Smith has decided to take on the giants in her own, small way.

Last Friday, Fox-Smith debuted a new shop: Pet’s General Store, in the A&P Plaza on Prospect Avenue, offering food, treats, toys and other accessories for dogs, cats, and birds.

Fox-Smith spent eight years at Red Bank Veterinary Hospital, first as a pharmacy tech and later as head of the purchasing department, the latter of which she said gave her valuable inventory management experience needed to run the store.

After she left RBVH in 2006, she managed an interior design office up until last year. But during the interim, she ached to return to a job that allowed her to work, at least in some capacity, with animals, she said.

When the 1,200 square-foot space that had been the home of the Peppermint Tree, a specialty children’s clothing store, became available, “I decided to go for it,” she told redbankgreen.

While this is her first business venture, Fox-Smith said she is not intimidated.

“The unknown makes you a little nervous, but I’ve always had pets, always loved them, so I’m hoping to become a reliable place for pet owners,” she said.

Fox-Smith plans to carry some products that PetSmart doesn’t, to set her store apart. “If someone comes in and is looking for a brand of food we don’t carry, if I can get it, I’ll get it,” she said.

But she’ll also stock brands that the giants carry, because “the whole purpose here is to help people not have to make that trip,” she said.

After she gets settled in and has the place running smoothly, Fox-Smith would like to see the store become involved with animal rescue efforts.

“If I won the lottery, I would open a rescue,” she said. “If we could do something with that here, maybe help the Humane Society somehow, I would really love to do that.”

Pets General Store is open from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. Tuesday through Saturday and 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. Sunday; it’s closed on Monday.

Thirty members of the Teen Outreach Program at Red Bank Regional High completed a two-day Out of the Darkness track walk in the school gym Wednesday morning to promote awareness of suicide prevention as part of Children’s Mental Health Week. 

The idea for the walk came primarily from two proactive freshmen, Grace Rumph and Adam Canterbury, above, each of whom has lost a friend to suicide within the past two years.

“This is affecting our generation and there’s so much a person can do to help, but maybe they feel afraid to reach out,” said Rumph. “People need to know how important it is.” (Photos by Danielle Tepper. Click to enlarge)

By MARY ANN BOURBEAU

Looking to form a pickup hoops or softball game, but don’t have enough friends? Try Joinagame, a new social network for pickup sports based right here on the Green.

Launching today, Joinagame was built by Corey Wagner of Rumson and Patrick Finan of Fair Haven to handle all the pesky details, such as finding and reserving an available field or court.

But it also addresses a bigger hurdle: not knowing enough people who might be game for a game.

“Once you leave college, you lose your sports network,” said Wagner.

Wagner and Finan work with the recreation directors in Fair Haven, Little Silver, Red Bank, Rumson, Sea Bright and Shrewsbury, as well as Atlantic Highlands and Oceanport, to monitor availability of facilities. Once a person registers at Joinagame, he or she can sign up to play a game already formed online or start their own.

Sports offered are basketball, flag football, kickball, soccer, softball, tennis, Ultimate Frisbee and volleyball.

Joinagame is free, though some towns offer players the option of reserving a field for $40, which all the players would split via online payments. Joinagame takes care of all the paperwork, insurance and payments, making it a win-win for the players and the municipalities. The site will soon offer referees for hire, too.

“It’s free to register and we hope to keep it that way, covering our costs with advertising from sports merchandise stores or bars,” said Wagner.

Finan, 22, earned a finance degree from Providence College in Rhode Island, where he played intramural tennis, soccer, hockey and softball.

“Sports are a huge passion of mine,” he said.

But Joinagame isn’t just for the freshly minted grads. “I’ve seen a lot of parents who bring their kids to practice and say they miss being out there themselves,” he said.

Wagner, a 25-year-old construction worker, and Finan, who is currently waiting tables, met four years ago when Wagner began dating Finan’s sister Jennifer. They’ve spent the last five months creating the site.

Wagner says Joinagame works as well for avid players as it does for those who can only squeeze in a game or two a season.

“A pickup game is nice, because you can show up once,” he said. “You don’t have to commit to a league, and if you don’t mesh with the guys, you can get a whole different group next time.”

The key challenge to their roll-out, they said, is getting enough players on board from the outset so that games have enough players to commence. They spent a full day last week putting up fliers in area coffee shops, salons and other high-traffic businesses, and were pleased to find a lot of interest.

“I was surprised how quickly people picked up on the concept,” said Wagner. “We’re starting local to see how it goes, but we would like to do it for every town in the area.”

• April 22- Shayla Walker, 29, Tinton Falls, NJ, was arrested for a Contempt of Court warrant issued by the Eatontown Municipal Court. Sgt. Martin Scherzinger made the arrest.

• April 23- A Fraud was reported by a resident on Garden Rd. after they hired a chimney sweep company to perform work at their residence. The resident made payment in the amount of $375.00 before the service was rendered. The company kept the money and never returned to complete the job. P.O. Amanda Arnold investigated.

• April 26- A resident from Branch Ave. reported an attempted Credit Card Fraud after she discovered that there were unauthorized attempts to make $500-$600 in purchases on her debit card. P.O. Joseph Glynn, Jr. and Det. Greg Oliva investigated.

• April 27- Harassment was reported at Sickles Park between two female parties over personal reasons. P.O. Robert Chenoweth and P.O. Amanda Arnold investigated.

• April 27- Thomas Crockett, Jr., 41, Middletown, NJ, was arrested following a motor vehicle accident and charged with Driving While Intoxicated. He was released pending a later court date. P.O. Amanda Arnold made the arrest.

• April 30- A female juvenile, 16, Union Beach, NJ, was arrested for Possession of Marijuana Under 50 Grams. P.O. Joseph Glynn, Jr. made the arrest.

• May 1- A business from Branch Ave. made a report of Bad Checks after receiving them from several different customers. The total owed is in excess of $1,278.00. Det. Greg Oliva investigated.

• May 1- A resident from Amelia Cir. reported a Credit Card Fraud after she discovered that her debit card had unauthorized purchases in the amount of $1,771.00. The resident contacted police after she noticed them on her credit card statement. P.O. Michael Lahey and Det. Greg Oliva investigated.

• May 5- Igor Rjedkin, 55, Little Silver, NJ was arrested for a Contempt of Court warrant issued by the Township of Colts Neck Municipal Court. P.O. Joseph Glynn, Jr. made the arrest.

May 5- A male juvenile, 17, Red Bank, NJ, was arrested for Simple Assault. P.O. Michael Lahey made the arrest.

By JOHN T. WARD

A bridge-replacement project in Little Silver that’s expected to take up to nine months could jam up a pair of intersections more than a mile away starting in July.

That, in turn, may also reinvigorate a dormant debate over whether those intersections are long overdue for traffic signals, Mayor Bob Neff tells redbankgreen.

The detour involves the installation of a temporary light at Branch Avenue and White Road, above, and another at Branch and Rumson Road. (Click to enlarge)

The replacement of a small, timber bridge on Seven Bridges Road just north of the Little Silver Point Road intersection is scheduled to begin shortly after the July 4 holiday, officials said. A concrete span with 12-foot lanes, three-foot shoulders and a six-foot pedestrian walkway on the westerly side will be installed in the $2.7 million project.

The work, originally scheduled to begin in 2008, has been repeatedly delayed.

Neff said that as part of the traffic-control portion of the project, the county will install temporary traffic lights at two locations on Branch Avenue: at the intersection of White Road, and at the intersection of Rumson Road, just yards away. That’s to accommodate an expected increase in volume caused by the closure of Seven Bridges at its northern (Rumson Road) and southern (Silverwhite Avenue) ends, as well as at the eastern ends of Kings Road and Point Road.

Residents whose homes can only be accessed via Seven Bridges will be permitted to bypass closure signs, but the bridge will remained closed to all but pedestrian and bike traffic for most of the duration.

But the installation of the lights prompts the question: why not make them permanent?

That turns out to be a live wire line of inquiry, said Neff. Hearings on the bridge “before my time on the council” some six years ago stirred up passions pro and con, he said.

The borough “held huge hearings, well-attended enough that one had to be moved to the Markham Place School,” he said.

And then, as he expects today, “you had people who want no traffic lights, people who had wanted traffic lights for years before this project came up, and people in the middle. The conclusion was the best way to do it was to go with temporary lights.”

Now, he said, “this discussion has started again: should we make these lights permanent?”

One one side are commuters who lament the difficulty of making left turns off Rumson and White roads, backing up vehicles on each at rush hours. On the other are those who see the lights as unnecessary and likely to adversely impact property values near the intersections.

The temporary lights should be a good test of whether the signals should become permanent, Neff said.

“Perhaps the use of the temporary lights will give us some idea of whether they might be workable,” he said, though the detour may be seem as exaggerating the extent of the problem, he notes.

In any event, the question of permanent signals “is a county issue, because it’s a county road,” he said of Branch.

Officials from the Monmouth County Engineer’s office could not be reached for comment.

Little Silver has asked the county to install the temporary lights during late-night hours to prevent further traffic congestion and to minimize the number of police officers required to direct traffic, Neff said.

Thomas Crockett, 41, of Middletown was heading north on Branch Avenue at about 5:55 p.m. when his Chrysler Aspen veered across the center line and into a pole on the southbound side, near Fox Hill Drive, police allege.

Crockett, who was alone in the vehicle, left the scene on foot, Shaffery said. Five minutes later, a resident of nearby Salem Lane reported a man who seemed out of place talking on a cellphone outside her home. A Fair Haven police officer who had joined in a search for the missing SUV driver picked up Crockett, he said.

Police also heard from a witness who said the SUV had been traveling erratically shortly before the crash, Shaffery said.

Crockett was charged with drunken driving, leaving the scene of an accident, failure to report an accident, reckless driving, abandonment of a motor vehicle and failure to maintain a lane. He was released without bail.

Officers Robert Chenoweth and Amanda Arnold investigated.

Crockett was treated and released for injuries at Riverview Medical Center, Shaffery said.

The accident briefly knocked out power to nearby homes and businesses, as well as the borough police station, he said.

• April 8- A Fraud was reported to have taken place at a residence on Winding Way. P.O. Andrew Smith investigated.

• April 9- A business owner from Birch Ave. reported that a Bad Check, in excess of $900.00, had been received from a customer. P.O. Andrew Smith investigated.

• April 10- A resident from Mitchell Pl. reported that her vehicle had been stolen from her driveway sometime during the early morning hours. P.O. Amanda Arnold and Det. Greg Oliva investigated.

• April 10- A Burglary to a motor vehicle on Edgewood Ave. occurred during the early morning hours. A briefcase was removed from the vehicle. P.O. Andrew Smith and Det. Greg Oliva investigated.

• April 12- Kevin King, 22, Red Bank, NJ, was arrested on a warrant following a motor vehicle stop. The warrant was for Eluding and was issued by the Eatontown Police Department. P.O. Eric Van Schaack and P.O. Robert Chenoweth made the arrest.

• April 12- A resident from Mayfair Ct. reported that the glass to his rear door had been shattered sometime during the day. P.O. Joseph Glynn Jr. investigated.

• April 13- NJ Transit reported that there were several juvenile subjects on the railroad tracks “playing chicken” with the trains. The juveniles fled the area prior to police arrival. P.O. Andrew Smith investigated along with assistance from Shrewsbury P.D. and NJ Transit P.D.

• April 13- Joseph Reilly, 31, Oceanport, NJ, was arrested following a motor vehicle stop for a Contempt of Court warrant issued by the Red Bank Municipal Court. P.O. Eric Van Schaack made the arrest.

• April 14- Two juvenile males, both from Shrewsbury, NJ, were stopped for Trespassing on NJ Transit property. The juveniles were walking along the railroad tracks located behind the businesses on Birch Ave. Both juveniles were released to one of their parents. P.O. Amanda Arnold and P.O. Eric Van Schaack investigated.

• April 17- A Burglary to a motor vehicle on Edgewood Ave. occurred during the early morning hours. A wallet was removed from the vehicle. P.O. Joseph Glynn Jr. and Det. Greg Oliva investigated.

• April 17- Ljupco Pasovski, 37, Fords, NJ, was arrested following a motor vehicle stop for Driving While Intoxicated. He was released pending a court date. P.O. Eric Van Schaack made the arrest.

• April 18- Lawrence Ramos, 32, Middletown, NJ, was arrested following a motor vehicle stop for a Contempt of Court warrant issued by the Neptune Township Municipal Court. P.O. Amanda Arnold made the arrest.

April 19- Tashelle Brown, 38, Long Branch, NJ, was arrested following a motor vehicle for a Contempt of Court warrant issued by the Holmdel Municipal Court. P.O. Andrew Smith made the arrest.

By JOHN T. WARD

An intensive manhunt for two suspected burglars in Little Silver ended early Wednesday afternoon with no evidence of a crime or suspects, police Chief Dan Shaffery tells redbankgreen.

Having swarmed the area with cops and search dogs from half a dozen jurisdictions, police called off the search at 12:50 p.m., less than two hours after a nearby resident reported a suspicious male in a neighbor’s backyard, Shaffery said.

Shaffery said the incident began with an  11 a.m. call to police by a resident of Queens Drive South, who reported seeing a man in dark clothes and a hooded sweatshirt in the rear yard of a neighboring property fronting on Prospect Avenue.

“He called it in, and rightfully so,” said Shaffery, who has been trumpeting the importance of residents reporting suspicious activities in the wake of a recent string of burglaries.

Police officers, who arrived on the scene within four minutes, found no suspects, but in canvasing the area, came upon a contractor who reported the possible presence of two suspicious males, Shaffery said.

That set off the hunt, which brought in help from Red Bank, Shrewsbury, Fair Haven, Long Branch and the Monmouth County Sheriff’s office, the last two of which loaned search dogs for the effort.

Because the homes in the area abut swamp and woodlands, police dove into the thicket, hoping to find the man or men. Two Little Silver officers in particular ended up “full of mud” from the effort, Shaffery said.

Police also checked nearby homes and ran every license plate of unexplained vehicles parked in the area, he said.

But the police and dogs found no evidence of a getaway or of a crime, he said.

“I’m sure there was somebody there,” Shaffery said of the initial report, “but we haven’t been unable to uncover any evidence of criminal activity.”

Shaffery said residents should not take the result to mean they should not call in on suspicions.

“Better safe than sorry,” he said. “I would never discourage anyone from calling.”

By JOHN T. WARD
Police and tracking dogs from a half-dozen jurisdictions were searching for two men as possible burglars in Little Silver at midday Wednesday.

Police advised officials at the Point Road School not to allow children out for recess, but did not call for a lockdown, as they hunted for the pair in a large area of homes surrounding a marshy woodland.

Police were searching the area bound by Kings Road, Seven Bridges Road, Point Road and Prospect Avenue. (Click to enlarge)

The search was centered in the area of Queens Drive South, and bounded by Kings Road, Seven Bridges Road, Point Road and Prospect Avenue, following a report of two suspicious males.

Dispatches described the men as white or Hispanic and possibly wearing dark clothing. They were initially believed to have vanished into woods and swamp as police responded to the initial call at about 11 a.m.

With search dogs from the Monmouth County Sheriff’s office and the Long Branch Police department, authorities hoped to close in on the suspects from four sides. The region is intercut in places by wide streams and thick with sedge and phragmites.

It was not immediately clear if any homes had been burglarized or if an attempt had been made to illegally enter a home.

Little Silver has been the scene of a number of recent residential break-ins.

Red Bank, Fair Haven, Shrewsbury and Oceanport police were also aiding in the search.