The first involved a stop of a vehicle on Shrewsbury Drive near Osprey Lane for speeding at about 10:20 p.m, said Chief Richard Tobias.

Lieutenant Scott Paterson and Patrolman Anthony Ciambrone approached the vehicle and saw, in plain view, open containers of alcohol, Tobias said.

The driver, 18-year-old Michael Alonzo, of Crabapple Lane in Rumson, was arrested and charged with underage
driving while intoxicated, reckless driving, and possessing an open container in a motor vehicle. He was also charged with providing alcohol to underage persons.

Four of Alonzo’s five passengers were also charged with possession and consumption of alcoholic beverages in a car: Sachi and Luke Bahra, both 18, of Washington Avenue, Rumson; Michael Nociolo, 18, Forrest Avenue, Fair Haven; and Brian Truex, 18, Forman Street, Fair Haven.

A 17-year-old juvenile was released to the custody of a parent, Tobias said.

In the second incident, Ciambrone was on patrol at about 11 p.m. Sunday when he saw a motorcyclist fall off his bike as he headed east on Rumson Road near Ward Avenue, Tobias said.

Rudolph Kastner of Paradise Trailer Park, Highlands, was arrested and charged with driving while intoxicated, refusal to submit breath samples, driving while revoked, driving without a license, and reckless driving. In addition, he was arrested on multiple warrants out of the Borough of Highlands, Tobias said.

Kastner was transported to Riverview Medical Center in Red Bank, for injuries sustained during the accident.

Court dates in both incidents were scheduled for May 23.

The 22-year-old Red Bank Catholic grad was treated to an impromptu fire-and-first aider’s parade through town led by the Warriors Watch Riders, who drove up from Camden County for the occasion.

“I’m pretty embarrassed, but it’s definitely awesome to be back,” Dilger told redbankgreen, seen above right with his sister, Grace. (Click to enlarge)

That’s when Red Bank Elks Lodge #233 joins with some of its brother lodges in Long Branch, Jamesburg and Old Bridge for a fundraising Poker Run.

In case you haven’t encountered the phrase, a Poker Run is an event in which participating riders travel to a series of designated sites, picking up a playing card at each stop and thereby assembling a hand. Upon return to Red Bank, each entrant’s poker hand is scored, with the winner announced at an after-party inside the Elks hall at 40 West Front Street.

Proceeds from rider registration will be donated to a variety of veterans’ organizations. The fee is $20 for lone riders, $10 per passenger, plus $5 for passengers who would like to collect their own poker hands.

Registration runs from 9 to 11 a.m. at the West Front Street Elks building. Call Chris Mason at (732) 341-3010 or email for more details.

They come from all over Monmouth County and parts beyond — the rat rods and tuners, the street rods and customs, the competition-class racers, the blue-ribbon show cars, and the weekend works-in-progress from countless suburban garages.

Tonight, they’ll be lining the streets of Red Bank’s business district in remembrance of a good friend, to benefit of a great cause.

Once a semi-regular Friday night occurrence, Red Bank Cruise Night returns for a special edition presented by Red Bank RiverCenter in conjunction with Friends of Stu Paer — an organization co-founded by Frank Woods, borough code enforcement officer and, as a classic car owner himself, an organizer of the annual Liberty Hose Car Show.

Paer, the familiar proprietor of  Red Bank Sleep Shoppe, died in April at the age of 48 from liver disease — a passing that hit particularly hard over at  Wall Stadium Speedway, where the Fair Haven resident and long-time racing enthusiast was well known as both owner and driver of such competition cars as INSOMNIA.

Scheduled for 6 to 10 p.m., the event takes over Broad Street between Peters Place and West Front, as well as Monmouth and White Streets between Broad and Maple Avenue. Street parking spaces will be reserved prior to start time for the participating showy sheetmetal, and classic car owners are invited to join the Cruise, with no registration required. All designated streets will remain open to motorist traffic for the duration of the event.

Many borough retailers and restaurants will be keeping late hours, and select participating businesses will be donating a portion of  tonight’s sales to the American Liver Foundation, at the recommendation of Paer’s friends and family.

The ninth annual Bob ‘Doc’ Holiday Classic Car Show, organized by Red Bank’s Liberty Hose Company, motored into the White Street municipal parking lot under a sparkling blue summer sky Sunday.

The event, which raises funds for the volunteer company’s operations, drew a record 350 cars and motorcycles despite competition from two large car shows elsewhere in the Shore region.

To enlarge the photo display, start it and click the embiggen symbol in the lower right corner. To return to redbankgreen, click the escape key.

By DUSTIN RACIOPPI

Knock the dust off the old Thighmaster and replace the batteries in Teddy Ruxpin.

Fair Haven’s one-two punch of bargains, the second-annual town-wide yard and sidewalk sale, gets going Saturday.

Map indicates the locations of participating homes and businesses. (Click to enlarge)

Michel Berger, president of the borough’s business association, says the sale is like a local version of eBay and Facebook, “hanging out with neighbors and selling stuff.” But it’s also a lot like Sim City, keeping money flowing throughout the local economy.

“We found that a lot of people were taking the money they made from the yard sale and going to local businesses that day to shop,” Berger said. “I though that was pretty cool.”

Deals will be abundant, he said. Last year, more than 200 households participated, offering bargains on furniture, toys, books and we even spotted a guy selling a motorcycle. Downtown businesses are in, too, wheeling out merch onto the borough’s new sidewalks.

“It’s a good combination, with businesses having the sidewalk sale and people having the yard sale,” Berger said.

Don’t second guess putting out any attic oddity, either.

The business association will hold a contest for the most bizarre item sold. Last year’s winner was an African bush elephant toe nail.

“There was some very bizarre stuff,” Berger said, “but what no one could top was that elephant nail.”

The yard sale runs from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. Saturday. Participating homes will be marked with orange balloons, and maps will be available at the Sunoco and Valero gas stations on River Road.

The sidewalk sale is from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Friday and Saturday, but Berger said rain might wash out the Friday sale.

For more info, call Berger at 732.212.0800; Administrator Theresa Casagrande at 732.747.0241; Mayor Mike Halfacre at 732.530.5003; or Shutters owner Kathy DeVincens at 732.842.6611.

A 28-year-old man was killed in a motorcycle accident in Middletown Sunday night, police said.

Grzegorz Przybojewski, of Franklin, was pronounced dead on the scene after his motorcycle hit a tree on Everett Road, a release from Lieutenant John Maguire, of the police’s traffic bureau, said.

Maguire said Przybojewski was traveling north on Everett Road, between Red Hill and White Oak roads, at about 6:02p Sunday when his motorcycle left the road and struck a tree. He was ejected from the motorcycle on impact, Maguire said, and paramedics pronounced him dead on the scene.

Middletown police are investigating the accident.

Any witnesses of the collision are asked to call the department’s traffic bureau at 732.615.2045.

By DUSTIN RACIOPPI

It was June of last year, and Joy Luv Montefusco was within a week of moving to Chicago with old art school friends to pursue poetry. She’d had enough.

Montefusco said she’d faced opposition from the moment she graduated the Motorcycle Mechanics Institute in Arizona, where she was laughed at for applying for a job at Harley-Davidson because she was a female. But even when she landed a job the company, Montefusco said she didn’t get a workbench to use.

“I worked on the floor, on my hands and knees, for the first four months,” Montefusco, 30, said. “A lot of the guys didn’t even talk to me.” She left the company after she was told she’d never make it as a mechanic, and started her own business, Black Widow Bike Works, in Toms River.

After three years of working long days in a rickety building trying to convince people that she could do top-notch work, Montefusco decided to give up her dream and pack it north. But then her girlfriend pushed her to give it one more shot. Black Widow specializes in “creating art” out of motorcycles, Montefusco said. (Photo by Dustin Racioppi; click to enlarge)

“After everything that had happened to me and all the bullshit I went through, I was ready to say, ‘forget it, I’ve had too much,’ ” she said. “But it’s like God said, OK, Joy, one last chance.”

She’s happy she took it. Now located on Newman Springs Road in Shrewsbury, Black Widow has, in the six months it’s been open, cultivated a growing list of clients needing work done, from a simple spark plug change to complete bike overhauls — the end of the business Montefusco wants to be known for.

Black Widow is not a service shop, although it will gladly service your bike. It’s also not primarily a place to buy a motorcycle, though you can. Rather, Montefusco said, it’s a custom motorcycle shop, or, as she says, a place “to create art.”

She’s not talking about bolting together some metal and wheels and slapping on a shiny paint job. What Montefusco and her sidekick/friend/employee Mike Jastrzemski are doing is custom custom, such as taking a newer model bike, chopping it up and turning it into a replica of an old saddlebag.

“People want to order stuff out of a magazine and call it custom,” Jastrzemski said, “but putting a Harley front end on a Suzuki, that’s real custom.”

The duo is putting in the work to prove themselves. Their posted business hours are merely for show. When there’s a serious job to be done, Jastrzemski said it’s typical to have midnight phone conversations with Montefusco going over the next day’s work, then getting busy on it before the sun breaks the horizon.

Jastrzemski said it seems to be paying off. Over the summer and early fall, the shop had so many orders pending that he had to move bikes out of the bay garage and into the parking lot to work on other projects.

Although Black Widow hasn’t quite set itself as a leader in custom bikes, Montefusco believes it will, and judging by the volume of orders the shop’s receiving, a second shop may be in the cards.

Considering what she’s been through, where she’s at and where she sees herself in the future, Montefusco said taking a look into the sideview mirror before blazing up to the Windy City was worth it.

“I don’t wish anybody bad or anything. If they hadn’t bit into me so hard I wouldn’t have went out on my own,” Montefusco said. “I’m proud.”

Ahhh, hot and sparkling at the Jersey Shore: This is the payoff, isn’t it, for all those blasted snowstorms we endured over the winter?

For those who were otherwise engaged, the summer solstice occurred at 7:28a Monday, marking the start of a season that, for those of an outdoorsish bent, is as important to one’s mental health as it is to the regional economy.

To mark the day, redbankgreen‘s Dustin Racioppi and Trish Russoniello roamed the Green, cameras in hand, and captured some juicy slices of life, from people at play to a high school graduation to some of the many ways folks find to stay cool between Red Bank and Sea Bright.

Enjoy the pix, folks. And here’s to a terrific summer.

A mix of pix from some of Saturday’s events: the Nathan J. Williams Craftsmen Club’s motorcycle rally on Drs. Parker Boulevard; Red Bank Community Day at Count Basie Fields; and the Relay for Life overnight fundraiser at Red Bank Regional.

Also, here’s some video from Red Bank Day:

Email this story