By JOHN T. WARD

In a contentious exchange that appeared to foreshadow a lawsuit to come, a lawyer for a Red Bank convenience store challenged the rationale for a new local law that banned all-night businesses Wednesday night.

Squaring off against three lawyers sitting on the council dais, store attorney Philip San Filippo said a revision to a noise ordinance passed by the governing body just moments later was overly broad in scope and designed solely to torpedo his client’s plans, now pending at the borough planning board, to convert the store to a 24-hour 7-Eleven.

The law, cast as an amendment to a noise ordinance, was “absolutely” designed with his client’s plans in mind, San Filippo told reporters afterward.

“It absolutely was not,” insisted Councilman Mike DuPont, even as he touted the hastily enacted law as a “creative” response to a problem.

Welsh Farms owner Dina Enterprises is scheduled to return to the planning board on May 21 for what is expected to be a vote on its proposal, which calls for a small expansion and changes in signage.

The plan, however, has met fierce opposition by neighbors. They say allowing the store, which now closes at 10 p.m., to operate all night raises security and quality-of-life issues.

At the council’s April 26 session, Mayor Pasquale Menna, who is an attorney and a member of the planning board, introduced the noise ordinance amendment. The item was not on the agenda, and no written copies were available. Afterward, asked why the council was acting in such a rush, Menna told redbankgreen: “Get it done now.”

The law doesn’t affect existing businesses, only those within 100 feet of a residential zone that are not already open after 11 p.m. Restaurants and bars are also exempted.

Now, though, even if Dina Enterprises is successful at the planning board, the Welsh Farms would be barred from opening all night. San Filippo said he would consult with his client about the possibility of filing suit against the council.

That prospect was already in DuPont’s mind when the public comment portion of the meeting opened and San Filippo began asking questions about police department data cited at the April 26 introduction. That data purported to show a pattern of disturbances requiring police intervention at convenience stores late at night.

DuPont, a lawyer whose office is next door to SanFilippo’s on Broad Street, repeatedly cut off San Filippo.

“Your asking questions which I find to be alluding to or insinuating that the statistical date didn’t support the vote,” he said. “It’s kind of disappointing. It was a creative way to protect our neighborhoods from all-night establishments that had never been there before.”

San Filippo, though, argued that the kinds of disturbances cited in the data are already against the law, whereas the amendment seeks to curtail land use without going through the process of vetting the change against the town’s Master Plan and land-use bodies.

“If you’re really concerned with noise associated with businesses located in proximity to residences, then let’s deal with the activity that generates the noise,” he said.

Menna and borough Attorney Dan O’Hern defended the change as supported by court precedent. O’Hern also said the change reflected “common sense. If you put a 24-hour operation within 100 feet of residences, that’s going to interfere with the peace, quiet and solitude of the residents nearby.”

Here’s the ordinance: 2012-8001

The recent opening of Lucki Clover, above, in a Broad Street space vacated last September, is seen as one of many indicators of a strengthening comeback.  (Click to enlarge)

By JOHN T. WARD

Without question, the losses have been significant.

Over the past six months, as the global, national and regional economies have struggled to emerge from the wreckage of the 2008 credit meltdown, Red Bank’s retail market has continued to absorb hard-to-shake-off business departures.

Primas Home Cafe. Willy’s Cheesesteaks. Soapmarket. Later this month, Surray Luggage, a Broad Street fixture, will hold a liquidation sale.

But more so than in the recent past, the downtown real estate market has been marked by two noteworthy trends: faster refilling of storefronts, and the end of several key, longtime vacancies.

What’s it all add up to? In a word, recovery, says at least one downtown Churn watcher.

Among new stores yet to open is Femme By Ashley, a lingerie and swimwear shop owned by Ashley Dupré. (Click to enlarge)

Jay Herman, a principal in Downtown Investors, which owns a dozen properties in the district, tells redbankgreen that demand is “absolutely” on the upswing. He attributes that to the end of a national bottoming-out, and to the interplay of five local elements: retail, restaurant, residential, office an entertainment.

“The downtown is leading the way,” said Herman, who recently broke ground on an expansion for tenant Morgan Stanley on Linden Place, just steps from Broad Street. “We are finding more success than is true nationally.”

Or regionally, for that matter. Herman says anyone driving Route 35 from Hazlet to Brielle and looking at the shopping centers “will find that the success in filling vacancies is not what is in downtown Red Bank.”

Here’s a lookback at some of the key activity in Red Bank’s main business district over the past six months.

• Print shop AlphaGraphics moved to 68 White Street, former home of Cigars Plus, and quickly saw the space it vacated in the City Centre Plaza, at Maple Avenue and West Front Street, leased to Yo Mon Yogurt, a self-serve frozen yogurt business owned by Michael and Jennifer Mann of Little Silver. AlphaGraphics is open for business and Yo Mon is under construction.

• David Banegas, an action painter who already had a gallery in Delray Beach, Florida, opened a new gallery/live-painting studio into the space vacated five months earlier by clothing store Bella Mystique, at 43 Broad Street.

• Nina’s Waffles & Sweets opened at 15 White Street, in a space recently vacated by Filakia Children’s Boutique.

Yestercades, a retro electronic gaming parlor, opened at 80 Broad Street, filling a giant, gaping hole that had defied filling since the failure, in 2007, of f LJ’s Total Man/Today’s Woman clothing store.

• Barefoot Bride, a gown shop that had called Fair Haven home for more than 45 years, moved to the 2,000-square-foot storefront at 65 Monmouth Street, former home Rob Amend and Michael Yavorsky’s of Red Ginger Home furnishings, which relocated to Broad Street more than a year ago.

• LoBoudoir Photography, which offers the latest in must-have hubba-hubba personal imagery, joined its sibling CLB Photography and Mike Hernandez Jr.’s Sounds to Go DJ service to take over the storefront at 21 East Front Street, a glass-fronted space last tenanted by the chic furniture seller Design Front, which left in 2009.

• Two dress shops moved in days apart, and one storefront apart, on Monmouth Street in November.

Jessy Krol’s Emilia took over 28 Monmouth, vacated in early August by Cocoon, an accessories retailer. Then,  Rue Royale Couture, specializing in prom and pageantwear, took over at 24 Monmouth, formerly held by Polish tableware dealer Adams Imports.

In between those two was David Levine Salon, which relocated to 69 Monmouth, former home of Cheveux Salon, leaving a yet-to-be filled vacancy at 26 Monmouth.

• Also on Monmouth, in the shop that formerly housed Miss Sherri’s Honey Child Music, Josephine More opened Innovative Nails.

• Kravings Frozen Yogurt opened at 90 Broad, filling another of the downtown’s most persistent vacancies.

Remember Altamonte Imports? Yeah, neither does Google. That was the last tenant in the space. Kravings owner Jill Pecoraro, bouncing back from the failure of another fro-yo franchisor with which she had contracted, shifted gears to create the new brand and outfit the gleaming, green-tiled space, which debuted in February.

• Kramer Portraits, which for the past 10 years had occupied a narrow storefront next door to the Jade Garden take-out Chinese place on Broad Street, took one of the two storefronts at 8 East Front last month. That’s the former Kislin’s Sporting Goods building, which vacated in 2005 and had no successor tenants.

As reported by Retail Churn last week, Vizzini & Company, a furniture dealer, plans to leave its anchor space in the Galleria at Red Bank on the West Side to take the second of the two storefronts, ending the building’s seven-year drought.

• Hair stylist Salon Concrete has signed to take over half the space at the 5,600-square foot 123-127 Broad Street, said salon owner Christine Zilinski. For years, the building was home to Surray Luggage, which moved to the opposite side of Broad several years ago.

• In news that broke on redbankgreen and gained national coverage, Ashley Dupré, whose infamous romps with Eliot Spitzer torpedoed his career as New York’s governor, plans to open a lingerie and swimwear store called Femme by Ashley at 15 Broad Street, a stylish storefront recently vacated by children’s boutique Lavish Kids. Outfitting of the store is underway, with an eye toward a May opening, we’re told.

• Jr’s West End, the Long Branch late-night hamburger and sandwich restaurant launched five years ago, plans to expand into the former home of Zuleyka’s Kitchen at 17 West Front Street.

• After five months of downtime, popular Red Bank coffee mainstay Zebu Forno reopened at a new address on March 1: 12 Broad Street  just a few doors down from the storefront it occupied for a decade at 20 Broad.

• Jonathan Erdelyi, a 30-year-old national racing champion, rolled out Red Bicycle Studio at 27 West Front Street. The 975-square-foot storefront was last occupied by Down to the Felt, a retailer of parlor games now operating out of 182 West Front, according to its website.

• Sunkissed Airbrush Tanning opened in a tiny second-floor space upstairs from That Hot Dog Place, in the alleyway beside the Dublin House on Monmouth Street in Red Bank.

• Lucki Clover, a women’s clothing and accessories store, opened in half the space formerly taken by Zebu Forno, at 20 Broad. The other half is set to be the home of a Boardwalk Fresh Burgers & Fries, setting up an interesting potential hamburger war with Jr.’s, not to mention existing restaurants.

• Workers were seen doing early prep work recently in the planned home of Subway Café, a 28-seat “hip” variation on the sandwich shop chain’s usual offerings, at 60 Broad Street, in a long-vacant space between the Red Bank Nail Salon and Hip & Humble Home furnishings.

• 12 Monmouth is being outfitted for Ice Costume Jewelry, which hopes to open in just a couple of weeks, store manager Ashely Goral tells Churn. The space was most recently home to Soapmarket, which vacated in January to become an online-only retailer.

• Elio Ventrella’s The Glam Bar hair styling salon – blowouts, no cuts – opened for business, after a glammy red-carpet style opening party. (That’s the salon’s designer lounge at right.) The salon replaces Butterfly Fine Arts at 116 Broad.

• Lucky Break Billiards and Café, opened at 14 West Front Street.  The gaming parlor, with five pool tables and a shuffleboard table, is situated within steps of five bars.

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.”

“There’s no money for business interruption,” says Red Bank Marina owner Steve Remaley, below, who also stands to lose land on both sides of the bridge. (Click to enlarge)

By JOHN T. WARD

Steve Remaley is about to get it from all sides.

As Monmouth County nears its long-overdue replacement of Hubbard’s Bridge between Red Bank and Middletown starting early next year, the owner of Red Bank Marina is facing:

• the loss of a large parcel of land, opposite his shop on West Front Street, where many of his customers park their vehicles and boat trailers

• the loss of a strip of land on the marina’s main property for the creation of a new pedestrian and bike path to Shrewsbury Avenue

• up to two years of diminished business, including a stretch of at least three months during which bridge traffic will be shut down entirely.

And that’s the best-case scenario.

“I have no idea what I’m in for,” Remaley tells redbankgreen, leaning on a boat being readied for spring and summer use. “This could be the best thing to ever happen to me, or the worst.”

A 2008 plan showing the new bridge, in red. (Click to enlarge)

The new, permanent bridge is expected to cost $12 million and will replace the “temporary” steel span in place since 2004. But unlike the straight path followed by the existing bridge, the replacement will take an arcing sweep toward the north, anchoring at the same points on either side of the Navesink River where it becomes the Swimming River.

The new alignment improves sightlines and safety for motorists, said county Engineer Joe Ettore. It also, coincidentally, allows for construction of most of the new structure without impacting traffic, except for the anticipated three to four months that will be needed to tie the bridge into the landing points, Ettore has said at two presentations on the project.

But it also means that Remaley will lose some 17,000 square feet of land, 12,000 of it underwater, on the north side of West Front Street. What’s not taken by the bridge will, along with a house acquired by the county at Rector Place and West Front, be deeded over to Red Bank for recreational use.

Remaley, who bought the marina in 2007 after years of running one in Oceanport, uses the parcel for boat storage, but the riparian rights he has there allow for the potential expansion of his operation, including the installation of a dock. In compensation, he’s getting a small amount of land on the south side.

“It’s not a fair exchange,” he said. “Everything I can do on this piece of property I can do over there. I can’t stop them from putting in a bridge, but marina properties are very valuable,” and he’s concerned he won’t get a fair price for the balance.

Remaley is also concerned, he said, about the sidewalk that will be built on the southern edge of the bridge. The county plans to acquire a strip of his property adjoining the New Jersey Transit railroad for the construction of a path to connect the bridge to Shrewsbury Avenue, south of the railroad grade crossing.

The existing bridge has a sidewalk only on the north side, and Remaley questions the logic of building one on the new structure, noting that the western terminus of it, near Chris’ Landing, does not meet a sidewalk, so pedestrians will be forced to cross to the north side anyway.

But Ettore said the new sidewalk, in addition to giving Middletown residents more direct access to the Red Bank train station, enhances safety for the marina’s customers.

Without the sidewalk on the south side of the bridge, “there’s no convenient place for someone to get access to the marina” from the northern side, said Ettore. “This way, there is complete access, safe access.”

Ettore said the southern sidewalk, estimated to cost about $750,000, “absolutely has a major functional purpose, which is to avoid a mid-block crossing, where there’s limited sight distance. And quite frankly, the old bifurcation of the marina property, almost necessitated that marina patrons who chose to park on the north side would have to cross mid-block.”

Remayel is worried, though, that the additional sidewalk there will now be more people crabbing from the bridge, and leaving trash behind. And while the bridge is under construction, he’s hoping that the boating channel to the broader Navesink remains open, or his business will suffer yet more.

“There’s no money for business interruption” in the sums that the county is offering in ongoing negotiations, he said.

Despite his many worries, though, Remayel said he’s not dead-set against the bridge.

“Maybe I won’t be affected that much,” he said, acknowledging the county’s goal of limiting the traffic shutdown to winter months, when his business is slow anyway.

And the new bridge will mean no more of the constant clanking of metal parts on the existing structure, he said.

“I’ll be glad because it won’t be so noisy,” he said.

Detective Sergeant Bobby Turner tells redbankgreen that the victim appeared to have been struck in the north end of the store’s parking lot near Avenue of the Commons at about 11:15 a.m.

The victim’s name was not immediately disclosed. She is a borough resident, Tuner said.

She was taken by Shrewsbury volunteer first aiders and medics to Jersey Shore Medical Center in Neptune with an injury that Turner said was serious but not believed to be life threatening.

No information about the driver of the vehicle was immediately available, Turner said.

By JOHN T. WARD

Red Bank’s long-awaited plan to extend streetscape touches down a neglected stretch of Monmouth Street includes a mid-block crossing at the County Basie Theatre, officials say.

Depending on the cost, the project might also include a reworking of the landscaping across the street from the theater, on borough hall property, into an outdoor seating area for theater patrons and others, they said.

Part of the borough’s annual road program, the Monmouth Street upgrade calls for a repaving of the street from Maple Avenue to the train station and the installation of flourishes that mimic those east of Maple, town Engineer Christine Ballard, of T&M Associates, tells redbankgreen.

They include sidewalks with brick shoulders, decorative LED lamps and trash-and-recycling receptacles, Ballard said, noting that the eastern stretch features only trash, not recycling bins.

The mid-block crossing, a sparingly used feature, will be done in red pavers, creating a kind of red-carpet effect, Ballard said. The aim, she said, is to improve safety for pedestrians, particularly when hundreds of them converge upon or leave the theater in a span of a few minutes before and after a show.

Theater officials said Tuesday they weren’t aware the crossing was in the plans, and were pleased to learn about it from redbankgreen.

“That’s great news,” said theater CEO Numa Saisselin. “It’s something we have talked about and asked for. The customers will love it.”

Town officials had to obtain approval from the state Department of Transportation for the feature because the $1.7 million road program is partially funded by the agency, Ballard said.

The Monmouth Street work, part of an effort to revitalize a business corridor long in decline, is expected to cost about $600,000 Ballard said.

Other elements of the road plan include repaving Peters Place and the installation of a pedestrian-activated, high-visibility beacon at the busy intersection with Maple Avenue.

The cost of an E-shaped seating area on the borough hall side of Monmouth, opposite the theater, would be borne by Red Bank RiverCenter, if it gets built at all. Specs for the proposal were included as an alternate plan in the requests for bids that were made available to contractors, but executive director Nancy Adams tells redbankgreen she’s not sure the money will be there, now that RiverCenter is helping carry the cost of defending a lawsuit brought last week by New Jersey Natural Gas.

Bids for the streetscape project are due Wednesday. A contract could be awarded as soon as the next meeting of the mayor and council, on March 28, Ballard said.

The council approved the road plan with little discussion at its March 14 session, and no mention of the mid-block crossing. A few minutes later, resident and board of education member Marjorie Lowe, who works part-time at the Clearview Cinemas on White Street, asked the council to sacrifice a parking space opposite the movie theater for the creation of a mid-block crosswalk.

Mayor Pasquale Menna told her that mid-block crosswalks were not permitted.

Ballard tells redbankgreen that crossing at that location would require an analysis that might not pass muster with the DOT because of the number of driveways emptying onto White Street in close proximity to it.

By JOHN T. WARD

An opponent of a planned hotel at the foot of the Route 35 Cooper’s Bridge made his fullest case yet Thursday night that the building violates Red Bank’s height limits.

But after two slow-moving, trial-like hearings before the town zoning board, the lawyer for the hotel has barely begun to put on his defense, and no resolution of the dispute is likely for at least another month.

James Freeman, an engineering consultant and witness for objector Stephen Mitchell, identifies the proposed hotel site on an aerial photo. (Click to enlarge)

In one of the more bizarre building requests to confront town officials in recent years, Rbank Capital LLC’s plan for a six-story, 72-room Hampton Inn hotel is the subject of two simultaneous hearings, both involving the same opposing lawyers and battalions of engineers and land-use experts.

The first, underway at the planning board since August, concerns whether the hotel can be built as described.

The other, at the zoning board, is solely about the interpretation of the height restriction in the waterfront development zone in which the hotel property lies, and ultimately, whether the planning board is in fact the proper venue for the plan.

The matter is critical because zoning boards are generally believed by land use experts to present tougher hurdles for applicants.

Stephen Mitchell, of Prospect Avenue, maintains that the hotel violates the zone’s height limit, defined as 50 feet above the nearby Navesink River at a point on a line drawn between the river and the nearest street parallel to the river.

Through his lawyer, Ron Gasiorowski, Mitchell also contends that because of an error by borough Engineer Christine Ballard, of T&M Associates, in applying the ordinance a year ago, the case was improperly sent to the planning board.

With his fees being paid by a previously undisclosed hotel-owning group out of Tinton Falls, Gasiorowski called two witnesses Thursday night – engineer James Freeman and planner Gordon Gemma – who testified that while the ordinance is vague on some of its terms, the Hampton Inn, at 82.25 feet above the nearby Navesink River, exceeds the height limitation by more than 32 feet.

Gemma said he examined the town’s 1995 master plan, as well as a waterfront “vision plan” that preceded it, for guidance on  the intent of the ordinance.

Clearly, he told the board, “the purpose of what you wanted to do was to make sure that there weren’t big buildings that close to the river. The whole point is to have a step-back from the river” to enable passersby to enjoy the sight of the river.

Noting that a corner of the proposed hotel is bisected by a line drawn between Rector Place – one of only four streets named in defining the landward edge of the zone – and the rive, Gemma testified: “That portion of the building that is above 50 feet doesn’t belong there.”

Hampton Inn lawyer Marty McGann, whose verbal clashes with Gasiorowski have previously been a hallmark of the planning board hearings and have continued here, drew a loud objection from his adversary when he suggested that Freeman had “willy-nilly, without any basis or semblance of authority,” chosen where to measure the height of the hotel.

Gemma has already been tripped up on his testimony twice: once, by Ballard, after he said that in the ordinance, “height” and “elevation” are synonymous, and later by McGann, who challenged Gemma’s assertion that he had attended all of the planning board hearings on the matter. Pressed under cross-examination, Gemma acknowledged that his may have missed “one or two” of the hearings.

The zoning board hearing was scheduled to continue April 19.

By JOHN T. WARD

For George Sheehan Classic organizer Phil Hinck, the annual Red Bank running event is really several races in one.

The foremost is the one in which hundreds of runners, walkers and wheelchair users strive to cross the finish line on Broad Street in as little time as possible.

But well before that race, there’s the pressure to prop up the number of runners, which has been in gradual decline since the event moved to the borough from Asbury Park in 1994.

And then there’s the race against the clock to break down the street barriers and timing equipment to get out of the way of downtown merchants opening for Saturday morning business.

Now, in the biggest change to the event in years, Hinck and the race committee have decided to shorten the main race to a five-kilometer event, from five miles, a move that they hope will juice attendance and expedite post-race clean-up.

Sheehan Classic organizer Phil Hinck in 2009. (Click to enlarge)

Hinck said that starting with the June 16 event, the race will no longer include the nearly two-mile stretch that took place in Fair Haven. Instead, it will follow its traditional course from downtown Red Bank into Little Silver. But instead of heading east on Harding Road into Fair Haven and back, it will turn west on Harding from Prospect Avenue, directly up the dreaded Tower Hill, and on to its customary finish.

“I know they’re happy about it in Fair Haven,” Hinck tells redbankgreen, adding that residents of the Alderbook community in Little Silver, with a single access point on Harding, will also no longer be “trapped” in their development by the road closure.

The race, named for longtime Rumson resident and Red Bank physician Dr. George Sheehan, who popularized the sport through books and newspaper columns, was launched in Asbury Park in 1981 and relocated to Red Bank in 1994, when it was shortened from a 6.2-miler to a 5-miler.

The latest curtailment, Hinck said, is a reflection of runner preferences for either short runs or longer one, such as marathons and half-marathons. Five-mile races have fallen out of popularity, he said, noting that Rumson’s traditional five-miler is going to a 5K this year. Summer heat and humidity are factors, too, he said.

“Last year, there were good conditions, but there were only 1,500 runners,” he said. “We used to get 3,000.”

Hinck said the edited course will mean cost savings in terms of police protection, but it’s unclear if it will translate into lower entry fees, which ranged as high as $35 for late arrivers.

“We’re still working on that,” he said. The decision will rest on the level of corporate sponsorships, he said.

The shorter course should also translate into earlier postrace breaktown time. Hinck said he still hears complaints from some merchants that the race disrupts their business, but “we really hustle to get the streets open by 9:30 or 9:45,” before most shops are open.

“Every year it’s gotten better,” and the quicker race can be expected to shave a large block of time off the earliest street reopening, he said.

The decision to shorten the race, though, was a tough one, Hinck said.

“The hardcore runners don’t want to see these distances go away,” he said.

Registration opens March 15.

By JOHN T. WARD

A  proposal to convert the East Front Street Welsh Farms store into Red Bank’s second 7-Eleven hit a curb Monday night when officials questioned the conditions under which the convenience store was allowed to open in 1975.

Neighbors packed a planning board hearing on the matter, mobilized by concerns that a business that now closes by 10 p.m. will become a garishly lit traffic-and-litter generator operating 24 hours a day, seven days a week.

The nearly ubiquitous convenience-store chain, with 45,000 stores in 16 countries, proposes to add a 356-square-foot freezer to the rear of the existing building, and otherwise make cosmetic changes that its representatives characterized as improvements over existing conditions. These include better lighting with less impact on neighboring properties, landscaping and a more attractive parking lot, they said.

The only variance 7-Eleven seeks is in connection with an illuminated sign on the facade that would be elevated by about eight feet.

Company officials maintain that their plan to operate the store around-the-clock requires no town approval. Attorney Philip San Filippo and planning consultant Rob Freud opined that the store is and always has been a permitted use within its zone, and that variances granted 37 years ago to allow it to additionally operate as a gas station came with no restrictions on hours of operation. The gas pumps were removed about seven years ago, he said.

“At any point, he could have opened that store 24/7,” San Filippo said of the Welsh Farms owner, Atul Patel of Dina Enterprises. “If you look at all the documentation going back to 1975, you will not find one condition of approval… which limits the hours of operation.” He said town officials barely mentioned the hours in their discussions.

But present members of the board, as well as board Attorney Michael Leckstein, wondered if that wasn’t because there was an understanding back then that the store would not be open all night.

Even if there was little or no discussion, the hours were “on the plan” back in 1975, “and it’s been complied with for 35 years,” Leckstein said. The original variances may have been granted “based on the hours of operation,” he said.

Mayor Pasquale Menna said he was “aghast” in reading the original record of zoning board and mayor-and-council discussions to allow the store and station. He termed the approval “one of those good-old boy variances.”

Menna’s comments followed an observation by borough Engineer Christine Ballard, of T&M Associates, that, “with this [requested] variance, the internally illuminated sign will go from turning off at some point” to remaining lit overnight, which she appeared to suggest would call into question all the original approvals.

Menna asked that the board call on borough Planner Richard Cramer, also of T&M, to analyze the original documents “to give us some historical perspective. The record in my opinion is really very scant in terms of the reasons for the variance.”

Opponents have also raised objections over truck delivery noises, litter and the potential for crime.

“You’ve got another 7-Eleven three blocks away,” John Garofalo of Wallace Street said, referring to a store on Maple Avenue at West Front Street. “Why in god’s name would you want to put one here?”

Rose Costa said her home is 300 yards away from the store, backing up on a ravine that also abuts the Welsh Farms property, and it is filled with store litter.

“I have enough garbage in the ravine to last me a lifetime,” she said.

The hearing was scheduled to continue March 19.

Last week’s photo was of a scruffy sign that read “QUAKER PARKING” with a bent arrow painted on it.

“Too obvious,” wrote Sandra Talarico, who along with 15 other readers identified its location as the Quaker Meeting House at the historic Four Corners in Shrewsbury – the intersection of Broad Street (Route 35) and Sycamore Avenue. (We had one incorrect answer: Hudson Street in Red Bank.)

“Thank you for an easy one that brings to an end our dry spell,” wrote Wheregulars Carl, Kathy Lou, Bob and Debbie Colmorgen, aka the Colmorgen Kids.

Here’s a little plug for the folks at the Shrewsbury Friends, a congregation whose roots date back to 1660, from their website:

We are an unprogrammed meeting; there is no set order of service. We wait in expectant silence; vocal messages are given as members and attenders are moved. Children attend for only the first fifteen to twenty minutes at which point they proceed to First Day School. Meeting for Worship lasts about one hour, and is concluded with the shaking of hands with those sitting nearby, followed by announcements of upcoming events. Also at this time, we introduce ourselves when visitors attend. Following Meeting for Worship there is an opportunity for fellowship. There is always coffee and tea and good conversation.

Thanks to all who wrote in: Jenn Woods, Lindsey Hintelmann, Brian Phillips, Parker Trasborg, Christine Jahnig, the Colmorgens, Chris Conk, Eleanor Blass, David Martin, Alan Fisher, Sandra Talarico, Trista Clayton, Jackie Franciso Sapienza, Anna Higgins, Mary White and Mike Welsh.

Can you identify the location of the object in this week’s photo? Take a guess, and send it to us via email, please.