By STACIE FANELLI

Sixty years old, the Rumson-Sea Bright Bridge over the Shrewsbury River is rapidly corroding, inadequate for today’s traffic loads and behind the times on accident safety. Its electrical system is the same one installed in 1952. It’s not up to snuff in terms of earthquake resistance, either.

In a word, Monmouth County engineering officials say, the bridge’s condition is “serious.”

Whether to spend an estimated $10 million to rehabilitate the bridge or some $50 million to replace it was the core question at a pair of public hearings held Monday in Sea Bright and Rumson. More than a dozen county officials and consultants were present at each to kick off a series of discussions aimed, they said, at “building consensus” on a solution.

But some residents of the two towns voiced skepticism that their concerns – which include the impacts of a new span on property values on the Rumson side and on the business district in Sea Bright – would be given much weight in the process.

“They seem to have it in mind to build a new bridge, and I just don’t want it destroying the neighborhood in the process,” said Tom Calvanico, who lives near the Rumson anchorage.

The bridge, designated S-32, was the focus of an open-house style meeting in Rumson Monday night, as well as at a separate meeting in Sea Bright earlier in the day. Thirteen members of the project team were on hand to answer questions about traffic, design, engineering and the environmental impact of several courses of action.

On the table are replacing the low drawbridge or building a high fixed bridge, which would mean road realignment and a possible loss of private property, officials acknowledged.

“Doing nothing is not an option. At some point, something has to be done,” Martine Culbertson, a community involvement facilitator hired by the county, told the Rumson audience.

But as in Sea Bright earlier, the Rumson Q&A session elicited concern over whether the community’s voices would actually matter in the final decision of the preferred alternative that will be presented to the federal government.

“This just reminds me of Sandy Hook,” said Rumson resident Phil Wagner, referring to the replacement of the Route 36 Highlands Bridge with the new Joe Azzolina Bridge. “Everybody was listened to and all of a sudden, hocus pocus, a decision was made.”

Jon Moren, the county’s principal engineer for bridges, repeatedly assured the audiences that no decision has been made regarding any aspect of the bridge’s construction, including whether construction will ever occur. And team members stressed that in order for the project to qualify for federal funding, Uncle Sam requires them to weigh all options. He encouraged residents to comment in writing with their objections to a fixed bridge.

While a drawbridge would allow for the structure to stay where it is, an issue of funding concerned the crowd. Glen Schetelich, project manager from the engineering firm Hardesty and Hanover, refuted the rumor that the federal government is not interested in funding movable bridges because of maintenance.

“It’s project by project,” he said. “I’ve worked on drawbridges that were replaced with drawbridges.”

The estimate is $10 million to repair only what has been damaged up until now. That does not include preventative construction or replacement, which could come with a budget of over $50 million, said Moren, who added that the county typically spends only $10 million per year on bridges altogether.

All funding is expected to come from the federal government, through the North Jersey Transportation Planning Authority, but only if the project team follows the procedures outlined by the National Environmental Policy Administration (NEPA), which include holding Monday’s public informational meetings.

The meeting “is one of the early litmus tests the Federal Highway Administration will take a look at,” Culbertson told the Rumson crowd.

A traffic survey will be conducted during the summer, the peak of bridge use, to address concerns about congestion.

Moren, who is also the project manager of the Oceanic Bridge project, said construction would not happen on both bridges at once. He confirmed that the current closure of the Oceanic is on schedule to end before next Memorial Day, which is when only the first phase of the Rumson-Sea Bright bridge would be completed.

If Rumson, Sea Bright and the county cannot reach a consensus, though, the team will have to go off course from the schedule put in place by NEPA and will lose its federal funding. The first phase of planning, “local concept development” is 18 months long and should end by April 2013. If everyone agrees on the type of bridge to build and how to do it, they will then go into the engineering, design and construction phases.

Members of the team could not comment on how long construction might last or when it would begin because no one has agreed that it will be built yet. But there seemed to be a consensus opposition to a completely new span.

“That bridge would have to be so huge that it would have to start at Holy Cross and end in the ocean. You would have to build a monstrosity,” said Rumson resident Ingeborg Perndorfer.

“Stakeholders,” which the officials said includes fire and police departments from both municipalities, Holy Cross School, the two hospitals, marinas, bordering towns and local business owners, already met with the project team earlier this month to discuss their apprehension. The most notable bullet was keeping the bridge open during construction.

The bridge is a vital part of the evacuation on Route 520, but community members cited the last time it underwent repairs as a main concern. It was the early 90s and the bridge was shut down entirely for about three months.

“Business in Sea Bright practically died,” said Rumson resident Jude Skowron.

The next public information meeting will be held in October, when the data collection is finished and the preferred alternative for the bridge will be presented, officials said.

Stacie Fanelli, a sophomore at Syracuse University, is a reporting and photography intern at redbankgreen

By JOHN T. WARD

A deployment of police, search dogs and two helicopters failed to find a suspect wanted for exposing himself to a woman on the beach at Sandy Hook Sunday night, authorities said.

The case, which was originally described as a sexual assault on police radios, was not a sexual assault because it did not involve intimate contact, said National Park System spokesman John Warren.

The suspect, however, did masturbate over the victim and at one point grabbed her by the jacket, adding a potential assault charge if he is caught.

According to Warren, the incident was reported at about 8:40 p.m. after the unidentified woman, who had been lying on the sand at Beach C, looked up to see a man masturbating above her.

The woman screamed and the offender grabbed her by the jacket before fleeing on foot, Warren said.

Several witnesses saw the commotion and the man running away along the beach in the park, which is open until 10 p.m. this time of year, Warren said.

Police from Highlands and Sea Bright responded to assist U.S. Park Rangers in their hunt for the suspect. K-9 units from Hazlet and the Monmouth County Sheriff’s office were brought in, and two helicopters one from New York City, one from Monmouth County scoured he peninsula until about 1 a.m. Monday, Warren said.

“We take the safety of our visitors that seriously,” Warren said.

The suspect, a description of whom authorities are withholding, was not found, and the investigation is continuing, Warren said.

The park gets two million visits a year, Warren said.

With Hurricane Irene lumbering up the East Coast packing destructive winds of 100 miles per hour, officials in Sea Bright ordered residents and visitors off the sandbar peninsula Friday.

The evacuation of the town’s 1,800 or so residents is expected to be completed by 4 p.m. Saturday. And while no enforcement is anticipated, Councilman Read Murphy warns that anyone who stays behind is on his or her own if conditions require that emergency personnel leave also. “if you’re here and you’re in trouble, we’re probably not going to come get you,” he says.

Hardware store owner Frank Bain tells redbankgreen that locals in a “frenzy” have cleared his shelves of emergency necessities such as flashlights, batteries and coolers. “No one has been cavalier about this storm,” he says.

Check out more videos at redbankgreen’s YouTube channel.

Wednesday’s forecast by the National Weather Service calls for ample sunshine and temperatures peaking around 84, but rain may return Thursday and Friday. (Photo by Dustin Racioppi. Click to enlarge)

With sunshine and summery, mid-80s temperatures forecast for Friday and Saturday, redbankgreen brings you this enticement to hit the sand by photographer Stacie Fanelli.

[Editor's note: This story contains updated information from Gateway National Park at 11:30 a.m.]

A man who was struck by lightning in a brief, violent storm on Sandy Hook was resuscitated after prolonged lifesaving efforts late Monday afternoon, authorities said.

An earlier version of this report on redbankgreen said the victim had died.

The unidentified man was at Beach B on the ocean side of the peninsula when he was hit by lightning at about 5:53 p.m., according to Gateway National Park spokesman John Warren.

Family members had tried unsuccessfully to revive the victim, but park emergency personnel were able to, Warren said.

“He was alive when he left Sandy Hook” in a Sea Bright First Aid ambulance, which took him to Monmouth Medical Center in Long Branch, Warren said. “I believe our employees made that possible.”

The victim’s name and condition were not immediately available Tuesday morning. He was in critical condition when he left the park, Warren said.

The man, a 32-year-old from Passaic, was still in Monmouth Medical Center’s Intensive Care Unit as of this morning, Warren said.

Warren said that contrary to an early report that two people were struck, the victim was the only one hit. Warren was also unable to confirm reports that the victim was in the ocean when he was hit.

Among those responding were Gateway law enforcement rangers, National Parks Service firefighters, EMTs and lifeguards, he said.

The sudden lightning storm briefly knocked out power to parts of Rumson and Sea Bright.

Three people were struck by lightning on Sandy Hook around this time three years ago. One man from Elizabeth died as a result of the injuries sustained in the strike.

The sand, and ponytails, went flying at the 27th annual All-Women Lifeguard Tournament at Sandy Hook on Wednesday.

Hosted by Gateway National Recreation Area, the tourney – billed as the oldest in the United States – pits female lifeguards from oceanfront, river, bay, lake and pool lifeguard squads against one another in 10 events designed to highlight fitness, skills, strength and endurance.

Photo intern Stacie Fanelli caught the action for redbankgreen.

To enlarge the photo display, start it, then click the embiggen symbol in the lower right corner. To get back to redbankgreen, hit your escape key.

A tip of the hat – which is all that Where is wearing this week – goes to the three readers who recognized the tableau of cutesified animal statues shown in last week’s photo.

The shot was taken at the entrance to Gunnison Beach near the northern end of Gateway National Recreation Area at Sandy Hook.

Yeah, the one where they get as nekkid as jaybirds. Actually, the beach is “clothing optional.”

redbankgreen got that shot on July 4, a hot and sunny day that drew such large crowds that the entrance to the park was shut down by late morning, as often happens on summer weekends. But the ferries from New York kept arriving at the other end of the park, and the buses that shuttle the arrivals to the beaches had nowhere else to go, apparently, but Gunnison.

Let’s just say there may be a few cottontail city dwellers who got an eyeful that day. Where Have You Seen This, however, kept its eye from wandering, being on-duty and all that.

Thanks to Jenn Woods, John Ekdahl and Melissa Embler for writing in.

Do you know where this week’s Where photo is from. Drop us a note, please, with “Where Have I Seen This?” in the subject line.

The U.S. Coast Guard has suspended a 10-hour search that started early Tuesday morning for four missing boaters who reported their boat sinking off Sandy Hook Bay, and are now treating the call as a possible hoax, a federal felony.

The call cost Coast Guard assets — and by extension, taxpayers — about $88,000.

Along with state and local agencies that included Sea Bright, Fair Haven and Rumson, the Coast Guard searched about 600 square-miles in the area of Sandy Hook, but found no evidence of the reported-missing sailboat, Courtney Lynn, or its four passengers, a release from the Coast Guard said.

“We were not able to find a sign of persons in distress or any kind of debris,” said Petty Officer Second Class Jetta Disco, who is based in the Coast Guard’s New York City battery.

Disco said a mayday call came into the Coast Guard at about 3:15 a.m. from the Courtney Lynn, a 33-foot sailboat, and it was taking on water. Within 20 minutes to a half-hour, Disco said reports came in that the vessel was about 90-percent submerged and its occupants were abandoning the sailboat and boarding a dinghy.

“That was the last communications we heard,” she said.

The Coast Guard, along with State Police and the aforementioned boroughs, initiated an extensive air and sea search that covered about 600 square-miles, Disco said. Middletown First Aid was called in for early in the morning for standby help, but was called off shortly thereafter, Lieutenant Steve Dollinger said. An earlier release from the Coast Guard said aircraft from Cape Cod, Massachusetts, a helicopter from Atlantic City and a rescue boat from Sandy Hook helped in the search efforts.

Disco said the search was called off shortly before 2 p.m. Tuesday. She did not have further details on where the Courtney Lynn was registered, or by whom.

Now, the Coast Guard is offering up a $1,000 reward for anyone with information leading to the arrest and prosecution of anyone making a fake distress call.

More from the Coast Guard website:

Making a false distress call is a federal felony with a maximum penalty of five to 10 years in prison, a $250,000 fine, $8,000 civil penalty and the possible reimbursement to the Coast Guard for the cost of performing the search. Coast Guard and other state and local agencies have responded to 126 suspected hoax calls in the northern New Jersey, New York City and Hudson River region since January 2010.

In addition to being a federal crime, false distress calls waste tax payer dollars, put Coast Guard and other first responders at unnecessary risk and can interfere with the Coast Guard’s ability to respond to those in actual distress at sea.

In response to this high number of calls, the Coast Guard is offering a reward of up to $1,000 for information leading to the arrest and prosecution of anyone responsible for making a false distress or hoax call to the U.S. Coast Guard in the area.  Anyone with information regarding false distress calls is encouraged to anonymously contact the U.S. Coast Guard at 646-872-5774.