A man was chased down and arrested in Red Bank Wednesday afternoon after snatching a necklace from a woman’s neck, police said.

Kevin McNair, a 40-year-old with addresses in Red Bank and Shrewsbury Township, pushed an officer when he was confronted at the train station, but was caught nearby on Bridge Avenue, Captain Darren McConnell said.

McNair was charged with robbery, aggravated assault on a police officer and resisting arrest.

McConnell said at around 11:30 a.m., McNair ripped a necklace from the neck of a 36-year-old woman walking with her three children in a Locust Avenue apartment complex. The woman was not injured in the incident.

When police got the call, Lieutenant Richard Mangold saw a man who matched the report’s description at the train station on Monmouth Street and Bridge. When Mangold approached the man, later identified as McNair, he pushed Mangold and fled on foot, according to McConnell.

He was tracked down near the station by Detective Joey Fields and Investigator Juan Sardo.

McNair, who two years ago was charged with unlawful gun possession when he and another person were stopped by police for a motor vehicle violation, was held on $51,500 bail in Monmouth County jail in Freehold.

By DUSTIN RACIOPPI

A malfunction at a Tinton Falls substation is believed to be the cause of yesterday’s countywide power outage, according to the Asbury Park Press.

Locally, power started being restored within 75 minutes of the outage, but many homes and businesses also went for hours more in the dark, forcing some closures and snarling traffic on the area’s main roads.

Red Bank police placed a stop sign at the north end of Broad Street Monday afternoon as a long line of cars tried to get onto Front Street.(Photo by Dustin Racioppi; click to enlarge)

The Press reports that a “fault” at the Atlantic substation caused about 71,000 customer outages, including some in Ocean County, with the highest concentrations being in the Red Bank and Middletown area, plus a few shoreline towns.

In Fair Haven, police moved swiftly to man the borough’s major roadways to direct traffic. Power went out in the area at around 4:30p.

Greater Red Bank’s power was slowly being restored around 6p, although many homes and businesses didn’t see the lights turn back on until well into the evening. Pete Joehner, a spokesman for Jersey Central Power & Light, the region’s supplier, told APP that the staggered restoration was for “safety reasons, and to not destroy other equipment.”

Phone calls to JCP&L were not returned Monday evening.

Most bars and restaurants in Red Bank stayed open during the outage, relying on iced beers and gas flames to lure customers in. Other businesses, though, called the day early, amid street chatter that a transformer in Tinton Falls blew out.

That’s why Mark Delaney closed his shop, Exotic Birds of Red Bank, around 5:30p.

“That’s a big one,” he said. “That’s not one that’s coming back in 10 minutes.”

Next door, the owners of Frozsurt sat inside with fingers crossed that power would return within a couple hours, so they wouldn’t have to throw out and later restock their supply of frozen yogurt — a costly venture. Hearing of the possibility that a transformer had blown, co-owner Daniel Natale jokingly considered throwing a cheap yogurt buffet through the night so his product wouldn’t be wasted.

On Maple Avenue, 7-11 placed a “close” sign on its door, while not too far away, on East Front Street, a clerk at Welsh Farms manually counted out change for customers buying ice and cigarettes and wrote down each purchase on a piece of paper.

While JCP&L slowly brought power back to the area, the third night of the Fair Haven Firemen’s Fair went on as planned.

In the moments immediately after the outage, traffic in the area piled up and became a bit of a confounding test of roadway autonomy, as traffic lights went blank and motorists tried to negotiate the streets safely. On Broad Street in Red Bank, a multi-block stretch of northbound cars inched left and right from Broad onto Front Street, which saw its own deep line of cars span from Riverview Medical Center to Maple Avenue.

All the while, fire vehicles, unmarked police cars and ambulances blasted sirens and zoomed past the near-standstill traffic.

While some prepped and others languished in traffic, a few of the Sea Bright locals took the outage as an opportunity to soak up the sun and relax — unplugged.

When asked how long she might sit at the bar at Donovan’s Reef, Stacy Banta (above right), said, “We’re stayin’ until the beer gets warm.”

By DUSTIN RACIOPPI

Red Bank’s municipal court will be adding to its caseload, albeit lightly, beginning next month.

Under a deal finalized by the Red Bank council last night, the borough court will handle all cases for Shrewsbury Township — a landlocked three-street residential development  originally established in support of Fort Monmouth, Borough Administrator Stanley Sickels said.

Until recently, the township, with a population of just 1,068, was in an agreement with Eatontown for court services, but rising costs pushed officials to see if Red Bank would partner with the tiny municipality. There’s anywhere between 20 and 40 cases a year generate from the township, Sickles said.

“We can do that in a day,” he said.

The township is patroled by State Police, and has a code enforcement officer, who will be present as needed for cases. Township cases will be handled by Red Bank’s prosecutor, James Butler.

Red Bank stands to benefit, officials say. Under the four-year deal, the township will pay Red Bank a base fee of $8,500 to send its violators before Judge William Himelman, plus court costs per case. Any fines collected, up to $2,000, Shrewsbury pockets; anything over $2,000 is split 50-50 with Red Bank.

No additional personnel or other costs will be incurred by the borough, said Mayor Pasquale Menna. The cases will be heard on Thursday mornings, when Red Bank cases are also heard.

“It really doesn’t entail us to do anything,” he said. “It’s really a good thing for us and it’s really a good thing for Shrewsbury Township and it shouldn’t result in any inconvenience to anybody in Red Bank.”

Shrewsbury Township also wanted to share trash pickup services with Red Bank, but Sickels said it didn’t make any sense economically. However, Menna said this could, and likely will be, just one step toward more shared services with other towns.

“It’s a plus and hopefully it’s a harbinger of other local agreements,” he said.