The squad’s house on Spring Street. Below, a voting district map. (Click to enlarge)
Voters from two Red Bank districts will be directed to a new polling station starting with next week’s school board elections following a decision by the First Aid & Rescue Squad to no longer host balloting.
Mayor Pasquale Menna, saying he had tried to get the squad to relent, announced Monday night that voters in the East Side third and seventh voting districts will instead be directed to the First Church of Christ, Scientist, on Broad Street.
Noting that the squad owns its station on Spring Street, in the heart of the seventh district, Menna said the organization “no longer wishes to host elections at that polling place. I used my best efforts to get them to change their minds, but was unsuccessful.”
Voters signing in for last November’s election at the squad building.
The church, on the far western end of the seventh fourth district, “has graciously and generously voted to open its doors,” he said. The Red Bank Middle School also offered, but that raised security issues because classes would be in session during elections, he said.
redbankgreen reached out for comment to squad President Pete DeFazio, who’s a captain in the police department, but has not yet heard back from him.