For days after the December 26, 2010 blizzard, the English Plaza parking lot in Red Bank, above and below, remained closed, in part because of vehicle strandings. (Photos by John T. Ward. Click to enlarge)
By JOHN T. WARD
Apparently hoping to head off a repeat of problems seen in the 2010 blizzard, Red Bank officials said they would barricade downtown streets to traffic Monday night.
According to an alert issued by the borough early Monday afternoon, officials plan to seal off the English Plaza and White Street municipal lots at 10 p.m. and to shut down Broad Street at 1 a.m. Tuesday, early into a storm that forecasters expect to last about 30 hours and drop more than two feet of snow on much of the Northeastern United States.
At the same time, borough officials have asked that all residents remove their vehicles from borough streets to facilitate plowing throughout the storm. Those who do not have access to private off-street parking are advised to leave their vehicles in the parking lot at Count Basie Fields – a remote location for many even in good weather – and the eastern portion of the Mechanic Street lot downtown.
Neither Mayor Pasquale Menna nor borough Administrator Stanley Sickels could be reached for immediate comment on the plan.
The December 26, 2010 storm socked the region with more than two feet of snow. In the process, cars were abandoned in parking lots, on narrow streets and on the approach to the Route 35 Cooper Bridge, which officials said impeded mid-storm plowing, leading to unwieldy snow accumulations that plows could not handle later on.
Monday’s alert also included this list of borough streets on which parking is prohibited by ordinance during snowfalls. In all cases, the ban applies to both sides of the named street:
• Bodman Place, from Riverside Avenue to the end
• Broad Street, from Harding Road to Front Street
• Brower Place, from Morford Place to Bridge Avenue
• Canal Street, from Broad Street to Hudson Avenue
• Catherine Street, from Leighton Avenue to Tilton Avenue
• Chapin Avenue, from Munson Place to the western end
• Drummond Place, from Monmouth Street to Peters Place
• Hudson Avenue, from Linden Place to Harding Road
• Linden Place, from Broad Street to Spring Street
• Mechanic Street, from Broad Street to Spring Street
• Monmouth Street, from Broad Street to Shrewsbury Avenue
• Morford Place, from Front Street to Brower Place
• Tilton Avenue, from Catherine Street to River Street
• Wallace Street, from Broad Street to Spring Street
• Waverly Place, , from Broad Street to Maple Avenue
• White Street, from Broad Street to Maple Avenue
Homeowners and tenants were reminded in a separate alert that borough ordinance requires that snow and ice be removed from sidewalks within 24 hours of a snowfall.
