Skip to content

A town square for an unsquare town

redbankgreen

Standing for the vitality of Red Bank, its community, and the fun we have together.

RED BANK: EMERGENCY PATH PLAN ADVANCES

rbps-path-050217-500x375-1346074The existing path, above, links the Red Bank Primary School to Locust Avenue via a wooded area. (Photo by John T. Ward. Click to enlarge)

By JOHN T. WARD

A long-sought emergency roadway to the Red Bank Primary School is nearing reality, borough officials said last week.

rb-locust-pl-070914-500x347-8710103A 2014 aerial shows the access path linking the school to Locust Avenue. (Click to enlarge)

“It’s been on the drawing board for 20 years,” said Mayor Pasquale Menna said in 2014, referring to a solution to a safety issue at the school. Located at the western terminus of River Street alongside the Swimming River, the school property has only one way in for emergency vehicles, and it’s the same way out for children and others who might need to be evacuated.

In fact, the school has been the scene of several emergencies over the past decade. In 2008, a man repeatedly stabbed his ex-girlfriend outside the school moments after she dropped their daughter off for classes. The incident prompted a heavy response by law enforcement, though no evacuation. (The assailant was later sentenced to 15 years in prison on attempted murder and other charges.)

In November, 2015, what turned out to be a small roof fire prompted school officials to evacuate children on foot to St. Paul the Baptist Church on River Street.

Police Chief Darren McConnell told the borough council last week that his department’s development of an active-shooter response plan for the school has one “glaring” problem: the single means of access. Evacuating while sending dozens of police and other responders onto the campus “is obviously unsafe, and a problem that would affect the kids,” he said.

In addition, a terrorist attack on the school that included blockage of the lone roadway access “would add at least five minutes to our response time, an amount of time in which every study shows an insurmountable number of lives would be lost.”

“The need for us to get in there quickly is vital,” he said.

The proposed solution calls for improving a narrow, 700-foot-long footpath that links the school and Locust Avenue to the north. But because it runs through the wooded wetlands that adjoin the school, the path needs shoring up to support heavy vehicles.

Planning for the project “started in full force” in 2015, engineer Christine Ballard, of T&M Associates, told the borough council last week. (T&M was retained to continue work on the project after losing its post as borough engineer in 2016.)

But the New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection wanted a porous-pavement roadway, an expense borough officials resisted because it was both unnecessary and would create a “maintenance headache,” Ballard said.

After a number of meetings, the DEP now agrees that path may be made of asphalt, Ballard said. Bollards at either end will block regular vehicular traffic while allowing for emergency access, she said.

At the same time, she said, borough officials wanted to address the issue of water flow to hydrants at the site, which testing showed is “substandard,” Ballard said.

“This is a wood-framed-roof building, so you can imagine the need to have adequate fire flow is essential,” she said.

Linking the system from River Street to Locust Avenue through the school property will both improve flow and allow for the installation of three additional hydrants on school property, Ballard said. The upgrade will also benefit nearby residents in terms of water pressure, she said.

Superintendent Jared Rumage told the council he was “ecstatic” that the project was finally nearing construction after years of concern that arose before the terroristic attacks of September 11, 2001.

“We talk about ‘safety first,’ and if we can’t keep our kids and our staff and our community safe, we can’t do what we need to do in terms of student learning,” he said.

The council has introduced amendments to earlier road and water and sewer bond ordinances to cover the costs of the project not offset by grants. Final adoption is expected at the May 10 council meeting.

Here are the proposed amendments, which include additional projects, including repairs to broken sanitary sewer lines on Marion Street, said public utilities director Cliff Keen:

RB 2017-15

RB 2017-16

Remember: Nothing makes a Red Bank friend happier than to hear "I saw you on Red Bank Green!"
redbankgreen Classics
Partyline
BUTTERFLIES LOVE THE WEED
Save the monarch, plant butterfly weed. (photo and text by Partyline contributor Roseann DalPra)  
LANTERNFLY PARTY
An invasive ailanthus tree sprouting in front of the US Post Office on Broad Street is covered with invasive spotted lantern fly nymphs Wedn ...
STREETCORNER SERENADE
An Irish doodle named Cheddar listens to native New Jerseyan, singer/songwriter and former Houston resident Tom Foti, (identified in the hea ...
Red Bank 5K Fun!!!
Red Bank Classic – June 14th, 2025 (photo by Partyline contributor Adam Kaplan)  
RAINBOW OVER RED BANK
Saturday, before and after the storm that rolled through town. (photo by Partyline contributor Thomas Doremus)    
Mini Ballers Bring the Heat at Fusion Basketball School
As the temperatures heat up, so does the competition in the mini baller clinic at Fusion School of Basketball. These little tykes are intens ...
DOZENS OF PLEIN AIR ARTISTS “PAINT RED BANK”
Plein air artists take over town for first ever "Paint Red Bank" event. (click to read)
RED BANK: SIGN ON ICONIC DANNY’S STEAK HOUSE COMES DOWN
The sign hanging from the shuttered Danny's Steak House comes down ten months after a manager reported Danny's Steakhouse would be back "bet ...
FOR YANKEES FANS, GOOD TRASH PICKIN’
A collection of framed photographs of Babe Ruth, Lou Gehrig, Joe DiMaggio and other New York Yankees greats was placed curbside along with a ...
RED BANK: NEW HANDICAPPED PARKING, WEST SIDE MEETING PLANNED
New handicapped parking sign West Side advocate had pressed for is installed, with meeting planned to discuss other concerns. (click to read ...
SUNSET AT SUMMER’S START
Crazy sunset clouds shot from Monmouth Boat Club on the Friday evening at the start of Memorial Day weekend, the unofficial start of summer. ...
SIDEWALK GOES FROM WORST TO FIRST
P (photo by Brian Donohue) What had been, in our estimation – and apparently in the eyes of the several people who have emailed and te ...
RED BANK: PEERING FROM ON HIGH, ACROSS THE DECADES
Roofers on the Azalea Red Bank top off the project in the shadow of a sculpture depicting another generation of construction workers who toi ...
BRICK FACELIFT CONTINUES ON MONMOUTH STREET
A million-dollar brick sidwalk makeover of Monmouth Street in Red Bank continues.
JAY AND SILENT EAGLE
A very loud blue jay squawks at an indiferent bald eagle in a treetop alongside the Swimming River in Red Bank this week. (Partyline photo b ...
PIZZA LOVING SQUIRREL SPOTTED IN RED BANK
Pizza squirrel spotted in Red Bank. (click to read)
GET YOUR MA SOMETHIN’ NICE AT THE RED BANK FARMERS MARKET
It’s a beautiful and sunny Mother’s Day for the first instance of the farmer’s market, held every Sunday, beginning in May ...
SIGN? WHAT SIGN?
Folks in Red Bank Wednesday exercising their riparian rights to access tidal waters first encoded into Roman law in 500 AD and later adopted ...
FANTASTIC MR. FOX
Partyline contributor captures photo of backyard fox.
STRIPER RUN AT MARINE PARK
An angler pulls in a striped bass from the Marine Park bulkhead Tuesday evening. (photo by Partyline contributor Boris Kofman)