The track at Count Basie Fields would be replaced under a plan up for adoption by the council. (Photo by John T. Ward. Click to enlarge.)
By JOHN T. WARD
A proposed alternate-side parking ordinance is up for consideration at the Red Bank council’s only regular session this month.
Also on the agenda as the council moves into its summer meeting schedule: taxes, a new track for Count Basie Fields, the settlement of a disputed records request and more.Here’s a quick rundown:
• The proposed alternate-side parking ordinance would prohibit parking on one side of the street between 9 a.m. and 3 p.m. on specified days of the week, differing by street. For example, parking would be banned on the north side of Marion Street on Tuesdays, and on the south side of that street on Fridays.
Here’s the full street-by-street schedule.
• The 2019 budget, is up for adoption. The plan would raise the local levy by 2.23 percent, or $50.85 for the owner of a property assessed at the town average of $366,231.
• The council is expected to approve the purchase of a replacement running track at Count Basie Fields for $242,580 from Field Turf USA.
Parks and Rec director Charlie Hoffmann tells redbankgreen the installation of the polyurethane surface is expected to occur in July, and will require closing off the track to users for about a month.
• In a related action, there’s a resolution that extends a series of agreements dating back to 1995 with Red Bank Catholic High School that covers the school’s use of the main football field and cost-sharing for maintenance and replacement.
The new pact calls for “increased monetary contributions” by RBC. Details were not immediately posted.
• Ordinances allowing sandwich board signs through the end of 2021; regulating the display of news racks on public sidewalks; and prohibiting illuminated signs facing the Navesink or Swimming river are up for adoption votes.
The planning board cleared all as in compliance with the Master Plan Monday night.
The zoning board’s grant of a variance in April allowing Riverview Medical Center to erect an illuminated river-facing sign prompted that ban. But the hospital, the Oyster Point Hotel and any other properties that already have the signs are grandfathered.
• Up for approval is a settlement of a dispute over an Open Public Records Act filing.
According to the resolution, the borough denied an OPRA request filed by Shawn Hopkins in 2014 for “certain information and photographs pertaining to the Borough’s required inspections of private properties under the [Monmouth] County Tax Board’s Assessment Demonstration Program.”
In response, Hopkins filed a complaint with the state Government Records Council, which ruled that he was entitled to the material, the resolution says.
Under the settlement, the borough will also pay Hopkins $1,320.
• Also on the agenda are a handful of negotiated easements related to improvements now underway in and around the English Plaza parking lot that must be adopted as ordinances.
• The council is expected to accept the retirement of Sergeant Robert Talerico Jr. after 26 years in the police department, effective September 1. Michael Reo, a 16-year employee, is retiring from the public works department.
• Millennium Strategies, a grant-writing outfit that has been credited with landing more than $1 million worth of grants for the town, will have its contract renewed after a request-for-proposals process that drew four contenders.
The one-year agreement calls for Millennium to be paid no more than $36,000.
• Grant applications concerning pedestrian and biking issues as well as a rehabilitation of Spring Street are also up for approval.
• The council is expected to discuss a request by a business called American Art Marketing, which has asked to reserve Marine Park for two-day art fairs in May and October of 2020. The company already has the events on its website.
• Red Bank Regional High senior Lauren Marcolus is to be cited as the borough’s highest-ranking student in her class.
The dance major, her class’s salutatorian, plans to attend New York University in the fall.
Here’s the full agenda. The council meets at 6:30 p.m. in the council chamber at borough hall, 90 Monmouth Street.
