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: MORE SPARKS OVER SENIOR CENTER

red-bank-senior-center-121620-2-500x332-4190067The Senior Center offers a rare vantage for Red Bankers to view the Navesink and Swimming rivers, speakers said. (Photo by John T. Ward. Click to enlarge.)

By JOHN T. WARD

hot-topic_03-220x138-220x138-7378486Red Bank’s elected officials got an earful from the public about the borough’s disabled Senior Center Wednesday night.

But even as the all-Democratic council unanimously approved a new lease on interim space, sparks continued to fly between its members over the center’s near-term future.

The lease, with Trinity Episcopal Church on West Front Street, calls for the borough to pay $2,000 a month to use meeting areas once pandemic restrictions ease, allowing seniors and others to congregate indoors there. For now, Senior Center officials are visiting them at their homes.

The agreement, which is effectively immediately, includes an “escape clause” that lets the borough terminate the lease on 90 days notice. Here’s the lease agreement.

But while the lease proved largely uncontroversial, much of a lengthy workshop session and ensuing regular session, both conducted via Zoom, were filled with passionate comments denouncing the council for not repairing the Senior Center on Shrewsbury Avenue.

Many of the comments appeared fueled by a belief that the borough government has designs on the property for sale or another use. Business Administrator Ziad Shehady sought to refute that notion, as well as other pieces of what he characterized as “misinformation.”

The building has been closed for most of the past two years following a leak of the fire suppression system, as detailed last week by redbankgreen.

Here’s a sampling of comments:

• Tiffaney Harris, Cedar Crossing, former Senior Center outreach worker: “Why are we ‘exploring options’ when we can just put the necessary funds in, fix the Senior Center and make sure our seniors can come back to the place where they originally were?… They depend on that building. They got their exercise in that building, they got their arts and crafts in that building, they got doctors who came into that building.”

• Brian Donohue, Bank Street: “This town has given its senior citizens some of the best real estate in town. Waterfront views. A really rare spot. This is a town that really values its seniors… This is a population that doesn’t have access to the river in other ways…. This is this population’s chance to look out over the river, to watch the sunset, to watch the bald eagles that fly by. You can say ‘move them somewhere else, it’s adequate facilities.’ It’s not… I also think that you’re maybe underestimating the anger in the community over this… Spend the money and fix it.”

• Freda Terry, of North Carolina, a retired Senior Center director who traveled to Red Bank for a ‘fix-it-now’ rally held Saturday: “I just want all of you to please think about what you’re doing and how it is really going to affect the seniors of Red Bank. I speak to my aunt, Dot Davis, she’s my grandmother’s sister, and that is all she talks about…You don’t know how many people are home with no place to go, and it’s wrong… I’m begging you to please fix it.”

• Angela Mirandi, of West Lake Road: “I was at the rally. The seniors love their center. It’s their own place, on the water. They’re at home. They don’t want to move. We shouldn’t move them… Do the morally right thing and fix it.”

But Shehady, who opposes spending to get the center reopened, said it would cost “several hundreds thousand” more dollars to do so, for repairs not covered by an insurance policy the borough has already collected on.

Before the pipe ruptured in February, 2019, the 25-year-old building had been the subject of complaints about the heating and air conditioning, he said. “Repair after repair, band-aid after band-aid” makes additional spending unwise, he said.

“The reason that we have not repaired it right now is because we don’t want to rush to put more band-aids on this facility, and instead, because we care about the seniors, we want to give them the best facility possible,” he said.

Options including making comprehensive repairs and “finding another location,” he said. But the council should hold off spending while the borough’s Redevelopment Agency, which is conducting a review of all municipal assets, works toward a recommendation, he said.

“Time after time,” local governments “are chastised and criticized for making rash decisions, quick decisions and just looking for a quick fix to acquiesce to political pressure,” he said. “This governing body, the majority of this governing body, is not doing that.”

Without naming names, he said “a lot of bad information” was being spread by individuals who wanted to “make this administration look bad, as though we don’t care.”

Following Saturday’s rally, four council members – Kathy Horgan, Kate Triggiano, Hazim Yassin and Erik Yngstrom – joined by Mayor Pasquale Menna, issued a press release criticizing the other two members, Michael Ballard and Ed Zipprich, as having “placed their own popularity over what’s best for our residents and taxpayers” by calling for immediate repairs.

Patricia Kouten of Spring Street called the press release “shameful,” and echoing several other callers, said that she “would like to see the infighting and name-calling stop.”

But after Shehady’s remarks, Triggiano, a first-term council member who was appointed liaison to the Senior Center on January 1, addressed residents, suggesting they “wonder why they were given such false information, and who they received it from.”

“Suddenly, there was a call to arms under a false narrative,” she said, referring to the rally. “All we are asking is to take a deep breath and let the Redevelopment Agency do their job and give us proposals that may work.”

Ballard, who along with Zipprich attended the rally, said all the residents he talks to “want their senior center where it is.

“I’m just telling residents what I know, which is that this building has been down for two years, and we haven’t moved to fix it,” Ballard said, “and we have a Redevelopment Agency that’s telling people we’re looking to move it. They don’t want it moved, period.”

“You’ve done far more damage than that,” Triggiano said.

“In your opinion, councilwoman,” Ballard said.

“Lies are damage, sir,” Triggiano shot back.

“Oh, now you’re calling me a liar?” Ballard said, before demanding an apology.”

Menna, closing the regular session at nearly 11 p.m., reiterated that “no plans to sell” are on the table, and suggested the council to continue the discussion at a future meeting “in a very diplomatic fashion.”

If you value the news coverage provided by redbankgreen, please become a paying member. Click here for details about our new, free newsletter and membership information.

Remember: Nothing makes a Red Bank friend happier than to hear "I saw you on Red Bank Green!"
redbankgreen Classics
Partyline
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)  
COLD AS CANADA? CHECK.
A pair of goose sculptures propped atop an air conditioning unit on River Street in Red Bank.
SUNRISE OVER A GLASSY NAVESINK
Sunrise over the Navesink River, seen from NJ Transit Train 3320. (photo by Partyline contributor Karly Swaim)  
A BLAST FROM THE PAST
NJ Transit "heritage" locomotive makes an appearance at the Red Bank station.
RBFD SNUFFS OUT SMALL APARTMENT FIRE
A small fire that started in a light fixture at the Colony House apartments in Red Bank was quickly put out by members of the Red Band Volun ...
HEAVENLY RED BANK
Rays burst from behind clouds at the sun begins to set over the Navesink River. (photo by Partyline contributor Thomas Doremus)
IN THE FLOW STATE AT RIVESIDE GARDENS
Flow artists in Riverside Gardens Park Friday night. ( photo by Partyline Contributor Karly Swaim)
MAILBOXES HEAD TO HISTORY’S SCRAP HEAP
Sign of the digital age: mailboxes hauled away from Red Bank post office to storage.
HOVERING CHOPPER
What’s going on here? Last Sunday. Hovering around for quite a while. (Photo and text by Partyline contributor Rosaleen Perry)   ...
RBMS HOOPS CHAMPS HONORED
The Red Bank Middle School girls basketball team is honored for their championship season. (click for more)
NAVESINK SUNSET
Sunset sunburst over Riverside Gardens Park (photo by Partyline contributor Thomas Doremus)
RIVERSIDE SUNSET
Sunday’s sunset shot from Riverside Gardens Park. (Photo by Partyline contributor Thomas Doremus) —
MARINE PARK SUNSET
Stunning sunset from Red Bank's Marine Park.
GULLS AND GRAY OVER MOLLY PITCHER INN
On a cold rainy spring day, bulls soared high above the Navesink River and the golden cupola of Red Bank's Molly Pitcher Inn.
Red Bank Commuters Enjoy Stunning Sunrise Over Navesink River
Thursday morning sunrise over the Navesink River, a commuter view from NJ Transit Train 3320. (photo by Partyline contributor Karly Swaim) & ...