The mayor and council meet at borough hall for their first in-person session in 26 months Wednesday night. (Photo by John T. Ward. Click to enlarge.)

By JOHN T. WARD

A budget for 2022 is on the agenda when the Red Bank mayor and council hold their first in-person meeting since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic Wednesday night.

The session is also the first to simultaneously employ technology allowing participation from home.

As of Wednesday morning, the agenda page of the borough website said the meeting “is to be held electronically. But interim Business Administrator Darren McConnell verified for redbankgreen that “people can attend in person or via Zoom.”

Here’s some of what’s on the agenda:

• Introduction of the 2022 budget. No details were provided.

• Hiring longtime deputy Oscar Salinas as director of Parks and Rec, to succeed Louis ‘Del’ Dal Pra, at a salary of $75,000.

• Authorizing a formal request to the New Jersey Department of Community Affairs’ Local Finance Board for the dissolution of the Redevelopment Agency.

• Accepting Cherron Rountree’s resignation as the Redevelopment Agency’s executive director.

• Hiring Christian Nelson as a police officer, and six part-time “special” officers, all but one of whose service ends October 31.

• Introduction of a new floodplain management ordinance.

• Appropriating $357,000 for water and sewer repairs, from the borough water and sewer fund. The money constitutes an “unexpended balance” from a 2016 water plant improvement project on Chestnut Street and Tower Hill, according to a related action.

• Directing an additional $77,000 from a federal American Rescue Plan Act grant toward the Broad Street reconstruction project, bringing the total grant funding used on the project to $1.25 million.

• Appointing Pat Pinto as chairperson of the Human Relations Advisory Committee through 2023, following the resignation of Kate Okeson.

• Authorizing the sale of the Danny’s Steakhouse liquor license to the Bridge Avenue restaurant’s new owners.

Here’s the full agenda. The session is to be held at 5:30 p.m. (rather than the customary 6:30 p.m., at the request of a council member, according to Clerk Laura Reinertsen) in the council chamber at 90 Monmouth Street. Remote access and participation details can be found here.

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