RED BANK: Q&A WITH LINDA SCHWABENBAUER

Oct 31, 2014

Republican council candidate Linda Schwabenbauer. (Photo by John T. Ward. Click to enlarge)

In Tuesday’s election for Red Bank council, incumbents Juanita Lewis and Ed Zipprich, both Democrats, face Republicans Sean Di Somma and Linda Schwabenbauer. Here are Schwabenbauer’s answers to questions sent to all four candidates by redbankgreen.

Name: Linda Schwabenbauer

Age: 49

Where did you grow up? Downingtown, PA

How long have you been a resident of Red Bank? Since May of 2005 – just shy of 10 years

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October 31, 2014 - 1:27 pm |

RED BANK: SCHWABENBAUER Q&A

Oct 27, 2017

Linda Schwabenbauer. (Click to enlarge.)

Two three-year terms on the Red Bank Borough Council are up for grabs in the November 7 election. On the ballot are four candidates: incumbent Republican Linda Schwabenbauer and her running mate, Dana McArthur; and incumbent Democrat Ed Zipprich and his running mate, Michael Ballard.

Here are Schwabenbauer’s written responses to questions posed to all four candidates recently by redbankgreen.

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October 27, 2017 - 6:01 am |

RED BANK: SCHWABENBAUER TAKES OFFICE

Jan 6, 2015

Councilman Mike DuPont snaps a photo as Linda Schwabenbauer, joined by her father, Abe Schwabenbauer, awaits her swearing-in as a council member. Pasquale Menna, below, began his third four-year term as mayor. (Photos by John T. Ward. Click to enlarge)

By JOHN T. WARD

One year after Cindy Burnham ended a four-year lock by Democrats, Linda Schwabenbauer became the second Republican on the on the Red Bank council Sunday.

In keeping with recent tradition, however, partisanship was set aside as the annual reorganization of the borough government was marked by pledges of togetherness.

Invoking the way in which college hockey players came to shed their school identities to form the United States Olympic team in 1980, Schwabenbauer said that every member of the six-member council “has a party affiliation or cause, but each of us plays for Red Bank.”

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January 6, 2015 - 11:39 am |

RED BANK: IT’S SCHWABENBAUER & ZIPPRICH

Nov 5, 2014

Councilmembers Ed Zipprich, center, and Juanita Lewis with former Councilman Ivan Polonsky, right, at Democratic HQ Tuesday night. Linda Schwabenbauer, below. (Photos by John T. Ward. Click to enlarge)

By JOHN T. WARD

Linda Schwabenbauer only got into the Red Bank council race in August, and didn’t start campaigning until mid-September.

Though she’s lived in town for 10 years, the Republican also had the handicap of being an unknown political entity.

“I’d never heard of her,” said former mayor and local Democratic party sage Ed McKenna, “and I don’t know anyone who had.”

And yet, even as her opponents – and perhaps some supporters – struggled to pronounce her name, Schwabenbauer came away as the leading vote-getter in Tuesday’s election, edging incumbent Ed Zipprich by nine votes and knocking out incumbent Democrat Juanita Lewis, according to the GOP.

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November 5, 2014 - 11:32 am |

RED BANK: SCHWABENBAUER TO FILL GOP SLOT

Sep 3, 2014

Linda Schwabenbauer outside borough hall, where she hopes to win a council seat. (Photo by John T. Ward. Click to enlarge)

By JOHN T. WARD

Red Bank Republicans may not have a mayoral candidate, but they appear to have filled the empty slot on the November ballot for two council seats.

Three months after the shortlived candidacy of Brian Hanlon ended over objections by his employer, political newcomer Linda Schwabenbauer is expected to join local party chair Sean Di Somma in his second consecutive run for council.

Nominally, at least.

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September 3, 2014 - 8:30 am |

RED BANK: MEETING ENDS WITH BELLY RUB

Nov 14, 2017

Oliver, the Shih Tzu companion of Councilwoman Linda Schwabenbauer, had free run of the room at a special meeting of the Red Bank council Monday night.

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November 14, 2017 - 6:30 am |

RED BANK: ‘NONPARTISAN’ IN THE SPOTLIGHT

Mar 15, 2022

Voters may get to decide in November on a new form of government. (Photo by John T. Ward. Click to enlarge.)

By JOHN T. WARD

As the Red Bank Charter Study Commission heads into a public hearing on the first phase of its work Tuesday night, this much is clear: partisan elections are in the crosshairs.

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March 15, 2022 - 7:58 am |

RED BANK: DEMS AIR PARTY’S DIRTY LAUNDRY

Mar 3, 2022

Mayor Pasquale Menna, top left, and Councilwoman Kate Triggiano, center bottom, participated in commission interviews via Zoom Wednesday. (Click to enlarge.)

By JOHN T. WARD

Mayor Pasquale Menna on Wednesday joined a growing parade of current and former Red Bank officials who have identified “interference” by council members as one of the borough government’s foremost problems.

In stunning testimony before the Charter Study Commission, Menna also was one of three Democrats who laid blame for local government “dysfunction” squarely on their own party.

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March 3, 2022 - 4:15 pm |

RED BANK: BUDGET Q&A SLATED AFTER ALL

Jul 30, 2020

Councilman Michael Ballard, center, with Councilman Ed Zipprich, left, and Business Administrator Ziad Shehady in December, 2018. (Photo by John T. Ward. Click to enlarge.)

By JOHN T. WARD

Almost two months later than promised, Red Bank residents will get a detailed explanation next week of a borough budget that would increase property taxes by 2.8 percent.

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July 30, 2020 - 11:30 am |

RED BANK: TAX INCREASE AT 2.8 PERCENT

Jul 23, 2020

A screengrab from Wednesday’s virtual meeting, with Councilman Michael Ballard at top center and Business Administrator Ziad Shehady at center right. (Click to enlarge.)

By JOHN T. WARD

Red Bank property owners would pay 2.8 percent more in municipal taxes this year, under a budget advanced by the borough council Wednesday night.

The still-evolving $22.4 million spending plan was the centerpiece of a nearly three-hour online council meeting that left viewers with a lot to unpack.

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July 23, 2020 - 6:56 am |

RED BANK: BALLARD & ZIPPRICH TO RUN AGAIN

Mar 3, 2020

Ed Zipprich, left, won a fourth term, and Michael Ballard, right, won his first in the 2017 election. (Photo by John T. Ward. Click to enlarge)

By JOHN T. WARD

Two incumbent Democrats will defend their seats on the Red Bank council in the November election, the party announced Monday.

In an unsurprising move, the municipal and county Democratic committees unanimously endorsed Councilman Ed Zipprich‘s pursuit of a fifth three-year term, and Michael Ballard‘s quest for a second.

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March 3, 2020 - 8:11 am |

RED BANK: POWER OUT AFTER POLES SNAP

Jun 7, 2019

Jersey Central Power & Light’s outage map showed electricity out for up to 100 Red Bank customers Friday following an early-morning incident in which two utility poles on Maple Avenue snapped.

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June 7, 2019 - 6:20 am |

RED BANK: GOP INCUMBENTS WON’T RUN

Mar 30, 2018

Mike Whelan, left, and Mark Taylor kicking off their campaign in 2015. (Photo by John T. Ward. Click to enlarge)

By JOHN T. WARD

Red Bank’s two remaining Republican council members won’t run for re-election this year, they said late Thursday night.

The bombshell news from first-termers Mark Taylor and Mike Whelan would appear to end a chapter of brief resurgence for the local GOP after having been frozen out of power for a generation.

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March 30, 2018 - 6:48 am |

RED BANK: MENNA TOPS TICKET AGAIN

Feb 27, 2018

Mayor Pasquale Menna at Riverside Gardens Park in September. (Photo by John T. Ward. Click to enlarge)

By JOHN T. WARD

Holding off a challenge by activist Ben Forest, Mayor Pasquale Menna secured the top spot on the Democratic ticket in the November election Sunday.

Menna, going for a fourth four-year term, will be joined by two council contenders seeking their first elective office.

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February 27, 2018 - 10:00 am |

RED BANK: COUNCIL WRAPS ON BITTER NOTE

Dec 28, 2017

At the end of his final meeting on the dais, Stanley Sickels embraces Councilman Mark Taylor as Councilman Mike Whelan looks on. (Photos by John T. Ward. Click to enlarge)

By JOHN T. WARD

The Red Bank council ended its 2017 session in acrimony Wednesday night as Republicans accused Democrats of politicizing the replacement of Stanley Sickels as borough administrator.

 

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December 28, 2017 - 9:00 am |

RED BANK: SICKELS LAUDED FOR ‘COMMITMENT’

Dec 14, 2017

Stanley Sickels at Wednesday night’s council meeting, above, and on the scene of a fire in September, 2014, below. (Photos by John T. Ward. Click to enlarge)

By JOHN T. WARD

Red Bank’s mayor and council gave a warm, low-key sendoff to the the borough government’s top unelected official Wednesday night.

Over a career in municipal operations that began in 1979 and spanned numerous paid and volunteer roles, Administrator Stanley Sickels was a “consummate professional” who earned a reputation that went “way beyond the reach of Red Bank,” Mayor Pasquale Menna told the audience at the governing body’s semimonthly meeting.

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December 14, 2017 - 12:00 pm |

RED BANK: SICKELS SENDOFF, H2O ON AGENDA

Dec 12, 2017

Stanley Sickels at a planning board meeting in 2013. (Photo by John T. Ward. Click to enlarge)

By JOHN T. WARD

Red Bank’s most powerful unelected official is slated to get an official sendoff at the semimonthly council meeting Wednesday night.

Also on the agenda: the town’s heaviest water users would be subject to higher minimum charges under a measure slated for introduction.

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December 12, 2017 - 10:00 am |

RED BANK: PARKING AGENDA IN TRANSITION

Dec 4, 2017

A builder may be chosen to redevelop the White Street lot this month, and a parking study could soon follow. (Photo by John T. Ward. Click to enlarge)

By JOHN T. WARD

Amid recriminations and calls for a fresh start, Democrats began taking the wheel in the drive for a possible new parking structure in downtown Red Bank last week.

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December 4, 2017 - 8:20 am |

RED BANK: DEMOCRATS BACK ON TOP

Nov 7, 2017

Ed Zipprich, left, won a fourth term and Michael Ballard, right, won his first as Democrats swept to victory Tuesday night. (Photo by John T. Ward. Click to enlarge)

By JOHN T. WARD

Two years after losing a generation-long majority on the Red Bank council, borough Democrats are back on top.

Helped by a statewide wave of anti-Trump and anti-Christie sentiment, incumbent Councilman Ed Zipprich won a fourth three-year term Tuesday night. He’ll be joined on the governing body by school board vice present Michael Ballard, after they easily vanquished one-term Republican Linda Schwabenbauer and her running mate, Dana McArthur.

 

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November 7, 2017 - 9:54 pm |

ON THE GREEN: WE GET TO VOTE

Nov 7, 2017

Polls are open until 8 p.m. Tuesday across the Greater Red Bank Green, where voters will select a new governor, fill other down-ballot slots and decide three public questions.

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November 7, 2017 - 7:44 am |

RED BANK: AIM OF GOP PACT DISPUTED

Nov 6, 2017

Cindy Burnham says she agreed to the terms set above by her then-fellow Republican Linda Schwabenbauer in order to secure GOP support for her council presidency. (Click to enlarge)

By JOHN T. WARD

Former Red Bank Councilwoman Cindy Burnham got to be council president in 2016 only after agreeing to toe the line with her fellow Republicans, she claims.

Now, out of office for almost a year, Burnham is airing a backroom deal she entered with her party colleagues to attack onetime ally Linda Schwabenbauer over a purported lack of transparency.

But Schwabenbauer, seeking her second council term in Tuesday’s election, says the agreement isn’t the dirty laundry Burnham claims it to be.

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November 6, 2017 - 8:30 am |

RED BANK: BALLARD Q&A

Oct 27, 2017

Michael Ballard. (Click to enlarge.)

Two three-year terms on the Red Bank Borough Council are up for grabs in the November 7 election. On the ballot are four candidates: incumbent Republican Linda Schwabenbauer and her running mate, Dana McArthur; and incumbent Democrat Ed Zipprich and his running mate, Michael Ballard.

Here are Ballard’s written responses to questions posed to all four candidates recently by redbankgreen.

 

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October 27, 2017 - 6:03 am |

RED BANK: McARTHUR Q&A

Oct 27, 2017

Dana McArthur. (Click to enlarge.)

Two three-year terms on the Red Bank Borough Council are up for grabs in the November 7 election. On the ballot are four candidates: incumbent Republican Linda Schwabenbauer and her running mate, Dana McArthur; and incumbent Democrat Ed Zipprich and his running mate, Michael Ballard.

Here are McArthur’s written responses to questions posed to all four candidates recently by redbankgreen.

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October 27, 2017 - 6:02 am |

RED BANK: ZIPPRICH Q&A

Oct 27, 2017

Ed Zipprich. (Click to enlarge.)

Two three-year terms on the Red Bank Borough Council are up for grabs in the November 7 election. On the ballot are four candidates: incumbent Republican Linda Schwabenbauer and her running mate, Dana McArthur; and incumbent Democrat Ed Zipprich and his running mate, Michael Ballard.

Here are Zipprich’s written responses to questions posed to all four candidates recently by redbankgreen.

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October 27, 2017 - 6:00 am |

RED BANK: PARKING, TAXES DOMINATE DEBATE

Oct 17, 2017

Council candidates, from left, Dana McArthur, Ed Zipprich, Michael Ballard and Linda Schwabenbauer at Monday’s event at River Street Commons. (Photos by John T. Ward. Click to enlarge)

By JOHN T. WARD

The four candidates for two seats on the Red Bank council faced off Monday night in a debate-like forum that focused in large part on parking and tax issues.

The polite exchanges gave residents in attendance a chance to compare a three-term incumbent, a political newcomer, and two candidates who work with numbers all day.

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October 17, 2017 - 10:05 am |