The so-called Sunset Park concept plan includes a soccer field, riverfront boardwalk, kayak launch and other amenities. (Click to enlarge.)
By JOHN T. WARD
Red Bank residents will get their first look Monday night at a concept plan for a new park on the town’s long-closed landfill site overlooking the Swimming River.
The audience at the Celestial Lodge Friday night. (Photo by John T. Ward. Click to enlarge)
By JOHN T. WARD
Red Bank residents delivered a message to borough officials Friday night about a new park proposed at the town’s long-closed landfill site: not everyone wants it.
At a town-hall-style meeting held at the Celestial Lodge #36 on Drs. James Parker Boulevard, area residents expressed concerns that the dump might never be made safe for public use.
A map showing the extended former landfill site outlined in green. (Photo by John T. Ward. Click to enlarge)
By JOHN T. WARD
We need a skatepark. We need a playgrounds for West Side kids. We need to remember that this is a neighborhood that can’t handle throngs of out-of-town visitors.
Red Bank residents offered those and other suggestions as the process of shaping a new waterfront park out of the former town dump got underway with a community brainstorming session last Thursday night.
With planning underway to transform the former Red Bank landfill at West Sunset Avenue into an 8.6-acre park, the borough Parks & Rec Committee has scheduled a “concept design kickoff” to solicit public input on the project.
The former landfill at West Sunset Avenue, as seen in 2014. (Photo by John T. Ward. Click to enlarge)
By JOHN T. WARD
Red Bank officials took another step toward the creation of a long-anticipated new park on the site of the former landfill and incinerator this week.
They also got some promises of help.
The former landfill on West Sunset Avenue. (Photo by John T. Ward. Click to enlarge)
By JOHN T. WARD
After years of environmental remediation, Red Bank’s former landfill is expected to move forward toward conversion to a park beginning this month.
But what’s proposed for the West Sunset Avenue site? Even Mayor Pasquale Menna says he doesn’t yet know.
Mayor Pasquale Menna with engineer Christine Ballard of T&M Associates at the incinerator site last Friday. (Click to enlarge)
The work of finally pulverizing Red Bank’s 70-plus-year-old incinerator smokestack to dust could begin as soon as tomorrow.
But replacing the stack and adjoining garbage dump, both long out of service, with a pristine 8.5-acre park overlooking the upper Navesink River may still be years from beginning, borough officials acknowledge.
They don’t know, for starters, if there are drums of waste buried around the incinerator, and will have to x-ray the ground to find out, borough engineer Christin Ballard says.
Even if tests come up clean, though, local officials may face strong objections from neighbors of the West Sunset Avenue property, some of whom envision nothing but trouble at the dead end of their street if a park is created there.
“I’m just afraid that’s going to be a hangout,” Marcelle Seruby, a senior citizen and West Sunset resident for over 50 years, told redbankgreen recently. “I just feel that it’s unsafe for us. The police have enough to do.”
Red Bank officials say they’re now about a month away from tearing down the West Sunset Avenue incinerator stack that has stood as a reminder of the town’s garbage-burning past for several decades.
The town council last night approved a $195,342 contract under which a demolition firm, Nacirema Environmental Services, will remove the stack and the incinerator building at its base.
The Bayonne company won the contact after a sealed-bid process, officials said.
Passage of a resolution approving the deal was cause for cheer among members of the governing body at their bimonthly meeting.
“I’m supposed to bring the champagne” to the demolition, said Mayor Pasquale Menna.
Contractors working on improvements to a nearby intersection are using the borough-owned lot as a staging area. A wooden form for making concrete slabs was built at center, and a load of stone was dropped closer to the river.
A publicly owned parcel of riverfront property that redbankgreen calls Whatchamacallit Park appears on its way finally to getting a new moniker: Maple Cove.
But that tidbit of news was all but swamped at Tuesday night’s meeting of the Red Bank council, when tempers flared over who’s doing what on the Navesink River site.
The week in crime, as reflected in the Red Bank Police Department log, for the week of August 8 through 15. Entries are unedited.
Criminal Mischief occurring on 8-9-08 at Pearl St. Victim reported that unknown subject(s) scratched a parked vehicle on both sides from front to back. Ptl. Jorge Torres.
Theft reported on 8-9-08 at Leighton Ave. Victim reported that his lawn mower, black in color, 4.5 H.P. Briggs and Stratton was stolen from shed in back yard of residence. Ptl. Jorge Torres.
Criminal Mischief occurring at Bridge Ave. on 8-10-08. Victim reported that unknown person(s) shattered the passenger side window of parked vehicle. Ptl. Gary Watson.
Theft occurring between 8-9-08 and 8-10-08 at Rector Place. Victim reported that unknown person broke into a shed in back yard and stole a black metal Sears tool box filled with tools. Ptl. George Travostino.