RED BANK: SENIOR CENTER WORK DELAYED
Red Bank residents begin their fifth year without access to the borough’s Senior Center this month.
What’s up with the repairs to the long-closed facility?
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RED BANK: SENIOR CENTER UPDATE
A contractor carries building materials into the Red Bank Senior Center last month.
What’s up with the repairs to the long-closed facility?
RED BANK: SENIOR CENTER FIX-UP ADVANCES
The backyard of the mothballed Senior Center overlooking the upper Navesink River. (Photo by John T. Ward. Click to enlarge)
By JOHN T. WARD
A proposal to repair Red Bank’s mothballed Senior Center without adding any new facilities won a Redevelopment Agency endorsement Tuesday evening.
The action could defuse one of the hottest issues in a contested Democratic race for two council seats just six weeks before a primary vote.
RED BANK: SENIOR CENTER EXPEDITING VAX
About 500 Red Bank residents have received COVID-19 vaccinations over the past month under a program coordinated by the borough’s Senior Center, an official said Wednesday.
RED BANK: SENIOR CENTER DEBATE RAGES ON
A view into the mothballed Senior Center through a window in December. (Photo by John T. Ward. Click to enlarge.)
By JOHN T. WARD
Red Bank council members clashed yet again over the borough’s Senior Center Wednesday night.
Among the issues: a petition demanding that the facility, which has been out of commission for almost two years, be repaired and reopened at its riverfront location.
RED BANK: MORE SPARKS OVER SENIOR CENTER
The 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
Red 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.
RED BANK: DEMS ERUPT OVER SENIOR CENTER
The Senior Center has been out of commission for most of the past two years following a pipe leak. (Photo by John T. Ward. Click to enlarge.)
By JOHN T. WARD
Tension among Red Bank Democrats over the future of the borough’s Senior Center erupted in public over the weekend.
Joined by Mayor Pasquale Menna, four of the council’s six Democrats lit into the other two, one of whom is the party chairman, as having “placed their own popularity over what’s best for our residents and taxpayers.”
RED BANK: SENIOR CENTER STILL ON ICE
The Senior Center has been out of commission for most of the past two years. (Photos by John T. Ward. Click to enlarge.)
By JOHN T. WARD
Red Bank’s Senior Center is not for sale, Mayor Pasquale Menna insists.
But two years after extensive damage caused by a burst pipe, multiple questions surround the still-closed Shrewsbury Avenue facility. Among them: will it reopen anytime soon, and will it stay where it is?
RED BANK: HOUSING, POT DOMINATE SESSION
Evergreen Terrace is one of two apartment complexes slated for possible rehabilitation or redevelopment. (Photo by John T. Ward. Click to enlarge.)
By JOHN T. WARD
The Red Bank Housing Authority asked the borough council for money to explore possible redevelopment of two subsidized apartment complexes Wednesday night.
At its second three-plus-hour meeting in three days, the governing body also heard more testimony for and against a possible overhaul of the zoning law governing cannabis businesses.
RED BANK: ZIPPRICH WON’T SEEK NEW TERM
Councilman Ed Zipprich, right, with Councilman Michael Ballard in December. (Photos by John T. Ward. Click to enlarge.)
By JOHN T. WARD
Five-term incumbent Red Bank Councilmember Ed Zipprich won’t run for a seat in the new form of government he opposed, according to a news report.
In recent years, Zipprich has been a lightning rod for controversy as the the Democratic party, which dominates borough politics, split into warring tribes under his leadership.
RED BANK: PIPES, RENTALS, VOTING ON DECK
Branch Avenue resident Alberto Larotonda with a lead pipe he brought to a council meeting in 2015. (Photo by John T. Ward. Click to enlarge.)
See Correction below
By JOHN T. WARD
The Red Bank council may authorize spending up to $2.4 million to replace water service lines made of lead when it meets Wednesday night.
Also on the heavy agenda: possible adoption of a controversial law restricting short-term residential rentals; a study of water rates; a change in the zoning law governing cannabis sales; and authorizing early, in-person voting for an historic May election.
RED BANK: LYNCH SCHOLARSHIP FUNDED
Lynch scholar David ‘Louie’ Connolly, center, with Monsignor Joseph Rosie and RBC President Bob Abatemarco. Below, Ann Marie and Dennis Lynch. (Click to enlarge.)
Press release
Red Bank Catholic (RBC) is honored to announce the endowment of the Dennis P. Lynch ’59 Merit Scholarship. The scholarship has been generously donated by the Lynch Family, in memory of Dennis’s exemplary character and love of his alma mater.
RED BANK: PENNEY Q&A
Council candidate Jonathan Maciel Penney. (Photo by John T. Ward. Click to enlarge.)
In the November 8 election, Red Bank voters will pick three members of the municipal government – the mayor and two council members – for terms that begin January 1.
But the winners may be in office for only six months, depending on the outcome of a ballot referendum on whether to change the town’s form of government. Adoption would trigger another election in May, 2023, for mayor and all six council seats.
To learn their views of the referendum and other issues, redbankgreen recently sent a set of questions to each of the candidates: mayoral contender Billy Portman, who is running unopposed; and council candidates John Jackson, Angela Mirandi, Jonathan Maciel Penney and Mark Taylor.
Here’s what Penney had to say.
RED BANK: JACKSON Q&A
Council candidate John Jackson. (Photo by John T. Ward. Click to enlarge.)
In the November 8 election, Red Bank voters will pick three members of the municipal government – the mayor and two council members – for terms that begin January 1.
But the winners may be in office for only six months, depending on the outcome of a ballot referendum on whether to change the town’s form of government. Adoption would trigger another election in May, 2023, for mayor and all six council seats.
To learn their views of the referendum and other issues, redbankgreen recently sent a set of questions to each of the candidates: mayoral contender Billy Portman, who is running unopposed; and council candidates John Jackson, Angela Mirandi, Jonathan Maciel Penney and Mark Taylor.
Here’s what Jackson had to say.
RED BANK: PORTMAN Q&A
Mayoral candidate Billy Portman. (Photo by John T. Ward. Click to enlarge.)
In the November 8 election, Red Bank voters will pick three members of the municipal government – the mayor and two council members – for terms that begin January 1.
But the winners may be in office for only six months, depending on the outcome of a ballot referendum on whether to change the town’s form of government. Adoption would trigger another election in May, 2023, for mayor and all six council seats.
To learn their views of the referendum and other issues, redbankgreen recently sent a set of questions to each of the candidates: mayoral contender Billy Portman, who is running unopposed; and council candidates John Jackson, Angela Mirandi, Jonathan Maciel Penney and Mark Taylor.
Here’s what Portman had to say.
RED BANK: PORCHFEST TO FILL EARS & HEARTS
An interactive map for the event displays the lineup of acts at each location; click on circled numbers to view. Below, Carlotta Schmidt is among the scheduled artists. (Photo from YouTube. Click to enlarge.)
By JOHN T. WARD
It was not that long ago that Red Bank was a place of large-scale, outdoor music festivals. One needn’t be ancient to recall the sprawling, weekend-long Jersey Shore Jazz & Blues Festival in Marine Park each summer, or the spring-and-fall festivals in the White Street parking lot, both of which went dark this year.
But this Sunday, live, open-air concerts come roaring back to the borough in a new, decentralized model that’s been road-tested elsewhere: Porchfest, a five-hour eargasm of 70 acts spread across town on 21 residential porches, plus 11 more acts at a previously scheduled music fest behind a dentist’s office.
RED BANK: DEMS TO SKIP ONE OF TWO FORUMS
Democratic council candidates John Jackson and Angela Mirandi at National Night Out in August. (Photo by John T. Ward. Click to enlarge.)
By JOHN T. WARD
Red Bank’s two Democratic council candidates have decided to skip the traditional West Side Community Group forum scheduled for this month.
Instead, John Jackson and incumbent Angela Mirandi are expected to participate only in a virtual League of Women Voters’ event the same week, a choice their Republican opponents criticized Tuesday.
RED BANK: PARK DESIGNATION ADVANCES
A satellite view of the Senior Center, where the patio provides a view of the Swimming River. (Satellite image from Google Maps. Click to enlarge.)
By JOHN T. WARD
The Red Bank council initiated a process to create a new “passive park” behind the Senior Center Wednesday night.
Still unanswered, however, is the question of how big the park might be, and how it would be accessed.
RED BANK: NEW ‘PASSIVE PARK’ ON AGENDA
A 2021 view of the rear of the Senior Center, which overlooks the Swimming River. (Photo by John T. Ward. Click to enlarge.)
By JOHN T. WARD
A proposal to subdivide the Senior Center property to create a “passive park” is on the Red Bank council’s agenda Wednesday night.
Also on the table for the semimonthly meeting are matters relating to parking, parks and a committee name change. Here’s what to expect.
RED BANK: TWO NEWSLETTERS LAUNCHED
A screen grab from the first edition of the borough’s new newsletter. (Click to enlarge.)
By JOHN T. WARD
With the recent launch of newsletters, Red Bank residents have two additional ways to keep abreast of civic events and downtown goings-on.
RED BANK: ZIPPRICH, TAYLOR TRADE BARBS
With Mayor Pasquale Menna in the background, Councilman Ed Zipprich attached a borough pin to the jacket worn by Angela Mirandi after her swearing-in as council member in February. (Photo by John T. Ward. Click to enlarge.)
By JOHN T. WARD
Eight days after former councilman Mark Taylor blasted current Councilman Ed Zipprich as the source of “chaos” in Red Bank government, Zipprich returned fire Wednesday.
In a prepared statement, Zipprich slammed Taylor for “ineptitude” as a council member and for purported failures of leadership at the Red Bank Borough Education Foundation.
Taylor, in turn, doubled down in his attack on Zipprich.
RED BANK: LAWN-WATERING RESTRICTED
A Red Bank man watering his lawn during a light rain in July, 2013. (Photo by John T. Ward. Click to enlarge.)
Amid the hottest stretch of weather so far this summer, Red Bank’s water supplier has instituted a water conservation restriction.
New Jersey American Water Company, which supplies borough users for half the year, issued a mandatory odd/even lawn-watering and outdoor water-use schedule Thursday.
RED BANK: EX-STUDENT LEADS CONSERVATORY
Students perform outside the Monmouth Conservatory’s home on Chestnut Street in 2019. Laura Petillo, below. (Click to enlarge.)
Press release
The Count Basie Center for the Arts in Red Bank has named violinist and longtime strings instructor Laura Petillo as Manager of Music Programs at its Academy of the Arts and the Count Basie Center’s Monmouth Conservatory of Music.
RED BANK: MURPHY UNVEILS TAX BREAK HERE
New Jersey Governor Phil Murphy used a private parking lot behind the offices of Red Bank RiverCenter to unveil a short-term sales tax break Wednesday.
RED BANK: BASIE TO HOST JAZZ CAMP
Press release
In another example of creative partnerships designed to empower students through the performing arts, the Gia Maione Prima Foundation will sponsor a free music camp in partnership with the Count Basie Center for the Arts and Red Bank’s Jazz Arts Project.