Creating the turtle habitat at Bellhaven involved trucking in a special blend of sand. (Photo by John T. Ward. Click to enlarge.)
Red Bank’s Environmental Commission has debuted a pair of completed projects spotlighting turtles and water conservation in recent weeks.
A cluster of dead bunker in the Red Bank borough marina at Marine Park earlier this month. (Photo by John T. Ward. Click to enlarge.)
By JOHN T. WARD
A massive die-off of bunker fish in the Navesink and Shrewsbury rivers this spring poses no health threat to recreational users of those waters, environmental scientists said Thursday night.
Meantime, experts are still trying to determine what environmental “stressors” might have turned a bacteria that’s common to the species into a mass killer that has littered shores with tons of dead, putrid carcasses.
A cluster of dead bunker in the borough marina at Marine Park earlier this month. (Photo by John T. Ward. Click to enlarge.)
By JOHN T. WARD
Clean Ocean Action and local officials, including Red Bank’s, will get the virtual town hall with New Jersey environmental officials they’ve been seeking to address the recent “severe” fish kill in the Navesink and Shrewsbury rivers, the organization announced Friday.
For the second day in a row, a wildlife officer was called out to the corner of Brown Place and South Street in Red Bank to care for a raccoon pup that had fallen from a nest about 20 feet above the ground.
Fish carcasses on the shoreline at Maple Cove in Red Bank Thursday. (Photo by John T. Ward. Click to enlarge.)
By JOHN T. WARD
Red Bank officials this week called on the New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection to host a virtual town hall meeting to address concerns about a fish kill the agency has called the “most severe” in recent memory.
Dead menhaden cluster at a Navesink River dock in Fair Haven last week. (Photo by Bernie McSherry. Click to enlarge.)
By JOHN T. WARD
A massive fish kill in the Navesink and Shrewsbury rivers in recent weeks is “the most severe mortality event in recent memory,” but New Jersey environmental officials still don’t know why it’s targeting only one species, Clean Ocean Action reported Thursday.
The environmental advocacy group also pressed the state to remove at least some of the dead fish from Red Bank-area waters.
Dead fish littered the Fair Haven boat launch on Battin Avenue last week. (Photo by John T. Ward. Click to enlarge.)
Clean Ocean Action has called on New Jersey environmental and health officials to hold a virtual town hall to provide updates and guidance for towns along the Navesink and Shrewsbury rivers, where massive menhaden die-offs have occurred recently.
“The cause, extent, and magnitude of the die-off is deeply concerning and raising alarm throughout the region,” COA executive director Cindy Zipf and staff scientist Swarna Muthukrishnan wrote Friday. “Feeding the concern is the lack of answers, conflicting answers, and lack of proactive response to the ever-increasing dead fish.”
By JOHN T. WARD
An animal-control specialist who has a backup role with Red Bank government came under fire over the weekend for a racist post on Facebook.
But Randolph Tashman, who was appointed to provide supplementary animal control services to the borough in 2019, denied to redbankgreen that he wrote the post.
The stainless steel chimney installed at 46-48 Washington Street will be replaced with one the owner says won’t be visible from the street. (Photo by John T. Ward. Click to enlarge.)
By JOHN T. WARD
It won’t be ready in time for Santa and his reindeer. But an “eyesore” metal pipe chimney on a home in Red Bank’s historic district is slated for replacement following review by the Historic Preservation Commission Tuesday night.
The case illustrated frustrations common among homeowners who live in the district about their absentee counterparts, the HPC’s chairwoman said.
Rumson Fire Company volunteers brought their ladder truck to Fair Haven to rescue a cat stuck high up in a tree on Maple Avenue Tuesday. The clingy kitty seemed thankful. (Video by Destinations Past. Click to enlarge.)
Volunteer firefighters battling the blaze at 87 Washington Street in May, 2018. (Photo by John T. Ward. Click to enlarge.)
By JOHN T. WARD
Plans to remodel a fire-damaged home in Red Bank’s historic district are slated for review by the Historic Preservation Commission Wednesday night.
Passerby Brian Coleman makes friends with Theodore Nibblebottoms, a pet pig who escaped his pen and made it to the front yard of his owner’s home on Branch Avenue in Little Silver Sunday morning. (Reader photo. Click to enlarge.)
By JOHN T. WARD
A Neptune man faces charges after a struggle with police trying to arrest him on shoplifting charges Monday evening, Chief Darren McConnell tells redbankgreen.
According to McConnell, police responded around 8 p.m. to a report of theft at the Walgreens store on Broad Street.
Volunteers with the fire department auxiliary transported three cats to an animal hospital. Below, firefighters released smoke from a second-floor window. (Photo by John T. Ward. Click to enlarge.)
By JOHN T. WARD
A Red Bank couple and their six dogs and cats safely escaped a fire that caused extensive damage to their home early Saturday morning.
The fire may have been caused by a bug-repellent candle.
Cesar Pacheco of Red Bank and his mother, Vicky, were reunited with their dog, Bella Thursday morning following surgery on the animal that community members helped pay for.
A Red Bank teen has launched an online campaign to raise funds for his family’s dog, who needs emergency surgery.
As a trio of deer chowed down on a front lawn, at right, a red fox crossed Madison Avenue in Red Bank just a few doors away shortly after dawn Wednesday morning, perhaps in search of its own breakfast.
Sightings of both deer and foxes are becoming more common on the Greater Green, residents say. redbankgreen also saw a dead fox on Branch Avenue in Little Silver over the past weekend.
Are they relative newcomers to your neighborhood? What other wild creatures have moved in? (Photo by John T. Ward. Click to enlarge.)
Patrolman Stan Balmer, at right, with a State Trooper on the Parkway early on the morning of May 23. (Screenshot from release by New Jersey Attorney General. Click to enlarge.)
By JOHN T. WARD
A Red Bank cop came to the aid of stranded motorist last month in the first of a series of related encounters between police and the driver, who was later shot dead by a State Trooper, authorities said Monday.
Patrolman Stan Balmer, who leads one of the borough’s two K9 teams, was off-duty and enroute home following his shift when he came upon a car broken down in the center lane of the Garden State Parkway in Brick Township on May 23, according to Chief Darren McConnell.
Red Bank animal control officer Henry Perez and FedEx driver Vinnie Losapio went looking for a sparrow that flew into Losapio’s truck and up under the dashboard Thursday morning.
The kitchen at Lunch Break remains busy preparing grab ‘n go meals as well as meals for delivery to the homebound. (Photo courtesy of Lunch Break. Click to enlarge.)
With job and income losses in the COVID-10 crisis, food insecurity is spreading, and Red Bank-area charities are stepping up to help ensure no one goes hungry.
At Lunch Break in Red Bank, for example, volunteers have distributed 65 percent more meals and 56 percent more groceries since March 16 than in the comparable 2019 period, said executive director Gwen Love.
Here’s a starter list of charitable efforts to feed the hungry in Red Bank, with links to make monetary donations. This list will be updated periodically.
Staffers and volunteers at the Boys & Girls Clubs of Monmouth County unit in Red Bank drew an uplifting chalk mural on the pavement before handing out free meals to community members Wednesday evening.
A cyclist did a double take when a vehicle with what appeared to be the head of a deer or elk strapped to the roof passed by on Bridge Avenue in Red Bank Wednesday afternoon.
From a distance, it wasn’t clear if the large-antlered animal head was real. (Photo by John T. Ward. Click to enlarge.)
Lunch Break executive director Gwen Love, left, with officials from the Monmouth County SPCA. (Photo courtesy of Monmouth County SPCA. Click to enlarge.)
Red Bank’s Lunch Break has teamed up with the Monmouth County SPCA to help feed the pets of local residents hard hit by the financial impact of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Patrolman Stan Balmer and Hunter running drills in Marine Park in January. (Photo by Trish Russoniello. Click to enlarge.)
One of Red Bank’s two police K9 teams will get a national spotlight this week when it competes in an obstacle-filled challenge on the A&E program ‘America’s Top Dogs.’
A pair of deer seen wandering Locust Avenue in Red Bank near the Bellhaven wetlands Thursday afternoon.
A string of wet, dreary days continued with heavy fog Friday morning, along with a National Weather Service warning of possible strong winds through 7 p.m., with gusts up to 60 miles per hour. Sunshine was expected to return Saturday.
Check out the extended forecast below. (Photo by John T. Ward. Click to enlarge.)