RED BANK: SCHOOL REFERENDUM PASSES
By a 2 to 1 margin, Red Bank voters approved a $6.75 million building-repair referendum on Tuesday’s ballot, according to the Monmouth County Clerk’s website.
RED BANK: PARK AWAITS PREFAB BUILDING
Picnic tables and pathways have been installed, but for the second time since it began in the spring, construction work at Eastside Park in Red Bank appeared to halt last month.
What’s Going On Here? Read on.
RED BANK: EX-CHEF FOUND NEW WAY TO SERVE
With his son, Aydin, looking on, Jorge Torres embraces his wife, Lauren, after being sworn in as a police sergeant. (Photo by John T. Ward. Click to enlarge)
By JOHN T. WARD
A former chef became the newest sergeant on the Red Bank police force Wednesday night.
The promotion of Jorge Torres was one of several ceremonies that led the borough council’s semimonthly meeting Wednesday night.
RED BANK: MAN CHARGED WITH CHILD PORN
A Red Bank man was indicted earlier this week on child pornography charges, the Monmouth County Prosecutor’s Office reported Friday.
RED BANK: RUMAGE REFLECTS ON FIVE YEARS
Superintendent Jared Rumage wished middle schoolers a nice holiday weekend on the Friday before Memorial Day in May. (Photo by John T. Ward. Click to enlarge.)
By JOHN T. WARD
Red Bank’s school district still faces stiff financial challenges, but is “without question” in all-around better shape than it was when he arrived five years ago, says Superintendent Jared Rumage.
And as he did at a presentation last week, Rumage is hoping to leverage the narrative of that improvement to win voter approval of a $6.75 million referendum in November.
RED BANK: REFERENDUM Q&A SCHEDULED
Red Bank voters, faced with a $6.75 million ballot question in November, will get their first chance to grill Superintendent Jared Rumage on the issue Thursday night.
RED BANK: $6.75M REFERENDUM PLANNED
Red Bank Primary School, with a newly completed fire access road at left, would get a new roof if the November 5 measure passes. (Photo by John T. Ward. Click to enlarge.)
By JOHN T. WARD
A referendum on $6.75 million worth of school improvements will be on the ballot for Red Bank voters in November, under a plan approved by the board of education Tuesday night.
The project won’t increase property tax bills, officials said.
LITTLE SILVER: Q&A WITH NEW RBR PRINCIPAL
New RBR Principal Julius Clark in downtown Red Bank last month. (Photo by John T. Ward. Click to enlarge.)
By JOHN T. WARD
Many students at Red Bank Regional High School will recognize the new principal when they arrive at the Little Silver institution next month.
Completing a loop of sorts, Julius Clark returns to the area where he worked for 13 before departing for what turned out to be a one-year stay at a district in Mercer County.
RED BANK: BIG NIGHT OUT AT BASIE FIELDS
A MONOC helicopter paid a visit, hundreds of burgers were served and police Chief Darren McConnell got dunked repeatedly as Red Bank police hosted their annual National Night Out Against Crime community barbecue Tuesday night.
For the first time since its inception, the event was held at Count Basie Fields rather than the borough hall parking lot. The change of venue brought in dozens of games and safety demonstrations, created a carnival atmosphere and prompted many to comment that the location was ideal.
“This is our crown jewel,” Councilman Michael Ballard told redbankgreen. “Why wouldn’t we have it here?”
Officials credited Patrolwoman Dawn Shields for organizing the event, an effort that included wrangling up donations of food and sponsors.
Check out redbankgreen’s photos below. (Photos by John T. Ward. Click to enlarge.)
RED BANK: SCHOOLS AMONG ‘MOST IMPROVED”
Red Bank’s pre-K-8 school district was among 11 from across New Jersey honored this week by the state Department of Education as “most improved” in terms of student performance.
RED BANK: WAIT FOR RESTROOMS NEARS END
Construction work that began in the spring at Eastside Park in Red Bank appeared to stall last month.
What’s Going On Here? Read on.
RED BANK: FIREFIGHTERS KEEP FREE Y ACCESS
The Red Bank nonprofit says no families of kids now in a free membership program will be turned away. (Photo by John T. Ward. Click to enlarge.)
By JOHN T. WARD
Red Bank’s volunteer firefighters will get to keep their free memberships to the local YMCA, the organization announced Wednesday.
Police will still have to pay, though now at a discount, a spokeswoman for the nonprofit said. But there’s no change to the plan unveiled last week to end across-the-board free memberships for borough schoolchildren.
RED BANK: SPREAD YOUR WINGS THIS SUMMER
Red Bank Charter School art instructor Michelle Sciria put the final touches Thursday on an “interactive mural” she created with students at the School of Rock on Monmouth Street in Red Bank.
RED BANK: MENNA ‘IRATE’ OVER YMCA ACTION
Red Bank Mayor Pasquale Menna speaking at the the Memorial Day ceremony last month. (Photo by John T. Ward. Click to enlarge.)
By JOHN T. WARD
Red Bank Mayor Pasquale Menna on Thursday blasted a decision by the Community YMCA to end free memberships for borough schoolchildren and emergency first-responders.
Menna went on the offensive after the Y’s “unilateral” action, which he said was made without any advance notice to or discussion with his administration.
RED BANK: KIDS, RESPONDERS LOSE FREE YMCA
The Red Bank YMCA says affected families can apply for subsidies to replace the free memberships. Below, the letter sent to parents of children in the Healthy Kids program. (Photo by John T. Ward. Click to enlarge.)
By JOHN T. WARD
Red Bank’s schoolchildren and emergency first-responders will lose their free access to the borough YMCA in September.
The Maple Avenue nonprofit’s executive director, Katie McAdoo, tells redbankgreen the change was driven by its need to be “accountable” to funders.
RED BANK: CHARTER SCHOOL NAMES NEW HEAD
By JOHN T. WARD
The Red Bank Charter School has hired a new head of school, an administrator whose last job was clouded by calls for her resignation.
Kristen Martello, the former superintendent of the Berlin school district in Camden County, is scheduled to succeed Meredith Pennotti, who guided the Oakland Street institution through its first two decades.
RED BANK: PARADE MARCHES BACK TO LIFE
Red Bank’s Memorial Day Parade, a onetime tradition that halted an indeterminate number of years ago, was back in full force Monday.
Under fabulously sunny skies, the Parks & Rec-organized event saw a stableful of therapy horses leading the way up Broad Street from Irving Place to the Veteran’s Monument on Monmouth Street. There, a short ceremony in commemoration of military victims of foreign wars was held.
Enjoy the 50-photo slideshow from both events below. (Photos by John T. Ward. Click to enlarge.)
RED BANK: A FAREWELL TO ‘GAME OF THRONES’
Strings students at the Count Basie Center’s Monmouth Conservatory of Music gathered last weekend to pay a final farewell to Westeros with a student-and-instructor performance of the theme to HBO’s “Game Of Thrones.”
FAIR HAVEN: SCHOOL REFERENDUM ON TABLE
Sean McNeil, center, with fellow superintendents Brent MacConnell of Shrewsbury, left, and Red Bank’s Jared Rumage at a school funding discussion in 2018. (Photo by John T. Ward. Click to enlarge.)
By JOHN T. WARD
Fair Haven’s two-school district plans to hold a facilities bond referendum in September, Superintendent Sean McNeil announced earlier this week.
How much spending does the board hope to win approval for? How will the funds be used? Stay tuned, says McNeil.
RED BANK: MEMORIAL DAY PARADE SET
A shot from the Red Bank Centennial parade held May 17, 2008. (Photo by John T. Ward. Click to enlarge.)
By JOHN T. WARD
If it seems like ages since Red Bank had a parade other than its annual Halloween costumefest, well yeah. Was the last civic parade really 11 years ago, to mark the borough’s first century as an independent entity?
The Parks and Rec department hopes to end the dry spell by bringing back a lost tradition two weeks from today: the Memorial Day parade.
The Red Bank council’s filled-to-bursting RED BANK: PETER NOBLE DIES
Former Red Bank Board of Education President Peter Noble died Tuesday night. He was 68 years old, said Mayor Pasquale Menna.
“We lost one of the best last night,” Menna said at the council’s semimonthly meeting Wednesday evening.
RED BANK: CHILD SEXUAL ASSAULT CHARGED
A Red Bank man is facing charges of sexual assault on one child and offenses against another.
Police Chief Darren McConnell tells redbankgreen that officers arrested Dannel Wars, 42, of Bank Street on March 12 at Riverview Medical Center, where he was visiting a patient, and charged him with invasion of the privacy of a child and child welfare endangerment.
RED BANK: STUDENTS PROBE CAREER OPTIONS
Red Bank Middle School students got an up-close look at 40 career and college opportunities Wednesday.
LITTLE SILVER: SPORTS CUTS SPARK OUTRAGE
Heavy turnout forced the relocation of the RBR board meeting to the media center, above. (Photo by John T. Ward. Click to enlarge.)
By JOHN T. WARD
Red Bank Regional students and parents packed a board of ed meeting Wednesday night in a bid to save the ice hockey and golf programs from a budgetary axe.
With a preliminary spending plan calling for a 6.5-percent tax increase, board members defended the cuts as necessary before parents appeared to coalesce around a plan to save the sports through outside fundraisers.