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.
An addition to the Sickles School will create room for all-day kindergarten. (Click to enlarge.)
By JOHN T. WARD
Fair Haven voters overwhelmingly approved a $15.6 million plan to create classrooms and improve security at the borough’s two schools in a special election Tuesday.
Architectural renderings of the proposed additions to the Knollwood School (above) and Sickles School. (Click to enlarge.)
By JOHN T. WARD
Fair Haven residents are scheduled to vote Tuesday on a $15.6 million plan to create classrooms and improve security at the borough’s two schools.
But first, they’ve got to go to the right polling station.
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 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.
River Rats’s home at the northern end of Battin Road. (Photo by John T. Ward. Click to enlarge.)
By JOHN T. WARD
Fair Haven’s River Rats organization is not entitled to a property tax exemption, even though it’s a registered nonprofit run by volunteers, the New Jersey Tax Court ruled last week.
The organization tells redbankgreen it will appeal the decision.
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.
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.
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’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.
Borough officials say streets with one-side-only parking, including Spring Street, above, will allow parking on the other side during street sweeping. (Photo by John T. Ward. Click to enlarge.)
By JOHN T. WARD
After a number of complaints were raised, a proposed alternate-side parking ordinance for Red Bank will be revised to make the system monthly rather than weekly.
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 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 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.
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.
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.
The Red Bank council meeting Wednesday night began with an ending: a sendoff for Risa Clay, who’s retiring this summer as principal of Red Bank Regional High School.
New classroom space and other facilities, shown in blue, would be built on a vacant lot adjoining the Sickles School, said Superintendent Sean McNeil, below. (Photos by John T. Ward. Click to enlarge.)
By JOHN T. WARD
Fair Haven residents would get classrooms to allow for full-day kindergarten as well as improved security under a $15.6 million plan officials unveiled Wednesday.
The typical homeowner would also get a tax increase of as much as $566 per year if a public referendum on the plan passes muster with voters in September.
News boxes outside the Post Office on Broad Street. (Photo by John T. Ward. Click to enlarge.)
By JOHN T. WARD
Red Bank’s borough council is expected to introduce an ordinance Wednesday requiring alternate-side parking throughout town.
Also on the agenda: a law to regulate news racks, and honors for an educator who is retiring.
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.”
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.
Olivia Diana of Marlboro High School, above, and Jack Geary of Ocean Township High were among those taking advantage of a promwear givewaway Monday at the Woman’s Club of Red Bank.
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 Middle School students got an up-close look at 40 career and college opportunities Wednesday.
The Red Bank council’s filled-to-bursting