SANDY HOOK: BIRDS DISPLACE CONCERTS
First came a ban on booze. Now, the entire series of summer beach concerts at Sandy Hook has been cancelled to protect the piping plovers. And no, that’s not the name of a band. Read More
RED BANK: POWER SWITCH IN THE WORKS
Billing for service would continue to come from JCP&L even for those customers who participate in the aggregation plan. (Image by Concord. Click to enlarge.)
By JOHN T. WARD
In an effort to head off shocks to residents about anticipated changes to their electricity bills, Red Bank official kicked off a public outreach effort Thursday.
Driving the effort: the borough’s planned entry into the “energy aggregation” marketplace, where the local government serves as a bundler of customers to obtain better rates than those offered by Jersey Central Power & Light.
The Red Bank council’s filled-to-bursting RED BANK: ELECTRICITY DEAL IN THE WORKS
JCP&L’s power distribution facility adjoining Mohawk Pond in Red Bank. (Photo by John T. Ward. Click to enlarge.)
By JOHN T. WARD
Red Bank officials are considering passage of a law that would automatically turn Jersey Central Power & Light customers in the borough into customers of another electricity provider unless they opt out.
LITTLE SILVER: BAG & STRAW BAN PENDING
The Carvel store on Prospect Avenue would be the first in the chain to drop plastic straws and cups, says owner Jessica Newman. (Photo by John T. Ward. Click to enlarge.)
By JOHN T. WARD
With a recycling problem taking hold across America, Little Silver appears set to become the first town on the Greater Red Bank Green to ban plastic straws and store bags.
An ordinance introduced last week has the reluctant support of local retailers, borough officials say.
RED BANK: DPU UPDATES PICKUP SCHEDULES
When is recycling picked up again? How do we get rid of that old sofa in the basement?
Answers to these and similar questions are available to Red Bank residents in the form of a new bulletin from the Department of Public Works. It covers everything from Christmas tree to hazardous waste disposal, including brush and trash pickup schedules for 2019.
Downloadable and printable versions in English and Spanish are available online. (Photo by John T. Ward. Click to enlarge.)
RED BANK: BORDER ‘EMERGENCY’ DISPUTED
About 150 protesters gathered at Riverside Gardens Park in Red Bank at noon Monday, President’s Day, to oppose President Trump’s declaration of a national emergency on America’s border with Mexico.
RED BANK: BELLHAVEN MAKEOVER IN SIGHT
Consulting engineer Christine Ballard details the Bellhaven plan for the council last week. (Photo by John T. Ward. Click to enlarge.)
By JOHN T. WARD
After years of revisions, and no small amount of controversy, changes to the Bellhaven Natural Area in Red Bank could be completed by this summer, officials said last week.
Once again, the project has been scaled-back from a version of a plan that called for a spray park and triggered loud protests four years ago, they said.
RED BANK: SMOKING BAN COMING
The ban would put Marine Park off-limits to smokers, including those who work at Riverview Medical Center, seen at left above. (Photo by John T. Ward. Click to enlarge.)
By JOHN T. WARD
Following through on a plan first discussed last summer, Red Bank officials are expected to ban smoking in public places in coming weeks.
The move is expected to put a squeeze on smokers from Riverview Medical Center, the town’s largest employer.
RED BANK: HIGHER VNA SITE DENSITY URGED
The site, at 176 Riverside Avenue, is seen as integral to the borough’s efforts to provide affordable housing. (Photo by John T. Ward. Click to enlarge.)
By JOHN T. WARD
The Red Bank council took steps Wednesday to allow as many as 90 housing units per acre on a key redevelopment site.
But the proposed rezoning of the former Visiting Nurse Association headquarters site would negate a compromise recommendation made by the planning board just last week.
RED BANK: COUNCIL AGENDA
Borough hall would get a new phone system under a contract up for approval by the council. (Photo by John T. Ward. Click to enlarge)
By JOHN T. WARD
Here’s a preview of the Red Bank borough council’s agenda for its semimonthly meeting Wednesday night:
RED BANK: PLANNERS CAP VNA SITE DENSITY
Red Bank is negotiating a deal under which the developer would satisfy a “significant” portion of the town’s affordable housing obligation, a lawyer told the board. (Photo by John T. Ward. Click to enlarge.)
By JOHN T. WARD
The site of a vacant office building in Red Bank is a key element in meeting the borough’s affordable housing obligations, a lawyer told the planning board Monday night.
But a proposal to allow the development of up to 90 units per acre on the 2.7-acre former Visiting Nurse Association headquarters site met continued resistance, despite support from Mayor Pasquale Menna.
RED BANK: HUNT FOR GRANTS CONTINUES
A grant seeking $821,000 for improvements to Broad Street is among the nearly three dozen applications pending, according to a report. (Photo by John T. Ward. Click to enlarge.)
By JOHN T. WARD
Six months after hiring a professional contractor to seek out grant funds, the Red Bank council is hopeful that a cash pump has been primed.
Business Administrator Ziad Shehady told the council last week that while no grants have yet been secured under the contract with Millennium Strategies, there is now “several million dollars” worth of potential funding “in the pipeline.”
RED BANK: H2O REFILL STATION INSTALLED
What’s that’s strange object that cropped up recently in Red Bank’s Johnny Jazz Park?
redbankgreen’s What’s Going On Here? has the answer.
RED BANK: VNA, BANK ST. LOT ON AGENDA
Density giveaways at the former VNA site were an issue for planning board members last month. (Photo by John T. Ward. Click to enlarge.)
[UPDATE: Meeting cancelled for lack of quorum. Next one scheduled for November 19.]
By JOHN T. WARD
On the agenda for Monday night’s Red Bank planning board meeting: continued discussion about whether to create an overlay zone for the former Visiting Nurse Association site, and a plan to build two new homes on Bank Street.
RED BANK: ANTI-KAVANAUGH RALLY SLATED
Opponents of Judge Brett Kavanaugh’s nomination to the United States Supreme Court plan to rally in Red Bank’s Riverside Gardens Park as part of a “walk-out” movement Thursday afternoon, redbankgreen has learned.
RED BANK: BELLHAVEN PLAN SCALED BACK
Trees were taken down recently at Bellhaven Natural Area in preparation for an observation deck being built there, according to Business Administrator Ziad Shehady. (Photo by John T. Ward. Click to enlarge.)
By JOHN T. WARD
Red Bank officials have quietly started prep work for a project at a site once mired in controversy: the Bellhaven Natural Area overlooking the Swimming River.
The end result, however will be a “scaled-back” version of a plan that once called for a spray park and triggered loud protests three years ago.
ON THE GREEN: PLUG PULLED ON JCP&L PLAN
An aerial view created by JCP&L shows the southern terminus of the line at a substation in Red Bank. (Click to enlarge.)
By JOHN T. WARD
New Jersey regulators have pulled the plug on a controversial plan for electricity provider Jersey Central Power & Light to construct a 10-mile long, high-voltage electricity transmission line that would end in Red Bank, the Asbury Park Press reported Friday.
ON THE GREEN: NEW RECYCLING RULES
Starting next week, recyclables put out at the curb in plastic bags won’t be picked up in a number of Monmouth County towns. (Photo by John T. Ward. Click to enlarge.)
By JOHN T. WARD
Monmouth County municipalities are rushing this week to implement new rules to prohibit the use of plastic bags to hold domestic recyclables for pickup.
The change is being driven by China, Red Bank Business Administrator Ziad Shehady tells redbankgreen.
RED BANK: BIKE SHARE PLAN IN THE WORKS
Biking in Red Bank —and possibly, Fair Haven and Little Silver — could get a boost under a push to bring a bike-sharing vendor to town. (Photo by John T. Ward. Click to enlarge.)
By JOHN T. WARD
Red Bank officials are exploring the possibility of allowing a bike-share vendor to offer its services in town, and inviting two neighboring towns to get in on the two-wheeled action, Business Administrator Ziad Shehady told the borough council last week.
RED BANK: WAWA MEGASTORE PLAN YANKED
Former Red Bank mayor Ed McKenna, left, grilled Wawa engineer Mark Whitaker over the proposal at a zoning board hearing in March. (Photo by John T. Ward. Click to enlarge.)
[UPDATE: This post contains comments from site ower Frank Sala, who was unavailable at the time of the original posting.]
By JOHN T. WARD
Wawa’s coffee, subs and gasoline prices may have earned it a devoted following, but a controversial plan to build a supersized convenience store and filling station on Red Bank’s southern border has been withdrawn, redbankgreen has learned.
RUMSON: NAVESINK QUALITY IMPROVES
A view of the Navesink from Riverview Medical Center in Red Bank last month. Below, Bill Heddendorf of the New Jersey DEP discusses the need for additional testing along the Spring Street storm sewer line in Red Bank. (Photo above by Trish Russoniello, below by John T. Ward. Click to enlarge)
By JOHN T. WARD
An effort to reverse biological contamination in the Navesink River is “working,” and could result in the reopening of closed shellfish beds a year earlier than previously expected, a New Jersey environmental scientist told a gathering in Rumson last week.
RED BANK: JUDGE NIXES POWER LINE PLAN
Homeowners living along the line and other objectors packed a public hearing on the JCP&L proposal held at Brookdale Community College last March. (Photo by John T. Ward. Click to enlarge.)
By JOHN T. WARD
Electrical utility JCP&L has failed to prove it needs a to build a controversial 10-mile long, high-voltage electricity transmission line that would end in Red Bank, a judge has ruled.
The decision, handed down Thursday, represents at least an interim victory for a grassroots effort led by homeowners to thwart the proposed $111 million project.
RED BANK: TRAFFIC TALK SLOWS WAWA PLAN
The Wawa site plan, with the store at top and gas pump island shown in yellow, calls for the creation of a new center lane on Newman Springs Road allowing motorists traveling in both directions to make left turns. (Photo by John T. Ward. Click to enlarge.)
By JOHN T. WARD
Like a motorist stuck in rush-hour traffic, a supersized Wawa convenience store and filling station proposed for a problematic Red Bank intersection inched forward Thursday night.
At issue as the zoning board weighs the plan: whether the project would make congestion worse or improve traffic flow near the intersection of Newman Springs Road and Broad Street.
RED BANK: WAWA TOUTS TRAFFIC PLAN
A site plan for the proposed project shows the store at center, the fueling area as the yellow rectangle, and center lane left-turn markings on Newman Springs Road, at bottom. (Photo by John T. Ward. Click to enlarge)
By JOHN T. WARD
Rather than worsening conditions for motorists, a proposed Wawa convenience store and filling station in Red Bank would come with roadway upgrades to improve traffic flow and safety near a busy intersection, witnesses told the borough zoning board Thursday night.