MIDDLETOWN: RIVERFRONT PARK TO OPEN
In the works for more than eight years, Swimming River Park in the River Plaza section of Middletown is set to make its official debut Monday.
RED BANK: THIEF PEPPER-SPRAYS JEWELERS
The thief fled Leonardo Jewelers Tuesday afternoon, chased by the owner. (Click to enlarge)
By JOHN T. WARD
A Red Bank jeweler was pepper-sprayed by a thief after he chased her down and caught her a block away from his store, police said Wednesday.
A store employee was also attacked with the irritant, police said.
LITTLE SILVER: RIDGE ROAD OAKS CUT DOWN
Seventeen oak trees on Ridge Road in Little Silver were cut down this week by a contractor for Monmouth County.
RED BANK: ROBBERY, ARSON CHARGED
By JOHN T. WARD
A Red Bank man was arrested on charges he set three fires in the borough and robbed a Little Silver pharmacy in a 12-hour spree earlier this week.
Anthony Sambogna, 24, was arrested without incident on Branch Avenue in Little Silver Tuesday afternoon, Acting Monmouth County Prosecutor Lori Linskey said in a press release Thursday.
RED BANK: YASSIN CHARGED WITH THEFT
Then-Councilman Hazim Yassin at a Red Bank Education Foundation fundraiser at the Red Bank Elks Club in 2018. (Photo by John T. Ward. Click to enlarge.)
By JOHN T. WARD
Former Red Bank Councilman Hazim Yassin has been charged with stealing more than $7,600 from the Red Bank Borough Education Foundation, the Monmouth County Prosecutor’s Office said Monday.
SANDY HOOK: MAN FOUND GUILTY OF ATTACK
The assault occurred in a car parked at Gateway National Recreation Area at Sandy Hook, authorities alleged. (Photo by John T. Ward. Click to enlarge.)
A Hudson County man was found guilty of sexual assault on a woman at Sandy Hook almost two years ago, Acting Monmouth County Prosecutor Lori Linskey announced Thursday.
VIRUS UPDATE: RBR ON REMOTE, BOROUGH NOT
Students and staff at Red Bank Regional are scheduled begin 2022 in remote mode Tuesday. (Photo by John T. Ward. Click to enlarge.)
By JOHN T. WARD
Red Bank borough schools will be open Tuesday, but the regional high school in Little Silver will go remote as shifting approaches to a surging COVID-19 virus arrived with the new year.
VIRUS UPDATE: SCHOOLS SCRAMBLE AGAIN
The trend in lab-confirmed COVID-19 cases for three towns since November 1. (redbankgreen chart from Monmouth County data. Click to enlarge.)
By JOHN T. WARD
Sharp increases in COVID-19 cases scrambled schedules for some Red Bank-area schools as they emerged from their year-end 2021 breaks Monday.
Here’s a rundown.
RED BANK: THREE INDICTED ON SEX CHARGES
Three men have been indicted for alleged sex crimes against a minor at two Red Bank restaurants where they worked, the Monmouth County Prosecutor’s Office announced Monday.
LITTLE SILVER: O’SCANLON DEMANDS APOLOGY
State Senator Declan O’Scanlon in Red Bank in May. (Photo by John T. Ward. Click to enlarge.)
By JOHN T. WARD
New Jersey state Senator Declan O’Scanlon accused Twitter of “Orwellian” behavior after the social media giant banned him over a three-week-old tweet Saturday.
VIRUS UPDATES: STATE VAX TOTAL TOPS 6M
Governor Phil Murphy thanked VNA healthcare providers during a tour of the Red Bank YMCA Friday. (Photo by John T. Ward. Click to enlarge.)
By JOHN T. WARD
New Jersey’s COVID-19 vaccine program has now administered more than 6 million doses since it began December 15, Governor Phil Murphy said Monday. More →
VIRUS UPDATE: MONMOUTH DEATHS TOP 1,300
More than 90 individuals braved a cold rain for COVID-19 vaccinations at Pilgrim Baptist Church in Red Bank February 27. (Photo courtesy of Pilgrim Baptist Church. Click to enlarge.)
By JOHN T. WARD
New Jersey averaged 65 COVID-19 deaths per day over the past year, Governor Phil Murphy said Wednesday, as he noted the one-year anniversary of the first.
In that time, Monmouth County has lost more than 1,300 residents to a pandemic now being battled with a trio of vaccines. More →
VIRUS: MONMOUTH DEATHS HIT 1,200
Atrium resident Audrey Haimowitz receiving a vaccine shot Friday. (Photo courtesy of Springpoint Senior Living. Click to enlarge.)
By JOHN T. WARD
Amid rising numbers of vaccine shots statewide, Monmouth County recorded its 1,200th death from COVID-19, the New Jersey Health Department reported Monday.
The grim milestone was passed as a Red Bank senior facility reported three more pandemic-related fatalities, though all three victims were considered to have recovered from the virus, a representative said.
RED BANK: PARKER TO PROVIDE VACCINES
The Parker Family Health Center in Red Bank will begin administering about 100 doses per week of the Moderna COVID-19 vaccine starting Thursday, according to an announcement by the Monmouth County Board of Commissioners (formerly known as Freeholders).
VIRUS: TWO MORE ATRIUM DEATHS REPORTED
Patrons dining in pandemic bubbles outside Red Rock Tap + Grill in Red Bank earlier this month. (Photo by Trish Russoniello. Click to enlarge.)
By JOHN T. WARD
Two more residents of the Atrium at Navesink Harbor in Red Bank have died from COVID-19 related causes, the the New Jersey Health Department reported late Wednesday.
VIRUS UPDATE: YEAR BEGINS ON DEADLY NOTE
A Walgreens employee prepares to inject a resident of the Wesleyan in Red Bank with her first dose of the COVID-19 vaccine Wednesday. (Photo by Nick Delmar. Click to enlarge.)
By JOHN T. WARD
Monmouth County has recorded 115 COVID-19 related deaths since the start of the new year, according to data released by the New Jersey Health Department Friday.
RED BANK: ATRIUM CITED FOR COVID-19 LAPSE
The Atrium at Navesink Harbor on Riverside Avenue. (Photo by John T. Ward. Click to enlarge.)
By JOHN T. WARD
State health officials cited a Red Bank longterm care facility that has been the scene of 10 recent COVID-19 deaths for “deficiencies” in its defense against the virus in November, redbankgreen has learned.
RED BANK: VIRUS CLAIMS SIX MORE AT ATRIUM
The Atrium at Navesink Harbor, the buildings at center and right, as seen from the Navesink River in 2017. (Photo by John T. Ward. Click to enlarge.)
By JOHN T. WARD
Six more residents of an assisted-living facility in Red Bank have died of COVID-19 in recent days, data released by the New Jersey Health Department Monday indicate.
PROSECUTORS DENOUNCE DC ‘TERRORISM’
Monmouth County Prosecutor Christopher Gramiccioni speaking at forum on police and systemic racism at Pilgrim Baptist Church in Red Bank in June. (Photo via Zoom. Click to enlarge.)
New Jersey’s prosecutors on Thursday issued a denunciation of what they called mob “terrorism” in Washington DC a day earlier.
They called the attack on the Capitol building a “sickening display of everything America is not,” and contrasted the law enforcement response with the treatment of Black Lives Matter protesters in June.
RED BANK: COVID-19 CLAIMS THREE AT ATRIUM
The Atrium at Navesink Harbor as seen from the Molly Pitcher Inn in 2014. (Photo by John T. Ward. Click to enlarge.)
By JOHN T. WARD
Three residents of a senior assisted-living facility in Red Bank have died of COVID-19 since mid-December, according to data released by the New Jersey Health Department Monday.
The deaths at the Atrium at Navesink Harbor occurred as pandemic-driven hospitalizations, and the need for critical care, rose across Monmouth County.
VIRUS UPDATES: DATA, OUTBREAKS & TESTING
An Immediate Care COVID-19 testing tent in Red Bank’s White Street lot Monday night. The company has been offering free tests at the site for weeks. (Photo by Trish Russoniello. Click to enlarge.)
By JOHN T. WARD
COVID-19 pressure on Monmouth County hospitals continued to increase in the past week, according to the latest data from the county government.
At the same time, demand for intensive care and ventilators to treat patients with the virus showed slight signs of easing.
Separately, Red Bank Regional High announced a plan for free COVID-19 testing for staff and students.
VIRUS: ICU CASES RISING AS VACCINE DEBUTS
Intensive care bed usage in Monmouth County hospitals rose to 60 Monday, the highest level since May, while hospitalizations for COVID-19 declined to 418, from 446 a week earlier, the freeholders reported. (Monmouth County data. Click to enlarge.)
By JOHN T. WARD
With an historic rollout of the first COVID-19 vaccine about to begin in New Jersey, “the light at the end of the tunnel is growing brighter,” Governor Phil Murphy said Monday.
At the same time, hospitals statewide and in Monmouth County are treating rising numbers of patients who need intensive care and ventilators because of the coronavirus, data show.
RED BANK: RIVERVIEW ‘NOT IMPACTED’
A temporary tent outside Riverview Medical Center’s emergency room entrance in May. (Photo by John T. Ward. Click to enlarge.)
By JOHN T. WARD
The current resurgence in COVID-19 cases and hospitalizations in New Jersey is not having an adverse impact on the hospital network that includes Red Bank’s Riverview Medical Center, the organization said in a statement Thursday.
VIRUS: MURPHY NOTES HOSPITAL TREND
Hospitalizations for COVID-19 continue to rise in New Jersey, data show. (New Jersey Health Department graphic. Click to enlarge.)
By JOHN T. WARD
Though New Jersey’s rate of COVID-19 transmission has been easing in recent weeks, that data conceals a harsh reality, Governor Phil Murphy said at his regular briefing Wednesday.
At 1.08 percent, the rate of COVID-19 transmission is at its lowest point since September 16, but “it still means that each new case is leading to more than one other new case,” he said. “This virus is still spreading.”
VIRUS: MONMOUTH HOSPITALIZATIONS RISE
Monmouth County hospitals were treating 344 COVID-19 patients as of Monday, the county freeholders reported. Of those, 48 patients were in intensive care and 32 were on ventilators.
In its daily news release Tuesday, the county reported an increase of 309 confirmed COVID-19 cases in its 53 municipalities from Monday, for a total 20,626 since the start of the pandemic in March.
Separately, the New Jersey Health Department website indicated that, as of Tuesday, 816 Monmouth County resident deaths had been attributed to COVID-19, up 5 from Monday. Another 92 deaths were considered “probable,” according to the agency’s pandemic dashboard.
Ninety deaths statewide were added to the pandemic’s toll Tuesday, bringing the total to 15,254, the agency reported.