The Senior Center occupies a stand-alone building on Shrewsbury Avenue. (Photo by John T. Ward. Click to enlarge)
By JOHN T. WARD
The Red Bank council moved to jumpstart repairs to water-damaged Senior Center Wednesday night, one day after a recommendation by the Redevelopment Agency that it do so.
But even enroute to a unanimous vote, the measure churned up bitterness among the all-Democratic governing body.
The backyard of the mothballed Senior Center overlooking the upper Navesink River. (Photo by John T. Ward. Click to enlarge)
By JOHN T. WARD
A proposal to repair Red Bank’s mothballed Senior Center without adding any new facilities won a Redevelopment Agency endorsement Tuesday evening.
The action could defuse one of the hottest issues in a contested Democratic race for two council seats just six weeks before a primary vote.
A truck preparing to back into the brush-grinding site as a child rode a bike nearby last May. (Photo by John T. Ward. Click to enlarge)
By JOHN T. WARD
A brush-grinding facility that has irked Fair Haven neighbors for nearly a decade will see a 60-plus percent reduction in activity under a plan officials unveiled Monday night.
But one council member pressed for a permanent solution: moving it out of the residential area.
Ziad Shehady, left, and Mayor Pasquale Menna listen as consultant Ken DeRoberts, in foreground, addresses the council in January, 2019. (Photo by John T. Ward. Click to enlarge.)
By JOHN T. WARD
The resignation of Red Bank’s business administrator after only three years last week was the result of scheming by political enemies, Mayor Pasquale Menna contends.
Now, a prevailing atmosphere of “dysfunction” will “absolutely” make it harder to fill the town’s top unelected position, he told redbankgreen.
Ziad Shehady in his borough hall office in June, 2018. (Photo by John T. Ward. Click to enlarge.)
[This post has been updated since it was first published.]
By JOHN T. WARD
After only three years on the job, Ziad Shehady is resigning as Red Bank’s top unelected official, he told the borough council behind closed doors Wednesday night.
Jonathan Maciel Penney speaking as a candidate at the West Side Community Group forum in 2019. (Photo by Ben Forest. Click to enlarge.)
By JOHN T. WARD
Red Bank Republicans announced two “placeholder” candidates for borough council in the November election Monday.
Party Chairman Jonathan Maciel Penney said he had filed campaign papers for himself and Christine Stout.
By JOHN T. WARD
Trying to unseat its own incumbents in a primary contest, the Red Bank Democratic party has replaced one of two candidates for borough council seats, the organization announced Monday.
And according to local party Chairman and Councilman Ed Zipprich, the names of all four will be listed in the same column on the June 8 ballot, giving them all perceived equal footing.
A concept plan showing facilities at the southern entrance to Count Basie Fields includes an indoor basketball court. (Screenshot from Zoom. Click to enlarge.)
By JOHN T. WARD
The Red Bank Redevelopment Agency began sorting through concept plans for possible new senior citizen and recreation facilities Tuesday.
Added to the “fix it now” demand by advocates of a stand-alone Senior Center was a new one: leave the outdoor basketball courts at Count Basie Fields alone.
Marian Quinn of Manor Drive speaking at the rally. (Photo by John T. Ward. Click to enlarge.)
By JOHN T. WARD
Invoking “demolition by neglect” and the prospect of “apartments” on the site, several dozen Red Bankers rallied Saturday to demand that the mothballed borough Senior Center be repaired.
They also momentarily drowned out the grandson of the center’s founder when he took issue with one of the handmade signs posted on the building.
Supporters of a drive to repair and reopen Red Bank’s Senior Center plan to rally at the facility Saturday for the second time this year.
Sue Viscomi at a school board meeting in March, 2018. (Photo by John T. Ward. Click to enlarge.)
By JOHN T. WARD
Three Red Bank council members were silent Wednesday in the face of accusations that one of them had smeared a resident by accusing her of using “racist” language last month.
Ziad Shehady at borough event in February, 2020. (Photo by John T. Ward. Click to enlarge.)
By JOHN T. WARD
A week after announcing he was stepping down from a position that had become a “lightning rod” for criticism, Red Bank Borough Administrator Ziad Shehady said he plans to host a pair of public roundtables on a wide range of issues later this month.
Ziad Shehady, left, with Ken DeRoberts at the 2018 Mayor’s Ball. (Photo by John T. Ward. Click to enlarge.)
By JOHN T. WARD
Ziad Shehady resigned as the executive director of the Red Bank Redevelopment Agency Tuesday, saying the position had become a “lightning rod” for criticism and source of distraction from his primary job as borough business administrator.
Then-candidates Kate Triggiano and Hazim Yassin at the Mayor’s Ball in 2018. (Photo by John T. Ward. Click to enlarge.)
[See UPDATE below]
By JOHN T. WARD
Already showing cracks, the Red Bank Democratic party’s facade ruptured Monday night with the announcement that political newcomers will challenge two incumbents for their council seats.
Days after holding a virtual re-election fundraiser attended by Governor Phil Murphy, Kate Triggiano and Hazim Yassin opted to bypass the local party nomination process controlled by Councilman Ed Zipprich as they seek second terms, saying he’s on a vendetta that “reeks of boss politics.”
Clockwise from top left: Adriana Medina Gomez, Itzel Perez Hernandez, Yaritza Ortega, Karina España and Karla Ortega. (Photos from Zoom. Click to enlarge.)
By JOHN T. WARD
As it became clearer in the weeks after the November 3 election that Joe Biden would become the 46th president of the United States, Adriana Medina Gomez‘s phone began ringing more than usual.
“Among our clients, there was a sense of, ‘OK, Biden won, now what? What can I do to get legal?'” said Medina Gomez, a legal assistant in the Red Bank office of the American Friends Service Committee, a Quaker social justice organization. “Like immediately, the calls started pouring in about that.”
A view into the mothballed Senior Center through a window in December. (Photo by John T. Ward. Click to enlarge.)
By JOHN T. WARD
Red Bank council members clashed yet again over the borough’s Senior Center Wednesday night.
Among the issues: a petition demanding that the facility, which has been out of commission for almost two years, be repaired and reopened at its riverfront location.
Among the many events organizers hope to bring back in 2021: the Red Bank Classic 5k, slated for June 19. A list of event dates is up for approval by the council. (Photo by John T. Ward. Click to enlarge.)
By JOHN T. WARD
Red Bank’s borough council meets with a busy agenda of financing actions, hirings and more Wednesday.
There’s also something missing, though numerous commenters have demanded it: changes to the meeting protocol covering… public comment.
Fortune Cultural Center co-founder Gilda Rogers, left, and Councilman Michael Ballard. (Photos by John T. Ward. Click to enlarge.)
Red Bank’s Democrats have formed a Black caucus to “bring forward future civic leaders.”
The party announced the group’s formation on Monday, Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Day.
The Senior Center offers a rare vantage for Red Bankers to view the Navesink and Swimming rivers, speakers said. (Photo by John T. Ward. Click to enlarge.)
By JOHN T. WARD
Red Bank’s elected officials got an earful from the public about the borough’s disabled Senior Center Wednesday night.
But even as the all-Democratic council unanimously approved a new lease on interim space, sparks continued to fly between its members over the center’s near-term future.
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 Senior Center has been out of commission for most of the past two years following a pipe leak. (Photo by John T. Ward. Click to enlarge.)
By JOHN T. WARD
Tension among Red Bank Democrats over the future of the borough’s Senior Center erupted in public over the weekend.
Joined by Mayor Pasquale Menna, four of the council’s six Democrats lit into the other two, one of whom is the party chairman, as having “placed their own popularity over what’s best for our residents and taxpayers.”
The Senior Center has been out of commission for most of the past two years. (Photos by John T. Ward. Click to enlarge.)
By JOHN T. WARD
Red Bank’s Senior Center is not for sale, Mayor Pasquale Menna insists.
But two years after extensive damage caused by a burst pipe, multiple questions surround the still-closed Shrewsbury Avenue facility. Among them: will it reopen anytime soon, and will it stay where it is?
Greg Cannon, Fair Haven’s new borough attorney, at a Red Bank council meeting in 2017. (Photo by John T. Ward. Click to enlarge.)
By JOHN T. WARD
Now in the majority, Fair Haven’s Democrats swapped out the longtime borough attorney Monday night.
On a bipartisan vote at the annual municipal reorganization meeting, conducted via Zoom, the council replaced Sal Alfieri with Greg Cannon, who also serves as borough attorney in neighboring Red Bank.
It’s official: Little Silver Republicans Mike Holzapfel and Kevin Brennan have secured the two open seats on the borough council, according to results posted on the Monmouth County Clerk’s website Monday evening.
The Fair Haven vote tally as shown on the Monmouth County Clerk’s website as of Monday evening. (Click to enlarge.)
Fair Haven Democrats have won their first majority on the borough’s governing body in recent memory.
Nearly three weeks after voting closed, official results posted on Monmouth County Clerk’s website late Monday showed incumbent Councilman Chris Rodriguez and running mate Laline Neff won the two open council seats, displacing three-term Republican Susan Sorensen.