Body cameras could be fully deployed by September, says Chief Darren McConnell. (2016 photo by John T. Ward. Click to enlarge)
By JOHN T. WARD
As they will across New Jersey, police-worn body cams will soon be the norm in Red Bank, officials said.
But state funding for the devices and related data storage will only cover about a third of the cost, said police chief and acting borough administrator Darren McConnell.
Borough Attorney Greg Cannon at Wednesday’s council meeting. (Photo by John T. Ward. Click to enlarge)
By JOHN T. WARD
Red Bank’s borough attorney apologized Wednesday night for a bizarre episode last month in which he redirected a video camera belonging to former Councilwoman Cindy Burnham.
Attorney Greg Cannon offered the mea culpa after being pressed for it by Locust Avenue resident Ben Forest.
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Borough Attorney Greg Cannon at Wednesday’s council meeting. (Photo by John T. Ward. Click to enlarge)
By JOHN T. WARD
Former Red Bank Council President Cindy Burnham blasted borough Attorney Greg Cannon after he redirected a video camera she was using to record the governing body’s semimonthly meeting Wednesday night.
Mid-meeting, while others on the dais were speaking about unrelated matters, Cannon walked from his seat beside Mayor Pasquale Menna to the front row of the audience and re-aimed Burnham’s tripod-mounted camera before returning to his seat.
The video for “Fighter,” a new song by singer-songwriter Taylor Tote of Tinton Falls, features young cancer survivors, including six-year-old Natalie Grace Gorsegner of Middletown, who with her nine-year-old sister, Hannah, helped Tote write the song.
Recorded primarily at the Middletown Fire Department Company’s Station 8 on Route 35, the video pays tribute to kids who have survived or are battling cancer, 20 of whom appear in it.
All proceeds from sales of the song, available on iTunes, will benefit pediatric cancer research.
Body cameras are being tested by RBPD’s traffic unit, but Chief Darren McConnell said he’s holding off on adopting general usage. (Photo by John T. Ward. Click to enlarge)
By JOHN T. WARD
Eight months after his department won a grant to purchase body cameras, Red Bank police Chief Darren McConnell says he’s holding off, waiting for improvements in the technology.
Routine use of the cameras is inevitable, McConnell tells redbankgreen. But he’s not a strong believer that they’re necessary, and at present, they’re beyond his budget, even with the free money.
Check out this powerful video created by Red Bank Regional students on the dangers of distracted driving.
Borough police will get 20 body cameras under a grant. (Photo by John T. Ward. Click to enlarge)
By JOHN T. WARD
Red Bank police will soon begin wearing body cameras on the streets, under a grant announced Monday by Acting New Jersey Attorney General John Hoffman.
Aimed at increasing transparency in policing, the program will provide 176 towns statewide with $2.5 million to buy 5,000 cameras and ancillary equipment, Hoffman.
Red Bank is slated to get almost $9,000 under the program, enough to buy 20 cameras, according to a list published by nj.com. More →
At a packed meeting, above, the board of ed voted to reinstate teacher Basil Henning, below. (Photo by John T. Ward. Click to enlarge)
By JOHN T. WARD
Fair Haven’s school board reinstated a sixth-grade Spanish teacher Wednesday night, 10 days after he was placed on administrative leave over crass satirical web videos in which he appeared.
Following a recommendation by Superintendent Nelson Ribon, the board ended the administrative leave of Basil Henning, a tenured teacher whose paid removal, announced in an unusual Sunday night email to parents, was prompted by at least one parent’s complaints.
Henning is free to return to work Thursday morning, though an investigation continues, Ribon told redbankgreen following the meeting, at the Knollwood School.
Warning: video featuring Basil Henning, also seen below in a 2014 photo, includes graphic language. (Photo by John T. Ward. Click to enlarge)
By JOHN T. WARD
A Fair Haven middle school teacher has been placed on administrative leave following a complaint over satirical web videos in which he appeared.
Superintendent Nelson Ribon announced in a Sunday night letter to parents and teachers that Knollwood School Spanish teacher Basil Henning had been placed on administrative leave. No reason was given for the action, and Ribon declined to comment to redbankgreen Monday, citing rules concerning personnel matters.
But Henning’s administrative leave followed complaints by at least one parent about videos in which Henning plays a foul-mouthed Jets fan who keeps up a constant patter about hookers, oral sex and other adult matters in addition to football.
Katie Corr, a hair stylist at Glen Goldbaum 72 in Red Bank, was “very young” when she started to do hair, but still loves it, she says – “especially when the clients leave the salon feeling much better then when they arrived.”
“It’s not just the hair,” she says. “Clients talk about their lives… sometimes I feel like a therapist.”
She’s seen here with client Lisette Lynch.
Video by Gerda Liebmann. Check out all the Clippings from the Green here.
Gina Roselle-Broschart’s first love was gymnastics. Later, she studied nutrition at Rutgers, and then attended Culinary Institute of America to become a pastry chef. Today, Roselle-Broschart’s specialty is cake decorating. Here, and in the video below, she is at work at Antoinette Boulangerie in Red Bank, where she lives with her husband, backyard beef-smoker Scott Broschart.
“I found a connection between gymnastics and cake decorating,” says Roselle-Broschart. “They both require perfection and artistic liberty at the same time.” (Photo and video by Gerda Liebmann. Check out all the Clippings from the Green here.)
Councilman Ed Zipprich, left, at Democratic HQ on election night in 2007. (Photo by John T. Ward. Click to enlarge)
By JOHN T. WARD
A video showing Red Bank Councilman Ed Zipprich under arrest for driving while intoxicated in 2011 is “making its rounds among Monmouth County’s politically connected,” the Asbury Park Press reported Friday.
On its website, the newspaper includes a link to the video on YouTube, but YouTube shows the video as having been removed by the user, who is not identified.
“In this chaotic world, making pottery provides balance for me,” says Red Bank potter Lauren Bellero, featured in the video below. Bellero creates unique wheel-thrown and hand-built functional and decorative stoneware pottery, with a specialty in ‘pit firing.’
The 17th annual edition of Bellero’s ‘Mudslingers Art Show & Sale‘ is scheduled for November 9, from 1 to 6 p.m. at her home studio at 39 Leroy Place.
An online auction of images by rock photographer Mark Weiss of Rumson begins Wednesday to benefit Lunch Break, the Red Bank soup kitchen.
The auction, which includes images of Ted Nugent, Sammy Hagar, Ozzy Osborne and Paul Stanley, as well as 20 others, will be conducted on Charitybuzz through October 15.
Lunch Break’s fifth annual gala, by the way, is October 20 at the Navesink Country Club in Middletown. For more information about the gala or the auctin, contact Petra Vanderven at pvanderven@lunchbreak.org or 732-747-8577, extension 3106. (Video by Gerda Liebmann. Click to pause. And check out all the Clippings from the Green here.)
Clippings took in some kitesurfing activity on the bay side of Sandy Hook recently. Intrigued by non-motorized watersports? The New Jersey Windsurfing and Watersports Association will host its annual fun fest opposite parking lot C at Sandy Hook from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. this Sunday, offering introductions to windsurfing and stand-up paddleboarding for $25, pizza included. For more info, call Tom at 862-268-3033. (Video by Gerda Liebmann. Click to pause.)
Check out all the Clippings from the Green here.
redbankgreen is pleased to introduce a new page. Headed “redbankgreen Sports powered by Shore Sports Zone,” it’s where you’ll find local sports news, much of it in the form of highly polished video reporting by Rich Chrampanis, founder of the independent website Shore Sports Zone, which is also debuting this week.
Chrampanis, who grew up in Middletown and graduated from Christian Brothers Academy (’88), is a veteran at this. After graudating from St. Bonaventure, he spent two decades in television sports coverage as an on-air reporter, anchor and producer. After 14 years at piloting the sports desk at WPDE-TV in Myrtle Beach, South Carolina, Chrampanis moved his family to Little Silver earlier this year to create Shore Sports Zone. With detailed school pages and timely video coverage, Chrampanis hopes to make the site the top resource for fans of high school sports in Monmouth and Ocean Counties.
We at redbankgreen hope to help him put it across the goal line while offering our readers something we haven’t had in the eight years this site has been around. So tune in here for hyperlocal sports coverage, and get the bigger picture at Shore Sports Zone.
We hope you find both our sports page and Shore Sports Zone informative and entertaining. Let us know what you think.
It’s not just about the food, of course – though you should check out PieHole’s story on THAT, too. For kids, and kids at heart, the Fair Haven Firemen’s Fair offers some kinetic delights in the form of good old carnival rides.
The fair continues through Saturday night. (Video by Gerda Liebmann. Click to pause. And check out all the Clippings from the Green here.
Four boys from Parisppany crabbing on Claypit Creek at Hartshorne Woods in Middletown on August 16, 2014.
Check out all the Clippings from the Green here. (Video by Gerda Liebmann. Click to pause.)
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Spoiler alert for fans of the cable show ‘Comic Book Men,’ shot in and around Kevin Smith’s Jay and Silent Bob’s Secret Stash on Broad Street in Red Bank: a future episode will feature a race between the Batmobile and the Green Hornet’s Black Beauty, shot Thursday afternoon on Bridge Avenue in Gotham Red Bank.
And who was riding shotgun for a faux Batman? None other than onetime Batman portrayer Adam West himself, now 85 years old. Andres Verde of Red Bank, above, got a selfie with West, following one take of the low-speed race. (Photo by John T. Ward. Click to enlarge)
Liz Stahl, Mary Ellen Dowd, Chris Lombino and Tom Smith – friends who met in a theater group – were all set for the July 8, 2014 movie screening in Red Bank’s Riverside Gardens Park. But the event was rained out. They’ll get another chance with the Tuesday night screening of ‘Jaws,’ and a favorable weather forecast. (Video by Gerda Liebmann. Click to pause.)
Check out all the Clippings from the Green here.
Red Bank photographer Danny Sanchez on the newly rebuilt grade railroad crossing at Monmouth Street just outside his Bridge Avenue studio on July 19, 2014.
“This is a very interesting spot to take pictures,” he tells Cliipings, noting “all the lines and patterns, wires and buildings.” Check out all the Clippings from the Green here. (Video by Gerda Liebmann. Click to pause.)
Gee whiz, you’d think they were besties or something. Scenes from the latest edition of Red Bank’s Dog Days of Summer series, held Tuesday night. The next one is scheduled for August 19, from 6 to 9 p.m. on Monmouth Street. (Video by Gerda Liebmann. Click to pause.)
Check out all the Clippings from the Green here.
Even as artist Jim Kovic put his John Hancock on the brilliant new mural he created in Sea Bright over the past month, passersby couldn’t wait to have their photos taken in front of it.
“‘Awesome’ is the word most people use when they view my mural,” Kovic told Clippings. “Some people say ‘joy.’ This mural brings them joy, you know, after Sandy.”
The mural is at the corner of Ocean and Peninsula avenues. Check out all the Clippings from the Green here. (Video by Gerda Liebmann. Click to pause.)
Clippings came across window-washer Eric Auerbach doing his thing in downtown Red Bank on July 12, 2014.
Auerbach was also featured in a redbankgreen interview in August, 2006. In the 20 years he’s been cleaning windows, Auerbach says, “not much has changed.” (Video by Gerda Liebmann. Click to pause.)
Check out all the Clippings from the Green here.
Alan Placer of Hobbymasters gives a quick demo of drone flying. Below, a matchbox-sized drone without a camera. (Photo and video by John T. Ward. Click photo to enlarge)
By JOHN T. WARD
By now, perhaps, you’ve seen the spectacular video shot from within the East River Fourth of July fireworks by a small, remote-controlled helicopter. Or the lovely one of the boardwalk in Ocean Grove and Asbury Park, as seen from a gentle distance above.
Less likely, you’ve seen aerial footage of roof inspections. But Red Bank’s Hobbymasters store is having trouble keeping up with demand for drones from real estate agents and roofers, as well as artists and his customary clientele of hobbyists, he tells redbankgreen.
“They’re outselling remote-controlled planes and cars combined,” he said.