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.
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.
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.”
Fair Haven will participate in a national memorial to lives lost in the COVID-19 pandemic by lighting up Memorial Park with luminaria Tuesday night.
With its announcement of the event Monday, the borough became the first town on the Greater Red Bank Green to join an inauguration-eve event that calls for a lighting around the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool in Washington DC.
Red Bank Middle School student Aisha Jones, above, and Second Deputy Fire Chief Nick Ferraro were among the participants in the borough’s annual Veterans Day commemoration Wednesday.
Like many other events since March, it was a masked-up gathering because of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Wednesday is Veteran’s Day, and two towns on the Greater Red Bank Green plan to hold commemoration services, though one will be virtual, and the other curtailed, to limit the spread of COVID-19. See below for details.
For more than five hours Saturday, a small, rotating group gathered in Riverside Gardens Park for a low-key celebration of the election of President-elect Joe Biden and Vice President-elect Kamala Harris.
There were no speeches: just virtual hugs, some tears, as well as cheers – punctuated by honking horns and occasional middle fingers from passersby on West Front Street.
Below are some some reflections on the election outcome among participants.
Dozens of residents of the Greater Red Bank Green died in the horrific attacks on the United States on September 11, 2001.
Let’s not forget those who died, and the families and friends left with holes in their hearts. For information about local commemorations, click here.
Jonathan Maciel Penney speaking at the West Side Community Group forum last October. (Photo by Ben Forest. Click to enlarge.)
By JOHN T. WARD
Both Republican candidates for Red Bank borough council seats in November’s election have formally dropped out of the race.
As a result, incumbent Democrats Michael Ballard and Ed Zipprich appear to have a clear glide path to re-election. Read More
Red Bank-area residents will have several opportunities Friday to participate in commemorations marking the 19th anniversary of the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks on America.
About 30 protesters assembled at the post office on Shrewsbury Avenue in Red Bank at noon Friday to voice alarm over recent changes at the postal service.
Michael Clancy at the Red Bank 5K in 2018. (Photo by John T. Ward. Click to enlarge)
[CORRECTION: Michael Clancy is no longer the GOP chairman in Red Bank. He did not seek re-election and was replaced July 27 by Jonathan Maciel Penney. Clancy now serves “as a placeholder on the county committee until I move out of Red Bank,” he told redbankgreen Monday evening. redbankgreen regrets the error.]
By JOHN T. WARD
Three years after he quit the Human Relations committee over a controversial text message, Red Bank Republican Chairman Michael Clancy mused about coughing on President Trump’s adversaries to “harass” them over weekend.
Itzel Perez Hernandez, seen at right above last November with fellow Red Bank ‘Dreamers’ Cristian Aparicio and Deysi Avila, said she is “thrilled” by the United States Supreme Court’s decision Thursday thwarting the Trump Administration’s efforts to to rescind protections for young immigrants under the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program, better known as DACA.
Protesters march down Broad Street, above, and observe a moment of silence on Newman Springs Road, below. (Photos by John T. Ward. Click to enlarge)
By JOHN T. WARD
Angry but peaceful, hundreds of protesters marched through Red Bank Tuesday afternoon.
With temperatures nearing 90 degrees, a “Justice for George Floyd” march and rally at Count Basie Fields coincided with the Houston funeral of the man killed by Minneapolis police May 25.
Check out redbankgreen’s photos from the event below.
Hundreds marched through town to protest a racist rally in Charlottesville, Virginia in 2017. (Photo by John T. Ward. Click to enlarge)
A “Justice for George” march and rally to protest the death of George Floyd while in police custody in Minneapolis is slated to be held in Red Bank Tuesday afternoon.
According to police Chief Darren McConnell, the event is being organized by Calvary Baptist Church of Red Bank and an organization called Count the Children.
The mini parade rumbles down Spring Street, above.
A late addition to the calendar, Red Bank’s pandemic-era Memorial Day parade Monday could not compare to last year’s version in terms of spectacle. Still, it offered a thrill to small clusters of borough residents.
Comprising a fire truck and a half-dozen throaty motorcycles, the drive-thru-town parade took some onlookers by surprise, while others were ready and waiting. Check out more photos below. (Photos by John T. Ward. Click to enlarge.)
Little Silver made some big metallic noise for emergency personnel on the frontlines of the COVID-19 pandemic Thursday evening. Read More
With the sound of sirens blaring in the distance, residents of Jackson Street joined their neighbors across Fair Haven in giving a noisy, pots-and-pans cheer to healthcare workers on the front lines of the COVID-19 battle Thursday night.
A Little Silver ambulance outside Riverview Medical Center in Red Bank. (Photo by John T. Ward. Click to enlarge.)
Little Silver plans to salute first-responders on the frontlines of the COVID-19 battle next month with a townwide “Light the Night” celebration.
The event will also serve as a fundraiser for the borough’s all-volunteer fire department and first aid squad.
Emergency workers packed the front parking area for the surprise as hospital personnel responded from upper-floor windows. (Photos by Allan Bass. Click to enlarge.)
By JOHN T. WARD
Red Bank-area police and volunteer firefighters delivered a massive surprise cheer to healthcare workers on the frontlines of the COVID-19 battle at Riverview Medical Center Friday evening.
The borough’s firetrucks, joined by gear from at least nine surrounding towns, twice sounded their horns in unison as staffers left and arrived for a shift change. Several hundred participants, most wearing protective masks, cheered and blew kisses from the parking lot as hospital employees in surgical masks and gowns acknowledged the love from upper floor windows.
Red Bank Fire Chief Scott Calabrese organized the unannounced event, which drew fire, police and first aiders from Fair Haven, Little Silver, Sea Bright, Shrewsbury, Rumson, Middletown, Tinton Falls, Eatontown and Oceanport.
The aim, he said, was “to say ‘thank you for your courage on the front lines of the battle.'”
(See more photos by Allan Bass and John T. Ward, below.)
Fair Haven resident Henry Stevens, born January 16, 1920, received accolades Monday night in advance of his 100th birthday.
Cristian Aparicio, Deysi Avila and Itzel Perez Hernandez have all attended Brookdale Community College under their status as DACA ‘Dreamers.’ (Photo by John T. Ward. Click to enlarge.)
By JOHN T. WARD
While the Supreme Court heard oral arguments Tuesday on the Trump Administration’s move to rescind protections for undocumented young immigrants, a busload of them from Red Bank planned to be out on the streets of Washington, D.C.
The court’s decision “is make-or-break” for them, said Itzel Perez Hernandez, a 26-year-old borough resident who is among the some 700,000 ‘Dreamers’ still afforded protection under the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program, better known as DACA.
Scouts saluted the American flag and Red Bank Charter School students sang ‘America the Beautiful’ at a lightly attended gathering to observe Veterans Day in Red Bank Monday.
Guy Opie, Exalted Ruler of Elks Lodge 233, defined a veteran as “someone who, at one point in their life, wrote a blank check to the United States of America, for an amount up to and including their life.” And Rabbi Marc Kline, of the Monmouth Reformed Temple, told the audience that the best way to honor those who have served is to work to prevent future wars. (Photos by John T. Ward. Click to enlarge)
Monday is Veteran’s Day, and towns on the Greater Red Bank Green plan to hold commemoration services. See below for details.
Local, state and federal government offices will be closed. The post office is also closed, as are many banks.
