RED BANK: WILL LONG-CLOSED ‘VAULT’ OPEN?
After seven years of vacancy, the former Smith Barney building at 55 Broad Street in Red Bank had apparently just landed a new tenant. And then: COVID-19.
VIRUS UPDATE: COVID-19 DEATH TOLL RISES
The Fair Haven post office now has a plastic barrier to minimize contact between customers and employees. (Reader photo. Click to enlarge.)
[See UPDATE below]
By JOHN T. WARD
Seven more New Jersey deaths were recorded as the number of confirmed COVID-19 cases continued to grow, state officials said Monday.
Two days after issuing an unprecdented executive order aimed at slowing the spread of the pandemic, Governor Phil Murphy said he was also barring all elective surgeries and invasive procedures, both medical and dental.
The state Attorney General also announced new actions to free some county jail inmates and prosecute alleged violators of Murphy’s virus-prompted orders.
ON THE GREEN: MEETINGS MOVE ONLINE
Fair Haven Board of Ed members sat well-spaced at a meeting carried live on YouTube last week. (YouTube screen grab. Click to enlarge.)
By JOHN T. WARD
Fair Haven’s board of ed held its first-ever virtual meeting last Wednesday.
With five members seated well apart from one another in the Knollwood School gym to minimize the possible transmission of the COVID-19 virus, the board had a quorum. Four other members participated via the Zoom conferencing app. And the public, barred from appearing in person, chimed in via the chat function on YouTube, where the meeting was live-streamed.
Among the most frequent comments: “we can’t hear you.”
ON THE GREEN: SCENES FROM THE PANDEMIC
Panic? What panic? In the hours before and after Governor Phil Murphy’s “stay-at-home” order issued Saturday, redbankgreen‘s wandering lens found few outward signs of the anxiety that has certainly gripped the Greater Red Bank Green and much of the planet. In fact, an air of serenity pervaded the streets.
Above, a couple passed through the breezeway on East Front Street heading toward Marine Park in Red Bank, while a notice on the door of Jack’s Music Shop announced its closing, as mandated by Murphy’s order.
Check out more photos taken Friday, Saturday and Sunday below. (Photos by John T. Ward and Trish Russoniello. Click to enlarge.)
RED BANK: HOPEFUL MESSAGES IN CHALK
Their activities limited by the COVID-19 pandemic and Governor Phil Murphy’s “stay-at-home” order issued Saturday, neighbors on John Street in Red Bank decorated their walks and driveways with art and encouraging messages Sunday.
“A chalk walk is a perfect, socially-distanced way to get out of your house, and gives the kids something fun to do and see,” says resident Kate Mills.
More photos below. (Reader photos. Click to enlarge.)
LITTLE SILVER: SOCIAL DISTANCING WEATHER
What was Elmo the Muppet doing on Rumson Road in Little Silver Sunday? Giving passersby a chuckle while airing out his fur and social-distancing, it appears.
With lots of rain in the forecast, Monday will be a good day for keeping one’s fur dry indoors at home, where most of us are expected to be anyway, under Governor Phil Murphy’s “stay-at-home” order issued Saturday.
See the extended weather outlook for the Greater Red Bank Green below, courtesy of the National Weather Service. (Photo by Jim Bruno. Click to enlarge.)
RED BANK: COVID-19 CASELOAD GROWS
[See UPDATES below]
By JOHN T. WARD
One day after Governor Phil Murphy issued a wide-raging executive order requiring all New Jersey residents to “stay at home,” his administration reported Sunday that the known number of statewide COVID-19 patients rose by 590, to 1,914.
Four new deaths from the coronavirus within the Garden State were also reported.
VIRUS UPDATE: MURPHY ORDERS ‘STAY HOME’
[See UPDATES below]
By JOHN T. WARD
With the number of COVID-19 cases continuing to climb, Governor Phil Murphy on Saturday ordered all New Jersey residents to “stay at home.”
He also asked those who might be looking to the shore area as a refuge not to head there.
RED BANK: BARBER SHOP CLIPPED
A Red Bank barber shop that had continued operating after a state-ordered shutdown of personal care businesses closed after a visit from borough police Saturday morning.
RED BANK: BOROUGH’S FIRST CASE REPORTED
By JOHN T. WARD
Red Bank has its first resident COVID-19 case, the borough government reported late Friday.
VIRUS UPDATE: HOLMDEL TEST SITE TO OPEN
Phil Murphy in Red Bank in 2017 during his run for governor. (Photo by John T. Ward. Click to enlarge.)
[See update below]
By JOHN T. WARD
With the number of COVID-19 cases continuing to climb, New Jersey Governor Phil Murphy announced a plan to open drive-thru test site in Holmdel Monday.
Speaking at Bergen County Community College following the opening of the state’s first drive-thru test center on Friday, Murphy said the state’s caseload rose by 155 from Thursday, to 890, with two additional deaths.
ON THE GREEN: VIRUS UPDATES
The pandemic has impacted train schedules and operations at the Little Silver Train Station. (Click to enlarge.)
By JOHN T. WARD
Here’s a quick look at some impacts of the COVID-19 virus on the Greater Red Bank Green.
ON THE GREEN: SPRING ARRIVES EARLY
With spring in the air, a couple took a stroll down Markham Place in Little Silver Sunday.
The vernal equinox occured at 11:50 p.m. Thursday, marking the earliest start to spring in 124 years, according to the Farmer’s Almanac. And it debuts with summer-like conditions on the Greater Red Bank Green Friday, with temperatures peaking near 76 degrees, according to the National Weather Service.
Check out the extended forecast below. (Click to enlarge.) Read More
RED BANK: TAKEOUT, ANYONE?
Good Karma Café on East Front Street doing takeout-only business Sunday. (Photos by John T. Ward. Click to enlarge)
You need to eat, and restaurants, facing dire prospects during the COVID-19 pandemic, need customers more than ever before.
Downtown promotion agency Red Bank RiverCenter has compiled a list of borough eateries showing which are open for takeout business and which offer delivery.
VIRUS UPDATE: CASE NUMBER RISES
The view through a patient’s windshield outside Integrated Medicine Alliance in Red Bank Wednesday. (Reader photo. Click to enlarge.)
By JOHN T. WARD
Four more New Jersey residents have died as the statewide number of COVID-19 cases soared in the last 24 hours, state health officials reported Thursday.
Governor Phil Murphy said at a press briefing in Trenton that the number of cases rose to 742, up from 427 Wednesday, including 11 additional cases in Monmouth County, which had 43.
RED BANK: SHEHADY COVID-19 POSITIVE
Ziad Shehady at borough hall in December, 2018. (Photo by John T. Ward. Click to enlarge.)
By JOHN T. WARD
Business Administrator Ziad Shehady has tested positive for the COVID-19 virus, he told redbankgreen Thursday.
But he’s working from home and hasn’t experienced any symptoms worse than a common cold, he said.
LITTLE SILVER: RBR STAFFER VIRUS-POSITIVE
Red Bank Regional became the first school in New Jersey to close when it shut down for a “deep cleaning” March 10. (Photo by John T. Ward. Click to enlarge.)
By JOHN T. WARD
A Red Bank Regional High School staff member has tested positive for the COVID-19 coronavirus that’s infecting Americans in growing numbers.
RED BANK: STILL ‘NO CASES,’ OFFICIAL SAYS
Grandville Tower has two residents who are self-quarantined, but neither’s test results have come back yet, says a health official. (Click to enlarge.)
By JOHN T. WARD
Contrary to notices issued to tenants, a Red Bank high-rise apartment building does not have any known COVID-19 cases, officials said Wednesday.
VIRUS UPDATE: STATE CASE TOTAL SOARS
By JOHN T. WARD
New Jersey saw two more deaths and a sharp climb in the number of COVID-19 cases in the last 24 hours, state health officials reported Wednesday.
Health Commissioner Judith Persichilli said at a daily press briefing that the number of cases rose to 427, up 162 from Tuesday, including eight additional cases in Monmouth County.
RED BANK: FIRST COVID CASES DISCLOSED
Grandville Tower in Red Bank. (2013 photo by John T. Ward. Click to enlarge.)
[See UPDATE below]
By JOHN T. WARD
Two residents of Red Bank’s Grandville Tower apartments are self-quarantined with the COVID-19 virus, the building’s owner informed tenants in a letter dated March 14.
They are the first reported patients of the global pandemic in the borough.
VIRUS UPDATE: MONMOUTH CASES TOTAL 22
By JOHN T. WARD
New Jersey health officials reported eight new ‘positive’ cases of COVID-19 in Monmouth County Tuesday as the number statewide rose 50 percent from Monday overnight.
RED BANK: FREE MEALS FOR ALL STUDENTS
A program of free breakfasts and lunches for Red Bank students got underway Monday, along with school closures and other efforts to limit transmission of the COVID-19 virus.
VIRUS IMPACTS: EMPTY STREETS DOWNTOWN
“It’s like 6 o’clock on a Sunday morning,” Brian Benjamin, of Two River Mortgage and Investment, said of downtown Red Bank.
In fact, it was around 9:30 a.m. on a Tuesday, St. Patrick’s Day. Numerous businesses were closed, with no immediate plans to open, given Governor Phil Murphy’s executive order of Monday, mandating far-reaching limits on activity to limit the spread of the COVID-19 virus.
But the New Jersey transit bus to Asbury Park was still running, with a mask-wearing driver at the wheel. (Photos by John T. Ward. Click to enlarge.)
VIRUS IMPACTS: QUIET STREETS AT CURFEW
It’s not that no one was out on the streets of the Greater Green Monday night. Around 9 p.m., an hour into a voluntary curfew encouraged by Governor Phil Murphy earlier in the day, one could still see moving cars and the occasional pedestrian or cyclist.
But it was also possible to stand in the middle of Broad Street, above, or Shrewsbury Avenue, below, in Red Bank for long intervals without fear of being run over.
“It’s like the zombie apocalypse,” one pedestrian said of the eerie quiet.
At right, a woman and her cellphone had the No. 1 Chinese restaurant in Fair Haven all to herself. (Photos by John T. Ward. Click to enlarge.)
VIRUS IMPACTS: BOROUGH RESCINDS ORDER
A sign on the door of the Welsh Farms convenience store on East Front Street in Red Bank. (Photo by John T. Ward. Click to enlarge.)
The following are dispatches from the Greater Red Bank Green as we settle into the widespread shutdowns and upheavals of everyday life prompted by the global COVID-19 pandemic.
Included: Red Bank’s emergency order; grab ‘n go meals for kids; Catholic Mass dispensations; liquor deliveries; a coffee shop’s open-door policy, and Fair Haven’s next council session.