The latest proposal for 141 West Front Street includes a rooftop restaurant. (Rendering by Feinberg & Associates. Click to enlarge.)
By JOHN T. WARD
Three months after it went to the brink of rejection, a planned massive addition to an existing Red Bank building has once again seen some shrinkage.
Under the latest proposal, the project would put 99 apartments above Pazzo MMX restaurant on West Front Street. There would also be a new restaurant on the roof.
Susan Ericson, notepad in hand, at New Corner Pizza in Red Bank in 2014. (Photo by John T. Ward. Click to enlarge.)
By JOHN T. WARD
Food writer Susan Ericson of Red Bank died Friday at home under hospice care after a lengthy illness. She was 66 years old.
Broadwalk bars vehicular traffic to enable restaurant expansions into Broad Street between Front and White Streets. (Photo by John T. Ward. Click to enlarge.)
By JOHN T. WARD
With the second season of Red Bank’s Broadwalk about to begin in earnest – weather permitting – downtown merchants say the pedestrian dining and shopping concept is doing what it’s intended to do: improving their receipts.
State Senators Declan O’Scanlon, left, and Vin Gopal flank ex-Governor Jim McGreevey as he speaks with Re-Entry participants at Soul Kitchen Thursday. (Photo by John T. Ward. Click to enlarge.)
By JOHN T. WARD
“Nobody should be defined by their worst decision,” former New Jersey Governor Jim McGreevey said on a visit to Red Bank Thursday.
That’s particularly true for ex-felons who may never have learned the basic skills needed to become self-sufficient members of society, he said.
A cluster of dead bunker in the Red Bank borough marina at Marine Park earlier this month. (Photo by John T. Ward. Click to enlarge.)
By JOHN T. WARD
A massive die-off of bunker fish in the Navesink and Shrewsbury rivers this spring poses no health threat to recreational users of those waters, environmental scientists said Thursday night.
Meantime, experts are still trying to determine what environmental “stressors” might have turned a bacteria that’s common to the species into a mass killer that has littered shores with tons of dead, putrid carcasses.
Mayor Pasquale Menna, upper left, addressing the council during its meeting via Zoom Wednesday night.(Click to enlarge.)
By JOHN T. WARD
A push for a possible change in Red Bank’s form of government cleared its first formal hurdle Wednesday night.
The borough council, sharply split on other issues, unanimously agreed to the introduction of an ordinance that would put a two-part public question on the November ballot: whether a commission should be created to review the borough’s 113-year-old form of government, and if so, who should serve on it.
Glenn Carter and OceanFirst Bank’s Robin Fitzmaurice at the Mayor’s Ball at the Oyster Point Hotel in 2018. (Photo by John T. Ward. Click to enlarge)
By JOHN T. WARD
A familiar face has been hired to run Red Bank RiverCenter, the downtown promotion organization: former borough planning director Glenn Carter.
A Google Maps satellite view of the public works yard and adjoining property to the east, roughly outlined in red. (Click to enlarge)
By JOHN T. WARD
Red Bank should move quickly to bond for an overhauled public works facility, according to a recommendation adopted by the Redevelopment Agency Tuesday evening.
Estimated cost, including the acquisition of property adjacent to the Chestnut Street site: $9.3 million.
A rendering of Saxum Real Estate’s approved but not-yet-built plan for 176 Riverside Avenue. (Photo by John T. Ward. Click to enlarge.)
By JOHN T. WARD
A controversial plan to job out Red Bank’s in-house animal control service is expected to be tabled Wednesday night.
Here’s what’s on the agenda for the semimonthly meeting of the mayor and council.
Closed since early in the pandemic, Fair Haven’s borough hall and library will reopen June 7, administrator says. (Photo by John T. Ward. Click to enlarge)
By JOHN T. WARD
A new council member, a call for budget cuts, a planned reopening of borough hall and a pandemic ponytail were among the topics at what might have been the last Fair Haven council meeting of the pandemic Monday night.
The new pool and poolhouse at the former Riverview Towers. (Photos by John T. Ward. Click to enlarge.)
By JOHN T. WARD
Three years after their swimming pool mysteriously popped out of the ground, residents of a Red Bank riverfront highrise got a closeup look at its $3.5 million replacement Monday night.
The 53-year-old Riverside Towers, at 28 Riverside Avenue, has also been rebranded as the Navesink Riverside Residences and Marina.
Henry Perez with opossums orphaned when their mother was hit by a car in 2016. (Photo by John T. Ward. Click to enlarge.)
By JOHN T. WARD
Howls of protest are expected Wednesday night when the Red Bank council considers a proposal to scrap its in-house animal control service.
In addition to eliminating the position of animal control officer, held for the past 18 years by Henry Perez, the council would shift the work for the second half of 2021 to the Monmouth County SPCA, a change opponents say would delay responses.
A cluster of dead bunker in the borough marina at Marine Park earlier this month. (Photo by John T. Ward. Click to enlarge.)
By JOHN T. WARD
Clean Ocean Action and local officials, including Red Bank’s, will get the virtual town hall with New Jersey environmental officials they’ve been seeking to address the recent “severe” fish kill in the Navesink and Shrewsbury rivers, the organization announced Friday.
Melvin and Anita Pierce outside their healthy-eating restaurant at 60 Broad Street. (Photo by John T. Ward. Click to enlarge)
By JOHN T. WARD
Sweethearts since high school, a Shrewsbury couple has staked a claim in downtown Red Bank with their first-ever business venture.
Read all about them and other news in this edition of redbankgreen‘s Retail Churn.
After revisions, a plan to build a house in front of the existing four-family at 70 Locust Avenue was approved. (Photo by John T. Ward. Click to enlarge.)
By JOHN T. WARD
Much of Red Bank’s zoning board agenda was scrapped Thursday night, when hearings on plans for several large apartment projects had to be rescheduled.
But the board got some work done, approving a plan for new house single-family house on Locust Avenue.
The bank plans to remove the pylon that’s topped the building since it opened as a supermarket 70 years ago. (Photo by John T. Ward. Click to enlarge.)
By JOHN T. WARD
A ’50s-style rooftop pylon can go, but the paint colors proposed for a makeover of a downtown bank proved an issue for the Red Bank Historic Preservation Commission Wednesday night.
Mark Gregory at a Red Bank Charter School meeting in February, 2020. (Photo by John T. Ward. Click to enlarge)
By JOHN T. WARD
A Red Bank Housing Authority board member resigned this week, one month after the board censured him for “wanton disregard for his fellow commissioners.”
Mark Gregory’s resignation, accepted by the board at its monthly meeting Wednesday night, was the second by a Republican member in less than a year.
A southward view of Broad Street from 2012. (Photo by John T. Ward. Click to enlarge.)
By JOHN T. WARD
Red Bank embarked on a full-scale rewriting of its Master Plan for the first time in 25 years Monday night.
At a meeting via Zoom that lasted less than 12 minutes, the planning board initiated what could be a two-year process of rethinking the town’s zoning for the next generation.
Car burglars were busy on the East Side of Red Bank early Monday morning.
In one case, they took the whole vehicle.
Ten apartments would be built above new stores at 273 Shrewsbury Avenue under a pending plan. (Photo by John T. Ward. Click to enlarge.)
By JOHN T. WARD
Two multi-use developments that would add 42 apartments to the market top a busy Red Bank zoning board agenda this week.
Also on the board’s busy to-do list Thursday night: review revised plans for new house in front of an existing one on Locust Avenue.
Students working on a mural in the background as new plants soak up the sun in the community garden at the Coffee Corral. (Photo by John T. Ward. Click to enlarge.)
By JOHN T. WARD
On a mostly vacant corner lot in Red Bank that was to have been the home of a new restaurant, the kids have taken over.
In recent weeks, students from the borough’s middle school have planted a community garden behind the Coffee Corral, at the corner of Shrewsbury Avenue and Drs. James Parker Boulevard. Others are in the process of transforming two sides of a garage into lush, coffee-themed murals.
Stashed away in the back of a garage for the past four years, the Red Bank Townwide Yard Sale may get a dusting-off in September.
Animal Control Officer Henry Perez with a bat removed from a Madison Avenue home in 2013. (Photo by John T. Ward. Click to enlarge.)
By JOHN T. WARD
In a move that has animal advocates alarmed, Red Bank is looking at jobbing out its animal control operation.
They say replacing the in-house service with the Monmouth County SPCA would reduce response times and service.
Laura Kirkpatrick addressing the Red Bank council in March, 2020. (Photo by John T. Ward. Click to enlarge)
[See UPDATE below]
By JOHN T. WARD
For the second time in just 17 months, the downtown promotion organization Red Bank RiverCenter is losing its executive director.
After just one, pandemic-filled year, Laura Kirkpatrick has resigned as operational head of the agency that manages the borough’s special improvement district, redbankgreen has learned.
Architect Margaret DeSantis describing the design of the proposed new police station, at right, and storage facility at left. (Concept by the Goldstein Partnership. Click to enlarge.)
By JOHN T. WARD
Fair Haven moved to the fine-tuning stage on two major redevelopment projects Monday night, offering residents yet another chance to influence the looks of a new police station and a new public works yard.
Both, located in residential areas, continued to draw praise for fitting in.