A scrap was all that remained Tuesday of a banner promoting the recently concluded run of ‘Charlotte’s Web’ at the Two River Theater Company in Red Bank. The banner, strung over Broad Street at Irving Place, was damaged in the December 26-27 blizzard. (Click to enlarge)
A&P in Little Silver reopened early Friday afternoon after the building’s roof partially collapsed this week. (Photo by Dustin Racioppi; click to enlarge)
By DUSTIN RACIOPPI
The A&P supermarket in Little Silver is back in business after a 48-hour shutdown caused by this week’s blizzard.
Contractors worked since Wednesday to shore up the roof of the building, which partially collapsed under the weight of heavy snow, and the store got permission to reopen its doors at around noon Friday.
Within an hour, shoppers wended through the store loading up carts and baskets, moving around a cordoned off section at the south end where the damage occurred.
Stella, a golden retriever “from New Hampshire,” her owner notes, rests her chin on a snowbank outside the Starbucks on Broad Street in Red Bank Thursday morning. (Click to enlarge)
A towrig pulls a stranded car from the snow while utility crews work on the opposite side of West Front Street at 3:30p Wednesday. (Click to enlarge)
A utility pole replacement job continued to vex motorists traveling through Red Bank Wednesday, adding to woes dominated by icy streets and snowpile-narrowed driving lanes.
A snow plow on East River Road Monday. (Photo by Dustin Racioppi; click to enlarge)
By DUSTIN RACIOPPI
While other towns continue trying to dig out from massive amounts of snow, it’s down to a cleanup effort in Rumson.
Public Works crews worked through the night Monday plowing through the borough’s seven-square-miles, and by Tuesday morning all streets were open, “which, I don’t think, a lot of the neighboring towns can say,” Mayor John Ekdahl said.
No they can’t.
On Monday, redbankgreen brought you photos taken on a walking tour of Red Bank shortly after the end of the paralyzing blizzard that walloped parts of the northeastern United States over the previous 24 hours.
Today, we give you the morning after the morning after, in which we retrace our steps to see how much has changed over the subsequent 24.
Photos are in pairs, the first of which was taken Monday morning, and the second, Tuesday morning.
(To enlarge the photo display, start it, then click the embiggen symbol in the lower right corner. To get back to redbankgreen, hit your escape key.)
Privately owned vehicles stranded in the weekend snowstorm aren’t the only ones hampering the street-clearing effort in Red Bank, it turns out.
redbankgreen came across this municipal truck stuck in snow, engine running, without any borough employees in sight, on River Street Tuesday morning.
Huh?
As the wind and snow relented Monday morning, plows, shovels and snowblowers got heavy use in Fair Haven and Rumson.
redbankgreen‘s Dustin Racioppi trudged through the streets to snap shots of residents digging out from the season’s first major storm.
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In the aftermath of the blizzard, redbankgreen took a stroll around Red Bank Monday morning.
Everywhere, it seemed, were stranded cars, shovel-toters, pre-plowed streets and balletic wisps of snow dancing on strong gusts of wind. Here’s the documentary evidence.
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Authorities left West Front Street open despite the presence of a fallen utility pole to maintain roadway access to Riverview Medical Center. Below, the aftermath of a train-versus-van accident at the Monmouth Street grade crossing. (Click to enlarge)
A utility pole and a couple of vehicles appear to have been the only victims of a raging blizzard that swept through Red Bank Sunday night.
Police Captain Darren McConnell said the pole, opposite Riverside Gardens Park, snapped sometime overnight, leaving it leaning heavily on connecting wires and blocking the eastbound lane. Officials from Jersey Central Power & light were unable to say when the pole would be replaced, McConnell said.
Meantime, McConnell said, a determination was made that the pole was safe for vehicles to pass.
Ready for battle, a man armed with a shovel braved the white-out conditions on Branch Avenue in Red Bank Sunday afternoon. (Click to enlarge)
A blizzard that prompted a declaration of a state of emergency left a good two feet of snow in the Red Bank area Sunday and prompted a near-complete shutdown of schools, businesses and government operations on Monday.
At the eleventh hour of the eleventh day of the eleventh month, Red Bank schoolchildren, elected officials and civic groups gathered at Red Bank’s war memorial on Monmouth Street to pay honor to American war veterans. Among the participants were members of the Red Bank Regional High School Choir, right. (Click to enlarge)
The future of beachfront development in Sea Bright will stay in the hands of those who started making plans for it.
Incumbent Republicans Brian Kelly and Peggy Bills thwarted a challenge by Democrats Meg Fisher and Marc Leckstein in Tuesday’s election.
Like Kelly, Fisher made beachfront development a top campaign priority. But it was Kelly, who heads the borough’s Smart Growth Committee and has been involved in drafting plans for a waterfront restaurant and pool club, who voters picked to continue to work toward the goal of bringing more revenue into the borough via the municipal beach.
By DUSTIN RACIOPPI
Incumbent Republicans Joan DeVoe and Joe Hemphill maintained the status quo for Rumson by winning another election tonight, securing an all-Republican council.
Democratic challengers Michael Steinhorn and Philip Wagner put up a little fight, but voters seem OK with how things work.
“I feel elated that people have continued to show confidence in me,” DeVoe said. “I’ve heard them, will continue to listen to them and keep their interests in the front of my mind.”
Donald Burden, the sole candidate to replace Terel Cooperhouse as Shrewsbury Borough’s mayor, fended off 82 write-in votes nearly eight percent of the total for other candidates to secure the job, according to the Monmouth County Clerk’s office.
At Democratic headquarters tonight, the mood went from hopeful to somber as the Republicans won the township committee election. (Photo by Dustin Racioppi; click to enlarge)
By DUSTIN RACIOPPI
The Middletown Township Committee will be all-Republican come January 1, as incumbent mayor Gerard Scharfenberger and running mate Kevin Settembrino beat out Sean Byrnes, who was the committee’s only Democrat, and his running mate, Mary Mahoney, in Tuesday’s election.
By 9p, Scharfenberger was confident he and Settembrino had a safe enough lead to declare victory. That was about the same time Byrnes, who had gathered with fellow Dems at the American Legion post in Leonardo, said “it’s over.”
“Naturally I’m very pleased. I thought we ran a really strong campaign,” Scharfenberger said. “We worked very hard and we were rewarded for it.”
Incumbent Republicans Robert Neff Jr. and Stuart Van Winkle ran unopposed for borough council in this yawner.
Mike Halfacre, who had previously vowed not to run for re-election but changed his mind after coming up short in his bid for the GOP nomination in the 12th congressional district, will get a second term as Fair Haven’s mayor.
Red Bank Democrats celebrating at campaign headquarters on West Front Street Tuesday night. (Click to enlarge)
Democratic incumbents Kathy Horgan and Sharon Lee coasted to victory in the Red Bank council race Tuesday, extending the party’s domination of the governing body for at least another year.
Mayor Pasquale Menna, who ran unopposed for a second term, capped the slate’s box-out of GOP challengers Rob Lombardi making his second bid for council in two years, and GOP treasurer Joe Mizzi.
Earlier this month, redbankgreen emailed questionnaires to local candidates for public office in towns with contested elections on November 2.
We began running the replies last Friday, starting with those from Middletown, where four candidates are vying for two seats on the five-member Township Committee.
Today, we conclude the series with Red Bank, where incumbent Mayor Pasquale Menna, a Democrat, is running unopposed, and four candidates vie for a pair of council seats. The candidates’ responses are below, in alphabetical order.
Here’s the Red Bank ballot: red-bank-ballot-2010
Follow these links to see the Q&As for candidates in Rumson and Sea Bright.
NAME: Kathleen A. Horgan
AGE: 65
OCCUPATION: Liaison to the Board of Trustees amfAR, The Foundation for AIDS Research 120 Wall Street, New York, NY 10005
LENGTH OF RESIDENCE IN TOWN: 11 years
General Questions:
1. WHAT DO YOU SEE AS THE TOP THREE ISSUES IN TOWN? In walking door-to-door throughout the Borough over the past few months, residents have spoken to me most often about the following issues:
a. Property taxes
b. Downtown revitalization
c. Pedestrian/bicycle safety
NAME : Sharon Lee (Democrat, incumbent)
AGE: 55
OCCUPATION: Asst. Budget Planner
LENGTH OF RESIDENCE IN TOWN: Life long
General Questions:
1. What do you see as the top three issues in town?
Taxes
Parking
Housing
Name: Robert Lombardi (Republican)
Age: 30
Occupation: Architect
Length of Residence in Town: This question implies who cares more based on length of occupancy. That is impossible to know. Vote for the person who holds the principles that are best for this town.
1. What do you see as the top 3 issues in town?
The top three issues in this town are the same as the top three issues nation wide. Across the board we need to reduce spending, which allows us to
reduce taxes. And we need to elect people to government who at their core
believe in limited government.
NAME: Pasquale Menna (Democrat, incumbent mayor, running unopposed)
AGE: 56
OCCUPATION: Attorney
LENGTH OF RESIDENCE IN TOWN: 46 YEARS
1. What do you see as the top three issues in town?
Taxes and Financial Stability; Quality of Life; Competitive Leadership as a Center for Region
NAME: Joseph M. Mizzi (Republican)
AGE: 34
OCCUPATION: Senior Business Analyst and Economics Professor
LENGTH OF RESIDENCE IN TOWN: 4 Years
1. What do you see as the top three issues in town?
Parking enforcement and excessive ticketing, declining foot traffic/empty stores in business district and outdated property assessments.