Superior Court Judge Richard English told Oscar Prior-Ramirez, 34, of Eatontown, that he must serve 85 percent of his sentence before he’s eligible for parole. The judge noted that Prior-Ramirez also has a U.S. Immigrations and Customs Enforcement detainer, and so may be deported to Mexico upon his release, according to the report.
The estranged husband of a Red Bank woman found murdered alongside the Garden State Parkway in 2011 has pleaded guilty to aggravated manslaughter, the Monmouth County Prosecutor announced Tuesday.
Oscar Prior-Ramirez, 33, of Eatontown, admitted in court that he strangled his ex-wife, Viridiana Beltran-Gomez, 26, of Bank Street, during an argument on May 12, 2011, according to a press release from the office of Acting Prosecutor Christopher Gramiccioni.
A voter signs in at borough hall Tuesday.(Photo by Peter Lindner. Click to enlarge)
By JOHN T. WARD
Little Silver Mayor Bob Neff Jr. coasted to victory over Independent Councilman Dan Levine in the race for the tiny borough’s top job Tuesday, according to the Monmouth County Clerk’s website.
Incumbent Democratic Councilman Dan O’Hern Jr, and Republican Dane Mihlon claimed the two open council seats, leaving Independent Jennifer Pardee a distant third.
Rumson Democrat Philip Wagner polled just 17 percent in his bid for a seat on the borough council Tuesday as he was swamped by incumbent Republicans Shaun Broderick and Ben Day Jr.
Mayor John Ekdahl, who drew no opponent, sailed to another term.
There were no surprises in Fair Haven, where two Republicans ran unopposed for two council seats, though one of them will break the all-male lock on the all-GOP body.
District 2 voters entering the Independent Engine Company house on Mechanic Street Tuesday morning. (Photo by Peter Lindner. Click to enlarge)
By JOHN T. WARD
[SEE CORRECTION BELOW]
Red Bank’s Democrats maintained their lock on the borough’s governing body with two decisive wins for council Tuesday.
Juanita Lewis and local party chairman Ed Zipprich defeated Republicans Grace Cangemi and Joe Mizzi, whose campaign lite strategy had opponents and some voters scratching their heads about their whereabouts in the race.
Voting took place in the town’s community center.(Photo by Peter Lindner. Click to enlarge)
By JOHN T. WARD
Three-term Democratic councilwoman Dina Long won the race to succeed Maria Fernandes as Sea Bright’s mayor Tuesday, walloping former Mayor Jo-Ann Kalaka Adams.
Incumbent Republican councilmen James LoBiondo and Read Murphy kept their seats on the governing body, easily outpolling Democratic challengers Marc Leckstein and Desiree Pierce. More →
Below are the responses to questionnaires sent to the two mayoral and three council candidates (for two available seats) on the November 8 ballot in Little Silver. Candidates were asked to limit their answers to 100 words.
Below is where the responses to questionnaires sent to the four council candidates (for two available seats) on the November 8 ballot in Red Bank would appear, if any of them had responded. None did. But we welcome their thoughts on the issues, and encourage them to comment.
Below are the responses to questionnaires sent to the three mayoral and four council candidates (for two available seats) on the November 8 ballot in Sea Bright. Candidates were asked to limit their answers to 100 words.
The 64th in an annual series, Sunday’s Red Bank Halloween parade featured a barn-and-silo float from Red Bank Charter School plus a mix of reliably scary and fun costumes.
redbankgreen was there, natch. Were you? See if we got your picture!
Westside Community Group president Amy Goldsmith, right, discusses the debate format with candidates Juanita Lewis, Joe Mizzi, Grace Cangemi and Ed Zipprich. (Click to enlarge)
By JOHN T. WARD
Red Bank’s Republican contenders for borough council were on the defensive Wednesday night as their opponents, and some voters, pressed them on their perceived sudden re-emergence as election day looms.
Resident David Prown asked GOP candidates Grace Cangemi and Joe Mizzi how confident taxpayers should feel in their representation, given what he characterized as their low profile between last spring’s candidacy announcement and now. Several questioners pressed them on the point of view that the pair say is missing from the current all-Democrat council.
In the evening’s most heated moment, incumbent Ed Zipprich called his opponent’s criticisms of the current council “absolutely ridiculous,” and said Cangemi, a former council member, hadn’t appeared at a session of the governing body since she lost a re-election bid in 2008, though she had pledged to serve as a watchdog.
“What have you done for the town in the three years since you walked out the door?” he asked.
Hundreds of volunteers tied on their walking shoes for the 30th annual Red Bank Crop Walk Sunday. The five-mile jaunt began and ended at Red Bank Regional High, taking participants into Fair Haven, Red Bank and Little Silver on a brilliant and blustery autumn day. (Click to enlarge)
The bike and run portions were canceled because of a road washout in Tropical Storm Irene, but that didn’t keep several dozen registrants for the Red Bank Triathlon from the swim leg of the race on Saturday.
Some competitors did one 1.2-mile loop, while others, hungering for more of a challenge, dove back in for a second go-round in our beautiful Navesink River.
redbankgreen was at Marine Park to catch the action.
The bike and run portions of Saturday’s event have been scratched, but 1.2- and 2.4-mile swims in the Navesink will be offered. Below, the planned bike route. (Click to enlarge)
By JOHN T. WARD
Road damage from Tropical Storm Irene five weeks ago has prompted organizers to pull the plug on this Saturday’s Red Bank Triathlon, redbankgreen has learned.
The problem is Hubbard Avenue, which was undermined when Shadow Lake overtopped its banks and is still in the process of being repaired, says race organizer Doug Rice.
Red Bank’s annual Street Fair drew early-autumn skies – plus an orchestra, lots of crafts makers, the Socialist Party, food vendors and a whole slew of home-improvement contractors – to Broad and Monmouth streets Sunday.
Horgan has been a member of the Red Bank Council since 2008. (Click to enlarge)
By JOHN T. WARD
Monmouth County Democrats selected Red Bank Councilwoman Kathy Horgan Wednesday night to fill the ballot vacancy created a week ago when Asbury Park restaurateur Marilyn Schlossbach bailed out of the race for one of two District 11 state Assembly seats.
The selection, at a meeting of Monmouth County Dems in Asbury Park, puts two Red Bankers in the running for district seats in Trenton, though in different chambers of the Legislature. Heading up the GOP’s 11-district ticket is incumbent state Senator Jennifer Beck, herself a former borough council member who still lives in town.
Braced for the worst, and recalling the devastation caused by the northeaster of 1992, the borough of Sea Bright evacuated all residents in advance of the arrival of Hurricane Irene Saturday. Even emergency personnel were ready to relocate to Rumson if things got as bad as forecast.
But less than 24 hours after what was supposed to have been the peak of a horrific storm, residents and business owners on the narrow spit of sand had one word to describe what they experienced when Irene, by then downgraded to a tropical storm, blew through: “lucky.”
Emergency officials have brokered a deal under which the Red Bank Salvation Army facility will provide temporary shelter for most of the 113 elderly patients of a nursing home ordered evacuated Saturday in the face of Hurricane Irene.
Borough emergency management coordinator Tommy Welsh tells redbankgreen that under a deal facilitated by the Monmouth County and state offices of emergency management 80 resident of the Chapin Hill at Red Bank nursing home will be moved just two blocks away, to higher ground, at the Salvation Army building on Newman Springs Road.
“We thought at this point it would be a home run if we could just move them up the hill,” Welsh said, noting that the four-story nursing home on Chapin Avenue is just yards from the Swimming River, in a flood zone. “If, god forbid, something should happen down there, we wouldn’t be able to get to them.”
Under an order to evacuate by 4 p.m. Saturday, residents and businesses owners boarded up properties, turning Sea Bright into a ghost town as Hurricane Irene approached.
Mourners gathered outside the Bank Street house where a melee led to the fatal knifing of Larry Yarbrough and the serious wounding of another man on August 7. (Photos by Dustin Racioppi; click to enlarge)
By DUSTIN RACIOPPI
Almost a week after the stabbing death of Larry Yarbrough, friends and relatives by the dozens filled a Red Bank street Saturday to push for action against his alleged killers while urging others to band together to prevent another tragedy from happening again.
Members of Yarbrough’s family led a procession down of about 200 down Shrewsbury Avenue to the Bank Street scene of the killing and held a vigil at a makeshift memorial where balloons, candles, pictures and bottles of liquor lay next to the sidewalk.
For the second year in a row, former Red Bank residents, newcomers and old-timers gathered for a “family reunion” block party on Drs. James Parker Boulevard Saturday. Photographer Stacie Fanelli was there for redbankgreen.
The estranged husband of a Red Bank woman found murdered alongside the Garden State Parkway in 2011 was sentenced to 27 years in prison Thursday, NJ.com reports.
