A plan for bike lanes would advance with a parking ban on the north side of River Road between Lake Avenue and Hance Road. (Photo by John T. Ward. Click to enlarge)
By JOHN T. WARD
Parking, borough facilities and more will keep Fair Haven’s elected officials busy on their Zoom session Tuesday night.
Also on the agenda: a plan to terminate an “interlocal services” agreement under which Fair Haven disposes of Rumson’s collected yard brush.
Ricardo Paz with Liz Schuber and restaurateur Danny Murphy outside Danny’s Steakhouse Tuesday, and below, in Fair Haven in July. (redbankgreen photos. Click to enlarge.)
By JOHN T. WARD
A Red Bank landscaper who hauls his equipment around in a trailer attached to his bicycle needed a new set of wheels.
And thanks to a fund drive set up by a stranger, Ricardo Paz now has $3,600 to buy one. But because there’s been a run on bikes triggered by the pandemic, Paz hasn’t been able to find a bike sturdy enough to accommodate his trailer, which carries more than 300 pounds of gear.
So last month, Paz –yes – started pushing his gear to his clients’ homes.
Ricardo Paz, a Red Bank landscaper who hauls his equipment around in a trailer attached to his bike, needs a new set of wheels. So friends have set up a Go Fund Me account to help him buy one.
For more about this hard-pedaling father of four, check out Brian Donohue’s ‘Positively Jersey’ video feature. (redbankgreen photo. Click to enlarge.)
Delayed three months by the COVID-19 pandemic, Fair Haven’s ‘Transition Day’ rolled down Third Street Thursday afternoon.
As per custom in the borough, where an estimated 75 percent of kids regularly bike to school, a group of rising fifth-graders and teachers from the Knollwood Middle School rode across town to Viola Sickles elementary. There, they picked up the incoming fourth-grade class and rode back, parade-style, for an orientation.
Along the way, the riders – including a suit-wearing Superintendent Sean McNeil – were cheered and showered with streamers and confetti.
“It’s the best,” McNeil told redbankgreen. “I think this was exactly what we needed right now, because everybody’s got these tricky school openings, and so it’s nice to get to a place of normalcy and remember what we’re doing this for.”
See more photos below. (Photos by John T. Ward. Click to enlarge.)
Under the plan, “share the road” sharrows would be painted in both directions through the eastern business district. (Photo by John T. Ward. Click to enlarge)
By JOHN T. WARD
A debate over proposed bike lanes and share-the-road markings along the length of River Road in Fair Haven rolled on Monday night.
One week after he broke a tie to advance the plan, Mayor Ben Lucarelli brought in some “sources of authority” on the issue. But opposition, even among some bikers, continued.
Under the plan, both sides of River Road between Lake Avenue and Hance Road would be marked with bike lanes; sharrows would be painted from Hance east to the Rumson border. (Photo by John T. Ward. Click to enlarge)
[See CORRECTION below]
By JOHN T. WARD
A plan for bike lanes in Fair Haven hit some potholes last week.
Mayor Ben Lucarelli was forced to break a tie when three council members balked at approving share-the-road markings through the River Road business district.
Biking in Red Bank —and possibly, Fair Haven and Little Silver — could get a boost under a push to bring a bike-sharing vendor to town. (Photo by John T. Ward. Click to enlarge.)
By JOHN T. WARD
Red Bank officials are exploring the possibility of allowing a bike-share vendor to offer its services in town, and inviting two neighboring towns to get in on the two-wheeled action, Business Administrator Ziad Shehady told the borough council last week.
Among changes recommended in the draft plan is an expansion of sidewalk coverage in town. Below, Councilman Jon Peters with residents at Monday’s event. (Click to enlarge)
By JOHN T. WARD
Fair Haven residents and business got their latest opportunity Monday night to weigh in on host of walking-and-biking infrastructure proposals that could serve as a blueprint for decades to come.
The informational session, which preceded the borough council’s regular semimonthly meeting, was focused on the latest version of a draft document called the Pedestrian and Bike Active Transportation Plan.
Pilgrim Baptist Church of Red Bank will host its sixth annual Community Unity & Bike Blessing Festival Saturday, a free and open-to-all event that features food, live entertainment, community safety presentations and other attractions.
A home security camera caught a pair of thieves as they made off with a bike and skateboard they stole from a porch on Elm Place in Red Bank on Thanksgiving morning.
The edited video shows the pair sauntering east along Elm and, a minute later, racing away on Horace Place with their loot. Contact the borough police at (732) 530-2700 if you have information to share about these turkeys. (Click to enlarge)
Both a bicyclist and an approaching a jogger appeared shy recently about using a new bike lane on the Little Silver side of Harding Road, seen here from Tower Hill in Red Bank. (Photo by John T. Ward. Click to enlarge)
By JOHN T. WARD
To go along with their shiny new Christmas bikes, cyclists on the Greater Red Bank Green have a new riding course: 2.8 miles of freshly minted bike lanes through Rumson and Fair Haven.
Marked with share-the-road “sharrow” icons, heavy white lines and signage, the lanes call attention to the presence of bikers in an effort to improve safety, says Fair Haven Mayor Ben Lucarelli, who advocated for them.
Cyclists can get a free bike lamp and helmet at the event. (Photo by John T. Ward. Click to enlarge)
Red Bank retailer Dean Ross, who spearheaded a bike lamp giveaway earlier this year, is planning to reprise the effort next month. But he needs some help.
The owner of the Doc Shoppe shoe store and Bagel Oven tells redbankgreen that he’s seeking donations of used helmets to give away at the same time.
In one of two Red Bank accidents involving bicyclists, a 14-year-old boy wound up in the emergency room Wednesday.
According to police Chief Darren McConnell, the unidentified boy was traveling west in the eastbound lane of Harding Road when he collided with a car emerging from Tower Hill Avenue at about 10 a.m.
An outpouring of support for cyclist Cole Porter, below, included a bicycle painted pink – his favorite color –and left at the scene of the accident that led to his death. (Click to enlarge.)
By JOHN T. WARD
The widow and children of Cole Porter, a Shrewsbury man who died as a result of injuries suffered in a crash during the 2013 Tour de Fair Haven bike race, have settled a lawsuit in the matter for $7.1 million, NJ.com reported Thursday.
Agreement on the deal was reached June 3 as jury selection was about to begin for a trial over the civil suit in New Brunswick, according to the report.
Hundreds of cyclists from police departments across New Jersey headed down a misty Broad Street in Red Bank on the first leg of the annual Police Unity Tour Saturday morning. The contingent included 10 current and retired Red Bank police officers.
The ride, to Washington, D.C., honors law enforcement officers who have died in the line of duty.
While his fellow riders got a royal sendoff from the Red Bank Volunteer Fire Department, one rider, at right above, pulled over to fix a flat tire just minutes into the ride. (Photos by John T. Ward. Click to enlarge)
It’s a mitzvah for local cyclists, says the temple member who dreamed it up. (Photo by John T. Ward. Click to enlarge)
By JOHN T. WARD
In an effort to improve pedaling safety, a local Jewish congregation is planning a giveaway of bicycle lamps in Red Bank next week.
As one of two Tikkun Olam, or “repairing the world,” social action events planned for May, members of Monmouth Reform Temple in Tinton Falls plan to install front-and-rear bike lights for all comers on Monday, May 11, at St. Anthony of Padua Church on Bridge Avenue.
Mayor Ben Lucarelli heads to D.C. this week to sharpen his biker-and-pedestrian safety campaign. (Photo by John T. Ward. Click to enlarge)
By JOHN T. WARD
Anyone who’s heard Fair Haven Mayor Ben Lucarelli talk about biking safety knows it’s an issue he’s passionate about.
And listening to him talk about the biking-and-walking safety program he’s attending in Washington, D.C., this week, you’d think he was charging down to the capitol on two wheels.
“I would, if I had the time,” Lucarelli told redbankgreen on Tuesday.
More →
Pallbearers with the casket of Councilman Jerome Koch, below, who died Sunday. (Photo by John T. Ward. Click to enlarge)
By JOHN T. WARD
Friends and family eulogized Fair Haven Councilman Jerome A. Koch, Jr. with love and humor in the form of some of his favorite aphorisms Thursday, four days after he died from injuries suffered in a bicycling accident on River Road.
Setting aside the “nightmare” circumstances of Koch’s death, one of his four children told a packed Church of the Nativity that her father “would be telling us to knock off with the crying.”
By JOHN T. WARD
Fair Haven Councilman Jerome Koch died Sunday, one day after he was was critically injured in a bicycling accident on River Road.
Borough police reported Koch’s passing in a one-paragraph statement issued at 7 p.m.
Koch, was riding westbound near Elm Place when he was struck by a vehicle headed in the same direction at about 3:25 p.m., police said.
Councilman Jerome Koch speaking during a council meeting at the Knollwood School in November, 2011. (Photo by John T. Ward. Click to enlarge)
By JOHN T. WARD
Fair Haven Councilman Jerome Koch was critically injured in a bicycling accident on River Road Saturday afternoon, according to Mayor Ben Lucarelli.
Koch, a retiree who has served on the council since 2006, was riding westbound near Elm Place when he swerved into the traffic lane and was rear-ended by a vehicle at about 3:30 p.m., Lucarelli said.
“It was a severe impact,” said Lucarelli, who arrived on the scene moments later.
Guadagno at the Dublin House in Red Bank in June. (Photo by John T. Ward. Click to enlarge)
New Jersey Lieutenant Governor Kim Guadagno was hospitalized after a biking accident in Sea Bright Thursday morning, according to multiple reports.
Guadagno, who lives in the adjoining town of Monmouth Beach, was expected to spend the night at Jersey Shore Medical Center in Neptune with a broken wrist and elbow, nj.com reported.
A spokesman said Guadagno “stopped suddenly to avoid a vehicle and fell from her bike” while riding early in the morning.
Despite teeming rain and slick roads, dozens of cyclists, including numerous police officers, headed out on a 26-mile ride in memory of late Red Bank Police Chief Steve McCarthy Thursday morning. McCarthy died last September of anaplastic thyroid cancer. He was 50 years old.
The ride followed a brief ceremony at borough hall, and was accompanied by numerous emergency vehicles flashing their lights as the riders took Tower Hill in Red Bank and headed to Brielle.
The event was held one day before the the annual Police Unity Tour, in which cops bike to Washington, D.C. in honor of law enforcement officials who have died in the line of duty. (Photos by John T. Ward. Click to enlarge)
Police Chief Steve McCarthy in 2010. (Photo by Dustin Racioppi. Click to enlarge)
Members of the Red Bank Police Benevolent Association plan a memorial bike ride this week for the late Chief Steve McCarthy, who died last September.
Thursday’s 25-mile ride to Brielle, expected to include between 50 and 70 officers and civilians, falls one day before the annual Police Unity Tour, in which cops bike to Washington, D.C. in honor of law enforcement officials who have died in the line of duty.
Racers during last September’s Tour de Fair Haven. Cole Porter, below, died after an accident in the first race that day. (Click to enlarge)
By JOHN T. WARD
A lawsuit by the estate of the Shrewsbury man who died after a crash during the Tour de Fair Haven last September does not name Fair Haven as a defendant, contrary to an earlier report that the town would be sued for $10 million.
A civil complaint filed Wednesday on behalf of cyclist Cole Porter‘s widow and two children instead names the race organizer, event sponsors and the race official Porter slammed into on September 15, resulting in injuries that led to his death less than three weeks later.
With litigation pending, Mayor Ben Lucarelli said he he does not expect the popular event to return for a sixth running this year.
Megan Porter at her Shrewsbury home earlier this month. Her husband, Cole, below, on the morning of his fatal accident. (Click to enlarge)
By JOHN T. WARD
He was going to win this one, his widow says.
Six years into a personal gut job, Cole Porter had transformed himself from a heavy-smoking, overweight electrician and handyman into… well, as his wife, Megan, put it, in a comically theatrical voice, “Cole Porter, you are ironman!”
Ironman as in triathlete: swimmer, biker, runner. He’d gone all-in, and with such infectious energy that she followed his lead, as their two young daughters later did, too. It was something they all did together now. Even Faye, at age 10, had already completed an adult sprint tri.
At age 38, though, Porter had decided he would focus on cycling for the coming year. And onlookers that sunny September morning in Fair Haven should not have been fooled by all his laughing and chatting at the starting line – so much in fact that a race official asked him, please, sir, can we have your attention? That was just Porter being his irrepressible self. Inside, he carried a determination to win.
And, as if right on script, as the pack of whirring racers completed the first lap of the first race, Porter was in the lead when he spotted his three “girls” standing on the sidewalk.
Megan raised her camera and snapped a photo as he approached. He was smiling that smile that had captivated her from the day they met.
Seconds later, there was a crash.