Motorists have been encountering detours on Branch Avenue at the Little Silver-Red Bank border all week long. What’s Going On Here?
It’s the beginning of a sidewalk replacement and installation program that Little Silver officials hope will reshape the walkability of the suburban town over the next year and a half. (Photo by John T. Ward. Click to enlarge.)
Mayor Bob Neff embraces his wife and twin daughters as early results were announced at a backyard party. (Photo by John T. Ward. Click to enlarge.)
By JOHN T. WARD
Little Silver Mayor Bob Neff easily won the first, not to mention oddest, Republican primary the borough has seen in decades Tuesday.
By more than a 2-1 margin, Neff held off a challenge from first-time candidate Rick Brandt in a race in that saw Brandt banned from firehouses and schools over his campaign’s unauthorized use of photos.
Ingrid Garcia says this video she recorded shows Little Silver GOP Chairman Stuart Van Winkle harassing her and her husband in their shop. (Video by Ingrid Garcia. Click to enlarge.)
By JOHN T. WARD
The mom-and-pop owners of a Little Silver auto detailing shop say they have come under attack by supporters of Mayor Bob Neff in recent days for supporting his challenger in next week’s Republican primary election.
Exhibit A, they say, is a video showing them in a tense confrontation last Thursday with local GOP Chairman Stuart Van Winkle.
Mayor Bob Neff was the sole mayoral candidate at the event at Markham Place School. (Photo by John T. Ward. Click to enlarge.)
By JOHN T. WARD
His campaign signs may be everywhere in town, but the challenger in Little Silver’s first mayoral primary in memory was a no-show at the Republican candidates’ forum Tuesday night.
Rick Brandt’s absence occurred less than a week after he was banned from school property for events at which children are present over his unauthorized use of photos, redbankgreen has learned.
Rick Brandt during an interview in January. (Photo by John T. Ward. Click to enlarge.)
By JOHN T. WARD
Already under suspension by the volunteer fire department for improper use of photos in his campaign, the Republican challenger for mayor in Little Silver is in another flap over photos, this time with the school district.
Rick Brandt, who’s up against incumbent Mayor Bob Neff in the GOP primary next month, has also drawn the ire of the organization that manages the town’s most historic property.
Rick Brandt on the scene of a June, 2017 condo fire in Little Silver. (Photo by John T. Ward. Click to enlarge.)
By JOHN T. WARD
A Republican candidate for mayor in Little Silver is in hot water with the volunteer fire department in which he’s a member.
Rick Brandt, who’s challenging incumbent Mayor Bob Neff in the GOP primary, is under suspension by the department for improper use of imagery, redbankgreen has learned.
Chris Healy, above, and Mike Holzapfel, below, were joined by their wives and sons as they were sworn in as council members. (Photo by John T. Ward. Click to enlarge)
By JOHN T. WARD
Delayed a few days by last week’s snowstorm, Little Silver residents turned out on an icy night for the annual government reorganization Monday.
For their trouble, they were treated to Mayor Bob Neff’s state-of-the borough message delivered, as is his custom, in verse.
Councilman Donald Galante, with borough Attorney Meghan Clark, at the workshop session of the council Monday. (Photo by John T. Ward. Click to enlarge)
By JOHN T. WARD
Little Silver will establish a canine unit with a bomb-sniffing dog, thanks to Mayor Bob Neff‘s first-ever tiebreaker vote Monday night.
But a companion measure to create a fund to accept donations for the operation was pulled before a formal vote over concerns that it didn’t pass “pass the smell test,” in the words of Councilman Dane Mihlon.
Does the Little Silver police department need a dog trained in people-tracking and bomb-detection to help ensure safety at events like Little Silver Day, above?
About 100 Little Silver residents, joined by Lieutenant Governor Kim Guadagno
, celebrated the completion of restoration work on the three barns at the Parker Homestead Sunday.
The structures, the oldest of which is believed to have been built in the 1790s, and the Parker farm site on which they sit are “as important as Jamestown” in the history of America, Mayor Bob Neff told the crowd.
The restoration, funded with a $250,000 Monmouth County Open Spaces grant, was completed after a dispute with a contractor was resolved and a second contractor, Drill Construction, came on board in January, said Keith Wells, a trustee for the nonprofit Parker Homestead 1665 Inc., the nonprofit that oversaw the project. Two carpenters, Joe Rubel and Mike Cerniglia, were credited for work.
Click the “read more” for additional photos. (Photos by John T. Ward. Click to enlarge.)
At stake: the dignity of at least two area mayors. (Click to enlarge)
The Battle of Ridge Road will pit maroon against purple in a high-stakes football game between Red Bank Regional and Rumson-Fair Haven Regional high schools this weekend.
But in the aftermath, the mayors of at least two towns will end up dressed dressed in electric green.
That’s because the top elected officials in Fair Haven, Rumson, Little Silver, Red Bank and Shrewsbury have a group wager on the outcome of the NJSIAA Central Group 3 championship game between the undefeated RBR Buccaneers (11-0) and the Rumson-Fair Haven Regional Bulldogs (9-2): those from the sending towns of the losing team must dress up as the Grinch at a Holiday Express event, Little Silver Mayor Bob Neff tells redbankgreen.
Referendum proponent Matt Kelly had suggested booze be allowed in the vicinity of the train station. (Photo by John T. Ward. Click to enlarge)
By JOHN T. WARD
Little Silver is ready to wet its whistle.
Voters said “cheers” in Tuesday’s election to a referendum that would end the borough’s dry spell dating back at least to Prohibition, according to results posted by the Monmouth County Clerk.
Pictured left to right are the April 25 induction luncheon for the 2014 Red Bank Regional Hall of Fame Inductees are Gregory Montgomery, Tiffaney Harris, honorary faculty inductee Dr. Seymour Siegler (seated), Dr. James Burden, and Brian Steckroth. Take it here for more on this year’s inductees and the Hall of Fame program.
Press release from Red Bank Regional High School
On Friday, April 25, the Red Bank Regional Education Foundation (RBREF) held its 2014 Distinguished Alumni Hall of Fame induction ceremony at Red Bank Regional High School. Entering the Hall of Fame this year were Greg Montgomery (Class of 1983), former NFL Football Player & Mental Health Advocate; Tiffaney M. Harris (Class of 1989), longtime Red Bank School District staff member and consummate community volunteer ; Dr. James Burden, D.M.D. (Class of 1991), mobile dentist to the elderly and infirm; and Brian Steckroth (Class of 1998), US Naval Academy Graduate, All-American and decorated Iraqi War Veteran. This year’s faculty honoree was Seymour Siegler, Ed.D. Red Bank High School biology teacher and guidance counselor (1957-1972), and co-founder of the Holocaust Museum at Brookdale Community College.
“The selection criterion for induction into the Hall of Fame involves being a role model for our current students,” Jacqueline Caruso Smith, committee chairperson for the event, informed the audience. “Whether someone attended our school 50 or 15 years ago or was a faculty member, they must have distinguished themselves by making some unique contribution in their careers and served their communities with honor and significant commitment.”
Mayor Bob Neff swears in new council member Dane Mihlon, above. Below, former state Supreme Court Chief Justice Jim Zazzali of Rumson prepares to swear in Councilman Dan O’Hern Jr., whose late father served with Zazzali on the Supreme Court. (Click to enlarge)
By JOHN T. WARD
With hizzoner’s grudging acquiescence, redbankgreen hereby nominates Little Silver Mayor Bob Neff as the Green’s most lyrical mayor.
Neff gets the nod for his state-of-the-borough speech, delivered in the form of a poem shortly after he was sworn in to his first full term Wednesday night.
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.
Liz Castleman-Halpin, the late mayor’s daughter, with her own daughter, Noelle, looking on, expressed appreciation to Mayor Bob Neff at Felicia’s Kitchen last Saturday. (Click to enlarge)
By JOHN T. WARD
Bob Neff does not burn with political desire, which seems about right, temperature-wise, for the quiet little Mayberry burg of Little Silver.
A lawyer specializing in insurance defense, he’d been toiling away on the side for more than a decade in the all-but-invisible, and volunteer, state Tidelands Resources Council, which administers riparian leases and sales, when he was asked five years ago to run as a Republican for borough council in his longtime hometown of 6,000 residents.
He did. He was unopposed, and of course, won. Then he ran again, a year ago, and no one challenged him, again.
Now, though, he’s the mayor, having been sworn in earlier this month to complete the term of Suzanne Castleman, who died in July. And he’s running for a full term as mayor, with an opponent independent Council President Dan Levine.
But Neff, a gee-shucks kind of guy who had to resign his council seat in order to serve as mayor, said if he loses the November race, well, that’s fine, too.
Little Silver Mayor Suzanne Castleman is calling it quits. (Photo by Dustin Racioppi; click to enlarge)
By DUSTIN RACIOPPI
Monday was the deadline for candidates to file for November’s elections, and in the sleepy towns of Rumson, Little Silver and Fair Haven, where Republicans dominate and election outcomes are all but foregone conclusions, the big news is who’s not running for re-election.
Here’s a rundown of who’s in and who’s out in those towns.