In the wake of 26 murders by a heavily armed gunman in a Sutherland Springs, Texas, church last Sunday morning, Red Bank area religious leaders plan to meet with law enforcement officials to discuss security issues this week.
Master gardener Cindy Skoe in the Fair Haven Community Garden. (Photo by Susan Ericson. Click to enlarge)
By SUSAN ERICSON
Among the plots in Fair Haven’s community garden is an area with two small signs. One reads “UMW,” and the other declares that Master Gardeners worked here.
The UMW stands for United Methodist Women, from United Methodist Church on Broad Street in Red Bank. The master gardener is UMW member Cindy Skoe, who along with five other gardeners from the group, is growing vegetables with the intent of sharing half the bounty with Lunch Break in Red Bank.
“They have a program on Tuesdays to drop off produce.” Skoe said, adding, “They are very excited to get whatever one can bring.”
Red Bank Councilman Mike DuPont says it may be time to end tax-exemptions for most non-profits.
In the latest round of verbal sparring between Red Bank officials and the town’s representatives in Trenton, Councilman Mike DuPont has floated what he hopes is a solution to the borough’s fiscal woes that all can embrace:
Tax non-profits.
It’s done elsewhere, and is under consideration in additional locales, DuPont says in a March 18 letter he sent to state Senator Jennifer Beck.
The River Road church’s doors will be locked by the end of the month and the property will be put up for sale. (Click photos to enlarge)
By DUSTIN RACIOPPI
Fair Haven’s Episcopal Church of the Holy Communion will shut its doors later this month, ending more than a century of mission, redbankgreen has learned.
The planned closing imperils a privately owned preschool on church property, impacting 55 students and dozens of families, though Mayor Mike Halfacre says local officials are trying to expedite approvals for a new location.
The church’s vestry the managing body of Episcopal churches decided Sepember 9 to shut down the River Road landmark because it is no longer viable, with more than a half-dozen Episcopal churches in the area, according to the pastor, Rev. Nancy Speck.
Its last Mass will be held on Oct0ber 24, the church’s 125th anniversary, said Speck.
“It’s going to be very bittersweet,” she said. “This has been a wonderful church.”
Because of the closing, two people will automatically step into the state’s long unemployment line: Speck, who lives in Point Pleasant, and the church’s maintenance worker. But it may also trigger a domino effect of bad news for greater Fair Haven.
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