RED BANK: DOWNTOWN PARKING. THOUGHTS?
Regular users of Red Bank’s public parking facilities: here’s your chance to weigh in on what’s good about them, what’s not, and how to improve them.
RED BANK: NONPARTISAN ELECTIONS? NOT YET.
Mike Whelan, center, and Mark Taylor, seen here on the night of their election to the Red Bank council in 2015, spearheaded the referendum effort. (Photo by John T. Ward. Click to enlarge.)
By JOHN T. WARD
Red Bank voters eager to eliminate partisanship from local elections and governance won’t get their wish this year.
A referendum initiative calling for non-partisan elections and a change to the form of local government lost steam over the summer and won’t be on November’s ballot. But its foremost advocates say they’re not giving up.
RED BANK: GOP TO RUN MAYORAL CANDIDATE
Pearl Lee at the Bank Street block party earlier this month. (Photo by John T. Ward. Click to enlarge.)
By JOHN T. WARD
Her name has appeared on campaign lawn signs for weeks, but on Tuesday, a Red Bank political neophyte made it official: she’s running for mayor.
Pearl Lee, a retiree and singer from Alston Court, will top the Republican ticket ballot in November’s election. She’ll also be the first GOP opponent of Democratic incumbent Mayor Pasquale Menna since he won the seat in 2006.
RED BANK: FRESH “JAM” AT PARK STAND
Steve Farley, left, and Bill Huwyler at Riverside Park Jam, the former concession stand in Riverside Gardens Park that they’ve reinvented as a gourmet-quality takeout restaurant. (Photo by John T. Ward. Click to enlarge.)
By JOHN T. WARD
Two years after it ended decades of underutilization, the concession stand in Riverside Gardens Park in Red Bank has a radically new mission.
Call it the no-concessions stand, because it’s not summer-only, and it’s not hot dogs and sodas — not by a long shot.
RED BANK: GOP ATTACKS RIVAL OVER THREAT
Council candidate Michael Clancy at the Red Bank Classic race in June. (Photo by John T. Ward. Click to enlarge.)
By JOHN T. WARD
In the first attack of Red Bank’s 2018 election season, the two Republican council candidates claimed they saw one of their Democratic opponents “cavort” with a man who had made “menacing and threatening gestures” toward one of them at a local government meeting.
RED BANK: NEW ‘CLASSIC’ SPRINGS TO LIFE
Runners head down Branch Avenue in the 2015 edition of the George Sheehan Classic, which turned out to be the last. (Photo by John T. Ward. Click to enlarge)
By JOHN T. WARD
Three years after the departure of a beloved road race, the new Red Bank Classic 5K sprang to life under cloudless skies Saturday.
The debut running of the race, organized by the Red Bank Business Alliance, attracted more than 1,000 runners, eclipsing the expectations, said RBBA member Angie Courtney.
Were you there, or do you know someone who was? Look for them in redbankgreen‘s photos below. Race results are here.
RED BANK: NEW ‘CLASSIC’ 5K SET TO RUN
Runners head down Branch Avenue in the 2015 edition of the George Sheehan Classic, which turned out to be the last. (Photo by John T. Ward. Click to enlarge)
By JOHN T. WARD
After a three-year rest, Red Bank is set to again lace up its running shoes Saturday with the debut of Red Bank Classic, organizers said.
Here’s what you need to know:
ON THE GREEN: PRIMARY RESULTS
By JOHN T. WARD
Only eleven percent of Monmouth County’s registered voters participated in Tuesday’s Democratic and Republic primaries, with surprise outcomes hard to find on the Greater Red Bank Green.
RUMSON: EKDAHL RETIRES AS MAYOR
John Ekdahl, right, with former Red Bank Mayor Ed McKenna at the groundbreaking last September for an addition to the Count Basie Center for the Arts, where they serve on an advisory board. (Photo by John T. Ward. Click to enlarge.)
By JOHN T. WARD
After 14 years at the helm of Rumson’s municipal government, John Ekdahl retired as mayor last week.
RED BANK: NONPARTISAN DRIVE UNDERWAY
Council members Mike Whelan, in white shirt, and Mark Taylor at the Red Bank First kickoff Tuesday night at Red Rock Tap + Grill. (Photo by John T. Ward. Click to enlarge.)
By JOHN T. WARD
Hoping to bust through what they see as political gridlock, two lame-duck Red Bank council members kicked off a petition effort Tuesday night to change both the borough’s form of government and the way in which its officials are elected.
RED BANK: NONPARTISAN DRIVE TO KICK OFF
Red Bank’s ballots would be free of party lines if a push for nonpartisan elections succeeds. (Photo by John T. Ward. Click to enlarge.)
By JOHN T. WARD
To spark debate over whether to make Red Bank’s elections nonpartisan, two lame-duck council members have slated a public-welcome event at a downtown bar next week.
On the agenda: policy discussion, a petition, plus complimentary food and drink.
RED BANK: GOP CHAIR TO SEEK COUNCIL SEAT
GOP Chairman Michael Clancy at last October’s Halloween parade. (Photo by John T. Ward. Click to enlarge.)
By JOHN T. WARD
With its two incumbents dropping out, the Red Bank Republican party on Thursday chose its chairman and a newcomer to run for borough council this year, redbankgreen has learned.
Party head Michael Clancy will be joined on the ticket by Bank Street resident Allison Gregory on a ticket in which the mayoral slot will be blank, Clancy said Friday.
RED BANK: GOP INCUMBENTS WON’T RUN
Mike Whelan, left, and Mark Taylor kicking off their campaign in 2015. (Photo by John T. Ward. Click to enlarge)
By JOHN T. WARD
Red Bank’s two remaining Republican council members won’t run for re-election this year, they said late Thursday night.
The bombshell news from first-termers Mark Taylor and Mike Whelan would appear to end a chapter of brief resurgence for the local GOP after having been frozen out of power for a generation.
RED BANK: CONCESSION LEASE TO BE RE-BID
The Red Bank council will try again to find a vendor for the concession stand in Riverside Gardens Parks this summer.
FAIR HAVEN: COUNCIL TAKES AIM AT POT, GUNS
Councilman Bob Marchese urged the council to ban recreational pot sales while allowing for medicinal trade. (Photo by John T. Ward. Click to enlarge.)
By JOHN T. WARD
Mixed in among discussions of yard sales and tree removals at the Fair Haven council’s semimonthly meeting Monday night were two issues of concern statewide and beyond: marijuana and guns.
RED BANK: VISCOMI ADDS WILD CARD TO RACE
Viscomi serves on the board of ed, where she leads the finance committee, and is on a number of borough committees. (Photo by John T. Ward. Click to enlarge.)
By JOHN T. WARD
The 2018 race for two Red Bank council seats looks like it will have a wild card.
Sue Viscomi, a board of education member and former Republican stalwart who has expressed increasing antipathy in recent years to the local arm of the party, has started gathering signatures for a run as an independent in the November election, she told redbankgreen on Monday.
Her entry would appear to add to the challenge for the two presumptive Republican candidates, already facing the prospect of an anti-Trump backlash in a majority Democrat town, and could eat into support for the two Democrats in the race, both newcomers to elective politics.
RED BANK: SIDEWALK CAFÉ, STAND ON AGENDA
A proposed ordinance change would allow Catch 19, a seafood restaurant that’s zoned as a club, to set up sidewalk dining like other downtown eateries. (Photo by John T. Ward. Click to enlarge.)
By JOHN T. WARD
A downtown Red Bank restaurant that’s zoned as a club would be able to join the trend of sidewalk cafés under a law tweak up for consideration Wednesday night.
Also on the borough council agenda: a new vendor for the concession stand in Riverside Gardens Park.
RED BANK: MENNA TOPS TICKET AGAIN
Mayor Pasquale Menna at Riverside Gardens Park in September. (Photo by John T. Ward. Click to enlarge)
By JOHN T. WARD
Holding off a challenge by activist Ben Forest, Mayor Pasquale Menna secured the top spot on the Democratic ticket in the November election Sunday.
Menna, going for a fourth four-year term, will be joined by two council contenders seeking their first elective office.
RED BANK: BURNHAM DISHES AND… OOPS!
Councilman Mike Whelan with Tiffanie Borges at the 2016 Mayor’s Ball, above. Below, then-Councilwoman Cindy Burnham at the same event with Industry magazine’s Anthony Barbera. (Photos by John T. Ward. Click to enlarge)
By JOHN T. WARD
Red Bank’s semimonthly council meeting veered into Page Six territory Wednesday night when former Councilwoman Cindy Burnham suggested Councilman Mike Whelan was dating someone other than his longtime girlfriend.
LITTLE SILVER: OATHS AND ‘BAD POETRY’
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.
SHREWSBURY: TURNER TAKES PD COMMAND
Chief Bobby Turner has spent his entire career with the borough police department. (Photo by John T. Ward. Click to enlarge)
By JOHN T. WARD
The son of a Long Branch police officer shot in the line of duty is Shrewsbury’s new police chief.
Bobby Turner says he entered college thinking he’d become a social worker or teacher, and even spent a few years pointing in that direction careerwise.
FAIR HAVEN: KOCH JOINS COUNCIL AFTER ALL
With an assist from Councilwoman Susan Sorensen, Betsy Koch, right, takes her seat for the first time as a council member during a meeting held at the Knollwood School, where she’s a teacher. Members of the student council were also on the dais. (Photo by John T. Ward. Click to enlarge.)
By JOHN T. WARD
Less than a three weeks after a narrow loss at the polls, Elizabeth ‘Betsy’ Koch won unanimous appointment to the Fair Haven council Monday.
She replaces Councilman Rowland Wilhelm, who stepped down with two years remaining on his third three-year term.
RED BANK: MEETING ENDS WITH BELLY RUB
Oliver, the Shih Tzu companion of Councilwoman Linda Schwabenbauer, had free run of the room at a special meeting of the Red Bank council Monday night.
LITTLE SILVER: HEALY, HOLZAPFEL WIN
Capping a year overshadowed by a widely despised new cell tower in the heart of town, Little Silver voters went with new blood in Tuesday’s election for two council members.
They opted for Democrat Christoper Healy and Republican Michael Holzapfel, dropping Holzapfel running mate, incumbent Dane Mihlon.
Democrat Matthew Cohen finished fourth in the four-way race, in which just 165 votes separated the top and bottom candidates, according to results posted online by the Monmouth County Clerk.
FAIR HAVEN: INCUMBENTS WIN NEW TERMS
Fair Haven voters opted for one Democrat and one Republican, both incumbents, in filling two open seats on the borough council Tuesday.
Democrat Christopher Rodriguez led the pack of four candidates with 1,148 votes, outpolling Republican Susan Sorensen by 28 votes, according to results posted by the Monmouth County Clerk.