LITTLE SILVER: NEW AMBULANCE DEBUTS
Ex-Chief MikeWelsh shows off the EMT safety restraints in a new ambulance dedicated by the Little Silver First Aid Squad Monday night.
RED BANK: TURNING LANE ERASED
Say goodbye to that weird little jog into the right lane: the left-turn lane from southbound Broad Street into Linden Place in Red Bank was removed Tuesday.
LITTLE SILVER: K9 UNIT OK’D, BUT NOT A FUND
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.
LITTLE SILVER: K9 ISSUE SPLITS COUNCIL
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?
RED BANK: 5K TO RUN AGAIN IN 2018
Runners head down Branch Avenue in the 2015 edition of the George Sheehan Classic, which was cancelled a year later. (Photo by John T. Ward. Click to enlarge)
By JOHN T. WARD
Filling a gap left by the departure of the George Sheehan Classic a year ago, Red Bank will again host a 5k race in June, 2018. And this one will be run entirely within the town’s borders.
The borough council gave a green light Wednesday night to the event, which is being organized by the Red Bank Business Alliance.
FAIR HAVEN: TAXES ON THE TABLE
The February sale of a vacant borough-owned lot on Fisk Street helped keep a lid on property taxes this year, said Administrator Theresa Casagrande. (Photo by John T. Ward. Click to enlarge)
By JOHN T. WARD
Taxes dominated the Fair Haven council’s semimonthly meeting Monday night, with a borough budget up for adoption and presentations on spending plans by two school districts on the agenda.
Bottom line(s): a drop in the borough levy, a drop in the local school tax, and an increase in the one that funds the regional high school.
RED BANK: COUNCIL MUM ON GARAGE PLANS
A lawsuit claims the redevelopment plan for the White Street parking lot ignores the town’s Master Plan. (Photo by John T. Ward. Click to enlarge)
By JOHN T. WARD
Would-be developers in downtown Red Bank will no longer have to pay fees for failing to provide enough parking, following action by the borough council Wednesday night.
But progress toward a public garage on White Street — a partial solution to what many business owners consider a parking crisis — may have hit a legal speed bump.
RED BANK: PRESSED, ATTORNEY APOLOGIZES
Borough Attorney Greg Cannon at Wednesday’s council meeting. (Photo by John T. Ward. Click to enlarge)
By JOHN T. WARD
Red Bank’s borough attorney apologized Wednesday night for a bizarre episode last month in which he redirected a video camera belonging to former Councilwoman Cindy Burnham.
Attorney Greg Cannon offered the mea culpa after being pressed for it by Locust Avenue resident Ben Forest.
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RED BANK: CLANCY QUITS COMMUNITY PANEL
Michael Clancy, center, at the Red Bank Middle School in 2015. (Photo by John T. Ward. Click to enlarge)
By JOHN T. WARD
Red Bank Republican Chairman Michael Clancy resigned from the borough Human Relations Advisory Committee Thursday night, continuing to disavow a text message that the committee’s chairman had termed “extremely threatening” to immigrant children.
RED BANK: CLANCY DISAVOWS DIVISIVE TEXT
Michael Clancy in 2015. (Photo by John T. Ward. Click to enlarge)
By JOHN T. WARD
Red Bank Republican Chairman Michael Clancy on Wednesday disavowed a text message that a party loyalist had termed a “disgusting” slap at the borough’s immigrant community.
Amid renewed calls for his resignation from the borough Human Relations Advisory Committee, Clancy sent redbankgreen a statement in which he expressed a “deep empathy for immigrants and children of immigrants, who live in fear of deportation.”
RED BANK: VISCOMI DOUBLE-BARRELS CLANCY
Sue Viscomi at a 2015 board of education meeting. (Photo by John T. Ward. Click to enlarge)
[Correction: The date of a controversial text was incorrectly reported in the original version of this article. References to it below have been corrected.]
By JOHN T. WARD
A Red Bank Republican loyalist blasted party Chairman Michael Clancy Tuesday, one day after she was bypassed in favor of a political newcomer to run for borough council this year.
Sue Viscomi, who serves on the board of education, also took aim at Clancy for what she said was a “dumbfounding” and “disgusting” text she claims he sent to her and three GOP council members last month in February asking for a list of undocumented alien students so he could “mail it to ICE,” referring to the federal Immigration and Customs Enforcement Agency.
RED BANK: PARTIES TAP COUNCIL CANDIDATES
This year’s council candidates include Democrats Ed Zipprich, left, and Michael Ballard, center, and Republican Linda Schwabenbauer, right. Missing is Schwabenbauer running mate Dana McArthur. (Photos by John T. Ward. Click to enlarge)
By JOHN T. WARD
The primary races for two Red Bank council seats will be uncontested in June, with the Democrats and Republicans having firmed up their two-person tickets Monday.
RED BANK: ATTORNEY MAKES ISSUE OF CAMERA
Borough Attorney Greg Cannon at Wednesday’s council meeting. (Photo by John T. Ward. Click to enlarge)
By JOHN T. WARD
Former Red Bank Council President Cindy Burnham blasted borough Attorney Greg Cannon after he redirected a video camera she was using to record the governing body’s semimonthly meeting Wednesday night.
Mid-meeting, while others on the dais were speaking about unrelated matters, Cannon walked from his seat beside Mayor Pasquale Menna to the front row of the audience and re-aimed Burnham’s tripod-mounted camera before returning to his seat.
RED BANK: WHELAN RUNNING FOR ASSEMBLY
Red Bank Councilman Mike Whelan and Ocean Township Deputy Mayor Robert Accera Sr. will anchor a ticket headed by state Senator Jen Beck. (Photo by John T. Ward. Click to enlarge)
By JOHN T. WARD
After just 14 months on the Red Bank borough council, Mike Whelan is taking aim at Trenton.
The 25-year-old Republican plans to mount a bid to recapture an 11th-District Assembly seat for his party from first-term incumbents Joann Downey and Eric Houghtaling, he told attendees at the GOP’s annual Lincoln Day Dinner in Freehold Friday.
RED BANK: VACANT SITES TARGETED
The council plans to impose fees on long-vacant properties “that may not be decrepit” or abandoned, said Mayor Pasquale Menna. After a change of ownership, 1 Broad Street, above, has remained vacant for two and a half years. (Photo by John T. Ward. Click to enlarge)
By JOHN T. WARD
Owners of vacant residential and commercial properties in Red Bank could face steeply escalating fees for not renting them under a proposed ordinance up for introduction Wednesday night.
RED BANK: PARK, VACANT SITES ON AGENDA
The council may authorize the creation of a concept plan to turn the former landfill at West Sunset Avenue into a park. (Photo by John T. Ward. Click to enlarge)
By JOHN T. WARD
The Red Bank council has a packed agenda for its semimonthly meeting Wednesday night, including possible progress toward a long-dreamed-of new park on the West Side and some bad news for landlords who neglect vacant properties.
RED BANK: PARKING CHANGES ON AGENDA
On the agenda: a change to the ordinance on overnight street parking in winter. (Photo by John T. Ward. Click to enlarge)
By JOHN T. WARD
A possible 773-vehicle garage on White Street isn’t the only parking issue on the Red Bank council’s agenda Wednesday night.
At its semimonthly meeting, the governing body is expected to take action on a number of matters that would tweak parking downtown as well as in residential neighborhoods.
RED BANK: PARKING NEWS
Under a recommendation of the council parking committee, the left-turn lane from Broad Street into Linden Lane would be eliminated, restoring three parking spaces on the west side of Broad. (Photo by John T. Ward. Click to enlarge)
By JOHN T. WARD
For the first time in recent months, the clamor for and against a new parking garage in downtown Red Bank was absent at the first regular council meeting of 2017 Wednesday night.
Still, there was a smattering of parking-related news.
RED BANK: CLINTON COATTAILS HELPED DEMS
Hillary Clinton won every district in Red Bank but the fifth, lifting the party’s entire ticket. (Photo by John T. Ward. Click to enlarge)
By JOHN T. WARD
She lost at the national level, but Hillary Clinton won Red Bank, and her coattails helped Democrats pull even with Republicans on the borough council Tuesday night, election returns tallied by the Monmouth County Clerk show.
Clinton captured all but one of the but one of Red Bank’s nine voting districts — the fifth — topping president-elect Donald Trump townwide, 2,633 to 1,510. (The figures don’t include mail-in ballots, said borough clerk Pam Borghi.)
SHREWSBURY: INCUMBENTS WIN ALL FOUR
Incumbent Republicans sailed to victory in races for four seats on the Shrewsbury Borough Council Tuesday — two for full terms, and two for one-year unexpired terms, according to results posted only by the Monmouth County Clerk.RED BANK: DEMS WIN, GAIN COUNCIL PARITY
Erik Yngstrom at Democratic headquarters as the party’s local victory became clear. (Photo by John T. Ward. Click to enlarge)
By JOHN T. WARD
Knocked from their perch a year ago, Red Bank Democrats gained parity with Republicans on the borough council Tuesday night, as incumbent Kathy Horgan and newcomer Erik Yngstrom routed three other candidates, according to preliminary results.
The clearest loser in the race was incumbent Cindy Burnham, who ran a distant fifth three years after she broke a seven-year Democratic lock on the governing body.
SEA BRIGHT: KELLY, BIRDSALL CLAIM SEATS
Incumbent Republican Brian Kelly and independent Kevin Birdsall won the two open council seats in Sea Bright Tuesday, according to results posted by the Monmouth County Clerk.
RED BANK: CANDIDATES AGREE, MINUS TWO
Incumbents Kathy Horgan, a Democrat, and Cindy Burnham, running as an independent, at Wednesday night’s event at the Pilgrim Baptist Church. (Photo by John T. Ward. Click to enlarge)
By JOHN T. WARD
The Republican candidates for Red Bank council sent emissaries who watched from the sidelines at a community event Wednesday night.
First-time GOP candidates Brian Hanlon and Kellie O’Bosky Colwell disputed the circumstances under which the event, billed as a “community conversation,” came together, leaving them unable to attend, they told redbankgreen. Their expected absence had been termed an “insult” by one of the event’s organizers.
But the event itself turned out not to be as partisan as GOP chairman Mike Clancy had feared, he said afterward.