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RED BANK: HPC REJECTS TWO PLANS, OKS ONE

The Dublin House Pub’s plan called for the enclosure of an existing porch and balconies. (Rendering by Michael Savarese Associates. Click to enlarge.)

See UPDATE below

By JOHN T. WARD

hot topic red bank njRed Bank’s Historic Preservation Commission nixed proposed makeovers of two downtown buildings as inappropriate Wednesday night.

A third plan, to give a corner building a “midcentury modern” look, sailed to approval.

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RED BANK: MAKEOVERS TO GET HPC REVIEWS

Denholtz Properties plans to redo the existing building at Broad Street and Reckless Place. (Rendering by Rotwein + Blake. Click to enlarge.)

By JOHN T. WARD

Buildings at two high-visibility corners in downtown Red Bank would get makeovers under plans scheduled for review this week by the Historic Preservation Commission.

Here’s what’s on deck.

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RED BANK: PRESERVATIONISTS FLEX MUSCLE

The house at 26 Wallace Street, believed to have been built in 1889, would be razed to expand a parking lot under a developer’s proposal. (Photo by John T. Ward. Click to enlarge.)

By JOHN T. WARD

hot topic red bank njAnticipating possible challenges to its authority on two fronts, Red Bank’s Historic Preservation Commission was in a muscle-flexing posture Wednesday night.

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RED BANK: JOURNALIST JOHN F. BURTON DIES

John F. Burton at the Red Bank Mayor’s Ball in 2015. (Photo by John T. Ward. Click to enlarge)

By JOHN T. WARD

John F. Burton, a longtime chronicler of Red Bank-area people, government and more, died Sunday.

The senior reporter for the weekly Two River Times had battled illness for the past three years.

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RED BANK: DEAD BANK, GRATEFUL AT GIG 200

Dead Bank guitarist Jim Willis, left, and bassist Nash Aliaga at Jamian’s, where the band was conceived six years ago. A photo of the late Jerry Garcia has a place of honor on the stage. (Photo by John T. Ward. Click to enlarge)

[UPDATE, July 7: Forecast of rain postpones tonight’s Dead Bank show at the Dublin House. The band’s 200th gig will instead be tomorrow night (Friday) at the Dub, weather permitting.]

By JOHN T. WARD

The band’s name, echoing a moniker for Red Bank at its economic low of the 1980s, doesn’t exactly thrill local chamber-of-commerce types, Dead Bank guitarist Jim Willis acknowledges.

“We’ve gotten a lot of crap from the town about it,” Willis said last week. “They’ll never let us play any of their festivals because of it. But I just wanted to see another connotation for ‘Dead Bank,’ a positive one.”

The Grateful Dead cover band is an inarguably local phenomenon, and this week, weather permitting, Dead Bank’s “perpetual tour of of Monmouth Street” brings it to the backyard of the Dublin House Pub for its 200th show.

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