Attorney Greg Cannon at Red Bank borough hall in 2017. (Photo by John T. Ward. Click to enlarge)
By JOHN T. WARD
One year after he was unceremoniously dumped as Red Bank’s borough attorney, Greg Cannon appears set to regain the influential post Thursday night.
That’s when the newly reconstituted government led by Mayor Billy Portman is scheduled to get down to business at a special meeting to kick off the “council-manager” era.
Attendees standing for the flag salute at Wednesday’s council session. (Photo by John T. Ward. Click to enlarge.)
By JOHN T. WARD
Red Bank’s 115-year-long “borough” government era came to a muted, low-key end Wednesday night with a council session free of the infighting that marked the last five.
Gracious words, in fact, were exchanged.
A “temporary” office trailer has been in use at the public utilities yard on Chestnut Street for 20 years and is now “separating and shifting,” a report says. (Photo by John T. Ward. Click to enlarge.)
By JOHN T. WARD
A detailed review of Red Bank’s public utilities department found unsafe vehicles, inadequate staffing, facilities in need of upgrades and numerous other deficiencies, redbankgreen has learned.
The 14-page report, by former interim director Gary Watson Sr., includes a recommended boost in staffing to improve dealings with residents, who often can’t get answers to their inquiries, he wrote.
Tom Hintelmann addresses attendees at the event in his late father’s honor. (Photo by John T. Ward. Click to enlarge.)
See note below
By JOHN T. WARD
The lobby at Red Bank’s long-closed Senior Center now has a name, in honor of the late Thomas E. Hintelmann, the borough’s longest-serving council member.
Several dozen attendees crowded into the foyer of the Shrewsbury Avenue facility Tuesday evening to memorialize Hintelmann, who served on the borough council from 1975 through 2004.
Repair work continued at the Shrewsbury Avenue facility last month. (Photo by John T. Ward. Click to enlarge.)
By JOHN T. WARD
Red Bank officials have scheduled a dedication ceremony this week at the borough’s long-closed Senior Center.
But not, it turns out, to reopen the facility, which still isn’t quite ready for prime time, according to the interim borough Administrator Darren McConnell.
Robinson Ale House owner Tim McLoone at Wednesday’s council session. (Photo by John T. Ward. Click to enlarge.)
By JOHN T. WARD
Red Bank’s Broadwalk dining plaza will return for at least a four-month run May 15, following informal agreement by the borough council Wednesday night.
The consensus arose after Mayor Billy Portman and Councilwoman Kate Triggiano goaded the reluctant majority bloc into an immediate decision.
Area NAACP president William Poku addressing Councilmembers John Jackson, Michael Ballard and Ed Zippich during the special session. (Photo by John T. Ward. Click to enlarge.)
By JOHN T. WARD
Controversy over an ordinance restricting short-term residential rentals such as Airbnbs in Red Bank continued at a special hearing Friday morning on whether to override Mayor Billy Portman‘s veto of the law.
Councilman Ed Zipprich, right, with Councilman Michael Ballard in December. (Photos by John T. Ward. Click to enlarge.)
By JOHN T. WARD
Five-term incumbent Red Bank Councilmember Ed Zipprich won’t run for a seat in the new form of government he opposed, according to a news report.
In recent years, Zipprich has been a lightning rod for controversy as the the Democratic party, which dominates borough politics, split into warring tribes under his leadership.
White pails for the program were distributed in 2021. (Photo by John T. Ward. Click to enlarge.)
By JOHN T. WARD
Yes, Red Bank will collect plastic film for recycling Wednesday, despite the recent end of a one-year pilot program, a borough official told redbankgreen.
Scott Lavelle showing the audience a photo of a bounce house at an Airbnb that abuts his Worthley Street home. (Photo by John T. Ward. Click to enlarge.)
By JOHN T. WARD
Red Bank’s council formally introduced a proposed law to regulate short-term home rentals such as Airbnbs Wednesday night.
The action followed heated debate on both the substance of the ordinance and the process that brought it to this point.
Councilmembers Michael Ballard, center, John Jackson, left, and Ed Zipprich at the January 4 reorganization session. (Photo by John T. Ward. Click to enlarge.)
By JOHN T. WARD
A controversial set of bylaws that were rushed into adoption will get a review by Red Bank’s council later this month, members of its majority bloc said last week.
At the council’s first session following adoption of the bylaws, Council President Michael Ballard acknowledged that the governing body had already done a “horrible job” sticking to its own rules.
Councilmen John Jackson, Michael Ballard and Ed Zipprich at Wednesday’s reorganization session. (Photo by John T. Ward. Click to enlarge.)
By JOHN T. WARD
Red Bank’s council majority adopted a new set of bylaws Wednesday night that would give it broad power to block resolutions from even making it to the dais.
In the process, allies of Councilman Ed Zipprich rejected a request by new Mayor Billy Portman that the measure – which no one from the public or media saw in advance – be tabled.
Interim Business Administrator Darren McConnell at a meeting in June. (Photo by John T. Ward. Click to enlarge.)
By JOHN T. WARD
Red Bank’s council has hit the brakes in its search for a new borough administrator, redbankgreen has learned.
The unexplained pause comes two months after majority Democrats dispatched borough Attorney Dan Antonelli to negotiate a deal with the leading candidate for the town’s top unelected job.
With Mayor Pasquale Menna in the background, Councilman Ed Zipprich attached a borough pin to the jacket worn by Angela Mirandi after her swearing-in as council member in February. (Photo by John T. Ward. Click to enlarge.)
By JOHN T. WARD
Eight days after former councilman Mark Taylor blasted current Councilman Ed Zipprich as the source of “chaos” in Red Bank government, Zipprich returned fire Wednesday.
In a prepared statement, Zipprich slammed Taylor for “ineptitude” as a council member and for purported failures of leadership at the Red Bank Borough Education Foundation.
Taylor, in turn, doubled down in his attack on Zipprich.
An employee of Catch 19 setting up tables Friday. (Photo by John T. Ward. Click to enlarge.)
By JOHN T. WARD
With borough workers and contractors putting finishing touches on an eight-month-long streetscape project, a handful of restaurants hastily set up for a return of Red Bank’s Broadwalk plaza Friday.
Outside the traffic-free zone, however, none of the parking-space streateries used over the past two summers have returned, following a sixfold increase in fees by the borough council.
Gleaming new retractable security bollards are expected make their debut on Broad Street in downtown Red Bank with the return of Broadwalk Friday.
But will businesses be ready for the late-starting third season of the dining and shopping plaza?
Businesses readied for the second year of Broadwalk in May, 2021. (Photo by John T. Ward. Click to enlarge.)
By JOHN T. WARD
Delayed by months, the third season of Red Bank’s Broadwalk shopping-and-dining plaza may finally get going July 22.
This year’s edition, however, is slated to run only through Labor Day. And new fees for in-street dining will cost restaurateurs twice what they paid over the past two summers, said Bob Zuckerman, executive director of the downtown promotion agency Red Bank RiverCenter.
Attorney Greg Cannon at borough hall last November. (Photo by John T. Ward. Click to enlarge)
By JOHN T. WARD
It was another night of political fireworks, this time punctuated by Cannon fire, as the Red Bank council terminated borough attorney Greg Cannon without explanation Wednesday night.
The abrupt action created a vacancy Mayor Pasquale Menna angrily refused to fill when Councilman Ed Zipprich nominated a lawyer who recently “exonerated” him of impropriety.
Red Tank Brewing owner John Arcara speaking at Wednesday’s council session. (Photo by John T. Ward. Click to enlarge.)
By JOHN T. WARD
The Red Bank council voted Wednesday to boost the fees charged to restaurants to maintain tables in parking spaces converted to streateries.
The action followed claims by two business owners that the hike was onerous.
Billy Portman at Red Rock Tap + Grill Tuesday night. (Photo by John T. Ward. Click to enlarge.)
By JOHN T. WARD
Political neophyte Billy Portman claimed a landslide victory in Red Bank Democrats’ mayoral primary Tuesday night.
At the same time, enough members of an 18-candidate reform slate for the party’s county committee appeared to win races to ensure a change at the top of an organization Portman had criticized for “machine politics.”
Billy Portman addressing supporters at a fundraiser held at Tino’s Restaurant in late April. (Photo by John T. Ward. Click to enlarge.)
By JOHN T. WARD
Red Bank mayoral contender Billy Portman is “not looking for a lifetime in politics,” he says.
In fact, if all goes according to plan, he’ll be able to hand the reins to his successor just five months after being sworn in, he says.
Michael Ballard at Sickles Market in Red Bank in May. (Photo by John T. Ward. Click to enlarge.)
By JOHN T. WARD
Unlike his opponent in the June 7 Red Bank Democratic primary, Michael Ballard says he’s in it for the long haul.
“I am running to be the mayor of Red Bank for the next four years,” Ballard told redbankgreen last month. And with his “team,” he vows to return the governing body “to a pre-2018 council that was not at each others throats.”
Borough workers created a streatery outside Bombay River and Tacoholics restaurants on Broad Street in July, 2020. (Photo by John T. Ward. Click to enlarge.)
By JOHN T. WARD
At the Red Bank council’s first in-person session in more than two years last week, a lone member failed to advance a pandemic-era fix said to be favored by two merchant organizations: street eateries.
Councilman Ed Zipprich, right, with then-Councilman Erik Yngstrom at a workshop session in March, 2020. (Photo by John T. Ward. Click to enlarge.)
By JOHN T. WARD
Red Bank Councilman Ed Zipprich has been “exonerated” after a two-year “smear campaign” meant to “dehumanize” him, he said in a statement to redbankgreen Thursday.
Zipprich’s statement came in response to special attorney’s finding that he did not “interfere” in the award of a trash collection contract two years ago.
Councilman Ed Zipprich, right, with Councilman Michael Ballard in February. (Click to enlarge.)
By JOHN T. WARD
Red Bank Councilman Ed Zipprich did not “interfere” in the award of a trash collection contract two years ago, according to an unreleased report obtained by redbankgreen.
Special attorney Scott Salmon’s report also says “there is evidence to suggest” that former business administrator Ziad Shehady was the the anonymous source of internal emails about Zipprich that were leaked to redbankgreen.