RED BANK: HOSPITAL LOT GETS GREENERY
Some readers have noticed earthmoving activity at the corner of Spring and East Front streets in Red Bank lately and wondered: What’s Going On Here?
SEE CORRECTION BELOW
RED BANK: HOSPITALS TO KEEP CHILD CARE
Reversing a closure plan announced in July, Hackensack Meridian Health plans to continue providing child care services for employees at six New Jersey hospitals, including Riverview Medical Center in Red Bank, according to a news report. More →
RED BANK: WHAT’S ON COUNCIL AGENDA
The council continues to meet via Zoom due to pandemic restrictions. (Photo by John T. Ward. Click to enlarge.)
By JOHN T. WARD
Red Bank’s borough council meets for its first regular session of the month Wednesday night.
Here’s what’s on the agenda, and what’s not.
RED BANK: DREAMING BIG ABOUT RIVERVIEW
A video created by a Philadelphia architectural firm shows a vastly expanded Riverview Medical Center campus. (Video by BKT Architects. Click to enlarge.)
By JOHN T. WARD
Over more than a dozen years of amassing Red Bank real estate, officials at Riverview Medical Center have been silent on an obvious question: what do they plan to do with their growing land bank?
They’re still not saying. But someone went to the expense of hiring an architecture and urban planning firm to come up with blue-sky concept plans for Riverview, redbankgreen has learned. And he just made a killing selling the hospital some real estate.
RED BANK: RIVERVIEW DEAL YIELDS WINDFALL
The prices of vacant lots quadrupled in less than four years when they were sold to Riverview in late December. (Photo by John T. Ward. Click to enlarge.)
By JOHN T. WARD
The latest addition to Riverview Medical Center’s Red Bank real estate holdings yielded a windfall gain for the seller, redbankgreen has learned.
Why the hospital paid a whopping price for the site remains unanswered.
RED BANK: WHAT’S ON COUNCIL AGENDA
The council is expected to renew its contract for EMT ambulance services. (Photo by John T. Ward. Click to enlarge.)
By JOHN T. WARD
Red Bank’s borough council meets Wednesday with a relatively light agenda.
There’s still something missing: promised changes to the public comment protocol.
RED BANK: MANSION RAZED; MORE LAND EYED
The planning board approved the demolition of 95 East Front Street in July, 2019. (Photo by John T. Ward. Click to enlarge.)
By JOHN T. WARD
Turning aside pleas by historic preservationists, Riverview Medical Center demolished a 19th-century Red Bank mansion Monday.
Meantime, the hospital is planning to gobble up more real estate, redbankgreen has learned: a vacant lot directly across East Front Street from the mansion.
VIRUS: HEALTH WORKERS TO GET FIRST SHOTS
Frontline healthcare workers at Riverview Medical Center received cheers from the police, first aid and fire personnel in April. (Photo by John T. Ward. Click to enlarge.)
By JOHN T. WARD
A nationwide rollout of America’s first COVID-19 vaccine is expected to begin Tuesday with inoculations of frontline healthcare workers.
Among them will be employees of Hackensack Meridian Health, the parent company of Red Bank’s Riverview Medical Center, according to chief executive Robert Garrett.
“I truly believe this is going to be the beginning of the end of this terrible pandemic,” Garrett said on CBS’s ‘Face the Nation‘ Sunday.
RED BANK: HOSPITAL PLAN DRAWS HPC IRE
The planning board approved the demolition of 95 East Front Street in July, 2019, but the building remains vacant and intact. (Photo by John T. Ward. Click to enlarge.)
See UPDATE below
By JOHN T. WARD
Pent-up frustration over the apparent fate of a former Red Bank mansion erupted at the first pandemic-era meeting of the Red Bank Historic Preservation Commission Wednesday night.
Commission member Kal Pipo ripped the planning board for allowing the the demolition of a Victorian mansion two doors away from Riverview Medical Center – and said Mayor Pasquale Menna “sounded like he was the lawyer for” the hospital at that hearing where that decision was made.
RED BANK: ‘ALLAIRE HOUSE’ ON HPC AGENDA
The Red Bank Historic Preservation Commission plans to hold its first meeting in six months Tuesday night.
On the agenda: an update by a commission member on a pre-1868 Victorian house at 95 East Front Street slated for demolition by Hackensack Meridian Health Medical Center.
RED BANK: BASIE TAKES OVER MOVIE THEATER
For several months, posters outside the pandemic-idled Bow Tie Cinemas have read: “This is not a Hollywood ending. This is a Red Bank beginning.” (Photo by John T. Ward. Click to enlarge.)
By JOHN T. WARD
Despite facing an uncertain post-pandemic future itself, Red Bank’s Count Basie Center for the Arts has added a two-screen movie theater to its portfolio.
The entertainment juggernaut has taken over the former Bow Tie Cinemas venue on White Street, the Basie said in an announcement Monday.
RED BANK: HPC AIMS TO SAVE DOOMED HOUSE
The Victorian structure, now said to have been built before 1868, is slated for demolition. (Photo by John T. Ward. Click to enlarge.)
By JOHN T. WARD
Five months after Red Bank’s planning board approved the demolition of a Victorian house owned by Riverview Medical Center, the borough Historic Preservation Commission is hoping to save it.
Relying on newly assembled information showing the house at 95 East Front Street was older than previously believed — and may have belonged to descendants of a prominent industrialist — the HPC plans to ask the hospital to turn it into a “medical bed & breakfast.”
RED BANK: BOARD OKS RAZING OF VICTORIAN
Flanked by two office buildings also owned by Meridian, the Victorian home is the only one currently slated for demolition. (Photo by John T. Ward. Click to enlarge.)
By JOHN T. WARD
Over the objections of residents who pleaded that it be saved, the Red Bank planning board approved the demolition of a 118-year-old Victorian house owned by Riverview Medical Center Monday night.
RED BANK: VICTORIAN IN CROSSHAIRS
A prominent Victorian structure on East Front Street is on the agenda for the next Red Bank planning board meeting.
What’s Going On Here? Click ‘read more’ for the answer. (Photo by John T. Ward. Click to enlarge.)
RED BANK: HOSPITALS CLAIM BASIE MARQUEE
The new name, Hackensack Meridian Health Theatre, applies to the historic performance space, officials said. (Photo by John T. Ward. Click to enlarge.)
By JOHN T. WARD
It may always be best known to locals as ‘the Basie,’ but Red Bank’s oldest and most prominent entertainment venue is nothing if not prolific with monikers.
On Friday, yet another new one went up on the Monmouth Street marquee that bears the name of the town’s most famous son.
RED BANK: MURPHY TOUTS LOWER COSTS
Governor Phil Murphy appeared at Riverview Medical Center in Red Bank Friday to tout an expected drop in healthcare insurance costs for New Jersey customers of Obamacare. (Photo by John T. Ward. Click to enlarge)
RED BANK: NEW EMT SERVICE TAKES OVER
Alert Ambulance’s rig will replace MONOC’s at the former Relief Engine firehouse on Drummond Place starting Monday. (Click to enlarge)
By JOHN T. WARD
Beginning January 1, Red Bank 911 calls for on-scene emergency medical care will be answered by a different ambulance service.
LINCROFT: BCC HOSTS MINORITY MALE EVENT
Ed Johnson, former Asbury Park mayor and director of Brookdale Community College’s Higher Education Center in Long Branch, hosts a workshop during the 2016 Minority Male Initiative conference in Lincroft. (Photo by Brookdale Community College)
Press release from Brookdale Community College
On Friday, February 17, Brookdale Community College and the Monmouth/Ocean County Pan Hellenic Council will host the third annual “Minority Male Initiative” conference on the college’s Lincroft campus.
Scheduled for 8:30 a.m., the free conference titled “Setting Priorities for Career Success” will be held in Brookdale’s Warner Student Life Center. The event co-sponsored by Hackensack Meridian Health and Brookdale’s Educational Opportunity Fund program will offer career-oriented workshops designed specifically for local high school juniors, seniors and current Brookdale students.