RED BANK: SCHOOLS AMONG ‘MOST IMPROVED”
Red Bank’s pre-K-8 school district was among 11 from across New Jersey honored this week by the state Department of Education as “most improved” in terms of student performance.
CASEYS SOAR LB AS BULLDOGS FALL TO SJV
In local high school football action Friday night, undefeated Saint John Vianney of Holmdel continued its 2016 juggernaut with a 28-3 win at Rumson-Fair Haven, which fell to 3-2.
Meanwhile, on the road against Long Branch, Red Bank Catholic went to the air to produce a 35-20 win that improved the Caseys’ record to 4-2. Third-string quarterback Nick Brusca found his groove as a thrower, tossing his first — and second, third and fourth — touchdown passes of his varsity career while racking up 206 air yards.
Rich Chrampanis and crew have the highlights of those games and more at Shore Sports Zone. (Video courtesy of Shore Sports Zone)
RED BANK: RIVERSIDE STAND TO OPEN SOON
It may not appear much is happening at the Riverside Gardens Park concession booth in Red Bank — and for years, almost nothing has, really. But inside, Gracie and the Dudes Organic Ice Cream of Sea Bright has been making progress on a plan to open the stand for regular daily and special-events service under a deal inked with the borough in April, owner Michelle McMullin tells redbankgreen.
McMullin expects to open the stand within two weeks, she said, carrying the company’s full menu of homemade ice cream, sundaes, milkshakes and organic Italian ices. (Photo by John T. Ward. Click to enlarge)
RED BANK: ICE CREAM VENDOR TO RUN STAND
In recent years, the Riverside Gardens concession booth has been open only during borough events in the park, and managed by borough employees and volunteers. (Photo by John T. Ward. Click to enlarge)
By JOHN T. WARD
A local ice cream business has won the right to run the rarely open concession stand in Red Bank’s Riverside Gardens Park.
Gracie and the Dudes Organic Ice Cream, which has a seasonal store in Sea Bright and one in Long Branch that’s open year-round, won council approval Wednesday night to lease the borough-owned facility for two years.
RBR FALLS TO LONG BRANCH
Long Branch guard Anthony Velazquez delivered a game-winning layup with 15 seconds to go in the Green Wave’s 48-47 win at Red Bank Regional in Little Silver Tuesday. Shore Sports Zone has the video highlights of those two games and more. (Video courtesy of Shore Sports Zone.)
RBR ENDS SEASON AT 5-5 WITH LOSS TO LB
Red Bank Regional’s varsity football team quintupled last year’s win total, ending the season with a 5-5 record, but the closer was downbeat as the Bucs fell to Long Branch, 28-14, in their traditional Thanksgiving matchup. Siddique Palmer had a big game for RBR, but the Bucs couldn’t contain Dahmiere Willis, who racked up 295 yards and three TDs enroute to the single season Shore Conference rushing record of 2,589 yards.
Shore Sports Zone has those video highlights and more, including a thrilling come-from-behind win by Middletown South over Middletown North. South will face Jackson Memorial for the state Group 4 championship at Rutgers next Saturday.
RBR GRABS FIRST NIGHT WIN; RBC ROLLS
After four years of waiting for a home victory under the lights, fans of Red Bank Regional’s varsity football team had their patience rewarded Friday night as the Bucs beat Wall, 21-14, in a game that went down to the final play. Rich Chrampanis of Shore Sports Zone, a new video-based local sports website, has the highlights, including some stellar play by RBR’s Alim Godsey.
Shore Sports Zone’s amazing six-matchup recap also includes highlights of Red Bank Catholic versus Long Branch at Count Basie Field, where the Caseys rolled to their second win of the season.
Take it to Shore Sports Zone for the big picture as Chrampanis and Company bring you live scores from Saturday’s games.
LITTLE SILVER: SEEDS OF A TOMATO DYNASTY
For the third year in a row, Michael Mansfield of Oceanport won the the biggest homegrown tomato contest at the annual Sickles Farm Market weigh-in on Saturday, with a 4-pound, 2-ounce giant.
This time, though, Mansfield was “tickled,” according to his wife, Linda, to finally meet 88-year-old Minnie Zaccaria, right, the Long Branch tomato breeder whose hybridized seeds Mansfield uses to grow his juicy monsters.
First prize was a $100 gift certificate to the Little Silver market. (Photos by Susan Ericson. Click to enlarge)
RED BANK: MAYOR WELCOMES SPECIAL GUESTS
Eight disabled students from the Schroth School in Ocean Township arrived in Red Bank Friday morning for a picnic in Riverside Gardens Park and possibly some shopping downtown. But first, they met with Mayor Pasquale Menna at borough hall, where they gave him with a mug and a cap, and he gave each a signed certificate of achievement. (Photo by John T. Ward. Click to enlarge)
RED BANK: OWNER VOWS ‘NOT ANOTHER FIXX’
Gotham Lounge will have a dress code, a partner in the business said. (Photo by John T. Ward. Click to enlarge)
By JOHN T. WARD
Hoping to head off misconceptions, a partner in the Gotham Lounge, a proposed Red Bank nightclub, promises an “upscale, sophisticated” speakeasy-themed place with a dress code.
Joseph Squillaro tells redbankgreen that the Broad Street club will be respectful of local sensitivities.
“I know how important it is to the town that they not have another Chubby’s there, not another Fixx” he said, referring by the former and current names of a West Front Street bar that authorities shut down for three weeks earlier this year following two street melees within a month last fall.
RED BANK: FROM THE ’70S, A FRESH BREEZE
It was an unsettled afternoon in downtown Red Bank. A series of pouting, petulant young men and women were hanging out on the corner of Broad and West Front streets, getting on your Model Citizen correspondent’s nerves.
Crossing Broad to escape the negativity, we were immediately distracted by Brandi Coleman’s laid-back look. In cutoff shorts with a white lace throw waving behind her as she strode, she was a breath of fresh air amid the crop tops and t-shirts. Her bag hung freely on her shoulder, its long fringes almost grazing the sidewalk.
RED BANK RENEWS PUSH FOR LATE CLOSINGS
Bars and restaurants are doing their job keeping doors open late, some say, but more merchants must stay open to attract more visitors. (Photo by Dustin Racioppi; click to enlarge)
By DUSTIN RACIOPPI
As Red Bank continues to claw its way out of an economic hole it hasn’t seen since the we-don’t-like-to-talk-about-it Dead Bank days, Mayor Pasquale Menna tends to periodically jab downtown’s retailers with a reminder that it’s going to take work to bring Red Bank back as a top destination in the region and beyond.
Lately, though, he’s taken a firmer approach.
At a council meeting last month, when two requests for car shows on Broad Street appeared on the agenda, he paused from the typical rubber-stamping of such requests.
“This is a chance to tickle, pinch, smack our retailers to stay open on Sunday,” Menna said, and then pointed to Red Bank RiverCenter Executive Director Nancy Adams, who was seated in the audience. “Get the word out. Tell them to stay open on Sunday. I might start smacking instead of pinching.”
It was another lash at a limp horse he’s been flogging since before Red Bank’s business dipped with the national economy. For years, Menna has been urging merchants to move away from the nine-to-five mindset and keep the lights on after dark and on Sunday, when too many stores, he says, are closed.
JAZZ & BLUES TOO HOT TO HANDLE
Torrid heat and humidity, with temperatures hovering around 100 degrees, made the early hours of the Jersey Shore Jazz & Blues Festival at the Middletown Arts Center a hard sell Saturday afternoon.
Formerly held in Marine Park in Red Bank, the festival this year splits its venues between Middletown, Long Branch and Asbury Park over three months. (Photos by Stacie Fanelli. Click to enlarge)
JAZZ & BLUES FEST BUSTS ITSELF IN THREE
The 2009 edition of the festival was the last at Red Bank’s Marine Park, and there are no signs of a return. (Click to enlarge)
By DUSTIN RACIOPPI
The Jersey Shore Jazz & Blues Festival, once a summer staple in Red Bank that was unceremoniously scratched off the calendar and has since been on a wayward journey for a permanent home, is taking the show on the road this year.
After a stint on the pavement at Monmouth Park, the festival’s foundation announced it’s taking a totally different direction three, actually making one-day stops over three months in as many towns.
“It is what it is right now,” festival organizer Dennis Eschbach told redbankgreen. “We’re going in a different direction this year.”
SAYING GOODBYE TO HER TOWN
Sea Bright Administrator Maryann Smeltzer will retire at the end of June. (Photo by Dustin Racioppi; click to enlarge)
By DUSTIN RACIOPPI
Maryann Smeltzer was born in Long Branch, and for the last dozen or so, has lived with her husband of 39 years in West Long Branch.
Her allegiance, by logic, would be to one of those towns.
Not so for Smeltzer, who’s spent the last 31 years, with a break, making a daily trip up Ocean Avenue to Sea Bright Borough Hall, working her way up from a part-time secretary to borough administrator.
“Whenever I talk about my town, [husband Richard] thinks I’m talking about West Long Branch, but I’m talking about Sea Bright,” she said. “Sea Bright will always be my town.”
Smeltzer, who turns 60 on June 2, will retire from her town at the end of June.
ON CONSIGNMENT: RE-ENTRY JOBS
U Gallery will feature luxury goods on consignment and works by brain-injured artists. (Click to enlarge) 
One of the stores opening as part of a surge in new consignment shops in the Red Bank area has an unusual pedigree.
It’s called U Gallery, and it’s an offshoot of Universal Institute, a player in the healthcare industry specializing in services for brain-injured clients.
Huh?
No, that’s not an egregious misprint. Lisa Lasso, who co-owns the rehab and vocational training facility, says a consignment shop/art gallery can work, and say she has the track record to prove it.
IN oRBit: FANS BUY ‘BORN TO RUN’ COTTAGE
In an exclusive, today’s edition of Red Bank oRBit reports that three Bruce Springsteen fans, including one from Lincroft, have purchased the Long Branch house where the rocker wrote Born to Run and other songs from his 1975 breakthrough album of the same name.
They paid $280,000 for the 828-square-foot West End cottage just so no one else would buy and tear down what they see as a rock and roll shrine.
We dont want it to ever be anything than what it is,” co-buyer Kim McDermott tells oRbit, the entertainment news companion to redbankgreen.