A Red Bank police officer helped two families escape from a fire in their attached homes in Middletown last week.
Sergeant Heather Kovar (right) was driving in the township on police business shortly after noon Friday when she noticed gray smoke rising behind a fence alongside what appeared to be a single-family house at 81 Twin Brooks Avenue.
Mayor Pasquale Menna, left, and Councilman Michael Ballard, right, squared off over the proposed clerk’s salary. (Photo by John T. Ward. Click to enlarge.)
By JOHN T. WARD
Red Bank’s council put off hiring a new borough clerk over salary issues Wednesday night.
During the governing body’s monthly workshop session, Councilman Michael Ballard, a contender to displace Pasquale Menna as mayor, accused Menna of playing “Monday night quarterback” for raising concerns late in the process.
A motorist was killed when his car smashed into a truck at the foot of the Route 35 bridge in Red Bank Saturday morning, according to police Chief Darren McConnell. Read More
Dozens of residents of the Greater Red Bank Green were among the 147 Monmouth County residents, and 2,996 overall, who died in the terrorist attacks on the United States on September 11, 2001.
Information about commemorations in Red Bank and Atlantic Highlands can be found here.
Red Bank-area residents will mark the 20th anniversary of the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks on America with memorial events Saturday.
No one was injured when a sinkhole swallowed a motor vehicle following a water main break in the River Plaza section of Middletown Thursday morning, police said.
State Senators Declan O’Scanlon, left, and Vin Gopal flank ex-Governor Jim McGreevey as he speaks with Re-Entry participants at Soul Kitchen Thursday. (Photo by John T. Ward. Click to enlarge.)
By JOHN T. WARD
“Nobody should be defined by their worst decision,” former New Jersey Governor Jim McGreevey said on a visit to Red Bank Thursday.
That’s particularly true for ex-felons who may never have learned the basic skills needed to become self-sufficient members of society, he said.
A cluster of dead bunker in the Red Bank borough marina at Marine Park earlier this month. (Photo by John T. Ward. Click to enlarge.)
By JOHN T. WARD
A massive die-off of bunker fish in the Navesink and Shrewsbury rivers this spring poses no health threat to recreational users of those waters, environmental scientists said Thursday night.
Meantime, experts are still trying to determine what environmental “stressors” might have turned a bacteria that’s common to the species into a mass killer that has littered shores with tons of dead, putrid carcasses.
A cluster of dead bunker in the borough marina at Marine Park earlier this month. (Photo by John T. Ward. Click to enlarge.)
By JOHN T. WARD
Clean Ocean Action and local officials, including Red Bank’s, will get the virtual town hall with New Jersey environmental officials they’ve been seeking to address the recent “severe” fish kill in the Navesink and Shrewsbury rivers, the organization announced Friday.
Fish carcasses on the shoreline at Maple Cove in Red Bank Thursday. (Photo by John T. Ward. Click to enlarge.)
By JOHN T. WARD
Red Bank officials this week called on the New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection to host a virtual town hall meeting to address concerns about a fish kill the agency has called the “most severe” in recent memory.
Dead menhaden cluster at a Navesink River dock in Fair Haven last week. (Photo by Bernie McSherry. Click to enlarge.)
By JOHN T. WARD
A massive fish kill in the Navesink and Shrewsbury rivers in recent weeks is “the most severe mortality event in recent memory,” but New Jersey environmental officials still don’t know why it’s targeting only one species, Clean Ocean Action reported Thursday.
The environmental advocacy group also pressed the state to remove at least some of the dead fish from Red Bank-area waters.
Dead fish littered the Fair Haven boat launch on Battin Avenue last week. (Photo by John T. Ward. Click to enlarge.)
Clean Ocean Action has called on New Jersey environmental and health officials to hold a virtual town hall to provide updates and guidance for towns along the Navesink and Shrewsbury rivers, where massive menhaden die-offs have occurred recently.
“The cause, extent, and magnitude of the die-off is deeply concerning and raising alarm throughout the region,” COA executive director Cindy Zipf and staff scientist Swarna Muthukrishnan wrote Friday. “Feeding the concern is the lack of answers, conflicting answers, and lack of proactive response to the ever-increasing dead fish.”
A pedestrian was struck and killed by a vehicle Tuesday night on Route 35 in lower Middletown, township police said.
The body of a missing kayaker was found Friday evening, Fair Haven police Chief Joe McGovern said Saturday.
Choppy waters on the wind-driven Navesink as seen from Grange Avenue in Fair Haven Friday afternoon. (Photo by John T. Ward. Click to enlarge.)
Local emergency personnel were out on the choppy, wind-driven Navesink River following a report of a missing kayaker Friday, according to Fair Haven police Chief Joe McGovern.
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.
Dozens of residents of the Greater Red Bank Green died in the horrific attacks on the United States on September 11, 2001.
Let’s not forget those who died, and the families and friends left with holes in their hearts. For information about local commemorations, click here.
Red Bank-area residents will have several opportunities Friday to participate in commemorations marking the 19th anniversary of the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks on America.
George Bowden, right, with Historic Preservation Commission members Charles Nickerson and Michaela Ferrigine in 2016. Below, Bowden spearheaded the borough’s centennial celebration and parade in 2009.(Photo by John T. Ward. Click to enlarge.)
By JOHN T. WARD
George Bowden, once dubbed “the Energizer bunny” of historic preservation in Red Bank, died at home in Middletown Sunday. He was 92 years old.
Galvanized into action in 2001, after the borough allowed the demolition of an old house on West Front Street, Bowden became a champion for old and neglected structures in town.
Not least of those was the T. Thomas Fortune House, which was resurrected from near-oblivion earlier this year, more than a decade after Bowden and others launched a campaign to save it.
WPC Field of Flags (WPC Photo Library)
Westminster Presbyterian Church (WPC) of Middletown officially dedicated its 2019 Field of Flags during a special ceremony on Saturday, November 2nd, 2019. The event took place on the WPC Great Lawn where the Field of Flags is located.
The Field of Flags was created in 2012 to honor United States military men and women who have died in the conflicts in Iraq and Afghanistan. Each flag in the field represents a serviceman or woman who has given their life in those conflicts. This year’s striking memorial contains 6,972 flags. The Field of Flags will remain standing until November 16th. The public is welcome and encouraged to visit the field, and invited to be part of the flag take-down event on November 16th.
Speakers Group at Field of Flags Ceremony
The Field of Flags was created in 2012 to honor United States military men and women who have died in the conflicts in Iraq and Afghanistan. Each flag in the field represents a serviceman or woman who has given their life in those conflicts. This year’s striking memorial contains 6,972 flags. The Field of Flags will remain standing until November 16th. The public is welcome and encouraged to visit the field, and invited to be part of the flag take-down event on November 16th.
The dedication ceremony included welcomes from Middletown Township Mayor Anthony S. Perry and Monmouth County Freeholder Gerard P. Scharfenberger. Keynote remarks were offered by Marine mothers, Patricia Malloy and Debbie Dailey, whose sons served in Iraq but who suffered from PTSD upon their return and died shortly after their return. From the two family’s tragedies the group Angel Warriors was born the organization raises money to provide trained service dogs to returning veterans.
The Dedication ceremony also featured the posting and retiring of the colors by the 25 member U.S. Naval Sea Cadet Corps from across the state; the Pledge of Allegiance from local Boy and Girl Scouts of America and special bagpipe music by Bob Phelan.
Members of the Red Bank volunteer fire department’s dive team helped a boater on the Swimming River shortly before noon Tuesday. (Photo by Carl Colmorgen. Click to enlarge)
Dozens of residents of the Greater Red Bank Green died in the horrific attacks on the United States on September 11, 2001.
Let’s not forget those who died, and their families.
Red Bank-area residents will have several opportunities Wednesday to participate in commemorations marking the 18th anniversary of the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks on America.
A former municipal court judge who is said to have a law office in Red Bank is facing disbarment one year after he admitted illegally diverting more than $600,000 in court fines from Monmouth County to municipal coffers, the Asbury Park Press reported Thursday.
Gladys Bowden, a longtime Red Bank resident and volunteer injured in a December 15 fire at her home in Middletown, died early Saturday.