IN MEMORY: SEVENTEEN YEARS LATER
Red Bank-area residents will have several opportunities Tuesday to participate in commemorations marking the 17th anniversary of the September 11, 2001 attacks.
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: MURPHYS TO RUN AGAIN
Governor Phil Murphy and First Lady Tammy Murphy, seen here passing the Red Bank Public Library while out on a run in May 2017, are expected to pound borough pavement again Saturday, this time with about 1,000 other runners. (Photo by Trish Russoniello. Click to enlarge)
RED BANK: BRIDGE RENAMED FOR KYRILLOS
State Senator Joe Kyrillos at the opening of the new bridge in May, 2015. Freehold John Curley is at left. Below, a Google Satellite view of the bridge. (Photo by John T. Ward. Click to enlarge)
By JOHN T. WARD
For who knows how long, the West Front Front Street bridge connecting Red Bank and Middletown has been colloquially known as “Hubbard’s Bridge.” To Monmouth County, which owns the span and replaced it three years ago, it’s “S-17.”
As of Thursday, though, the 488-foot connector over the upper Navesink River has a new name: the “Senator Joseph M. Kyrillos Bridge.”
ON THE GREEN: MEMORIAL DAY SERVICES
The Veterans Monument on Monmouth Street is the setting for Red Bank’s annual Memorial Day observance, Monday morning at 11 a.m.
Memorial Day weekend represents the start of the summertime season and, for many longtime residents of our coastal communities, a time to readjust those daily routines and recalculate those normal routes in anticipation of the visiting throngs.
It’s also, of course, a time to remember those who gave their lives in service to our nation, and wherever you happen to make your home here on the Greater Red Bank Green, Monday presents a chance to join the people of your community in honoring their sacrifice.
Following is a roundup of Memorial Day observances scheduled for May 28, with rainy-day alternate arrangements listed where available.
RUMSON: NAVESINK QUALITY IMPROVES
A view of the Navesink from Riverview Medical Center in Red Bank last month. Below, Bill Heddendorf of the New Jersey DEP discusses the need for additional testing along the Spring Street storm sewer line in Red Bank. (Photo above by Trish Russoniello, below by John T. Ward. Click to enlarge)
By JOHN T. WARD
An effort to reverse biological contamination in the Navesink River is “working,” and could result in the reopening of closed shellfish beds a year earlier than previously expected, a New Jersey environmental scientist told a gathering in Rumson last week.
RED BANK: COP CHARGED WITH DWI
A Red Bank cop arrested in Middletown last week was charged with driving while intoxicated, redbankgreen has learned.
The DWI charge and others against Patrolman Benjamin Springer followed an accident in the township while the officer was off-duty, Red Bank Chief Darren McConnell said,
RED BANK: PAIR CHARGED IN MARINA SPREE
An intact utility stanchion abuts one damaged by vandalism at the borough-owned marina. (Photo by John T. Ward. Click to enlarge)
By JOHN T. WARD
Two teens were charged with a recent vandalism spree in Marine Park after a Red Bank police stakeout caught them in the act Wednesday night, Chief Darren McConnell tells redbankgreen.
RUMSON: JUDGE ADMITS $500K SCHEME
Rumson’s former municipal court judge has pleaded guilty to a five-year scheme in which he diverted to local coffers more than $500,000 that should have gone to Monmouth County, according to an announcement Friday by the county prosecutor.
RED BANK: UNITY RALLY DRAWS A MURPHY
Tammy Murphy reacts as her husband, Governor-elect Phil Murphy, calls her while she’s delivering a speech at Saturday’s Unity Rally in Red Bank. The event drew a full house to Pilgrim Baptist Church, below. (Photos by John T. Ward. Click to enlarge.)
By JOHN T. WARD
Ignoring biting cold, dozens of Red Bank-area residents participated in a “unity” march and rally Saturday in honor of two civil rights champions: Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and journalist T. Thomas Fortune.
Anchored at Pilgrim Baptist Church, the event featured a cameo appearance by the spouse of Governor-elect Phil Murphy as part of a whirlwind, pre-inaugural tour of New Jersey.
RED BANK: DOG FOUND 80 MILES FROM HOME
Wanda greets Jennifer May, center, and her children Bryn and Dennis Tibus on their reunion in Red Bank Saturday. (Photo by John T. Ward. Click to enlarge)
By JOHN T. WARD
A dog who wandered off in Warren County on Wednesday and wound up in Red Bank later that day was reunited with her owners Saturday.
How the 15-year-old black Lab-border collie mix turned up 80 miles from home remained a mystery, however.
RED BANK: MURPHY TOUTS ‘SENSE’ ON GUNS
Democratic gubernatorial candidate Phil Murphy, with Brett Sabo of Moms Demand Action at right, in Riverside Gardens Park Friday. (Photo by John T. Ward. Click to enlarge.)
By JOHN T. WARD
At a no-surprises event held in Red Bank, Democratic gubernatorial nominee Phil Murphy picked up an endorsement from a group pushing for “common sense gun laws” Friday.
Addressing a clutch of supporters and at least two local GOP officials in Riverside Gardens Park, Murphy pledged to reject an “us versus them” approach to dealing with gun-rights advocates while pressing for ways to reduce firearms violence in New Jersey.
RED BANK: MURPHY TO ADDRESS GUN ISSUES
Democratic gubernatorial candidate Phil Murphy, seen here jogging through Red Bank with and wife, Tammy Murphy, in May, is expected back on West Front Street Friday morning.
RED BANK: MAN CAUGHT IN CHILD PORN SWEEP
A Red Bank man was among 14 Monmouth County residents arrested in a summer-long investigation focused on online consumers of child pornography, county Prosecutor Christopher J. Gramiccioni said in a statement issued Friday.
RED BANK: NO OYSTERS, BUT ELUSIVE EELS
The American Littoral Society hung bags of recycled oyster shells from docks on the Navesink and Shrewsbury rivers in June to see if they would attract oyster larvae. (Photo by John T. Ward. Click to enlarge)
By JOHN T. WARD
After nearly three months, an effort to restore a once-thriving oyster ecosystem in the Navesink and Shrewsbury rivers has yet to detect the bivalve mollusk in the waterways, according to an update by the American Littoral Society.
ON THE GREEN: ECLIPSING EXPECTATIONS
An historic total eclipse of the sun — well, partial eclipse, in this part of the United States — drew summer vacationers and office workers alike out into cloying heat and humidity across the Greater Red Bank Green Monday.
On sidewalks in downtown Red Bank and the parking lot of the Monmouth County Library’s Eastern Branch in Shrewsbury, among other locales, they donned safety spectacles, craned their necks and oohed and ahhed throughout the slow-motion celestial event, the first coast-to-coast eclipse in America since 1918.
Check out our photos of the skywatchers below. (Photos by John T. Ward and Trish Russoniello. Click to enlarge)
RED BANK: CHILD PORN GETS MAN EIGHT YEARS
A Red Bank man who pleaded guilty to federal child pornography possession charges earlier this year was sentenced to more than eight years in prison Tuesday, authorities said in an announcement.
ON THE GREEN: SAFE EYES ON THE ECLIPSE
Sunny Strowbridge of Red Bank and her dog, Stinky, showed off eclipse-watching glasses on Riverside Avenue last week.
Eclipse? Eclipse-watching glasses? What’s going on here?
Read on…
ON THE GREEN: BRIDGES UP FOR COMMENT
Bridge-crossing local residents, commuters and others get to weigh in on matters concerning a couple of drawbridges on the Greater Red Bank Green in coming weeks.
LINCROFT: FIRE DAMAGES HOME
Fire caused extensive damage to a home at 209 Dogwood Lane in Lincroft early Thursday afternoon. No information was immediately available about the blaze, Neighbors said the owners were not home at the time, and that a dog in the house was uninjured. Summer heat added to the challenge for volunteer as local temperatures climbed past 90 degrees. (Photos by John T. Ward. Click to enlarge)
LINCROFT: ARTISTS FIND THEIR INNER ANIMAL
“The World of the Organ Pipe Wasp” and other works by Donna Payton are among the pieces in the group show ‘Animal Architects’ at the Monmouth Museum.
The paintings, sketches, sculptures, collages and mixed-material constructions now on display at the Monmouth Museum in Lincroft are the work of 11 members of the species homo sapiens. But the inspirations range from the spiral pattern of a spider’s web and the sturdy intricacy of a robin’s nest to the habitats, traps, nurseries, storage facilities and flashy courtship displays built by various insects, arthropods, birds, mammals and fellow aesthetes of the animal kingdom.
Curated and featuring contributions by Donna Payton, the group show ‘Animal Architects: Influences on Human Creativity’ serve as the conversation starter for a summer-long series of events for adults and children. Read More
RUMSON: OCEANIC MAKEOVER BEGINS ANEW
Todd Thompson, seated at center, discussing bridge options with other attendees at the Rumson session. (Photo by John T. Ward. Click to enlarge)
By JOHN T. WARD
What should be done about the crumbling Oceanic Bridge between Rumson and Middletown?
Area residents were offered dozens of options Tuesday as Monmouth County officials hit the reset button on an earlier process derailed by a change in federal regulations.
OCEANIC BRIDGE: CONCEPT PLANS ON DISPLAY
The Oceanic Bridge between Rumson and Middletown is in “critical” condition, according to the Monmouth County Engineer’s office, and officials plan to unveil “conceptual alternatives” for its replacement or repair at meetings slated in each town today.