ON THE GREEN: VIRUS UPDATES
The pandemic has impacted train schedules and operations at the Little Silver Train Station. (Click to enlarge.)
By JOHN T. WARD
Here’s a quick look at some impacts of the COVID-19 virus on the Greater Red Bank Green.
RED BANK: RAIL SPAN CLAIMS TWO MORE
Some things you can count on in this life: death, taxes and embarrassing encounters between oversized vehicles and the West Front Street railroad bridge in Red Bank.
RED BANK: GOING TOPLESS, IF NOT BY CHOICE
Well, there’s one way to cool off in the sweltering heat and humidity: go topless. And for less-than-attentive truck drivers, the North Jersey Coast Line trestle at Hubbard’s Bridge in Red Bank stands ready to accommodate, as it did yet again early Monday afternoon. It was not immediately known if the man at right was the driver. (Photo by Ken Kalada. Click to enlarge.)
SEA BRIGHT: THE MOCO’S GOT MOJO
Press release from Monmoth County Arts Council
For its annual Celebration of the Arts fundraiser, the Red Bank-based Monmouth County Arts Council celebrates the recently established MoCo Arts Corridor initiative — and honors a trio of dedicated individuals from around the greater Red Bank Green — in an event presented under the banner “The Arts Mean Business.”
Scheduled for Friday, October 23 at Edgewater Beach & Cabana Club in Sea Bright, the 7-10 pm occasion features a silent auction, cocktails, hors d’oeuvres and buffet dinner, all enhanced by performances and exhibits spotlighting the work of several Monmouth County artists — and all dedicated to the ongoing support of such MCAC programs as the Teen Arts Festival, ArtHelps, and the Arts Education Awards.
RED BANK: RR XING TO CLOSE TWO NIGHTS
Broad Street at the New Transit grade crossing in Red Bank will be closed to vehicular traffic two night this weekend for track maintenance and repair work. The closings are scheduled from 9 p.m. Friday to 9 a.m. Saturday and again from 8 p.m Saturday through 8 a.m. Sunday, said spokeswoman Nancy Snyder. Motorists should plan alternate routes. Rail travel will not be affected, she said. (Photo by Trish Russoniello. Click to enlarge)
MIDDLETOWN: ROAD CLOSING THIS WEEK
Signs on Navesink River Road warn of the closure. (Photo by Trish Russoniello. Click to enlarge)
The start of emergency repair work on the New Jersey Transit railroad crossing at Navesink River Road in Middletown appears to have been delayed, but will still take effect this week, according to signage in the area.
MIDDLETOWN: RR XING CLOSURE SET
A flashing sign on Riverside Avenue in Red Bank warns of the closure later this month. (Photo by Trish Russoniello. Click to enlarge)
Emergency repair work on the New Jersey Transit railroad crossing at Navesink River Road in Middletown will mean a shutdown of the crossing to vehicular traffic for up to 12 days later this month, the township announced Thursday.
LITTLE SILVER: MINOR INJURY IN TRAIN V. CAR
One person suffered minor injuries when a NJ Transit struck a car in the grade crossing at White Road in Little Silver around 2:30 Saturday afternoon, police said. (Photo by John T. Ward. Click to enlarge)
RED BANK: EXPRESS TO THE SEASON OF LIGHTS
The Christmas-capital crossroads of Broad and Canal streets is the place to be on Friday night, when Holiday Express presides over the annual concert and town lighting ceremony. (File photos. Click to enlarge)
By TOM CHESEK
As Tim McLoone tells it, he’s “just the keyboard player” in Holiday Express, the winter-wonderland Wall of Sound and Brilliant Light that he founded and has fronted since 1993. But if the big band is merely the part of the all-volunteer humanitarian train that “makes the most noise,” then there’s more to the Express seasonal journey than meets the eye or ear.
The 21st season of performances by Holiday Express — a schedule that takes two regional touring and support units to 60-plus stops in New Jersey, New York and Pennsylvania — actually got underway more than two weeks ago. By December 24, the Express team will have logged some 10,000 miles visiting, playing for and distributing gifts to more than 15,000 people in area homeless shelters, psychiatric hospitals, developmental centers, children’s wards and other places well off the beaten path — places whose residents are often without any family or friends.
For most of us, however, the keynote to the holiday season on the greater Red Bank Green happens on the evening of Black Friday, when the Express makes a rare public-invited pitstop to the downtown nexus of Broad and Canal streets. It’s there, on November 29, that McLoone and company will be flipping the switch on a wintry interlude of special activities and events in the borough — a Town Lighting made all the more special, with the welcome return of some much-missed local traditions.
LITTLE SILVER: RAIL FATALITY REPORTED
This just in from New Jersey Transit:
At approximately 5:00 pm, a New York-bound North Jersey Coast Line train struck and fatally injured an adult, male trespasser west of the Little Silver Station. No injuries were reported on board Train 3266 at the time of the incident.
A SIX-WHEEL SOLUTION
Spotted heading north on Broad Street (Route 35) in Shrewsbury during Tuesday’s morning commute: a burly New Jersey Transit bus carrying a somewhat simpler machine for getting around. (Click to enlarge)
RAIL CROSSING REOPENS AHEAD OF SKED
An anticipated two-week closure of the railroad crossing at Sycamore Avenue in Little Silver wrapped up after just nine days over the weekend. Work on the North Jersey Coast Line of the NJ Transit rail system began July 7, prompting traffic jams that spread to Shrewsbury. By 6:30 a.m. Saturday, the barricades were lifted, Little Silver police Lieutenant Joe Mazza said. (Photo by Dustin Racioppi; click to enlarge)
LITTLE SILVER BRACES FOR DETOUR JAMS
Orange you glad they alerted you? (Click to enlarge)
Already a nettlesome fact of life for local commuters, travel between Shrewsbury and Little Silver is about to get downright ugly.
Don’t say you weren’t warned.
SEA BRIGHT POWER MAY BE OUT FOR DAYS
Red Bank resident Robert Bruce shot this video of a power line arcing over a parking lot at the Red Bank Train Station early Wednesday afternoon.
Wednesday’s wind-driven storm left downtown Sea Bright closed to traffic and without electricity, police Chief John Sorrentino tells redbankgreen.
Residents of the west end of New Street were displaced from their homes when a trio of utility poles came down in the storm, and a woman estimated to be in her early 20s went to a nearby hospital with non-life-threatening injuries after suffering an electrical shock, Sorrentino said.
Power may not be restored until Friday, he said.
PARKER BOULEVARD DETOUR ENDS
A portion of the heavily-traveled Drs. James Parker Boulevard in Red Bank that was shut down for 10 days has reopened after a rebuilding of the New Jersey Transit grade crossing. (Click to enlarge)
WEEKLONG DETOUR KICKS IN WEDNESDAY
West Bergen Place will be OOC for about a week in November for railroad work. (Click to enlarge)
By DUSTIN RACIOPPI
If the neon orange sign hasn’t done it for you already, consider yourself warned. More traffic delays are imminent in Red Bank and getting crosstown will require a new route for many motorists.
NJ Transit will be conducting rail work on the tracks at the crossing on West Bergen Place “on or about” November 11, and a 24/7 reroute will be necessary for about a week, Captain Darren McConnell of the borough police department tells redbankgreen.
ACCIDENT VICTIM REMAINS IN CRITICAL CARE
A Red Bank woman remained in critical condition Wednesday night following an accident in which she was struck by a truck while crossing West Front Street on foot.
According to police Captain Darren McConnell, Laura Martin, 40, was heading north-to-south at West Front and Maple Avenue at about 2:53p when she was hit by a New Jersey Transit truck.
HONORS FOR O’HERN & AZZOLINA ADVANCE
Legislation that would name the Red Bank train station for late mayor and state Supreme Court justice Daniel O’Hern, right, will move to the full state Senate after clearing its Transportation Committee Monday.
Ditto for another bill that would put the name of the longtime Middletown legislator Joe Azzolina on the Highlands-Sea Bright replacement bridge now under construction at the mouth of the Shrewsbury River.
KABOOM: AUTHORITIES REVIEW SECURITY
Hundreds of visitors packed a waiting area at the Red Bank station for a northbound train after the fireworks, and transit personnel directed them into double-decker railcars, below. (Click to enlarge)
Though numerous fights and other incidents broke out downtown, authorities assessing last Saturday’s KaBoomfest say things went particularly smoothly at the Red Bank train station, thanks to the addition of trains and security personnel.
That’s in contrast to a year ago, when the station was the site of a crowd surge, long waits and numerous arrests for disorderly behavior.
And considering the number of people in town, estimated at more than 120,000, the violence that broke out elsewhere was quelled rapidly without any injuries to bystanders or police, according to Red Bank Police Captain Darren McConnell.
“There were many incidents, but they were isolated, and they were put down pretty quickly” by cops or civilians, he said.
MORE COPS & TRAINS SLATED FOR KABOOM
Part of the crowd overtook the parking lot of the 7-11 at Maple Avenue and West Front Street at last year’s KaBoom show. (Click to enlarge)
In the wake of rowdiness following last year’s KaBoom Fireworks on the Navesink show, Red Bank and New Jersey Transit police are finalizing details for securing the borough train station for this year’s edition of the event, officials say.
Many of the 20 arrests made at last year’s show occurred after the event in the train station vicinity, where pushing and shoving flared up as revelers attempting to leave town by rail encountered a long boarding lines, officials say.
Police Chief Steve McCarthy tells redbankgreen that the train station will “absolutely” be an area of special attention, with more cops under the command of both the borough and NJT’s police department assigned to cover it.
In addition, the rail utility is putting on extra trains to address demand, and selling $6 day passes to speed boardings after the fireworks, says NJT spokesman Dan Stessel.
RESTROOM? FOUR-YEAR WAIT, IF EVER
A NJ Transit rendering shows the station in what officials say were its original colors. (Click to enlarge)
Where’s the restroom?
Lou and Chris Mustillo, owners of the Red Bank’s Walt Street Pub, say they get that question upwards of two dozen times a day from commuters hurrying into their establishment across Monmouth Street from the Red Bank train station, which doesn’t have a public washroom.
So last Friday night, when New Jersey Transit unveiled a station restoration plan that may take four years and consume up to $2 million in taxpayer money, the Mustillos pressed officials with the same question they and their bartenders hear all too often: where’s the bathroom?
HISTORIANS BLAST NJT FOR STATION NEGLECT
Historic Preservation Commission member Mary Gilligan addresses the council Monday night, joined by members George Bowden, left, and Ed Poplawski.
By DUSTIN RACIOPPI
For 15 years, Mary Gilligan says, she’s “watched pieces fall off” Red Bank’s train station on the North Jersey Coast Line rails. And for most of that time, except for some slapdash and historically inapt repairs, station owner New Jersey Transit has ignored the pleas of town officials to halt the decay.
Now, Gilligan and other members of the Historic Preservation Commission are hoping to “hold NJ Transit’s feet to the fire” and force it to halt the deterioration before the salmon-colored, gingerbread-trimmed structure crumbles to the asphalt.
“The building is derelict,” Gilligan told the borough council in a bluntly worded appeal for action Monday night. “There’s not another train station in this state that looks this bad.”
6:35p ARRIVAL LAVIRRA p53:6
No, it’s not quite one of those new double-decker passenger trains. But the glass-smooth Navesink River did a nice job of mirroring everything above it when redbankgreen‘s accidental photographer snapped the arrival of this southbound train from Hubbard’s Bridge one evening last week.
LITTLE SILVER STATION LOT TO GET UPGRADES
The lot is owned by NJ Transit but operated by the borough. (Photo by Dustin Racioppi)
By DUSTIN RACIOPPI
Fifteen years without repairs have taken a toll on the Little Silver train station parking lot, but the borough has started the process to bring the large commuter space up to snuff.
It could be a long process, though, as bids for all the needed repairs have exceeded the amount the borough is willing or able to spend.
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