RED BANK: BOARD AIRS SAXUM PLAN HURDLES

A rendering depicts the proposed plaza at Riverside Avenue and Bodman Place that board members raised safety concerns about. (Rendering by Arterial Photo by John T. Ward. Click to enlarge.)

By JOHN T. WARD

Red Bank planning board members aired numerous misgivings about one of the largest development plans in borough history Monday night.

High on the list that developer Saxum Real Estate is expected to address: traffic and pedestrian safety issues. Read More »

October 8, 2019 - 8:10 am | Comments ()

RED BANK: YOM KIPPUR SESSION CANCELLED

By JOHN T. WARD

Less than 48 hours after a divided Red Bank council voted to hold a public session on Yom Kippur, the meeting was cancelled late Thursday.

In addition, the three councilmen who voted to hold the meeting walked back from their positions Friday.

October 4, 2019 - 2:25 pm | Comments ()

RED BANK: COUNCIL TAKES AIM AT BALLOONS

Campaign balloons given out at the 2014 Halloween Parade prompted complaints that the event was being politicized. (Photo by John T. Ward. Click to enlarge.)

By JOHN T. WARD

hot topic red bank nj The Red Bank council may soon take up a proposed ban on mass balloon releases, its members agreed at their workshop meeting Wednesday night.

October 4, 2019 - 8:18 am | Comments ()

RED BANK: ‘SURPRISE’ RIFT OVER YOM KIPPUR

Newly sworn council members Kate Triggiano and Hazim Yassin flank Council President Erik Yngstrom at the council reorganization meeting in January. (Photo by John T. Ward. Click to enlarge.)

By JOHN T. WARD

[UPDATE, October 4: Yom Kippur council meeting canceled for lack of quorum after mayor and council members who voted against having it say they won’t be there, he says on his Facebook page.]

By a split vote, the Red Bank council decided Wednesday night to stick to its schedule and hold its next meeting on Yom Kippur.

The 3-2 outcome of a vote at the council’s workshop meeting caught Councilwoman Kate Triggiano, who had argued for a change, off guard.

“We’re going to have the meeting?” she asked. “So we’re keeping the meeting on Yom Kippur?”

October 3, 2019 - 9:00 am | Comments ()

RED BANK: PARKING SYSTEM TO GET MAKEOVER

Interim parking director Tom Calu with a smart meter at Wednesday’s presentation. (Photo by John T. Ward. Click to enlarge.)

By JOHN T. WARD

hot topic red bank nj Red Bank’s entire inventory of parking meters and kiosks is slated for replacement, borough officials said Wednesday, as they debuted a ‘smart’ meter scheduled for rollout curbside early next year.

Meantime, the search for a parking director, the foremost recommendation of a parking study released in January, has been “disappointing,” the official leading the search told redbankgreen.

September 19, 2019 - 9:00 am | Comments ()

RED BANK: NEW PARKING METERS TO DEBUT

Red Bank is planning to replace its coin-operated parking meters, and the public will get a chance this week to weigh in Wednesday on the changes they’ll bring. Read More »

September 17, 2019 - 1:15 pm | Comments ()

RED BANK: PLAZA FOCUS OF SAXUM HEARING

A rendering depicts the Bodman Place side of the proposed apartment project. (Photo by John T. Ward. Click to enlarge.)

By JOHN T. WARD

The fate of one of the largest development plans in Red Bank history remained unresolved Monday night.

At the fourth planning board hearing on the 210-unit apartment complex proposed for the site of the former VNA headquarters, attention centered largely on the wisdom of putting a public plaza on busy Riverside Avenue.

September 17, 2019 - 8:30 am | Comments ()

RED BANK: POOP & MORE DELAY SAXUM VOTE

A rendering displayed at the planning board depicts a public plaza on the Riverside Avenue side of the proposed apartment project. (Rendering by Arterial. Click to enlarge.)

By JOHN T. WARD

Unanswered questions held up a planning board vote on one of the largest development plans in Red Bank history Wednesday night.

Among them: where will the poop deposited on the rooftop dog runs go?

September 4, 2019 - 11:00 pm | Comments ()

RED BANK: SAXUM CONFRONTS TRAFFIC ISSUE

A rendering shows the Riverside Avenue facade of the proposed apartment project. (Rendering by MVMK Architecture. Click to enlarge.)

By JOHN T. WARD

Like many motorists, a traffic engineer for one of the largest development plans in Red Bank history found himself confronting an intersection likened to “Russian roulette” Monday night. Read More »

August 6, 2019 - 8:15 am | Comments ()

RED BANK: RED ROCK, SECRET STASH WIN OKS

Red Rock Tap + Grill will be permitted to enclose some of its rooftop seasonally and make other site changes. (Photo by John T. Ward. Click to enlarge.)

By JOHN T. WARD

Red Rock Tap + Grill can convert some of its rooftop space to year-round dining under a decision by Red Bank’s planning board Monday night.

Also, Jay and Silent Bob’s Secret Stash can keep its splashy, ordinance-breaking window treatment, the board ruled.

May 7, 2019 - 8:00 am | Comments ()

RED BANK: POWER SWITCH IN THE WORKS

Billing for service would continue to come from JCP&L even for those customers who participate in the aggregation plan. (Image by Concord. Click to enlarge.)

By JOHN T. WARD

In an effort to head off shocks to residents about anticipated changes to their electricity bills, Red Bank official kicked off a public outreach effort Thursday.

Driving the effort: the borough’s planned entry into the “energy aggregation” marketplace, where the local government serves as a bundler of customers to obtain better rates than those offered by Jersey Central Power & Light.

April 26, 2019 - 9:30 am | Comments ()

RED BANK: COUNCIL DROPS REVERSE APPEALS

The OceanFirst Bank headquarters was the subject of a reverse appeal case settled Wednesday. (Photo by John T. Ward. Click to enlarge.)

By JOHN T. WARD

hot topic red bank nj Bombarded by criticism from the business community, the Red Bank council on Wednesday dropped a plan to pursue a new round of “reverse appeals” against commercial properties it believed to be undertaxed.

But first, the council approved the settlement of an older reverse appeal that will boost the taxable value of a downtown building by 69 percent over three years. And battles over cases filed in 2018 continue.

April 11, 2019 - 9:00 am | Comments ()

RED BANK: ELECTRICITY DEAL IN THE WORKS

JCP&L’s power distribution facility adjoining Mohawk Pond in Red Bank. (Photo by John T. Ward. Click to enlarge.)

By JOHN T. WARD

hot topic red bank nj Red Bank officials are considering passage of a law that would automatically turn Jersey Central Power & Light customers in the borough into customers of another electricity provider unless they opt out.

April 8, 2019 - 7:00 am | Comments ()

RED BANK: SILENCE BY ALL ON HARASSMENT

Business Administrator Ziad Shehady, left, chatting with borough resident Stephen Hecht last May. (Photo by John T. Ward. Click to enlarge.)

By JOHN T. WARD

hot topic red bank nj Red Bank’s elected officials closed the books Wednesday night on a harassment complaint filed against borough Business Administrator Ziad Shehady.

But the public may never know the details of the case, or the recommendations that followed an investigation.

March 14, 2019 - 1:45 pm | Comments ()

RED BANK: PARKING REVENUE STILL ON TABLE

Councilman Michael Ballard, center, and Mayor Pasquale Menna on election night 2017. (Photo by John T. Ward. Click to enlarge.)

By JOHN T. WARD

hot topic red bank nj Red Bank’s mayor and council say they’re “hopeful and optimistic” about implementing the recommendations of a bombshell parking study delivered this month.

The assertion was made Tuesday in an unusual press release that appeared to walk back comments made by Mayor Pasquale Menna and Councilman Michael Ballard to redbankgreen last week, when they termed a key recommendation in the report potentially “catastrophic” and a “terrible hit” for taxpayers.

January 29, 2019 - 11:30 am | Comments ()

RED BANK: ‘WEANING’ FROM METERS UNLIKELY

Using meters to fund town operations leaves the parking utility “without adequate financial resources” for maintenance and upgrades, the report found. (Photo by John T. Ward. Click to enlarge.)

By JOHN T. WARD

red bank taxes One of the key recommendations of a bombshell study of Red Bank parking appears unlikely to be adopted by borough officials anytime soon, redbankgreen has learned.

At issue: the council’s annual siphoning of the surplus generated by parking meters and kiosks in order to slow property tax increases. Ending the practice, says Mayor Pasquale Menna, would be “catastrophic” for taxpayers.

January 25, 2019 - 8:30 am | Comments ()

RED BANK: BOYNTON ENTERING BOXING HALL

Regular attendees of the Red Bank council’s twice-monthly meetings know Freddie Boynton for his sparring sessions with the governing body over truck safety, storm sewer maintenance and issues particular to the West Side. But Boynton was once an actual pugilist, and later this month, he’ll be inducted into the New Jersey Amateur Olympic Boxing Hall of Fame.

Read More »

January 16, 2019 - 5:30 pm | Comments ()

RED BANK: PARKING SYSTEM FOUND ‘BROKEN’

Carrie Krasnow, with study co-author Brian Bartholomew looking on, addresses the audience at the Red Bank Primary School Thursday night. (Photo by John T. Ward. Click to enlarge.)

By JOHN T. WARD

hot topic red bank nj Red Bank might soon need another 220 or so parking spaces downtown, but it doesn’t need a parking garage just yet, a pair of experts say in a long-awaited study unwrapped Thursday night.

Instead, local officials first have to fix a “broken” parking management system, they said.

January 11, 2019 - 2:00 am | Comments ()

RED BANK: PARKING STUDY UNBOXING SLATED

[Correction: Meeting to be held at primary school, not the middle school.]

More than a year after a push to redevelop Red Bank’s main parking facility ran into a wall, the results of a parking study will be unwrapped Thursday night. (Photo by John T. Ward. Click to enlarge.)

January 9, 2019 - 7:30 am | Comments ()

RED BANK: DEMS GLIDE INTO NEW YEAR

Mayor Pasquale Menna prepares to swear in new fire Chief Wayne Hartman, center, and deputies Scott Calabrese and Bobby Holiday. (Photo by John T. Ward. Click to enlarge.)

By JOHN T. WARD

Red Bank’s government turned the calendar page to 2019 with a friction-free reorganization meeting Tuesday that kicked off the fourth term of Mayor Pasquale Menna and gave Democrats unfettered control of borough hall.

Here are some highlights:

Read More »

January 2, 2019 - 7:30 am | Comments ()

RED BANK: DEMS OUST POULOS AS CFO

CFO Eugenia Poulos at a council meeting in 2017. (Photo by John T. Ward. Click to enlarge.)

By JOHN T. WARD

Borough hall may have been closed for New Year’s Eve, but the Red Bank council had one, last-minute bit of business to take care of Monday.

After a brief closed-door meeting, the governing body voted, 4-1, to fire the chief financial officer, just hours before she would have attained tenure.

December 31, 2018 - 2:00 pm | Comments ()

RED BANK: HIGHER VNA SITE DENSITY URGED

The site, at 176 Riverside Avenue, is seen as integral to the borough’s efforts to provide affordable housing. (Photo by John T. Ward. Click to enlarge.)

By JOHN T. WARD

hot topic red bank nj The Red Bank council took steps Wednesday to allow as many as 90 housing units per acre on a key redevelopment site.

But the proposed rezoning of the former Visiting Nurse Association headquarters site would negate a compromise recommendation made by the planning board just last week.

November 29, 2018 - 9:30 am | Comments ()

RED BANK: PLANNERS CAP VNA SITE DENSITY

Red Bank is negotiating a deal under which the developer would satisfy a “significant” portion of the town’s affordable housing obligation, a lawyer told the board. (Photo by John T. Ward. Click to enlarge.)

By JOHN T. WARD

hot topic red bank nj The site of a vacant office building in Red Bank is a key element in meeting the borough’s affordable housing obligations, a lawyer told the planning board Monday night.

But a proposal to allow the development of up to 90 units per acre on the 2.7-acre former Visiting Nurse Association headquarters site met continued resistance, despite support from Mayor Pasquale Menna.

November 20, 2018 - 9:45 am | Comments ()

RED BANK: COUNCIL MULLS STREET ISSUES

A plow clearing Broad Street during a storm in March, 2014. (Photo by John T. Ward. Click to enlarge.)

By JOHN T. WARD

Stop signs, snow removal, street sweeping and other road-related issues were on the agenda at the Red Bank borough council’s workshop session Wednesday night.

Some new ordinances are expected to follow.

November 9, 2018 - 11:00 am | Comments ()

RED BANK: DEMS ROMP TO FULL CONTROL

Councilmembers-elect Kate Triggiano and Hazim Yassin embrace on news of their victories Tuesday night. (Photo by John T. Ward. Click to enlarge.)

By JOHN T. WARD

red bank, nj election 2018 Red Bank’s Democrats regained full control of borough government in an election rout for incumbent Mayor Pasquale Menna and two first-time council candidates in Tuesday’s election.

November 6, 2018 - 10:00 pm | Comments ()

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RED BANK: YOM KIPPUR SESSION CANCELLED

RED BANK: COUNCIL TAKES AIM AT BALLOONS

RED BANK: ‘SURPRISE’ RIFT OVER YOM KIPPUR

RED BANK: PARKING SYSTEM TO GET MAKEOVER

RED BANK: NEW PARKING METERS TO DEBUT

RED BANK: RED ROCK, SECRET STASH WIN OKS

RED BANK: POWER SWITCH IN THE WORKS

RED BANK: COUNCIL DROPS REVERSE APPEALS

RED BANK: ELECTRICITY DEAL IN THE WORKS

RED BANK: SILENCE BY ALL ON HARASSMENT

RED BANK: PARKING REVENUE STILL ON TABLE

RED BANK: ‘WEANING’ FROM METERS UNLIKELY

RED BANK: BOYNTON ENTERING BOXING HALL

RED BANK: PARKING SYSTEM FOUND ‘BROKEN’

RED BANK: PARKING STUDY UNBOXING SLATED

RED BANK: DEMS GLIDE INTO NEW YEAR

RED BANK: DEMS OUST POULOS AS CFO

RED BANK: HIGHER VNA SITE DENSITY URGED

RED BANK: PLANNERS CAP VNA SITE DENSITY

RED BANK: COUNCIL MULLS STREET ISSUES

RED BANK: DEMS ROMP TO FULL CONTROL