RED BANK: RALLY SLAMS POSTAL CHANGES
About 30 protesters assembled at the post office on Shrewsbury Avenue in Red Bank at noon Friday to voice alarm over recent changes at the postal service.
FAIR HAVEN: SIGN OF RENEWAL?
It took months of complaints by a frustrated postal clerk, plus some attention by redbankgreen, but the Fair Haven Post Office finally has an identifying sign out front.
What’s Going On Here? Read on.
FAIR HAVEN: STILL NO SIGN OF POSTAL SIGN
Almost three years after it was removed, and five months after redbankgreen last reported on it, the Fair Haven post office still doesn’t have an identifying sign out front. Instead, there’s a hand-lettered cardboard sign in the window, now surrounded by holiday trimming.
What’s Going On Here? Read on.
FAIR HAVEN: POSTAL SIGN LOST IN THE MAIL?
A flag and two mailboxes out front hint at what’s inside, but the Fair Haven post office hasn’t had identifying signage for about two years. That’s created the mistaken impression that the office is closed, says the frustrated local clerk.
What’s Going On Here? Read on. (Photo by John T. Ward. Click to enlarge.)
RED BANK: POSTMASTER’S POSTS DRAW FIRE
An status update on the Facebook page of postmaster Michael Angelo Ciano, below, showed an assault rifle with the comment, “Anti-muslim vaccinations.” (Click to enlarge)
By JOHN T. WARD
Red Bank’s postmaster has attracted the attention of human rights activists over what they call “vile” Facebook posts promoting racism, misogyny and apparent endorsements of violence against liberals and other groups, redbankgreen has learned.
A United States Postal Service spokesman confirmed that the agency is looking into complaints about photos and comments posted by postmaster Michael Angelo Ciano on his personal page.
“Imagine the work environment in that post office for any employees that are other than white men,” one woman wrote.
RED BANK: POLE DOWNED ON BROAD STREET
A pedestrian suffered minor injuries when she was hit by falling debris as a FedEx truck exiting the Red Bank Post Office caught overhead wires and pulled a utility pole down on Broad Street at about 4:40 p.m. Thursday, according to police Chief Darren McConnell.
FAIR HAVEN: ACME CENTER MAKEOVER OK’D
Three renderings of the proposed monument sign that proved a sticking point for planning board members. (Photos by John T. Ward. Click to enlarge)
By JOHN T. WARD
A makeover of Fair Haven’s dowdy Acme shopping center won borough planning board approval Tuesday night, but minus a proposed slab of signage that dominated a three-hour meeting.
FAIR HAVEN: ACME CENTER CHANGES DETAILED
Forman Street resident Bonnie Moore photographs an exhibit used in the hearing. Below, an illustration showing proposed changes to building 1, on the western end of the site. (Photos by John T. Ward. Click to enlarge)
By JOHN T. WARD
Overdue for a new look, the 1950s-vintage Fair Haven strip mall anchored by an Acme supermarket is also badly in need of a new parking scheme, its owner told the borough planning board Thursday night.
It would get both by the end of October if the board approves an extensive makeover plan in coming weeks, Dan Hughes, a principal in the company that bought it for for $5.8 million two years ago, told the board.
FAIR HAVEN: ACME CENTER TO GET MAKEOVER
Plans call for the creation of a pedestrian passageway linking the north and south parking lots through the former Laird’s Stationery space next door to the existing Post Office. The “salon & spa” sign is for illustration purposes only. (Photo by John T. Ward. Click to enlarge)
By JOHN T. WARD
The owner of the Fair Haven strip mall anchored by an Acme supermarket plans extensive renovations to the site, according to documents filed with the borough last week.
The plans include dividing the former Laird’s Stationery space in two to create a pedestrian breezeway linking the front and rear parking lots. But they leave unanswered questions about whether other longtime tenants might be forced out, as the owners of Laird’s contend they were.
FAIR HAVEN: BIKE SHOP CALLING IT QUITS
Bike Haven will close by the end of September, its owner says. (Photo by John T. Ward. Click to enlarge)
By JOHN T. WARD
A second longtime retailer is leaving the Fair Haven Shopping Center.
But unlike Laird’s Stationery, which is temporarily relocating to smaller quarters in the center after getting squeezed out of its home by a steep rent increase, Bike Haven is simply calling it quits, owner Cliff Wittenberg tells redbankgreen. And a rent hike is only the final nail in the tire.
FAIR HAVEN: AT LAIRD’S, A SIGN OF CHANGE
Marking the end of an era, Fantastic Signs owner John Oakley and his 12-year-old daughter, Charlotte, removed the cursive sign atop Laird’s Stationery in Fair Haven Tuesday afternoon.
As previously reported, the store, which traces its lineage back more than half a century, will close by the end of September, after a new landlord declined to renew the lease.
FAIR HAVEN: LAIRD’S GETTING SQUEEZED OUT
Bob and Rose Budnick outside their store with longtime customer Katherine Brounley. (Photo by John T. Ward. Click to enlarge)
By JOHN T. WARD
Tucked into the corner of a Fair Haven strip mall, marked with minimal signage, Laird’s Stationery is easy to miss if you’re not looking for it. But locals know it, and know it as a jam-packed emporium of not only paper goods and office supplies, but everything from backpacks to wiffle bats.
“The register never stops ringing,” owner Bob Budnick said early this week, as three customers converged at the front desk to pay for their purchases. “This store is woven into the fabric of a lot of people’s lives.”
But the register is about to stop ringing, here at least, and the business may be doomed, said Budnick and his wife.
SEA BRIGHT: TOMMY’S DOUBLES DOWN
Tommy and Yvette Bonfiglio, below, expect to open Tommy’s Tavern + Tap on Ocean Avenue within the next month. (Photos by John T. Ward. Click to enlarge)
By JOHN T. WARD
When Tommy Bonfiglio first toured the property that was long the home of Sea Bright’s post office, he was so fixated on an idea that he barely noticed the building at all.
“I only wanted the land,” on which he envisioned putting up an 18-room hotel and restaurant overlooking the Shrewsbury River, Bonfiglio told redbankgreen on Wednesday. Because of that tunnel vision, he never even stepped inside the two-story building fronting on Ocean Avenue, which he expected to tear down because of damage from Hurricane Sandy.
But when he realized he’d have to run a gauntlet of environmental permitting that could take years, he decided to examine the building out front. What he found shocked him.
SEA BRIGHT: POST OFFICE LOT ON THE BLOCK
Sixteen months after it was battered by Hurricane Sandy, the still-vacant building at 1030 Ocean Avenue is for sale. (Photo by John T. Ward. Click to enlarge)
By JOHN T. WARD
The former home of Sea Bright’s post office is up for sale.
The building at 1030 Ocean Avenue, whose tenants included the U.S. Postal Service, is listed at $2.2 million with Stafford Smith Commercial Realty, broker Ray Smith tells redbankgreen.
RED BANK: TREE WORK TO REQUIRE DETOURS
Traffic into an out of downtown Red Bank via lower Broad Street will be impacted Tuesday by a blocklong closure, so if that’s part of your route, find another one or prepare for detours. The shutdown, between Reckless and Leroy places, is to allow for more tree removal work by Monmouth County in the area of the post office, police said. (Click to enlarge)
WHERE HAVE I SEEN THIS?
Last week’s Where, a somewhat prosaic silhouette of a building structure and utility pole, didn’t get much attention, with two readers writing in.
Both mistakenly identified it as showing part of Riverview Medical Center in Red Bank.
JUST LET ‘EM BEE
A colony of honey bees took over the limb of a tree outside the Rumson Post Office Tuesday. Building landlord Sandy Mulheren, who raises bees, said the occupation was probably temporary. He theorized that the bees had been displaced from a larger, rapidly growing colony and were in search of a new home, but unlikely to stay in this tree because it lacked a cavity in which they might build a nest. (Click to enlarge)
POST OFFICE CUTTING HOURS AGAIN
A cheesy sign with partly-obliterated information announces the change. (Click to enlarge)
The post office on Broad Street in Red Bank is about to get another cutback in its service hours.
A spokesman for the Postal Service confirmed to redbankgreen that the facility will close at 6p Monday through Friday, and hour earlier than present. The change is effective December 26.
Reason? “A significant drop in retail transactions during the last hour of the day,” says spokesman Ray Daiutolo Sr.
WHERE HAVE I SEEN THIS?
Dressing up last week’s Where in Piet Mondrian turns out not to do much to overcome the obscurity of the location.
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