A screengrab of the council’s session Wednesday night. (Zoom screengrab. Click to enlarge.)
By JOHN T. WARD
A trash-and-recycling survey became the latest wedge between two factions of Red Bank’s one-party council Wednesday night.
The dispute included innuendo that Councilman Ed Zipprich could not be trusted to keep information secret from bidders in the pending award of a trash hauling contract.
Councilman Ed Zipprich in 2018. (Photo by John T. Ward. Click to enlarge.)
By JOHN T. WARD
Missing from the agenda for the Red Bank council session scheduled for Wednesday night: clashing demands for investigations.
But the probes – one focused on the source of an email leak, and the other on alleged conduct exposed by the emails – may still get an airing.
Here’s a look-ahead at the agenda for the session.
DeLisa Demolition would continue to pick up waste and recycling under an interim contract that boosts its existing rate by $10,000 per month. (Photo by John T. Ward. Click to enlarge.)
By JOHN T. WARD
Red Bank’s elected officials will be asked to authorize an “emergency” trash contract this week after no bids were received for a longterm pact, redbankgreen has learned.
A leak of emails, including correspondence between Councilman Ed Zipprich and a prospective bidder for the trash contract, is the subject of an investigation. (Photo by John T. Ward. Click to enlarge.)
By JOHN T. WARD
Red Bank Councilman Ed Zipprich will get the investigation into a leak of emails he requested earlier this month.
Approval of the probe, as well as final adoption of the 2020 budget; extended hours of parking meter enforcement; and a half-dozen police department promotions are all on the council’s busy agenda for Wednesday night.
Councilman Ed Zipprich, left, at a press conference held by Governor Phil Murphy at Riverview Medical Center in 2018. (Photo by John T. Ward. Click to enlarge.)
By JOHN T. WARD
Red Bank Councilman Ed Zipprich said he has asked for an investigation into a leak of emails in which Business Administrator Ziad Shehady suggested Zipprich was out to “sabotage” the bidding for a new trash hauling contract.
Separately, friction between Shehady and Councilman Michael Ballard flared up again at the council’s workshop meeting Wednesday.
DeLisa Demolition won the borough’s trash contract, now up for rebid, in 2015. (Photo by John T. Ward. Click to enlarge.)
By JOHN T. WARD
Red Bank Business Administrator Ziad Shehady has asked elected officials to discuss, in private, what he calls an effort by a council member to “sabotage” the process of awarding a new trash-hauling contract, redbankgreen has learned.
With its first private trash contract winding down, Red Bank residents have an opportunity to weigh in on pickup frequency.
The borough switched to private garbage pickup in 2015. (Photo by John T. Ward. Click to enlarge.)
By JOHN T. WARD
Five years after Red Bank privatized trash and recycling pickup, residents and business owners will soon be asked: how’s that working out for you?
More particularly, they’ll be asked how quickly their garbage cans and recycling bins fill up.
Robert Greene, left, and John Caine at the Red Bank recycling center Thursday morning. (Photo by John T. Ward. Click to enlarge.)
By JOHN T. WARD
A plan to eliminate two part-time jobs at the recycling center sharply divided Red Bank’s all-Democratic council Wednesday night.
Things got personal. During the governing body’s semimonthly meeting, conducted via Zoom, Councilman Ed Zipprich accused Business Administrator Ziad Shehady of retaliation for an earlier action by the union that represents the affected employees.
When is recycling picked up again? How do we get rid of that old sofa in the basement?
Answers to these and similar questions are available to Red Bank residents in the form of a new bulletin from the Department of Public Works. It covers everything from Christmas tree to hazardous waste disposal, including brush and trash pickup schedules for 2019.
Downloadable and printable versions in English and Spanish are available online. (Photo by John T. Ward. Click to enlarge.)
Starting next week, recyclables put out at the curb in plastic bags won’t be picked up in a number of Monmouth County towns. (Photo by John T. Ward. Click to enlarge.)
By JOHN T. WARD
Monmouth County municipalities are rushing this week to implement new rules to prohibit the use of plastic bags to hold domestic recyclables for pickup.
The change is being driven by China, Red Bank Business Administrator Ziad Shehady tells redbankgreen.
Kitch Organic on Leighton Avenue, above, is one of eight Red Bank restaurants participating in a monthlong effort to reduce the number of plastic drinking straws that don’t make it into the recycling stream.
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.
New to the Red Bank business district: solar-powered trash compactors paired with recycling bins, which RiverCenter executive director Jim Scavone says should help reduce spillage by holding five times the volume of standard containers. They also alert the borough when they’re full, he said.
The bins are or will soon be in four locations, said Scavone: on Broad Street outside Urban Outfitters and Starbucks; on Monmouth Street at the Count Basie Theatre; and outside West Elm on West Front Street. RiverCenter and the borough government splt the cost of the devices, which go for about $6,000 per set, Scavone said. (Photo by John T. Ward. Click to enlarge)
With the switch to private cartage last week, all homes in Red Bank have now had at least one pickup by DeLisa Demolition of Tinton Falls, which won a three-year, $1.49 million contract for collection of trash, recyclables and household bulk waste last month.
The change, borough officials said in advance, would have been all but unnoticed by residents. But there’s a perk or two, including — as some perplexed residents may have noticed on Labor Day — holiday pickups.
Two of the borough’s four garbage trucks will be sold, and the other two kept for leaf and snow removal, officials said. (Photo by John T. Ward. Click to enlarge)
By JOHN T. WARD
Red Bank is getting out of the garbage business.
By a 4-0 vote at a special, single-issue meeting Monday night, the borough council approved a three-year, $1.49 million contract for collection of trash, recyclables and household bulk waste with a private hauler, Delisa Demolition of Tinton Falls.
But the change, effective September 1, will be all but unnoticeable to residents and small-business owners, town officials said. And it should generate “significant” savings, they contend.
No borough employees will lose jobs or benefits in the switch, Mayor Pasquale Menna said. (Photo by John T. Ward. Click to enlarge)
By JOHN T. WARD
The end of public-sector trash collection in Red Bank could come as soon as September 1, under the terms of a contract that the borough council body discussed in private Wednesday night.
Still not quite at the end of a process it began 18 months ago, the council scheduled a special meeting for next Monday night solely to vote on the deal.
The ice on the Navesink – or what used to be called the North Shrewsbury – River “certainly isn’t good” for sport after just a couple of days of bitter cold, according to the ice line at the North Shrewsbury Ice Boat & Yacht Club Friday. But following an unexpected snowfall of about an inch in the morning, somebody found it sufficient for walking, as seen from the Cooper Bridge early Friday afternoon.
After soaring into the mid-30s Friday afternoon, overnight temperatures are expected dip into the low teens Friday and Saturday nights, with a daytime peak of only about 22 degrees Fahrenheit Saturday, the National Weather Service forecasts. But expect daytime highs in the mid-30s for most of next week, according to the forecast. (Photos by Trish Russoniello. Click to enlarge)
Jim Barnett walks his furry little friend down frigid Broad Street in Red Bank Wednesday night, when temperatures were hovering around 18 degrees. By early Thursday morning, the temperature had dropped into the single digits, as seen at right – and with the wind factored in, it was seven degrees below zero at 5 a.m, according to the National Weather Service.
The NWS forecasts continued freezing temperatures through Saturday, with a dusting of perhaps half an inch of snow Friday. (Photos by John T. Ward. Click to enlarge)
A classic autumn afternoon of grey skies, chilly temperatures and blustery breezes was speared by a rainbow over the Navesink River Friday afternoon. Megan Elgrim, 11, of Fair Haven, grabbed this photo as her mom, Kathy, drove across Cooper’s Bridge between Middletown and Red Bank shortly after 4 p.m.
Perhaps the rainbow is letting us know we’re in for an abundantly sunny Saturday and a mostly sunny Sunday – which is pretty much what the National Weather Service forecast says, too. (Photo by Megan Elgrim. Click to enlarge)
The Menna administration will rewrite bid specs and try again, officials said. (Photo by John T. Ward. Click to enlarge)
By JOHN T. WARD
The Red Bank council voted Wednesday night to reject bids submitted by waste haulers aiming to take over garbage pickup for the town’s residents.
Citing inadequate savings, officials said they would rewrite bid specifications for the privatization of trash collection to include a provision that a successful bidder hire the town’s affected solid-waste employees.
The delay sparked sparked an extended and sometimes heated exchange among Republican council candidate Sean Di Somma, borough Administrator Stanley Sickels and two councilmen over what Di Somma called “foot-dragging” on an issue he believes could save taxpayers money.
The impact of a switch on jobs will be considered, borough officials said. (Photo by John T. Ward. Click to enlarge)
By JOHN T. WARD
Bids are in, and Red Bank officials will now turn their attention to the question of whether it makes financial sense for the borough to get out of the garbage pickup business, Councilman Mike DuPont said Wednesday night.
Officials said five cartage companies submitted bids late last month in a process authorized by the council last February. The governing body’s finance committee, which DuPont heads, will now evaluate the bids “to see if we can get savings” from a switch to private cartage, he said.
DPW sprayers laid down stripes of ice-inhibiting salt brine throughout Red Bank on Saturday, including Spring Street, above. (Photo by John T. Ward. Click to enlarge)
Red Bank has suspended trash pickups scheduled for Monday as the borough prepares for yet another extended snowfall beginning Sunday night.
Trash pickups by borough employees could end this year. (Photo by John T. Ward. Click to enlarge)
By JOHN T. WARD
Red Bank residents could see the end of local government trash pickups this year.
In a move that contemplates a switch to private cartage, the borough council authorized a solicitation of bids for garbage and recyclables collection and disposal at its bimonthly meeting Wednesday night.
The vote on the measure was 5 to 1, with Councilwoman Juanita Lewis dissenting.
Looks pretty on the traffic light at Broad and Front streets in Red Bank, doesn’t it? Not so much, however, at street level a block away, at East Front and Wharf Avenue, below. (Photos by John T. Ward. Click to enlarge)
The third – or was it the eighth? – snowstorm of 2014 dropped a white blanket on the Red Bank area that quickly lost its charm Monday.
redbankgreen took late afternoon walk through central Red Bank, camera in hand. Check out our photos, below.