Councilman Mike Whelan on his first day on the dais in 2016. (Photo by John T. Ward. Click to enlarge.)
By JOHN T. WARD
Red Bank Councilman Mike Whelan was charged with assault following an incident in the Hamptons last month month, redbankgreen has learned.
The charge stems from a confrontation in which Whelan, 27, claims he was attacked in the men’s room of an oceanfront resort in the upscale town of Montauk.
Council candidate Michael Clancy at the Red Bank Classic race in June. (Photo by John T. Ward. Click to enlarge.)
By JOHN T. WARD
In the first attack of Red Bank’s 2018 election season, the two Republican council candidates claimed they saw one of their Democratic opponents “cavort” with a man who had made “menacing and threatening gestures” toward one of them at a local government meeting.
Frank Neary, who heads RBR’s finance committee, addressing the audience at the council meeting. (Photo by John T. Ward. Click to enlarge.)
By JOHN T. WARD
Voters in Red Bank, Little Silver and Shrewsbury are scheduled to decide the fate of a $17.9 million capital plan for their shared high school later this year.
On Wednesday night, two Red Bank Regional High officials told an audience at the borough council meeting that a December 11 referendum is, in part, critical to maintaining a cash cow: tuition paid by non-district students.
By JOHN T. WARD
For the second time in recent years, the Ku Klux Klan appears to be coming out from beneath its rock in Red Bank.
A Hudson Avenue resident tells redbankgreen he found KKK literature in a plastic bag weighted with candy outside his Hudson Avenue home Tuesday evening.
Consultant Bill Fontana onstage at the Two River Theater Monday night. (Photo by John T. Ward. Click to enlarge.)
By JOHN T. WARD
Downtown Red Bank is safe, clean and friendly, but it’s got problems with parking, store vacancies and its mix of operating businesses.
Those observations, while perhaps glaringly evident to many, were among the findings of a recent survey conducted for business promotion agency Red Bank RiverCenter and revealed Monday night.
Kattya Torres at her Union Special sewing machine. (Photo by John T. Ward. Click to enlarge)
By JOHN T. WARD
After her job as a wireless telecom engineer vanished in a merger, a Red Bank businesswoman has found a second career in eradicating crotch rot.
Ahem: that is to say, the holes that frequently develop in the groin of old jeans some people simply cannot part with.
Monmouth Music owner Mario DiBartolo plans to open the STEM Music Academy in the space. (Photo by John T. Ward. Click to enlarge.)
By JOHN T. WARD
Even as he was buying Monmouth Music two years ago, Mario DiBartolo knew he was swimming against the current that has swamped so many small retailers in the past two decades.
Yes, he hoped to retain the Red Bank store’s loyal customers and continue selling guitars and other musical instruments, he told redbankgreen last year. But his investment was really in the Monmouth Street real estate that housed the 30-year-old business, he said.
Now, he’s throwing in the towel on retail.
Joanna Rapuzzi in her newly opened AR Workshop, at 43A Broad Street. (Photo by John T. Ward. Click to enlarge.)
By JOHN T. WARD
Do-it-yourself rustic signmaking is now the latest thing in downtown Red Bank, with the recent openings of two franchised workshops downtown.
With temperatures in the ‘feels-like’ area of 100 degrees through much of the day, a splash in a wading pool was in order at the closing installment of Dogs Days of Summer in Marine Park in Red Bank Monday night.
Without fanfare, what may be Red Bank’s first outdoor news ticker flickered to life at the corner of West Front Street and Maple Avenue.
But wait: don’t borough ordinances prohibit internally illuminated and animated signs? They do. So What’s Going On Here?
It’s gonna be a scorcher on the Greater Red Bank Green Monday afternoon, when peak temperatures in excess of 90 degrees and high humidity combine to push the “feels-like” temperature above 100, according to the National Weather Service.
A heat advisory is in effect from noon until 7 p.m., with cautions to avoid outdoor exertion and consume lots of water. The heat index could reach 104, the NWS warned.
Check out the extended forecast below. (Photo by Trish Russoniello. Click to enlarge.)
Abby Nooney prepares cones with chocolate and sprinkles at Coney Waffles & Ice Cream, which opened last week at 18 Broad Street. (Photo by John T. Ward. Click to enlarge.)
By JOHN T. WARD
The doldrums of summer may be upon us, but not in the realm of tastebuds.
The ever-changing food scene in downtown Red Bank continues its evolutionary bustle, as this edition of redbankgreen‘s Retail Churn shows.
The borough’s attempt to revoke Riverview’s tax exemption for two years amounted to a “fishing expedition” in search of justification, the court ruled. (Photo by John T. Ward. Click to enlarge.)
By JOHN T. WARD
Red Bank can’t retroactively revoke the tax-exemption for Riverview Medical Center, New Jersey’s tax court ruled last week.
In attempting to do so, the borough was improperly hoping that a “fishing expedition” in the form of legal action would turn up evidence that the hospital, owned by Hackensack Meridian Health, was being used as a for-profit facility, the court ruled. Read 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.
The crime and arrest reports below were provided by the Red Bank Police Department for July, 2018. This information is unedited. For additional information, please scroll to the bottom of this post.
CRIMES
Theft: On 07/07/18 a black male subject seen wearing a gray sweatshirt, dark pants and a black baseball cap was seen stealing a carton of cigarettes valued at $94.00 in the area of N. Bridge Ave. Ptl. Shane Dengel.
Criminal Mischief: It was reported on 07/12/18 that all four tires of a vehicle were slashed in the area of Chestnut St. Ptl. Frank Metta.
Carlo’s Bake Shop posted a small notice of closing on its door Tuesday or early Wednesday. (Photo by John T. Ward. Click to enlarge.)
By JOHN T. WARD
Five years after it was opened by television baking star Buddy Valastro, Carlo’s Bake Shop in Red Bank has closed, redbankgreen has learned.
The unannounced shutdown comes just four months after a new investor in the business said there was no plan to leave town.
A new workweek dawns on the Greater Red Bank Green, as seen from a lofty perch above our beatiful Navesink River Monday morning.
Weatherwise, we’re in for partly sunny skies and a high temperature of about 81 degrees Monday, with a 30-percent chance of rain.
Here’s the forecast for the rest of the week and beyond from the National Weather Service.
Now being developed for townhomes, the lot between Catherine and River streets was once home to the Danelectro guitar factory. Below, a Danelectro with the distinctive “coke bottle” headstock. (Photo above by John T. Ward, below courtesy of Lorie Mouklas. Click to enlarge.)
By JOHN T. WARD
Without fanfare, a half-dozen factory buildings on Red Bank’s West Side were leveled last month, making way for new homes.
Among the structures razed was one that deserves a final flick of the lighter from rock music fans. In the early days of rock ‘n roll, the building at 10 River Street churned out low-priced but distinctive-sounding electric guitars, some of which helped launch the careers of rock superstars such as Jimi Hendrix and Jimmy Page.
Councilman Mike Whelan, right, with Congressman Chris Smith in Red Bank last September. (Photo by John T. Ward. Click to enlarge.)
By JOHN T. WARD
Red Bank Councilman Mike Whelan was involved an altercation in the Hamptons over the weekend in which he says he was attacked, redbankgreen has learned.
Whelan, 27, who serves as Red Bank’s police commissioner, said he was assaulted in a hotel men’s room by a belligerent stranger, and is confident the case against him will be dropped.
The trailer for ‘I Am Another You,’ a documentary about a young man who chooses to live on the streets, screens as a free, community-welcome entry at this week’s Indie Street Film Festival. Below, artist Ron Haywood Jones‘s mural for the festival at 97 Broad Street remained unfinished Tuesday morning because of rain interruptions. (Photo by John T. Ward. Click to enlarge.)
Its community mural may still need some finishing touches, thanks to uncooperative weather. Still, the third annual Indie Street Film Festival kicks off in Red Bank Wednesday evening, ushering in a five-day rush of innovative cinema, movie talk and parties.
A project of the filmmaker cooperative Indie Street (working in partnership with Red Bank RiverCenter), the festival spreads decidedly non-Hollywood magic across the borough’s theaters, restaurants, night spots, and even the middle school auditorium. And there’s a free, community-welcome screening mixed in among the orange-pass-only fare.
Check out the festival schedule below; information about passes and tickets can be found here.
Along with the weekly summer movie, Riverside Gardens Park in Red Bank now features a permanent installation of the Story Walk pathway instituted by the borough library. And it’s gotten an upgrade from its first two editions.
Tucked into a patch of industrial Red Bank few have reasons to pass, the longtime site of a garage has been transformed into rental housing.
What’s Going On Here? Click for details.
Trees were taken down recently at Bellhaven Natural Area in preparation for an observation deck being built there, according to Business Administrator Ziad Shehady. (Photo by John T. Ward. Click to enlarge.)
By JOHN T. WARD
Red Bank officials have quietly started prep work for a project at a site once mired in controversy: the Bellhaven Natural Area overlooking the Swimming River.
The end result, however will be a “scaled-back” version of a plan that once called for a spray park and triggered loud protests three years ago.
The workshop sessions will be held in the council chambers. (Photo by John T. Ward. Click to enlarge.)
By JOHN T. WARD
Red Bank’s local-government groupies and gadflies will have another municipal meeting to add to their calendars starting next month.
The council continues its once-a-month summer meeting schedule Wednesday. (Photo by John T. Ward. Click to enlarge)