The newly remodeled house at the five-points intersection of Harding Road, Hudson Avenue and Branch Avenue. (Photo by John T. Ward. Click to enlarge.)
By JOHN T. WARD
Home restorers Carole-Ann Gorhan and Roger Palacio have been getting a lot of attention from passersby in Red Bank in recent months.
Motorists have been tooting horns, and pedestrians have been stopping to thank them for bringing the house at 42 Harding Road back to life.
Rumson officials said they learned that Oxford House had created the recovery home at 61 South Ward Avenue only after a resident’s death there. (Photo by John T. Ward. Click to enlarge)
By JOHN T. WARD
An Avon-by-the-Sea man has been indicted for the overdose death of a resident of Rumson’s Oxford House addiction recovery facility, Acting Monmouth County Prosecutor Christopher Gramiccioni announced Monday.
Michael Renna, 26 of Sylvania Avenue, faces two counts arising from the October 2013 death of 25-year-old Christopher L. Pesce, according to Gramiccioni.
The overdose death of an Oxford House resident has resulted in charges against a man described by authorities as an acquaintance. (Photo by John T. Ward. Click to enlarge)
By JOHN T. WARD
An Avon-by-the-Sea man has been charged for allegedly supplying the heroin that led to the overdose death of a resident of Rumson’s Oxford House rehab facility last October, the Monmouth County Prosecutor announced Tuesday.
Michael Renna, 25, was charged with one count of first degree strict liability for a drug-induced death and one count of third-degree distribution of a controlled dangerous substance, Acting Monmouth County Prosecutor Christopher J. Gramiccioni said in a prepared statement.
News about the death of 25-year-old Christopher Pesce was the first that word that nearby residents had that the recovery residence had opened two months earlier in their residential corner of Rumson, and ignited a firestorm of objections.
It also led to a pair of countervailing lawsuits by the borough and Oxford House, litigation that now appears to be close to settlement.
Oxford House says in a court filing that the group home at 61 South Ward Avenue is getting new residents. (Photo by John T. Ward. Click to enlarge)
By JOHN T. WARD
Oxford House has gone on the legal offensive against Rumson.
The parent organization of the embattled group home for recovering alcoholics and drug addicts filed a federal lawsuit against the borough on Friday, alleging discrimination in violation of fair housing and Americans with Disabilities laws.
The suit claims the town and borough Administrator Tom Rogers “have interfered with operation and occupancy” of the residence in the aftermath of two drug overdoses at the house since it opened in August – one resulting of the death of a 25-year-old Holmdel man in October, and the second in December, in which a resident required emergency treatment.
The manager of Oxford Houses for New Jersey says the Rumson group home is still occupied, but declines to say if there’s a proctor on site. (Photo by John T. Ward. Click to enlarge)
By JOHN T. WARD
Rumson officials failed in their attempt to get a court order forcing a group home for recovering addicts to be vacated. But they appear to have effectively gotten what they wanted:
an empty Oxford House.
Or have they?
Contrary to the impressions of town officials and some neighbors, “it’s not vacant,” according to George Kent, who manages the house, at 61 South Ward Avenue, for the nonprofit Oxford House.
If it’s not vacant, tid Oxford follow through on a purported plan to change the facility from all-male to one for women and children?
“All I can say is nothing’s changed,” Kent told redbankgreen last week. “There’s people living there.”
An overflow crowd jammed Rumson’s council chambers to air concerns about an addiction recovery house in town. Below, Barbara Russell returns to her seat after speaking with borough Attorney Marty Barger. (Click to enlarge)
By JOHN T. WARD
Rumson residents packed a borough meeting Tuesday night to demand action regarding Oxford House, an addiction-recovery residence where a tenant died of a suspected drug overdose 10 days ago.
Seated on the floor and standing in the hallway outside the bimonthly meeting of the town’s governing body, neighbors teed up Oxford House for setting up a residence at 61 South Ward Avenue without notice and for a self-governance model they say isn’t working.
“They’re sitting on the porch and they are drinking,” in violation of Oxford’s own bylaws governing locally chartered houses, Washington Avenue resident Barbara Russell said of the house’s nine residents.
Having recently completed alcohol and drug treatment programs and then allowed to live together without supervision, Oxford’s young clients are naturally “going to come out and have a party,” said Russell, who described herself as a recovering alcoholic for 26 years.
The Rumson house where a man was found dead of a suspected drug overdose Sunday quietly became an addiction recovery residence in August, neighbors say. (Click to enlarge)
By JOHN T. WARD
Nestled in a quiet Rumson neighborhood still recovering from floodwaters that tore through a year ago, the grey house at the corner of South Ward and Washington avenues stands out, towering over its neighbors.
It also stands out as the subject of complaints to the police.
“They party all the time,” a neighbor who asked not to be identified said of the home’s occupants. “They are up all night. Partying on the front porch. Running through the neighborhood.”
Sunday evening, though, the police were at the house for another reason: looking into the death of one of its residents from a purported drug overdose.
To the surprise of many in this affluent community, the house turns be a drug- and alcohol-rehab residence.
U Gallery will feature luxury goods on consignment and works by brain-injured artists. (Click to enlarge) 
One of the stores opening as part of a surge in new consignment shops in the Red Bank area has an unusual pedigree.
It’s called U Gallery, and it’s an offshoot of Universal Institute, a player in the healthcare industry specializing in services for brain-injured clients.
Huh?
No, that’s not an egregious misprint. Lisa Lasso, who co-owns the rehab and vocational training facility, says a consignment shop/art gallery can work, and say she has the track record to prove it.