RED BANK: POSSIBLE GRENADE FOUND IN SEWER
A member of the State Police bomb squad emerging from a Red Bank storm sewer with a possible hand grenade Tuesday afternoon.
RED BANK: POT LAW DRAWS FIRE BUT ADVANCES
A long-vacant gas station at the foot of Cooper’s Bridge was left out of the new law by mistake, proponents said. (Photo by John T. Ward. Click to enlarge.)
By JOHN T. WARD
The Red Bank council advanced a rewrite of the borough pot law Wednesday night, undeterred by cannabis business owners warning of lawsuits.
The proposed changes, which include a ban on marijuana retailing within 1,000 feet of schools, “please no one,” but must be adopted, their lead sponsor told a sharply divided audience at a special legislative session.
RED BANK: SESSION ON CANNABIS LAW SLATED
A proposed change to Red Bank’s cannabis law would ban sales within 1,000 feet of schools, playgrounds and public housing, except in one zone, under a draft that’s up for discussion at a special session this week.
RED BANK: POT LAW OVERHAUL PROPOSED
Cannabis proponent Andy Zeitlin testifying at the special session. (Photo by John T. Ward. Click to enlarge.)
By JOHN T. WARD
Expecting to hear about proposed tweaks to Red Bank’s pot law, attendees at a special council session Monday night instead learned that it may be completely rewritten to make it more restrictive.
Councilwoman Angela Mirandi fiercely defended the proposed changes, calling the original 2021 ordinance “reckless.”
RED BANK: CANNABIS SITINGS ON AGENDA
The Red Bank council has scheduled a special session next week to consider easing limits on cannabis shop sitings.
RED BANK: DPU HEAD OUSTED
Cliff Keen on Broad Street last June. (Photo by John T. Ward. Click to enlarge)
By JOHN T. WARD
At its first working session of 2023, the Red Bank council fired public utilities director Cliff Keen Wednesday night.
Unmentioned at the meeting: he was replaced on an interim basis, at a cost of $16,500 per month, by Gary Watson Sr., whom Keen succeeded in 2016.
RED BANK: DETOURS, FOUR-WAY STOP COMING
Motorists who travel Spring Street in Red Bank will need to adjust for some temporary changes resulting from road work this week and next.
And there will be a permanent change in place once the work is done: a new four-way stop intersection.
RED BANK: YOUR CAPTION HERE…
What’s Going On Here at East Front and High streets in Red Bank?
Read on for the answer… or make up your own photo caption.
RED BANK: SPRING STREET PROJECT ADVANCING
Parking is prohibited this week on the southern half of Spring Street in Red Bank as “minor concrete work and fire hydrant replacement” is scheduled to begin Monday, acting borough administrator and police Chief Darren McConnell tells redbankgreen.
RED BANK: BROADWALK SET FOR RETURN
An employee of Catch 19 setting up tables Friday. (Photo by John T. Ward. Click to enlarge.)
By JOHN T. WARD
With borough workers and contractors putting finishing touches on an eight-month-long streetscape project, a handful of restaurants hastily set up for a return of Red Bank’s Broadwalk plaza Friday.
Outside the traffic-free zone, however, none of the parking-space streateries used over the past two summers have returned, following a sixfold increase in fees by the borough council.
RED BANK: BROADWALK RELAUNCH “ON TRACK”
Gleaming new retractable security bollards are expected make their debut on Broad Street in downtown Red Bank with the return of Broadwalk Friday.
But will businesses be ready for the late-starting third season of the dining and shopping plaza?
RED BANK: PAVING TO BRING DAYS OF DETOURS
A crew from Montana Construction adjusting one of the new retractable bollards on Broad Street Friday. (Photo by John T. Ward. Click to enlarge.)
By JOHN T. WARD
Accustomed to detours and dust from an eight-month-long rebuilding of Broad Street, merchants and motorists in Red Bank will face what officials hope will be one last series of shutdowns next week.
Weather permitting, several days of paving and striping should all but finish the streetscape project.
RED BANK: BROADWALK CURTAILED, FEES UPPED
Businesses readied for the second year of Broadwalk in May, 2021. (Photo by John T. Ward. Click to enlarge.)
By JOHN T. WARD
Delayed by months, the third season of Red Bank’s Broadwalk shopping-and-dining plaza may finally get going July 22.
This year’s edition, however, is slated to run only through Labor Day. And new fees for in-street dining will cost restaurateurs twice what they paid over the past two summers, said Bob Zuckerman, executive director of the downtown promotion agency Red Bank RiverCenter.
RED BANK: BROADWALK ACTION EXPECTED
Newly installed retractable bollards will allow for upper Broad Street to be converted quickly to a vehicle-free Broadwalk. (Photo by John T. Ward. Click to enlarge.)
By JOHN T. WARD
Red Bank’s council is scheduled to hold two meetings Wednesday night, its only sessions in July.
Though not on the agenda for either the workshop or regular meeting, action to enable a third season of Broadwalk is anticipated by the downtown business community.
RED BANK: BROADWALK CONCERNS AIRED
A view of Broadwalk at lunchtime last October. (Photo by John T. Ward. Click to enlarge.)
By JOHN T. WARD
Red Bank merchants and residents pressed officials with concerns regarding a third season of Broadwalk at a community forum Wednesday night.
With less than a month to go before a disruptive streetscape makeover project wraps up, they called for efforts to address litter, traffic, speeding on residential streets and more.
RED BANK: BROAD STREET PROJECT NEARS END
Retractable bollards were installed on Mechanic Street near Broad Street Wednesday. (Photo by John T. Ward. Click to enlarge.)
See UPDATE below
By JOHN T. WARD
A messy, overdue and over-budget makeover of upper Broad Street in Red Bank is expected to conclude in late July, acting borough Administrator Darren McConnell said Wednesday.
The project, which began last November, marked a milestone with the installation this week of retractable hydraulic bollards that will enable quick closure of the street to vehicular traffic.
Still to be determined is when the Broadwalk dining promenade will return for a third, if abbreviated, season.
RED BANK: SINKHOLE OPENS ON BROAD
A sinkhole opened on Broad Street in downtown Red Bank Monday night, caused a parked vehicle to sink about a foot.
RED BANK: TORRES DEBUTS NEW RESTAURANT
Juanito’s Charcoal Grill features outdoor seating with colorful murals on either side. (Photo by John T. Ward. Click to enlarge)
By JOHN T. WARD
It was going to be a laundromat. Think: droning appliances, fluorescent lighting and the cloying scent of fabric softener perfuming a stretch of Shrewsbury Avenue in Red Bank.
Luckily for Red Bank-area lovers of food and immersive atmosphere, Juan Torres changed his plans. And on Saturday, the serial entrepreneur will debut his newest creation: Juanito’s Charcoal Grill, a restaurant that’s a volcanic eruption of colors, aromas and flavors, inside and out.
RED BANK: BROADWALK PANEL FORMED
Navigating sidewalks on Broad Street in downtown Red Bank is a bit of a challenge these days.
What’s the latest on the streetscape project that’s been underway since November in the streets northernmost blocks? Read on.
RED BANK: COUNCIL SPARS OVER BROADWALK
Curb replacement work underway as part of the Broad Street streetscape project last week. (Photo by John T. Ward. Click to enlarge.)
By JOHN T. WARD
An ongoing split among Red Bank council Democrats played out as a power struggle Wednesday night over who will steer the reopening of the seasonal Broadwalk dining and shopping plaza.
RED BANK: BROADWALK MAY RETURN IN JULY
Diners enjoying lunch in the Broadwalk zone in October. (Photo by John T. Ward. Click to enlarge.)
By JOHN T. WARD
Delayed by street a reconstruction project, Red Bank’s Broadwalk outdoor dining plaza will return this summer, borough officials agreed Wednesday.
The informal consensus of the council was the first indication that the downtown car-free experiment, launched in the early months of the COVID-19 pandemic, would get a third edition.
RED BANK: COUNCIL WRAP
Council Councilwoman Kate Triggiano, center top row, chaired the meeting for the first time since her January 1 election as council president. (Photo from Zoom. Click to enlarge.)
By JOHN T. WARD
Red Bank’s council debated several issues with less friction Wednesday night than often seen over the past two years.
RED BANK: COUNCIL OKS MAIN, TIE-IN COSTS
A Montana Construction crew working on Broad Street earlier this month. (Photo by John T. Ward. Click to enlarge.)
By JOHN T. WARD
Broad Street in Red Bank will get a new, $1.3 million water main, following council action to expand a $2.7 million sanitary sewer project that has disrupted downtown traffic for the past three months.
And property owners won’t have to pay thousands of dollars to replace their water connections, as some had feared.
RED BANK: LEAK SLOWS BROAD STREET ANEW
Two days after construction of a new sanitary sewer line in downtown Red Bank was suspended through the Christmas weekend, a work crew was back to repair a water leak Thursday morning.
RED BANK: BROAD STREET WORK PAUSED
Construction of a new sewer line on Broad Street has been suspended through the Christmas weekend, Red Bank officials announced Monday.