By JOHN T. WARD
A messy dispute between Red Bank neighbors is headed to mediation.
At issue is a citizen’s complaint by Bank Street homeowner Lycet Ramos, whose doorbell security video caught two-time council candidate Allison Gregory and her husband, Mark Gregory, dumping trash in her driveway last month.
Mark and Allison Gregory dumping trash in Lycet Ramos’ driveway on October 4. (Lycet Ramos video. Click to enlarge.)
By JOHN T. WARD
A dispute between Red Bank neighbors has gotten messy.
Two-time council candidate Allison Gregory and her husband, Mark Gregory, are facing harassment and other allegations filed by their next-door neighbor after the couple dumped trash in her driveway earlier this month – and were caught in the act on video.
St. James first-grader Declan Duffy chose to draw Red Bank’s Molly Pitcher Inn as his favorite place in town, above. Below, the other winners by grade. (Click to enlarge)
[Press release from the Friends of the Red Bank Public Library]
The Sixth Annual Friends oft he Red Bank Public Library Bookmark Contest has announced this year’s winners! At a well-attended party on May 20, the Friends presented the winners with certificates and gift cards to local businesses.
By JOHN T. WARD
Two Rumson teens were arrested on booze-related charges after police busted up a party Saturday night.
The arrests followed a complaint to police at about 11 p.m. in which a caller reported a large party underway and multiple juveniles on the caller’s front lawn on Elm Place, said Detective Christopher Isherwood said.
Web developer Kenny Katzgrau says even fourth-graders can begin to code after a bit of instruction. (Photo by John T. Ward. Click to enlarge)
The idea of computer code may be daunting to many adults. But kids are quick to pick up on the logic underlying the dominant technologies of our time, says Red Bank resident and web developer Kenny Katzgrau, who will lead an Intro to Coding class for kids aged 10 to 14 years old at the borough Public Library this Thursday afternoon.
The primary goal of the 90-minute session, says Katzgrau, is to spark interest in what can be a hobby or the basis of a lucrative career.
By JOHN T. WARD
The owner of a Rumson home where police found 50 underage partiers consuming alcohol last Saturday night has been issued a summons, police said.
Lori Krikorian, 48, who police said was present when they arrived, was cited Thursday for maintaining a nuisance, Detective Chris Isherwood said in a prepared statement issued Friday.
By JOHN T. WARD
A Rumson teen was arrested and about 50 underage drinkers were dispersed from a party Saturday night, borough police reported Tuesday.
Detective Chris Isherwood tells redbankgreen tha Sergeant Damien Brennan and Patrolman James Fenn were on patrol when they came upon “large packs of kids running in the road” outside a Rumson Road residence at about 10:48 p.m.
On further investigation, cops found “numerous bottles of alcohol and cases of scattered beer cans, both opened and unopened,” at a party attended by dozens under 21 years old, he said.
Librarian Stephanie Chadwick with participants in last month’s meeting of the anime club. Below, details of some mangas. (Photos by Isabel Halloran. Click to enlarge)
By ISABEL HALLORAN
Red Bank Charter School Intern
Four teenagers – Angela, Monteleone, Sam, and Alberto – gather in a small room at the Red Bank Public Library and sit at a long table.
Across from this table is another lined with manga (pronounced MAHN-guh), Japanese comic books that often have a fantasy or sci-fi theme to them. These books are read from what we in the United States consider back-to-front.
Stephanie Chadwick, teen services librarian and group leader, welcomes the participants to the monthly meeting of the Anime Club and introduces the activity for the day: playing a game she calls “anime-opoly.”
Today, redbankgreen introduces a new occasional feature called Class Act.
Class Act reports news about local young people who’ve moved on to college and beyond to continue their education. We’ll be grouping them by town of residence and posting periodically. The first one is about Middletown residents who recently graduated from college, and one who’s still there, doing some esoteric research.
The feature is one of several new ones we’ll be rolling out on our all-new All Good page, which is dedicated to “news from a brighter future,” with special emphasis on the achievements and good works of kids, volunteers, charitable organizations and others who embody the spirit of a better world for all of us.
A Verve magazine production session in Fair Haven last week. Below, instruction Jennifer Chauhan, left, with Samantha Quinn. (Photos by Colby Wilson. Click to enlarge)
By COLBY WILSON
What is imagination? What is artistic expression?
It’s Verve, according to an ambitious group of local young creators led by Little Silver-based writer, editor and educator Jennifer Chauhan.
This summer, Chauhan, the founder of the JC Writing Studio in Fair Haven, is helping five teens from local schools tap into their creative energy and craft their own online publication. During a four-day open writing studio last week, Chauhan helped the founding editors transform Verve from an idea into a reality.
Children line up for pre-dinner clean-hands inspection at the Boys and Girls Club. (Photos by Sarah Klepner. Click to enlarge)
By SARAH KLEPNER
After five p.m. on a recent afternoon, a pair of children in red shirts and khakis set a long table with styrofoam plates laden with tacos. Moments later, a dozen or so kids dressed in the same outfits the uniform of the Red Bank Primary School line up for inspection by Natasha Cargill, a teenaged kitchen manager.
It’s clean-hands time at at the Boys and Girls Club of Monmouth County‘s Red Bank unit, a scene that plays out so routinely that some of the kids continue to absently hold their hands above their heads long after they’ve passed Cargill’s inspection.
Looking on, Christy Crank looks pleased. As the facility director, the 38-year-old borough native sets a welcoming but firm tone for all who step through its doors.
“I see a lot of me in these kids,” says Crank. “When I was growing up, we didn’t have a Boys and Girls Club. We provide a safe space, where there’s no bullying, you get the help you need, and everyone is equal.”
SEE UPDATE BELOW
Five local teens have been charged for a brazen burglary of a Rumson home during the Hurricane Sandy-induced power outage, borough police reported Thursday.
The arrests of two juveniles and three adults, all from Rumson and Fair Haven, is the latest development in a case that had vexed local officials because it sparked an unfounded rumor of post-storm looting, police Chief Scott Paterson tells redbankgreen.
“There was just this one incident, but it made it problematic for us,” he said.
This just in from the Middetown PD:
On October 18, 2012 at approximately 4:30pm police responded to the Spirit Halloween Store located on Highway 35 in Middletown in reference to a report of a male subject groping young girls. Upon arrival Patrolman Christopher Dee and Patrolman Nicholas Fenezia conducted an investigation and determined that the suspect had groped four girls under the age of 12 and one girl who was 13 years of age. The investigation resulted in the arrest of a store employee, Mark Lenahan, age 34, from Clark Avenue in Union Beach, NJ.
Rumson police, continuing a crackdown on illegal alcohol use by minors, arrested three young adults for possession late Sunday night, according to an announcement by Chief Richard Tobias.
The crackdown, coming on the heels of a survey that found heavier-than-expected use of alcohol and drugs by students at Rumson-Fair Haven Regional, also includes a ramped-up effort to publicize such arrests, Tobias tells redbankgreen.
Thirty members of the Teen Outreach Program at Red Bank Regional High completed a two-day Out of the Darkness track walk in the school gym Wednesday morning to promote awareness of suicide prevention as part of Children’s Mental Health Week.
The idea for the walk came primarily from two proactive freshmen, Grace Rumph and Adam Canterbury, above, each of whom has lost a friend to suicide within the past two years.
“This is affecting our generation and there’s so much a person can do to help, but maybe they feel afraid to reach out,” said Rumph. “People need to know how important it is.” (Photos by Danielle Tepper. Click to enlarge)
A carload of young adults and a motorcyclist involved in a spill were charged with alcohol-related offenses after separate incidents in Rumson this weekend, according to police.
Debbie Mishan, below, with the hundreds of entries from girls seeking to be featured in posters hung each month at her Fair Haven boutique, Skye Blue & BeTween. (Click to enlarge)
By JOHN T. WARD
The oversized, constantly changing photos of well-dressed young models you may have noticed in the window of Skye Blue & BeTween in Fair Haven aren’t stock images provided by clothing manufacturers.
They’re the store’s ‘tween customers, girls aged 13 to 16, the age “just before they start shopping at Urban Outfitters,” says shop owner Debbie Mishan. And a spot in the boutique’s frames has become one of the hottest tickets among adolescent girls on the Green and a marketing boon for Mishan and a local photographer.
Is it just us, or are more young people shopping in downtown Red Bank than in recent years? Below, Leanne Navarette of Backward Glances. (Click to enlarge)
By MOLLY MULSHINE
Autumn Byrd, 14, may not have a driver’s license, but the Colts Neck resident still finds a way to shop, eat and hang out in Red Bank whenever she can.
“My daughter is always like, ‘Let’s go to Red Bank, let’s go to Urban Outfitters, let’s go to Funk & Standard,'” Autumn’s dad, Avery Byrd, said as he paid for a purchase at Backward Glances recently.
Autumn eschews the mall in favor of Red Bank because of the town’s artsy feel, she said. “A lot of the styles I’m into, I can find here,” she said. “And I feel safe in this town.”
If any trend is apparent in downtown Red Bank this summer, it’s the return of teens and young adults, lured to modest-priced clothing stores and eateries, including relative newcomers Urban Outfitters, women’s clothing boutique Dor L’Dor and Mexi-Cali chow purveyor Surf Taco, as well as staples like Funk and Standard.
Merchants see the influx of teens as a rebuke to the idea that the town is becoming too upmarket and squeezing out younger shoppers and others with moderate incomes.
View Larger MapTwo people waited as lookouts at the Knollwood Gardens apartments while a 17-year-old prostitute serviced a resident in his apartment, police allege.
Two 17-year-old girls and two alleged clients have been arrested for engaging in prostitution, Middletown police say.
Also arrested was 20-year-old Richard Burges, of Thousand Oaks Drive, who was charged with acting as the girls’ pimp.