RED BANK: BON JOVI SPOTLIGHTS PORTER
Jon Bon Jovi chatted with Pastor Terrence Porter of Red Bank’s Pilgrim Baptist Church for a ‘Season of Giving’ segment on the Christmas Eve edition of NBC’s Today Show last Thursday.
RED BANK: BON JOVI WARMS UP CENTER
Jon Bon Jovi at the ribbon cutting for the Hope & Comfort Warming Center, at 166 Shrewsbury Avenue, below. (Photos by John T. Ward. Click to enlarge.)
By JOHN T. WARD
With a surprise snowstorm hinting at the need, a new ‘warming center’ for homeless men opened in Red Bank Thursday.
The warmup act for the ribbon cutting? None other than pop superstar Jon Bon Jovi.
RED BANK: CLINTON COATTAILS HELPED DEMS
Hillary Clinton won every district in Red Bank but the fifth, lifting the party’s entire ticket. (Photo by John T. Ward. Click to enlarge)
By JOHN T. WARD
She lost at the national level, but Hillary Clinton won Red Bank, and her coattails helped Democrats pull even with Republicans on the borough council Tuesday night, election returns tallied by the Monmouth County Clerk show.
Clinton captured all but one of the but one of Red Bank’s nine voting districts — the fifth — topping president-elect Donald Trump townwide, 2,633 to 1,510. (The figures don’t include mail-in ballots, said borough clerk Pam Borghi.)
RED BANK: DEMS WIN, GAIN COUNCIL PARITY
Erik Yngstrom at Democratic headquarters as the party’s local victory became clear. (Photo by John T. Ward. Click to enlarge)
By JOHN T. WARD
Knocked from their perch a year ago, Red Bank Democrats gained parity with Republicans on the borough council Tuesday night, as incumbent Kathy Horgan and newcomer Erik Yngstrom routed three other candidates, according to preliminary results.
The clearest loser in the race was incumbent Cindy Burnham, who ran a distant fifth three years after she broke a seven-year Democratic lock on the governing body.
RED BANK: CANDIDATES AGREE, MINUS TWO
Incumbents Kathy Horgan, a Democrat, and Cindy Burnham, running as an independent, at Wednesday night’s event at the Pilgrim Baptist Church. (Photo by John T. Ward. Click to enlarge)
By JOHN T. WARD
The Republican candidates for Red Bank council sent emissaries who watched from the sidelines at a community event Wednesday night.
First-time GOP candidates Brian Hanlon and Kellie O’Bosky Colwell disputed the circumstances under which the event, billed as a “community conversation,” came together, leaving them unable to attend, they told redbankgreen. Their expected absence had been termed an “insult” by one of the event’s organizers.
But the event itself turned out not to be as partisan as GOP chairman Mike Clancy had feared, he said afterward.
RED BANK: PORTER TEES UP GOP FOR ‘INSULT’
Reverend Terrence Porter said Wednesday’s event is intended as a nonpartisan opportunity for voters to see the candidates as individuals. (Photo by John T. Ward. Click to enlarge)
By JOHN T. WARD
The pastor of Red Bank’s Pilgrim Baptist Church lashed out Monday at borough Republicans, who he said had “insulted” African-American voters in avoiding a candidates’ event planned for Wednesday night at the church.
Reverend Terrence Porter teed up both the current and former GOP chairmen Sean DiSomma for what Porter said was groundless politicizing of an event that was envisioned as nonpartisan from the get-go.
“I’ve never been so disappointed in my experience in Red Bank,” Porter told redbankgreen. Read More
RED BANK: CANDIDATES TO FACE OFF AGAIN
With the race entering its final week, the five candidates for Red Bank council in next week’s election have agreed to square off a second time.
RED BANK: FIRST DEBATE DOWN
About two dozen Red Bank residents gathered at Pilgrim Baptist Church Monday night to watch the first 2016 presidential debate between Republican Donald Trump and Democrat Hillary Clinton and participate in a discussion afterward.
Did you watch? Did anything you heard change, or reinforce, your thinking about the candidates? Feel free to share your takeaway in a comment. (Photo by John T. Ward. Click to enlarge)
RED BANK: WATCH CLINTON & TRUMP DEBATE
Reverend Terrence Porter invites the Red Bank-area community to watch the first 2016 presidential debate between Republican Donald Trump and Democrat Hillary Clinton Monday night at Pilgrim Baptist Church.
RED BANK: A VIGIL FOR VICTIMS, AND PEACE
Children carried three bouquets of flowers — one for the five police officers slain in Dallas last week, one for victims of senseless violence, and one for “peace in our hearts and our country,” in the words of Mayor Pasquale Menna — at a vigil in Red Bank Sunday night.
About 40 residents, local clergy and a contingent of borough police officers participated in the brief ceremony, held at the Veterans Memorial on Monmouth Street at Drummond Place.
Additional photos are below. (Photos by John T. Ward. Click to enlarge) Read More
RED BANK: MENNA CALLS FOR TOWN VIGIL
Red Bank Mayor Pasquale Menna is calling on area residents to participate in a silent vigil Sunday evening for the five law enforcement officers slain in Dallas Thursday “and for civilian victims of violence in our country,” he said in an alert distributed Saturday.
Participants are asked to gather at 7 p.m. at the Veterans Memorial, at the corner of Monmouth Street and Drummond Place. Three wreaths will be on display, Menna said: one for the officers killed, one for victims of senseless violence, and one for “peace in our hearts and our country.”
Attendees may leave flowers at the site. (Photos by John T. Ward. Click to enlarge)
RED BANK: SECOND VIGIL HONORS VICTIMS
As participants present lit a candle from a single flame at a vigil in Red Bank Thursday night, Pastor Terrence K. Porter of Pilgrim Baptist Church urged each of them to think of a single victim of Sunday’s Orlando nightclub attack, America’s bloodiest-ever mass shooting.
“The candle you light is a reflection of that image in your mind,” he said.
The memorial service, held at Johnny Jazz Park on Drs. Parker Boulevard, was the second such service in town in two nights, and was organized by the West Side Ministerial Alliance and other other religious groups. Additional photos are below. (Photos by John T. Ward. Click to enlarge)
RED BANK: VIGIL CALLS FOR LOVE, GUN LAWS
Dozens of Red Bank area residents gathered for a candlelight vigil in memory of the victims the nightclub attack that took place in Orlando, Florida early Sunday morning, in which 49 were killed and 53 wounded in America’s bloodiest-ever mass shooting.
Several speakers, including Rabbi Marc Kline, of the Monmouth Reform Temple in Tinton Falls, called for tighter gun laws. “We need to do more than mourn and grieve,” he told the gathering, held outside Red Bank’s borough hall on Monmouth Street. A later reference to a Senate filibuster then underway for gun-law reform drew strong applause.
Additional photos may be seen below.
A second vigil, organized by the West Side Ministerial Alliance and other other religious groups, is scheduled for 7:30 p.m. today at Johnny Jazz Park, corner of Drs. Parker Boulevard and Shrewsbury Avenue in Red Bank. For further information, call 732-747-2343. (Photos by John T. Ward. Click to enlarge)
RED BANK: VIGIL FOR PULSE VICTIMS PLANNED
As they did in response to the murders of nine churchgoers in Charleston, South Carolina last year, Red Bank residents and others will gather again this week to mourn.
Mayor Pasquale Menna has called for a community-wide candlelight vigil “in remembrance of the victims in the senseless nightclub attack” that took place in Orlando, Florida early Sunday morning, in which 49 were killed and 53 wounded in America’s bloodiest-ever mass shooting.
RED BANK: LIGHTING THE NIGHT AGAINST HATE
Several hundred participants gathered on Red Bank’s West Side Wednesday night for a vigil in response to the murders of nine churchgoers in Charleston, South Carolina last week.
Beginning with a march from Pilgrim Baptist Church to Ralph ‘Johnny Jazz’ Park, participants sang and heard calls for an end to violence from a handful of local church leaders. And in the final moments, they shared the flame of a “unity candle.”
Click “read more” below for full photo coverage. (Photo by John T. Ward. Click to enlarge)
RED BANK: ANTIHATE MARCH & VIGIL PLANNED
In response to the murders of nine churchgoers in Charleston, South Carolina last week, Red Bank’s Pilgrim Baptist Church is organizing an anti-hate, anti-violence march and candlelight vigil Tuesday night.
The march will begin at 8 p.m. at the church, at 172 Shrewsbury Avenue, and head to Ralph ‘Johnny Jazz’ Park at the corner of Drs. James Parker Boulevard for the vigil. In the event of rain, the vigil will be held in the church sanctuary. (Photo by John T. Ward. Click to enlarge)
CLOSED: CEDAR CROSSING WORK BEGINS
By DUSTIN RACIOPPI
It took a little longer than expected, but the Cedar Crossing affordable housing project is a done deal. Just needs to be built.
The Red Bank Affordable Housing Corporation closed on the property, right, Wednesday, and by this morning, workers started turning soil on the two-acre tract at Catherine, Cedar and River streets.
“The first feeling that came to mind, the emotion, was relief,” said Rev. Terrence K. Porter, pastor of the Pilgrim Baptist Church and head of the borough’s housing corporation.