Red Bank police were out on Broad Street Wednesday afternoon for a brief pedestrian safety enforcement push. The effort resulted in five summonses issued to motorists and 13 warnings, some to drivers and some to pedestrians, said Chief Darren McConnell.
But the enforcement might easily have gone on for hours, judging by activity seen by redbankgreen. See below. (Photos by John T. Ward. Click to enlarge)
Kiss the kiosks goodbye for the next two weeks:. Visitors to downtown Red Bank will get a pass on having to pay for parking starting Thursday and running through December 25. The annual moratorium applies to lot and curb spaces, according to Red Bank RiverCenter.
The downtown promotion agency will host an “open house” throughout the business district Thursday night, featuring store sales, refreshments, carolers, and the Barbizon Holiday Mannequins. New this year: strolling Santas, available to grace your selfies. (Photo by John T. Ward; click to enlarge)
The intersection of Broad Street and Shrewsbury Avenue is one of two under consideration by borough officials for red-light cameras. (Photo by Rebecca Desfosse. Click to enlarge)
By REBECCA DESFOSSE
Despite lingering questions, Shrewsbury officials have not abandoned their pursuit of traffic cameras that would automatically issue summonses to alleged red-light violators, borough Council President Tom Menapace tells redbankgreen.
While borough officials have been talking for more than a year about installing the controversial devices at two heavily traveled intersections, “we have not made a decision, and we want to look at all sides of the issue before we make a decision,” Menapace said. “There is still a lot up in the air.
Meanwhile, 12th-district Assemblyman Declan OScanlon, of Little Silver, continues to rail against red-light cameras, calling a state Department of Transportation pilot program allowing their use in 25 towns “a disaster since it was initiated.”
A frame from an amateur video shot during the exotic car show captured at least one vehicle parked facing in the wrong direction on Wallace Street. (Click to enlarge)
By JOHN T. WARD
The free exotic car show that drew hundreds of visitors to downtown Red Bank earlier this month may end up costing seven motorists $38 each.
Their vehicles were ticketed for parking faced in the wrong direction on a one-way street.
What led their drivers to think they could do so? A case of follow-the-leader for some, perhaps.
The Red Bank council approved a request from RiverCenter to offer free holiday parking, but not at curbside meters like these on Monmouth Street. (Photo by Dustin Racioppi; click to enlarge)
By DUSTIN RACIOPPI
Two weeks after narrowly shooting down a perfunctory request from RiverCenter to offer free holiday parking downtown, the Red Bank borough council reversed its position Monday night.
“What’s changed?” Branch Avenue’s Stephen Hecht asked.
In addition to a minor tweak to RiverCenter’s request, Councilman Michael DuPont’s thinking, apparently.
Count Basie Theatre CEO Numa Saisselin.
Hoping to appease Steve Winwood fans who couldn’t make the musician’s concert because of Wednesday’s blizzard, officials at the Count Basie Theatre are offering them free seats to one of four upcoming performances by other artists.
They’re also attempting to clarify the position the theater found itself in as weather forecasts grew ominous in the days leading up to the show. Canceling the concert would have meant a “crippling financial loss” approaching $100,000, Basie CEO Numa Saisselin says in a letter to ticketholders posted overnight on the theater’s website.
A borough plow works Monmouth Street at the height of Saturday’s blizzard. (Click to enlarge)
With a second major winter storm in three days expected to wallop the region starting tonight, Red Bank officials have amped up their enforcement of street-parking rules and snow-removal laws, they say.
More than at any time in the past two decades, the public works and police departments are coordinating their efforts to clear borough streets and parking lots of snow, officials say. And that could mean more tickets, they warn.
“We really don’t bother people about parking on the streets” when it snows, says Councilwoman Sharon Lee. “But it’s gotten to the point where it has not paid for us to be pliable.”