VIRUS UPDATE: COUNTY REPORTS 14 CASES
By JOHN T. WARD
Monmouth County officials reported two additional ‘positive’ cases of COVID-19 Monday as the number statewide nearly doubled overnight.
SHREWSBURY: Y LAUNCHES ANNUAL CAMPAIGN
Y board member Christian Buckman, chairperson of the Annual Community Campaign, encourages Red Bank YMCA members to support the fundraising effort.
Providing families affordable childcare, increasing youth access to water safety skills and reducing isolation among seniors are three ways the YMCA of Greater Monmouth County helps to strengthen the community.
VIRUS UPDATE: YMCA SEEKS TO LIMIT SPREAD
The organization says its procedures “will continue to evolve” along with news about the coronavirus. (Photo by John T. Ward. Click to enlarge.)
[See update below]
By JOHN T. WARD
Red Bank’s YMCA is asking members whose children attend schools that have closed due to coronavirus concerns not to visit the facility.
Here’s a quick overview of precautionary measures being taken on the Greater Red Bank Green in light of COVID-19:
RED BANK: CLASSIC 5K SET FOR JUNE 20
The 2020 Red Bank Classic kicks off at 8 a.m. on June 20 in downtown Red Bank. (John Vitollo)
The third annual Red Bank Classic 5K will return to downtown Red Bank on Saturday, June 20 to raise support for youth development programs at the borough’s Department of Parks and Recreation and Red Bank Family YMCA.
SHREWSBURY: YMCA HOSTS ESSAY CONTEST
Local high school students are invited to participate in the annual YMCA Dr. King essay contest.
The YMCA of Greater Monmouth County is pleased to announce that the annual essay contest held in conjunction with the Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. memorial breakfast in January has been expanded to all students in Monmouth County.
RED BANK: FIREFIGHTERS KEEP FREE Y ACCESS
The Red Bank nonprofit says no families of kids now in a free membership program will be turned away. (Photo by John T. Ward. Click to enlarge.)
By JOHN T. WARD
Red Bank’s volunteer firefighters will get to keep their free memberships to the local YMCA, the organization announced Wednesday.
Police will still have to pay, though now at a discount, a spokeswoman for the nonprofit said. But there’s no change to the plan unveiled last week to end across-the-board free memberships for borough schoolchildren.
RED BANK: MENNA ‘IRATE’ OVER YMCA ACTION
Red Bank Mayor Pasquale Menna speaking at the the Memorial Day ceremony last month. (Photo by John T. Ward. Click to enlarge.)
By JOHN T. WARD
Red Bank Mayor Pasquale Menna on Thursday blasted a decision by the Community YMCA to end free memberships for borough schoolchildren and emergency first-responders.
Menna went on the offensive after the Y’s “unilateral” action, which he said was made without any advance notice to or discussion with his administration.
RED BANK: KIDS, RESPONDERS LOSE FREE YMCA
The Red Bank YMCA says affected families can apply for subsidies to replace the free memberships. Below, the letter sent to parents of children in the Healthy Kids program. (Photo by John T. Ward. Click to enlarge.)
By JOHN T. WARD
Red Bank’s schoolchildren and emergency first-responders will lose their free access to the borough YMCA in September.
The Maple Avenue nonprofit’s executive director, Katie McAdoo, tells redbankgreen the change was driven by its need to be “accountable” to funders.
ON THE GREEN: PINK CHRISTMAS TREES?
They may be outnumbered by Christmas trees, but recent unseasonably warm weather prompted a cherry blossom tree to sprout dainty pink leaves outside the Community YMCA on Maple Avenue in Red Bank, as captured in this photo by reader Mike McMahon. It’s a widespread phenomenon, including on the National Mall in Washington D.C., famous for its cherry blossoms.
With temperatures hovering in the mid-50s, a rainy afternoon was in store for the Greater Green Thursday afternoon, according to the National Weather Service. (Photo by Mike McMahon. Click to enlarge)
RED BANK: HOOPS AT THE TERRACE
After a recent facelift by donors and volunteers, the long-disused basketball court at Montgomery Terrace in Red Bank saw some action over the past three weekends, as the Community YMCA and others hosted a basektball clinic for kids who lived nearby.
Among the instructors: YMCA chief executive officer Rhonda Anderson, who played college hoops at Cornell and is in the school’s athletic hall of fame. (Click to enlarge)
RED BANK: SMOKE ON THE WATER AT THE Y
A smoke condition prompted an evacuation of the Community YMCA in Red Bank at around 6 a.m. Wednesday, sending wet swimmers and other exercisers outdoors. An unconfirmed report attributed the smoke to food burned in a microwave oven. (Click to enlarge)
PINKING THE RINK IN PINK BANK
Buffy Dee Slayer, aka ‘Nancy,’ and the ladies of the Red Bank Roller Vixens added a burst of pink to the rink at the Community YMCA in Red Bank Wednesday night in honor of Riverview Medical Center’s Paint the Town Pink breast cancer awareness effort. (Click to enlarge)
LINCROFT: Ex-NFL-ERS TAKE IT TO THE HOOP
Former Steelers player Rian Wallace gets some competition in the form of a football for the attention of a young fan. (Photo by Wil Fulton. Click to enlarge)
By WIL FULTON
It was average Joes vs football pros on the hardwood last Friday night as local amateur and school basketball teams faced off against a dream-team consisting of past and present NFL players all in the name of charity.
The Hoops for Hope event, created by local son turned NFL player Lonnie Allgood and held at Brookdale Community College’s Collins Arena, consisted of a series of quick exhibition games and other activities to raise money for Dreams for Kids and the YMCAs Strong Kids program, dedicated to providing underprivileged kids with a healthy lifestyle.
RED BANK: EX-NFL-ER BRINGS HOOPS & HOPE
Lonnie Allgood getting out the word about Hoops for Hope at the Red Bank Street Fair earlier this month. (Click to enlarge)
By WIL FULTON
Former NFL wide receiver Lonnie Allgood is one of the select few: a Red Bank kid who had the talent and drive to live out the big league dream.
But he didn’t get there on his own, he says. Long retired from the limelight after seven years in the league, he still considers the experiences and people he met at the Community YMCA in his hometown an integral part of his character.
I spent a lot of time at the Y when I was growing up in west Red Bank, Allgood told redbankgreen, and I met a lot of great role models there who really helped me while I was younger.”
Now, hes trying to give back to the community that made him who he is by inspiring kids to live their lives the right way. On Friday night, the YMCA and Allgoods charity foundation, Dreams for Kids, are teaming up for their first ever Hoops for Hope event, a basketball tournament featuring Allgoods professional gridiron star friends squaring off against local hoopsters including members of the Red Bank PBA, students from Red Bank Charter School, and Monmouth University Womens Basketball team all in the name of charity.
YMCA ADDS THREE TEEN-FOCUSED PROGRAMS
The Y Teen Achievers program, one of the new programs at the Red Bank location, helps prepare local high school students for college and employment, and includes a spring college tour, pictured above. Below, Bryanna Reevey of Fair Haven, right, with Jo Ann Rountree.
By DANIELLE TEPPER
Red Banks Community YMCA has a full slate of programs to kick off 2013, including three that are completely new to the location: Y Leaders Club, Girls Circle, Y Teen Achievers. Registration is now open and ongoing for the following three programs:
Y Leaders Club: A national Y program that teaches kids in grades 6 to 9 to become role models and leaders by participating in volunteering and marketing.
MENNA CHALLENGES RED BANK TO GET FIT
Mayor Menna’s Wellness Challenge kicked off Tuesday with free screenings in the municipal courtroom. (Photo by Danielle Tepper. Click to enlarge)
By DANIELLE TEPPER
As part of a statewide campaign to promote healthier lifestyles, Mayor Pasquale Menna is getting Red Bank involved in an ongoing project to keep his administration and borough residents fit and feelin good.
The Mayors Wellness Campaign, an initiative of the New Jersey Health Care Quality Institute, is partnered with the New Jersey State League of Municipalities. It works to equip mayors with the tools to develop and implement active-living initiatives in their communities with the ultimate goal of improving health and reducing the skyrocketing health care costs that come with the obesity problem in New Jersey, according to the website.
A LITTLE BIT COUNTRY, A LITTLE BIT MOBILE
A mobile language lab at RBR will be stocked with iPads when it opens in September, thanks to a donation from the school’s fundraising foundation. (Click to enlarge)
By DANIELLE TEPPER
Come September, Red Bank Regional High School will have a fully operational Apple Mobile classroom for the 2012-2013 school year for its world language classes.
The RBR Education Foundation recently presented the Board of Education with a check for $28,000 to purchase an iPad cart equipped with 35 iPads and three MacBooks with a two-year protection program, as well as a voucher for applications available to foster the acquisition of foreign language.
This level of accessibility into other cultures and languages is completely unprecedented, said assistant principal Will Smith.
SUIT CALLS 51 MONMOUTH DEAL ‘ILLEGAL’
Two property owners want the former borough hall returned to Red Bank as a public asset. (Click to enlarge)
As anticipated by Mayor Pasquale Menna, a lawsuit has been filed challenging Red Bank’s settlement of litigation earlier this year over the former borough hall and police station at 51 Monmouth Street.
The suit, filed by Maple Cove activist Cindy Burnham of Fair Haven and lawyer Bill Meyer of Tinton Falls, claims that both the original sale of the building to a nonprofit children’s organization in 2000 and the settlement of litigation over that deal earlier this year were “illegal and improper.”
YMCA SUES BOROUGH OVER PLAN DENIAL
The Community YMCA says the zoning board rejection was capricious. (Photo by Dustin Racioppi; click to enlarge)
By DUSTIN RACIOPPI
As expected, the Community YMCA has filed a lawsuit against Red Bank’s zoning board for its decision to not allow the Y to nearly double the size of its Maple Avenue facility, putting the nonprofit at odds with the town on two legal fronts.
The suit, filed on May 18 in state Superior Court in Freehold, says that the board’s resolution denying the Y’s expansion plan “lacks a factual basis for its negative findings and provides nothing more that conclusions unsupported by fact or applicable land use law, ” and therefore makes the board’s decision unreasonable.
The Y is seeking to reverse the zoning board’s decision and win approval of the variance applications and site plan. It is also asking for compensation for the cost of the suit and whatever other relief the court deems just.
SECOND BOARD REJECTS Y EXPANSION PLAN
Mayor Pasquale Menna listens as Marvin Goldin of Temple Beth Shalom asks the planning board to reject the YMCA zoning request. (Click to enlarge)
Six weeks after a proposal to expand the Community YMCA facility came up one vote short at the Red Bank zoning board, an attempt to get the idea back on track ran into a brick wall at the planning board Monday night.
The outcome left Mayor Pasquale Menna isolated by two boards over which he has appointment control. Seven planning board members voted in favor of a resolution finding the Y plan not to be in conformance with the goals of the borough’s Master Plan. Menna alone voted ‘no’ on the measure.