News
Borough Adds Riverfront Parcel To Open Space List
By John Burton
RED BANK - A small sliver of borough owned river-front property at the northern end of Maple Avenue appears destined for preservation and cleanup for public use.
Borough officials had recently added the small property to its Green Acres Open Space inventory, designating it as part of the borough list of properties intended for preservation for active and passive recreation.
This designation, on top of some recent activities at the site by borough employees, some local businesses and the work of residents, including the efforts of former borough resident Cindy Burnham who had made it a cause to preserve the sight.
Given the site has been cleaned and graded now Burnham said, "It looks unbelievable."
The property, which had become overgrown and debris ridden, had begun attracting attention in late March when Burnham, who lives in Fair Haven, appeared before the Mayor and Borough Council asking them to consider preserving the site, possibly for a sort of boat launch/nature area, as it was the one of the few publicly owned properties that could provide access to the Navesink River.
At the time, Mayor Pasquale Menna said the borough was evaluating its options, including possibly selling the location. But Burnham continued to raise the issue at subsequent meetings and worked to gain public support.
On the property, located across from the headquarters for K. Hovnanian Companies, there could have been issues of protected wetlands, previously said Borough Administrator Stanley Sickels.
But, according to Burnham, Sickels was instrumental in working with the state's Department of Environmental Protection to determine if the cleanup could proceed without any special permits.
As the state agency permitted it, Burnham said piles of dirt, containing discarded concrete and other debris, apparently illegally dumped at the site, were able to be removed it. K. Hovnanian, the homebuilding firm, provided $2,500 to assist in cleaning up the location; that money was used to hire an excavation firm to remove the dirt and concrete.
Siciliano Landscaping, a Red Bank firm, donated some man-hours and equipment to grade and level the property and plant grass seeds.
According to Burnham, members of the borough council, along with the borough's environmental commission, supported the work and offered assistance.
The next step, she said, is to apply for state and county grants to do some additional work next spring, and she even has commitment from a local company to lay stone for a path from the small asphalt parking area to the grasslands area on the water's edge.
Burnham, who used to live in the borough and is still a property owner, had pursued this, seeking to establish an area where residents could get canoes or kayaks into the river, as a way to enjoy the borough's major natural and recreational resource, the river. Without this location, she said, there is no borough- owned means for locals to reach the water. Now that the site has the specific designation, the community has, "a natural open space where kids can come and feel clam and oyster shells, feed ducks, touch a jellyfish or horseshoe crab," Burnham said, "or just be able to actually put their feet in our beautiful Navesink River and see and feel the red sand for which Red Bank was named."
