Monthly Archives: October 2015

Middletown Police & Fire Files

Police Seek Witnesses to School Bus Accident

Middletown police are investigating an early Friday morning school bus accident and asking witnesses for assistance in gleaning facts.

So far, what they know is that at 6:39 a.m. they responded to a motor vehicle crash on Route 35, just south of New Monmouth Road, a release from the department said.

At the scene, a Helfrich bus, driven by Beverly Cerbone, 65, of the Port Monmouth section of Middletown had been traveling, without passengers, south on the highway when it struck a tractor trailer parked on the road shoulder, police said.

Cerbone was flown to Jersey Shore University Medical Center in Neptune, for treatment of “non-life threatening injuries,” police added.

“The driver of the tractor trailer was not inside his vehicle at the time of the crash and left the scene on foot prior to police arrival,” the release said. “Video footage of the driver was obtained from a local store.”

Police identified the driver from the video footage and are in the process of working with the trucking company to find him.

In the meantime, they are asking that anyone who may have witnessed the accident contact the department’s Traffic Bureau at 732-615-2045.

The investigation is being led by Corporal Darrin Simon.

The New Jersey State Police, the Leonardo and Middletown First Aids squads, the Old Village and Middletown fire companies, and Monoc Paramedics assisted at the scene.

Schools Scene

Getting Google App-Educated in Fair Haven Schools

Knollwood School fifth-grader Andon Milouchev and Fair Haven School District EdTech Coach Chris Aviles prepare to make Google presentations to parents. Photo/Fair Haven School District
Knollwood School fifth-grader Andon Milouchev and Fair Haven School District EdTech Coach Chris Aviles prepare to make Google presentations to parents.
Photo/Fair Haven School District

Parents of Fair Haven students recently discovered How Google Apps for Education Is Improving Schools.

A series of events, hosted by Fair Haven School District EdTech Coach Chris Aviles on Oct. 5, featured a video presentation by Knollwood School fifth-grader Andon Milouchev.

Continue reading Getting Google App-Educated in Fair Haven Schools →

Local Life

Focus: Falling for the Rumson-Fair Haven Riverfront

Video

Few words are needed, if any, when taking in the view of the river from the banks of the Navesink in Rumson and Fair Haven.

Soaked in the sun of a warm fall day, the scene just doesn’t get any more comforting. It seems to smile back and embrace. And it never gets old.

Get a glimpse. Take it in.

— Elaine Van Develde

Local Life

Black Squirrel Makes Fair Haven Debut

Uncommon sighting of a black squirrel in Fair Haven Photo/Elaine Van Develde
Uncommon sighting of a black squirrel in Fair Haven
Photo/Elaine Van Develde

It’s not downright nuts, but it’s also not common to sight a black squirrel in the Rumson-Fair Haven area.

Yet, scampering around William Street in Fair Haven, there one was — bolting across the street, darting up a tree and copping a squat to snack on his harvested nut.

They’re not indigenous to the area like the preppie. In fact, the black squirrel is as uncommon here as high hair.

No one seems squirrelly about their rather rare sightings lately. And where the handsome(ish) rodents are known to settle — like Washington, D.C. and the campus of Princeton University, among other places — residents tend to take pride in the fact that they’ve nested in their hometowns.

Evolving from the same species of squirrel as their Eastern gray descendants, black squirrels originally hailed from Canada and can comprise as much as 25 percent of the total usual grey squirrel population, or one in 10,000.

Check out this Washington Post column about them by John Kelly.

Have you seen this guy or any others in the area? Where?

— Elaine Van Develde

Schools Scene

RFH Students ‘Bag a Lunch and Help a Bunch’

RFH team captains displaying a flyer created for the Bag a Lunch fundraising initiative are Victoria Hempstead and Willis Manelski. Photo/RFH
RFH team captains displaying a flyer created for the Bag a Lunch fundraising initiative are Victoria Hempstead and Willis Manelski.
Photo/RFH

Bag it.

That’s what members of the  Chinese, French and Spanish National Honor societies at Rumson-Fair Haven Regional High School (RFH) recently asked students to do — to “bag a lunch and help a bunch,” as the slogan for the Table to Table charitable initiative goes.

Table to Table provides meals to New Jersey families in need. RFH put $430 in its coffers when students on Oct. 14 brought home brown paper lunch bags and returned them to Bag a Lunch team captains at school filled with the amount of cash they would typically spend on a single lunch.

“I am very pleased with the participation of the RFH students, and the work of our team captains,” RFH French Teacher Christine Berg said. “And I am happy that the money raised will be used to help our fellow New Jersey residents.”

— Edited press release from Rumson-Fair Haven Regional School District

Business Buzz, Opinion

I’ll Just Pick: Val’s Lobster Pie

By Elaine Van Develde

It’s as good as it gets for anyone in the area and beyond — that classic lobster pizza at Val’s Tavern in Rumson.

The pie, as they call it, is pretty simple, yet has been a deluxe gourmet sort of pizza treat for many for decades.

It’s a thin-crust pizza flush with all the normal pizza stuff, but great quality, like the good sauce and cheese. Add to that some Brazilian lobster and, if you so choose, some hot sauce.

Continue reading I’ll Just Pick: Val’s Lobster Pie →

Shrewsbury Police

Police Report Incidents of Theft, DWI Arrest

The following recent criminal incidents and arrests were reported by Shrewsbury police. An arrest does not constitute a conviction.

Criminal incidents

• There was a report of a theft in the area of Job Lots on Newman Springs Road on Oct. 10. The victim reported that property valued at $150 was stolen.

Patrolman Mary Ellen Rumola is investigating.

• There was a report of a theft in the area of the Monmouth County Library on Broad Street on Oct. 13. The victim reported that property valued at $300 was stolen.

Patrolman Angel Marrero is investigating.

Arrests

• Stephen Deleo Jr., 22, of South Amboy, was arrested on Oct. 11 and charged with theft in the area of Broad Street by Detective Sgt. James Ramsey.

• Eric Sterling, 25, of Moorestown, was arrested on Oct. 12 and charged with driving while intoxicated (DWI) in the area of Broad Street by Patrolman Joseph Barnicle.

Fair Haven Police and Fire Files, Local Life

Hail to the Chief: Darryl Breckenridge’s Retirement Dinner

By Elaine Van Develde

He lived his dream.

And for now former Fair Haven Police Chief Darryl Breckenridge, retirement doesn’t mean he’s awakening to any harsh reality — just vivid gratitude.

While he’s been officially off the job since Oct. 1, the chief’s surreal 38-year career culminated in a lucid award-strewn farewell retirement dinner last Thursday.

Roughly 200 state, county and local dignitaries, police and chiefs from several nearby towns, family and friends gathered at Raven and the Peach in Breckenridge’s hometown Fair Haven to celebrate his accomplishments, honor him with certificates and awards — even the key to Fair Haven — party with him and just plain thank him for his service.

“I just love this man!” a teary eyed Eileen O’Neill, widow of former Chief Bobby O’Neill said as she hugged and held the face of the man she knew as the kid her husband took on ride-alongs and mentored .

There were other mentors, too  … former chiefs Ricky Towler, Lou DeVito. Then there was, of course, the chief who started it all for a 5-year-old Breckenridge when he stopped at his house to offer his mom a job as a crossing guard  — Carl Jakubecy.

Then there was his mom, Dorothy — the woman Breckenridge credits with giving him the “character” to succeed and realize his dream.

“To have a dream at five years old and to actually see that dream come to fruition … Just being a patrolman and being fortunate enough to rise through the ranks of chief of police in the town where I wanted to do so is truly amazing … It’s more amazing when you go back and look at at our country in the 1960s … there was so much turmoil in the world, so much unrest within our country, there were riots on the street and hatred … there was so much uncertainty  …”

Breckenridge’s children, Tyler, D.J. and Whitney, stood before their dad, certain of his success and their pride in him. “There aren’t enough words to describe how proud we are of our dad,” Whitney said.

The sentiment was echoed by D.J., who is now Fair Haven’s Recreation director.

He talked about the respect and pride his father, passing down that “character” his grandmother taught, was grateful, not only for the success, but also for the community in which he was raised. That community, Fair Haven, has always been family to him as well, D.J., a little choked up, said.

“I know that it’s very important for him to have all these Fair Haven residents here in addition to everyone else,” he said. “Because Fair Haven, for my dad, was always family and it always will be …”

Yes. Protecting and serving his hometown family was Darryl Breckenridge’s dream.  He’s still living it in its second act. Although now, as he told the crowd, “I can let my hair down … Well, I can let down what hair I have.

“For me to have a dream of that magnitude and to be able to realize it … It’s really amazing. It happened because we are in this country. We have the best country in the world. God bless America. God bless you all.”

 

Congrats, Darryl, from your Fair Haven family!

Don’t forget to click on the lower right icon of the slideshow to enlarge. We had a few photo tech issues. So, in addition to the somewhat compromised quality of some of the photos, we also apologize for the fact that somehow the entire police department ended up looking like something out of a Halloween movie — all white eyes. Who knew? Officers of the Corn? Sorry!

 

 

Local Life

Retro First RFH Soccer Girl

 

Chris Bowden, RFH Class of 1976 was the first girl to play soccer on the boys' team. Photo/RFH 1976 Yearbook
Chris Bowden, RFH Class of 1976 was the first girl to play soccer on the boys’ team.
Photo/RFH 1976 Yearbook

Yes, soccer season has kicked in.

When Rumson-Fair Haven Retrospect shared a photo of the boys’ team from back in the late 1970s, RFH grads challenged all to remember who the first girl was to play on the boys team (since there was no girls team then).

We found her and a photo of the team that year, which was 1975-76.  Remember? It was Chris Bowden, RFH Class of 1976. They were playing, of course, in 1975.

So, the Retro Pic of the Day honors that first girl to kick in some girl power on the RFH Boys Soccer team a few decades ago.

Do you remember in which year RFH formed its first girls’ soccer team? We think it was the 1980s. How about 1983? Remember who the captains of that team were?

 

Red Bank Police & Fire Files

Police Report Auto Theft, Drug Possession Arrest & More

The following recent criminal incidents and arrests were reported by Red Bank police. An arrest does not constitute a conviction.

Criminal incidents

• An incident of criminal mischief was reported to have occurred on Oct. 9 on Throckmorton Avenue. The victim reported that a parked car was keyed in several areas.

Patrolman Jorge Torres took the report.

• An auto theft was reported to have occurred at Riverview Plaza on Oct. 10. The victim reported that someone stole a parked 2011 Kia Sephia from the parking lot.

Patrolman Gary Watson took the report.

Continue reading Police Report Auto Theft, Drug Possession Arrest & More →

Middletown Police & Fire Files

Police: Hit & Run Results in Cocaine, Weapons Bust

What started out as a hit-and-run accident in Middletown on Sunday ended in the arrest of two area people on weapons and cocaine possession charges as well as the unlawful taking of a vehicle.

The incident unfolded as police responded to a motor vehicle crash on Route 36 shortly after 8  a.m. to find that one vehicle had fled from the scene, according to a press release from Middletown police.

After locating the vehicle and launching an investigation, officers Bernie Chenoweth and Robert McNair arrested the driver and passenger, the release said.

The driver, Stevie A. Rocha-Hughes, 30, of Portland Avenue in Highlands was charged with: taking a vehicle without the owner’s consent, unlawful possession of a handgun and various motor vehicle charges related to the incident, police said.

Her bail was set $ 5,000 with no 10 percent allowed. She was transported to the Monmouth County Correctional Institution.

The passenger, Clifton J. Hughes, 38, of Portland Avenue in Highlands, was charged with possession of cocaine, police said.

His bail was set at $2,500 with no 10 percent option. He was also committed to the Monmouth County Correctional Institution.

Middletown Police & Fire Files

Police: Major Heroin Bust

A six-month investigation culminated in a major heroin bust at a Middletown home, dubbed by Police Chief Craig Webber “a very successful operation.”

On Oct. 16 the Middletown Police Department executed a search warrant at a Rutledge Drive residence. The search warrant was the result of a six-month investigation led by detectives Keith Hirschbein and Daniel Sullivan into the illegal sale of heroin from the home.

As a result of the warrant, police arrested:

Continue reading Police: Major Heroin Bust →