Category Archives: From the Meeting Room

Get the scoop on what’s going on at the area’s municipal meetings and after.

Scene Around: Proud, Pint-Sized Hoops Champs

Fair Haven Boys Basketball Team gets a proclamation for its championship
Photo/screenshot of Zoom Borough Council meeting

They had no idea what a proclamation was, but the third grade Fair Haven Boys Basketball Team was present and proud to accept the honor for winning the 2022 Mid-Monmouth Championship from Mayor Joshua Halpern at Monday night’s Borough Council meeting.

The view of the meeting room showed a near-capacity crowd there for the boys as the mayor gathered them to explain the honor he was bestowing on behalf of a proud borough.

Continue reading Scene Around: Proud, Pint-Sized Hoops Champs

Fair Haven Meeting Notes & Quotes

Monday’s Fair Haven Borough Council meeting was a workshop meeting.

In workshop meetings, things are what they sound like. The governing body “workshops” issues. They mull ideas and prospective solutions. We will say “mull” to go with the fall season, like spiced cider. And, just like that, things can get spicy at council meetings. But not on Monday. There was more humor going around on the dais.

Here are some nuggets of information gleaned from the meeting …

Continue reading Fair Haven Meeting Notes & Quotes

Fair Haven Meeting Notes & Quotes

Because the little details in municipal meetings tend to get missed and attendance by the public is usually low, R-FH Retro will bring them to the forefront with Meeting Notes, starting with this editor’s notes from last night’s regular Borough Council meeting as well as last week’s special meeting.

Continue reading Fair Haven Meeting Notes & Quotes

Fair Haven: Council Approves Phase 2 COVID Reopening Measures to Assist Local Businesses

In a move to support local businesses in the second-stage reopening of New Jersey amid the COVID-19 pandemic, the Fair Haven Borough Council at its Monday night meeting unanimously passed three resolutions temporarily amending ordinances and lifting associated permit fees.

The three resolutions involve restaurant/eatery outdoor dining, exercise and fitness and sidewalk business function.

Continue reading Fair Haven: Council Approves Phase 2 COVID Reopening Measures to Assist Local Businesses

A Respite from Tree Removal in Fair Haven

A contingent of Fair Haven residents riled over the proposed removal of 50-foot sweet gum trees along Third Street and Cedar Avenue were quelled by the eventual edict at Monday’s Borough Council meeting that, for now, officials will leave the trees be.

Continue reading A Respite from Tree Removal in Fair Haven

Focus: New Year’s Day Fun at Fair Haven Firehouse

It’s a first day of the new year tradition.

Fire and first aid companies reorganize, naming new line officers. And festivities take hold at fire houses all over.

Rumson-Fair Haven Retrospect made it to Fair Haven where there were a lot of familiar faces from all around the area — and a few reunions of RFHers.

Take a look …

And congratulations to the new line officers! They are:

Fire Company

Tim Morrissey, chief; Matt DePonti, deputy chief; Christopher Schrank, first assistant; Matthew Bufano, second assistant.

First Aid

Kim Ambrose, captain; Katy Frissora, first lieutenant; Daniel Kane, second lieutenant.

— Elaine Van Develde

McGovern Named Fair Haven’s New Police Chief

By Elaine Van Develde

“You can call him chief, but he won’t actually be chief until April 25 when he’s sworn in,” Fair Haven Mayor Ben Lucarelli said referring to Acting Police Chief/Captain Joseph McGovern and  the borough’s official move at Monday’s Borough Council meeting to make him the next police chief.

Continue reading McGovern Named Fair Haven’s New Police Chief

Swearing In, Promoting & Retiring at Rumson Reorg 2016

By Elaine Van Develde

Rumson rang in 2016 with tradition and a little change at the New Year’s Day reorganization ceremony.

Officials were sworn in to  additional terms on the Borough Council dais. New emergency response line officers took their oaths for the coming year. Police officers were promoted. And officials said goodbye to a longtime borough employee.

Mayor John Ekdahl was sworn in to his fourth term. Councilmen John J. Conklin III and Mark Rubin were sworn in to additional terms on the dais.

Joseph Hemphill was named council president.

After the swearing in of officials, two police officers were promoted.

Detective Senior Patrolman Christopher Isherwood became a sergeant. Wife holding the bible by his side along with Chief Scott Paterson, Mayor Ekdahl administered the oath to Isherwood and presented him with his sergeant’s badge.

Then Senior Patrolman Anthony Ciambrone was also promoted to the rank of sergeant. With the mayor administering the oath, Chief Paterson also present and Ciambrone’s wife holding the bible, he was sworn in and presented with his new sergeant’s badge.

Then onto the business of saying goodbye …

Longtime assistant to the mayor, Loretta Chebookjian was thanked by the mayor, given a gift and flowers. Chebookjian joked that she was with the borough exactly “11 and three quarters years. I will miss passing you on the road every morning on my way to work (while you were on your way to work),” she told the mayor.

Then there was the business of installing new line officers in the Rumson Fire Department and First Aid Squad.

Outgoing EMS Captain Mary Nichols was thanked for her service  and new Captain Darren McConnell was sworn in.

Then Fire Chief Kevin McCarthy was thanked for his service and the oath of office was administered to the new chief, Ronald Immesberger and Assistant Fire Chief Micheal Trivett. Each was given his new badge as well.

In keeping with true Rumson tradition, the mayor then announced that there would be a small intermission before he gave his annual speech, which, he joked, “will probably again be longer than it probably should be.”

The speech began with, “The Borough Council members have met the year’s challenges with diplomacy and with the dignity that would be expected from such an experienced council. I applaud each of you for the contributions you have made on behalf of the residents of Rumson.

“I extend my heartfelt thanks to every Borough employee, committee member and professional for their support and assistance throughout the past year …”

For the remainder of the full speech, click here.

Happy New Year!

 

Rumson, Fair Haven Reorganizations

It’s status quo for the New Year. Towns reorganize. Newly-elected and/or re-elected officials are sworn in, professionals are appointed and re-appointed, emergency responder line officers are installed and volunteers are named to committees. It’s called reorganization.

It’s also usually status quo for towns to hold their annual reorganization ceremonies on New Year’s Day.

This year, there’s a slight change in the Rumson-Fair Haven area.

While Rumson will still hold its annual reorganization at Bingham Hall, on Bingham Avenue, at 11:30 a.m., Fair Haven’s reorganization will be held, instead, on Monday, Jan. 4 at 7 p.m. in Borough Hall.

In Rumson, Mayor John Ekdahl will officially be sworn into his fourth four-year term as mayor.  In addition, the emergency response line officers will be named and sworn in. And, Ekdahl will give his classic “looking back on 2015” speech.

In Fair Haven, incumbent councilmen Robert Marchese and Eric Jaeger will be sworn in to additional three-year terms. Fire Department and First Aid line officers will be sworn in. Residents and officials will also be named to various committees.

Click here for the full agenda of appointments.

 

Honoring Fair Haven’s Ray Taylor

By Elaine Van Develde

“It hurts me to say that most of the boys that went out there with me   are no longer here. But I am doing  all I can to keep their names out there for you. Thank you.”

It’s what a tearful Ray Taylor said after receiving a proclamation from the Borough of Fair Haven last week in honor of his service as a World War II and Korean War veteran and 91-year resident of Fair Haven who has consistently served the borough as a veteran who spearheaded the creation of Fair Haven’s Memorial Park that honors veterans from the borough.

Taylor was the “first speaker at borough ceremonies since the time he returned from World War II in 1946,  touching the hearts of many,” Mayor Ben Lucarelli said at last week’s Borough Council meeting.

“As long as any of us can remember, Ray has spoken at our Memorial Day and Veterans Day ceremonies,” the mayor said. “He is a very special human being. This year his words were so poignant that I was moved to say this is a  special individual and he should be recognized.”

So, a proclamation and keys to both the borough and the park were given to Taylor.

Taylor and his wife, Elizabeth, raised seven children in Fair Haven. They have 20 grandchildren and “many great grandchildren,” Lucarelli said, reading from the proclamation, which he said was bestowed upon Taylor as an expression of borough residents’ and staff’s “deep appreciation and gratitude to Ray for his many years of selfless public service to his country and his hometown.

“We wish him many more years of health and continued happiness.”

Taylor, 93, was born on June 24, 1922 in Long Branch. Moving to Fair Haven in 1924, he has spent 91 years in the borough. He served in the U.S. Army in World War II from 1942 to 1946 and in the Korean War in the 1950s when he worked his way up to the rank of sergeant first class and received a distinguished service medal and a Korean War commemorative medal.

While serving in World War II, he was stationed in Australia, New Guinea, New Britain, Guam, the Philippenes, Japan and spent 14 months in Alaska.

He was stationed in the Asian Pacific during the Korean War.

Congratulations, Mr. Taylor; and thank you!