Over the Navesink River in Middletown, police are asking for the public’s assistance in locating a woman who they say stole close to $2,000 in razors, over-the-counter medications and hygiene products from the ShopRite on Route 35.
John Rego, painter, puts finishing touches on the walls of Balderose Fine Foods in Fair Haven days before its initial opening. Photo/Elaine Van Develde
It was a year ago, almost to the day, that Balderose Fine Foods had its final opening.
We say final, because the eatery had a short-lived initial opening in 2013. Now, a year later, it’s our Retro Pic of the Day.
The story? After a partnership re-routing and some fiscal house cleaning, the gourmet specialty shop at the corner of Fair Haven and River roads took root with a second grand opening on Jan. 17, 2014.
It has since flourished as a local mainstay stop for breakfast goods, soups, sandwiches, salads, desserts, some organic packaged goodies and unique prepared take-home fine food dishes ever since.
The eatery’s namesake is Anthony Balderose, who operates the business and cooks. Once Balderose Fine Foods, LLC, the business was sold to Quirk, LLC on Jan. 7, 2014.
Balderose, a former executive chef at Balducci’s in Manhattan and graduate of the Culinary Institute of America (CIA), had a vision to bring a New York-style gourmet shop to the area. His dream came true.
RFH 1978 yearbook photography editor George Day in his yearbook profile shot. Photo/RFH yearbook screenshot
Our Retro Pic of the Day is in honor of George Day, 1978 Rumson-Fair Haven Regional High School (RFH) photography editor.
George did some excellent work, not only at RFH, but all over the area in the 1970s, and before and after that.
He got in touch with Rumson-Fair Haven Retrospect; and, we are thrilled to say, he will be collaborating with us on some fabulous Retro Pic of the Day posts. We just may call them Retro Pic of the George Day posts.
Thanks, George! Great to know that you’re out there and will be contributing to this site! Your talent is and always has been appreciated.
On the heels of what was a major, albeit bandaid, fix to a portion of the corroding Oceanic Bridge, Monmouth County officials have gotten a boost via state funding to undertake the appropriate studies to rehabilitate or replace the entire structure.
The 2016 $600,000 “concept development study” of the county-owned 2,712 foot Oceanic span between Rumson and Middletown over the Navesink River was one of five approved last week by the New Jersey Transportation Planning Authority (NJTPA).
The drawbridge, built in 1939, has been targeted as one in need of replacement and/or major revamp for several years now. In 2012, major repairs to the 98-foot bascule span, or moveable drawbridge part, of the bridge was refurbished.
But, even then, officials said that that was only a temporary fix. A permanent solution, they had said, was the only answer.
Options for rehab and/or replacement have been bandied about. But, for years now, there has been a large contingent of people adamantly opposed to replacement with a fixed, higher structure. The opposition to that slightly cheaper plan have felt it would be an injustice to bridge’s historic integrity and make it more difficult to be used by pedestrians and bicyclists.
The bridge’s capacity to carry its maximum load of vehicles, too, has consistently diminished with its age and consequential deterioration from wear and tear and salt water submersion.
So, the need for a permanent plan has become more imminent and potentially costly, county officials have said.
As a result of the fiscal year 2016 NJTPA program grant, the door will be open for construction costs to be covered by federal funds.
It’s all about the green right now at Rumson’s Piping Rock Park — money, grass and a green light for improvements.
The borough was recently one of 15 municipalities in the county awarded $250,000 in 2014 Monmouth County Open Space Trust Fund grant money to fund mostly playing fields improvements at the park.
The $250,000 is a maximum grant amount allocated to go toward eligible projects that are slated to come to fruition in 2015.
All 53 municipalities in the county are eligible to apply for the now annual county grant which requires that projects suit an open space need, such as improvements to or acquisition of passive or active open space and/or recreation swaths of land.
Rumson officials’ choice was based on an impending need to upgrade the highly used, now war-torn natural grass fields.
They get so much use, Mayor John Ekdhal said, that there’s been “no time to ‘rest’ or repair the grass surface,” so turf is the way to go in order to accommodate the “amount of children using the fields for all the various sports.”
The mayor estimates that the cost for an artificial grass field (alone) “is upwards of $600,000, and hence the plan is to apply and hopefully receive a second $250,000 grant in 2015 to move forward (into Phase II of the plan).”
In addition to the turf installation, there will be a few more associated improvements as part of Phase I of the project as it was outlined by Rumson Engineer David Marks, of the Middletown-based T&M Associates, in September of 2014.
a multi-sport synthetic turf field for regulation size soccer, field hockey, lacrosse and practice football (no end zones or goal posts), which could also be used for two side-by-side child soccer fields;
a 10-foot-high vinyl buffer fence along the southern end of the park, from Forrest Avenue to East River Road;
a 10 to 15-foot-high chain link perimeter fence in the field area along Forrest Avenue;
paver walkways on the north side of the field by the Carton Street parking lot which will connect to the playground area and south side of the field and parking lot by East River Road.
On a spring day in 2013, best friends hunt for hermit crabs and soak up some sun down by the Navesink River in Fair Haven. Photo/Elaine Van Develde
Our Retro Pic of the Day is a warm look back on one of those seemingly perfect days down by the Navesink River.
It was just one of those days — a day that the picture there was worth about 5,000 words on why the Rumson-Fair Haven area is such a great place to live.
The sun was shining, the scene was serene and, a couple of best buds waded in the water, made friends with hermit crabs and shared the wealth of their elating experience.
There’s nothing quite like the happy faces of kids enjoying life down by the river.
NJ Gov. Chris Christie and Rumson women at a press conference announcing Sea Bright Mayor Dina Long’s endorsement of the governor. Photo/Elaine Van Develde
Our Retro Pic of the Day takes us back a couple of years to post-Hurricane Sandy days when Republican Gov. Chris Christie was endorsed by Democratic Sea Bright Mayor Dina Long and it was news.
A press conference was held at Woody’s in Sea Bright. Once it was over, the governor posed for photos with many people, including these two Rumson ladies.
Clean Ocean Action fall Beach Sweeps/Photos by Elaine Van Develde
Our Retro Pic of the Day is meant to warm you up in more ways than one.
It’s a reminder of cozy waterfront warmth at Sea Bright beach in the midst of this wicked winter chill. And it’s a warm-up and precursor of sorts to our coming feature on Clean Ocean Action’s recent 30-year anniversary, as the featured photo is from the organization’s fall Beach Sweeps.
With the non-profit spearheaded by lifetime Rumsonite, Cindy Zipf, The sweeps have become a twice-annual environmental mainstay in the area for decades now.
Clean Ocean Action loves to let people know some of the oddest things found on the Jersey Shore beaches during sweeps. What’s the strangest you’ve ever heard of?
Stay tuned for our story. Congrats to Clean Ocean Action and Cindy Zipf!
The ladies of the RFH library. Photo/screenshot of the RFH yearbook
We couldn’t possibly feature the Rumson-Fair Haven Regional High School (RFH) teacher aides without also posting a Retro Pic of the Day featuring the library ladies.
Remember these women circa 1977 or so? That had it rough in that library. Yet, somehow they managed to keep enough noses in the books and paper airplanes and pranks at bay — sort of.
Rumson-Fair Haven Regional High School teacher aides of the 1970s. Photo/screenshot of RFH yearbook
Aides. They are the unofficial mentors of our school days.
In this photo are some special ladies who had the sometimes daunting task in the late 1970s of trying to assist, with patience, some annoyingly energetic, mischievous Rumson-Fair Haven Regional High School (RFH) students.
They were the RFH aides. In the center of the photo is Nancy Dexter, who passed away last year.
Those pictured around Mrs. Dexter, many of whom have passed, are: Mrs. Williams, Mrs. Cupples, Mrs. DiNicola, Mrs. Parker, Mrs. Blake, Mrs. Waldron.
Remember Mrs. Parker singing over the loud speaker around Christmas time? Did you ever hijack the mic from Mrs. Cupples to announce your party? And, I’m pretty sure one of these ladies, very kindly, told me to go play in traffic when I got busted sending messages via paper airplane (that never landed where it was supposed to) to my friends in English lab.
The 2014 Monmouth County Open Space Grant of up to $250,000 in matching funds was awarded only a few weeks ago.
What it’s been designated to do is to “polish the diamond” that is the Fair Haven open space on the waterfront, Mayor Ben Lucarelli said.
“Now that we’ve acquired DeNormandie, cleaning up and maintaining the rest of the open waterfront spaces we have is the next logical step. If we don’t do it now, we’ll have real headaches down the road.”
The “polishing” the mayor referred to is, more specifically, “resloping of two riverbank pocket parks at the end of Hance Road and Grange Avenue, so that people can access them easier and enjoy them more” and the refurbishment of bulkheads and passive recreation enhancements, such as benches.
Similar work, without resloping, is planned for the swath of land known as the home of the River Rats at the foot of Battin Road.
“It will make all those areas more user friendly,” he added. “The focus on these areas, I think, is a good use of this grant money. People I’ve spoken with who live on the west side of town have felt as if they haven’t gotten the total benefit of these projects. Now they’ll have it and the feedback I’ve gotten is that they’re very happy about that.”
The process for implementation of the county open space grant will soon begin.
Lucarelli said that the design drawings will first be completed. Then the project will be put out to bid; and “we’ll see where the cost comes in.”
Up to $250,000 will or can be funded by the matching grant money. In other words, if the cost of the project comes in at $300,000, then the county will pay $150,000 and the borough will pay the other half, and so on.
Sometimes bonding is necessary, or as a show of good faith to the funding entity, to fund such a matching grant project and set it in motion and pay contractors while waiting for the funded portion of the money to come in. In those instances, with such grants, the town bonds for the entire projected cost of the project and is then reimbursed by the county, or whichever agency is allocating the funding.
However, the mayor doesn’t think this project will require bonding. More likely, he said, “we’ll just bid and, if there’s enough (allocated) in the (capital improvements section of the) budget, pay as we go.”
All 53 municipalities in the county are eligible for the annual open space grant, which is designed to encourage open space acquisition and preservation as well as park enhancements and facilities by offsetting costs of such purchases.
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