Tag Archives: Fair Haven

Local Life, Schools Scene

Fair Haven’s New Tennis Courts Unveiled

New tennis courts in Fair Haven Fields
Photo/Fair Haven Borough

The Borough of Fair Haven, in collaboration with Rumson-Fair Haven Regional High School (RFH) Board of Education, has unveiled the new tennis courts at Fair Haven Fields.

Following a ribbon-cutting ceremony today, the Shore Conference Tennis Tournament, between the RFH Girls Tennis Team and Mater Dei broke in the brand new courts.

The tennis courts project background, from Fair Haven borough …

This construction project represents a significant capital investment in new and expanded tennis facilities at Fair Haven Fields, Ridge Road in Fair Haven. The project is unique in that five new tennis courts were jointly funded by the two separate public entities, through an interlocal agreement between the borough and the RFH Board of Education. The interlocal agreement was deemed one that would pare down costs significantly.

In 2016, the Borough’s four existing tennis courts, which were located in Fair Haven Fields, were old, crack- ridden and needed to be completely replaced.

At the same time, the RFH tennis courts were also in need of extensive repairs and that facility was unable to accommodate a high school tennis match in one location. Additionally, the regional high school was in need of more recreational space on their campus, which could be achieved by relocating their tennis court facilities.

With the support of the Fair Haven Borough Council and the RFH board, Fair Haven Borough Administrator Theresa Casagrande and RFH Business Administrator Frank Gripp pooled professional resources for both the interlocal agreement and construction and restoration plans for the courts and site.

Here’s how it works …

The borough and the board will split the total cost of the entire project. The interlocal agreement includes provisions for future court maintenance.

The joint project will provide the public and Fair Haven schools’ and RFH’s students with a new tennis facility for many years to come.

Sharing facilities and splitting the associated construction costs for these new courts enabled each public entity to save a significant amount of money, on behalf of the tax payers of both Rumson and Fair Haven.

The new courts will be home to the RFH Girls Tennis Team in the fall season and the Fair Haven Knollwood School and RFH Boys tennis team in the spring season.

Aside from limited school team use and borough-approved camps, etc., the courts will be open to the public. Two of the new courts have also been painted for pickle ball, a fast-growing, popular sport for active adults.

Bikes, skateboards, rollerblades, etc. are not permitted on the new courts, as they will diminish their condition.

— Press release from Fair Haven Borough

Obituaries

Memorial Set for Former Fair Havenite Chris Rumph, 65

The Fair Haven community is mourning the loss of former resident Christopher Rumph, who will be remembered at a service on Tuesday from 5 to 8 p.m. at Thompson Memorial Home in Red Bank.  

The following is his obituary, as prepared by his family and shared by Thompson … 

Chris Rumph
Photo/courtesy of Thompson Memorial Home

Christopher Charles Rumph was born on August 1, 1952 and passed away peacefully on September 22, 2017. Chris was a humble, hilarious, and giving man. He left the physical world in the comfort of his own home surrounded by his wife and children after a courageous fight against cancer over the last four years.

Continue reading Memorial Set for Former Fair Havenite Chris Rumph, 65 →

Local Life, Opinion

Scene Around: A 70s Knollwood Teaching Moment

Fair Haven’s Knollwood School teachers of the 1970s reunite over breakfast
Photo/courtesy of Eileen Kubaitis/Facebook screenshot

It’s not every day that a bunch of longtime Fair Haven Knollwood School teachers from the 1970s era get together. It’s one day — for the first time in decades.

Continue reading Scene Around: A 70s Knollwood Teaching Moment →

Opinion

Reflection: Sept. 11, 2001

By Elaine Van Develde
It was a beautiful Tuesday. The sun was shining. The air was crisp. The coffee even tasted especially good.
I remember. Most of us remember where we were on Sept. 11, 2001 at 8:46 a.m.. I know I do. I also remember how everything went from bright, crisp, fragrant and optimistic to dark, dank, acrid and fearful in one second.
For me, a reporter living in Fair Haven and covering Middletown, it went like this …
Continue reading Reflection: Sept. 11, 2001 →
Local Life, Opinion

Retro Back to School of 50 Years Ago

Image

Students were back to school in the Rumson-Fair Haven area this week. Those classic first day of school shots were plastered all over Facebook.

And 50 years ago, or 51, to be exact, in September of 1966, while 91,000 students and 4,700 teachers headed back to public school classrooms in Monmouth County (13,014 to parochial), according to a Red Bank Register story of Sept. 6, 1966, the anticipation of the photo taken with that Brownie camera mounted as that picture of the day developed — taking weeks at times.

And those photos were classics … Mom-styled hair gone awry, buck-toothed and missing tooth grins, shiny Mary Jane shoes, Buster Brown penny loafers and, well, cheesy fashion in which to pose and say, “Cheese!”

At Knollwood School in 1966, half a century ago, there was a first-grade class, headed by Mrs. Ginny Kamin (deceased Red Bank Register editor Art Kamin’s wife) and filled with some area kids who ended up becoming entrenched in the community. One of those kids was me.

Some are no longer with us. Others have moved away, but keep in touch. Others, still, have stuck around and raised their children here, too. One common thread is that none of them have forgotten their hometown and likely that walk to the first day of school so many decades ago.

For me, the memory of the badly side-combed bangs kinda sticks like the Dippity-doo that was in them. Sorry, Mom. So do those little faces that seemed to loom like the Man in the Moon back in that slightly nerve-wracked elementary school daze.  And it seems like yesterday. Yes, that’s scary. It’s especially scary since it wasn’t, in fact, yesterday.

Back in those days, we walked to school with a buddy. For me, those buddies were my best friend and neighbor Pam Young and Jeff Lang. Pam and I met up with Jeff at the corner and the three of us walked the rest of the way together. Yes, Jeff occasionally would carry my books. I remember that vividly. He is gone now, but that memory is a vivid and enduring one. So is the memory of Mrs. Lang waving to us from the front porch and reminding him to do just that.

The first day of school photos were taken on the front porch, in the front yard or on the sidewalk before the first stroll back then. There was that wait for the film development. Remember that? Then there was the wait for the annual class photo, like the one above, when the picture people grabbed a comb from a tub and gave all the kids a really bad comb through before that elementary school grimace moment. Not a good hair day for most of us little kids subject to Mom’s fashion whims.

It’s all a walk down a Fair Haven memory lane with a stumble or two for good measure.

What’s your first day memory? Stumble? Who did you walk with?

— Elaine Van Develde

 

 

Local Life

Focus: A Fair Haven GOP Council Candidates’ Meet & Greet

Gallery

Fair Haven Republican Borough Council candidates Susan Sorensen and Betsy Koch cordially invited, as all invites go, Fair Havenites and all other interested parties to a meet-and-greet, getting-to-know-you gathering at The Raven and the Peach Thursday evening.

Sorensen, the incumbent, has served on various committees in her tenure, including starting the non-profit Foundation of Fair Haven, which is designed to offset costs for special events like Fair Haven Day and Oktoberfest.

This is a first run for political office for Koch. A longtime teacher at Knollwood School, she has said that she felt the timing was right for her to pitch in as a seated councilwoman in the hometown borough she loves and as a testament to the legacy of her husband Jerome, who served on council until his premature death a few years ago.

Take a look at the photo gallery below for a glimpse into the evening …. (and don’t forget to click to enlarge!)

— Elaine Van Develde

Local Life

Scene Around: Fair Still Cookin’

Fair kitchen is open
Photo/FHFD

Well, the word is official. After a few great weather days, the Fair Haven Firemen’s Fair has been rained out due to Mother Nature’s lack of cooperation.

That means that the rides and other attractions will be shut down for the evening. That’s the bad news.

The good news is that the kitchen is open, volunteers are cooking and people are invited to grab a seat in the dining room for fair food or hit the take-out window to bring some home and brighten the dank day with a little of the fair’s finest comfort.

As the sign on the firehouse says, “Only dining room is open tonight — 6-10 p.m.”

All’s fair!