A resolution to award the contract for work on River Street Retaining Wall Project was approved by the Red Bank Borough Council.
The River Street Retaining Wall Project involves a decaying wall that is located at the address of 213 1/2 River St., according to Borough Administrator Stanley Sickels.
“A portion of the wall was in danger of collapse and is being replaced,” Sickels said.
During its meeting that was held on Oct. 25, the council announced that it awarded the contract to the lowest bidder, Charles Marandino, LLC of Milmay, N.J., in the amount of $98,105.
Borough Engineer Laura Neumann recommended this action, while Borough Attorney Gregory Cannon reviewed the award and reported that the bid was legally acceptable and appropriate.
In other business on Oct. 25, the council approved a resolution authorizing the Creative Team as a subcommittee of the borough’s Green Team.
The borough strives to save tax dollars, assure clean air and water, improve working and living environments to build a community that is sustainable economically, environmentally, and socially well into the next century, according to the council agenda regarding the resolution.
“This is all part of our Sustainable Jersey efforts to get certificated. Before I was on council and involved with the environmental commission, we pursued Sustainable Jersey certification,” Councilman Mark Taylor said. “Now that we are coming up into 2018, we had to re-certificate, so we had to basically re-apply and show that [we] are making the same efforts and maybe doing some new things, etc. That is part of our process right now [and] one of those was that you basically create a Green Team…the Creative Team is a subcommittee of the Green Team and creation of it is just simply one of those initial things you have to do.”
Taylor said that one of his goals for the Creative Team is having it be able recommend to the council if a requested mural should be created in Red Bank.
“We have some petitions for murals for instance. Somebody owns a building and they want to paint a mural on it, we have no mechanism in town to approve or deny it. We kind of do it on this ad hoc basis [where] people literally come to the council meeting with a few renderings and say ‘hey I would like to do this’ and we are kind of like ‘sure.’ I want a little more method behind it and a little more of a way for us to actually do it. A bit more formal and less objective,” Taylor said.
Taylor is going to be the council representative for the Creative Team subcommittee.
“In general what the Creative Team is supposed to be about is creative place making, so you can identify where your assets are in town, what you have, what you want to see do better, and ultimately kind of prerequisite to an arts council. Since Red Bank has such a great arts community it is kind of shocking that we don’t have an arts council. The Creative Team is going to serve a couple of different purposes,” Taylor said.
According to the council agenda regarding the resolution, the mayor and council authorized the Creative Team, which will consist of 10 members who will be a combination of residents or employees of the borough and other individuals with strong ties to the borough, appointed annually, whose term of appointment shall be through Dec. 31.
According to Taylor, the Creative Team will have meetings at least four times per year.
Mayor Pasquale Menna also announced that Sickels will be retiring as the borough administrator, effective Jan. 1, 2018.
Red Bank administrators have received about 90 applicants for the borough administrator position. Currently the borough is interviewing potential candidates and are making decisions about the finalists for the position, according to Menna.
In other news, the Monmouth Boat Club‘s Commodore Tom Bean presented the borough with a $5,000 check from the club. Menna accepted the check on behalf of the borough.
“Our club has a tax-exempt status with respect to municipal taxes, and makes this donation annually and voluntarily in appreciation for the benefits we receive from being a member of the Red Bank community,” Bean said.
For more information visit www.redbanknj.org/agendacenter.
Contact Vashti Harris at [email protected].