A contract that will provide professional services and conceptual plans for Marine Park was awarded to the Kimley-Horn and Associates, Inc., by the Borough of Red Bank Council.
“Marine Park was destroyed in Hurricane Sandy, and there has been a lot of iterations of what should go there and what shouldn’t go there. We had three different projects back in 2014, but they all got shot down. So we have only been really maintaining it, not improving the park,” Councilman Erik Yngstrom said.
The borough sought proposals for consulting professional services for the planning, design, solicitation of public feedback and developing a concept plan for the redesign and improvements to Marine Park, according to the council agenda.
The council approved the resolution to award the contract to Kimley-Horn and Associates, Inc. during its regular meeting on Dec. 27 at the municipal building.
“They have impeccable credentials and have completed over a thousand projects like ours nationwide. The have recently completed similar projects in Salem, New Jersey, and Hoboken and a very similar project to Marine Park in Centreville, Maryland,” Yngstrom said.
Marine Park is currently open to the public and is located off East Front Street by Riverview Medical Center.
With residents being allowed to utilize Marine Park, Yngstrom said, “There is a playground set, the hill [and] the boats are still down there, but now we want to figure out what we are going to do with it.”
The borough received seven responses to the request for proposals, according to the council agenda.
The director of Parks and Recreation and the Parks and Recreation Committee have reviewed all of the proposals for the project and, pursuant to a report dated Dec. 13, 2017, recommend that the award of the contract be made to Kimley-Horn and Associates, Inc. in the amount of $40,661.46, according to the council agenda.
“Once we execute the agreement, we’ll inform everybody on the next steps on how the public can voice their opinions. Everyone will be kept informed so we can take into consideration everyone’s ideas for Marine Park,” Yngstrom said.
In other news, Borough Administrator Stanley Sickels attended his last council meeting before retiring effective Dec. 31.
Sickels said that he started off by joining the fire department when he was 18 years old and has been with the fire department for 45 years.
“I have been part of the town, I grew up in the town and I have volunteered for the town. I wanted to be a fireman. My training and opportunities presented itself more in the fire investigation side, so I got a job as a fire marshal in Monmouth Park and then as a fire arson investigator. And then a job opened up for fire marshal, and that is how I came to Red Bank in 1979,” Sickels said.
Sickels said he met his wife a few months after arriving in the borough.
“It’s a good town to grow up here, raise kids here, and it’s been good. I felt that I wanted to do the best that I could,” Sickels said.
During her last council meeting, former Councilwoman and Republican Linda Schwabenbauer said that a decision had been made not to hire a borough administrator.
According to Schwabenbauer, Councilman Michael Whelan and Councilman Mark Taylor, who are republicans, along with herself were not involved with the decision to not hire a new borough administrator.
“I get a phone call a few weeks ago saying that the other side of the aisle has met and made the decision not to hire a borough administrator. I was extremely disappointed to hear this. We had been interviewing many good candidates, and I am not sure exactly what will happen in the new year. I assume that the search will continue, but that is the update I have,” Schwabenbauer said.
The borough had been working since June to find and hire a new borough administrator, according to Schwabenbauer.
Councilwoman and Democrat Kathleen Horgan said that the borough will not be hiring a new borough administrator right now.
“We have all agreed about hiring an interim municipal managing consultant, and that took place in October. The consultants, it is a group, [and] they have spoken to us, and they told us at the time that the person who might be the administrator may not be someone who applied for the job,” Horgan said. “So we are waiting for their report to find out exactly what they feel the skill sets should be. We will definitely be hiring an administrator probably in the next three months or so.”
For more information, visit www.redbanknj.org/agendacenter.
Contact Vashti Harris at [email protected].