as winners of SID
Prown, Tarver tapped
as winners of SID’s Ambassador Award
BY GLORIA STRAVELLI
Staff Writer
At an up-tempo annual meeting Monday, Red Bank RiverCenter reviewed successes, announced new initiatives including the naming of a new executive director, and committed to building on community partnerships forged during the past year.
"Great things happened over the past year," RiverCenter Chair Chris Cole said, citing completion of the Monmouth Street streetscaping project and the reclaiming of 205 parking spots in downtown Red Bank as two examples.
Cole ticked off a list of successful initiatives that help to beautify the downtown and contribute to its ambiance, noting that the nonprofit corporation that administers the borough’s Special Improvement District accomplished the projects working with just a $60,000 operating budget.
The RiverCenter chair, who also is managing partner of Terranomics, announced the promotion of Tricia Rumola, director of programming and policy, to the post of executive director effective Jan. 1.
The position has been vacant since former executive director Mary Mann left in December.
Harriet Cook will continue as director of operations and finances.
"I’m really excited and honored to be given this position," said Rumola, 25, a Middletown native. "A lot of new, young blood is coming into this organization."
According to Rumola, a bevy of new ideas emerged at a recent board retreat, including incorporating public art into RiverCenter’s programs.
"I’m really into the arts and building upon existing programs and creating new ones that revolve around the arts," said Rumola.
Rumola began working as an intern at RiverCenter in 1999 while completing studies for a master’s degree in urban planning at New York University. She was named project manager in 2001 and director of programming and policy last December.
Outgoing chairman Jack Readie said RiverCenter members elected the slate of incumbent directors who were running unopposed.
Heads of various River Center task forces reported gains. Cole said the Red Bank Gift Cheque Program, with 120 participating merchants, has grown from a $500 program in 2001 to $7,000 in 2003. Mary DeMont, board secretary, told the meeting the annual fund-raising Tiki Party held in June raised $8,000 for the holiday lighting that decorates the downtown.
Architect Ned Gaunt, head of RiverCenter’s Visual Improvement Committee, announced a new award category for notable facade improvements.
The projects honored include Red, a restaurant at 3-5 Broad St. owned by Dan Lynch and Matt Wagman and designed by S.O.M.E. architects, Red Bank; Nirvana Traders, a clothing store for young men and women, at 21 White St., owned by Sunil Amatya and designed by Red Bank architect Stephen Raciti; and Osteria Dante, a restaurant at 91 Broad St. owned by Michael and Zoya Bitici and designed by George Rudolph III, Red Bank.
"The level of quality of their creativity and presentation is so much better. In the past, people would come in with a sketch on the back of an envelope. Now they come in with better designs that are researched better," explained Gaunt.
"We felt they had worked the hardest to improve their property aesthetically," Gaunt said of the Red redesign which unified two buildings.
The redesign of Nirvana, Gaunt said, creatively updated what had been an unexciting building, and the redesign of Osteria Dante met the challenge of tastefully redesigning a small building.
Vance Valente said the Red Bank Sidewalk Sale will celebrate its 50th anniversary this year and plans are to expand the event to include the town’s restaurants.
An annual tradition, the Ambassador Award was doubled this year and awarded to two Davids — Tarver and Prown.
Cole said Tarver, a founder of the Red Bank Education Initiative, was honored for his role in "taking on an issue no one wanted to take on — turning the school system around."
Prown was recognized, Cole said, for having "the courage to evolve a business people in the community loved.