Category: Independent News

  • Planning Board balks at Four Ponds’ density

    Applicant’s witnesses to be cross-examined Feb. 1 BYMIKE DAVIS Staff Writer MIDDLETOWN — Planning Board members challenged the density of the housing development planned for the former Avaya site at the Jan. 4 meeting, acknowledging that affordable housing quotas are the only reason they’d consider approving the application. Board Chairman John Deus noted that the…

  • MTPD looking into pedestrian fatality on Rte. 36

    MIDDLETOWN — Police are investigating a motor vehicle crash that resulted in the death of a township man on Route 36. According to a press release from the Middletown Township Police Department, William L. Sagebrush, 66, was at the ThompsonAvenue intersection at 5:48 p.m. on Jan. 4. “[Sagebrush] was crossing the highway and was struck…

  • Hazlet adds open space in greenway acreage

    Purchase and donation add 13 acres of open space BYMIKE DAVIS Staff Writer HAZLET — The Township Committee added more than 13 acres to Hazlet’s open space inventory, securing the Bayshore greenway that runs through the township. The McNamee family sold 4.7 acres of land off Scott Drive to the township for the sum of…

  • DINNIGAN’S DIVERSIONS

    The stars are aligned LIZZ DINNIGAN I n my youth, my family spent summers at the Pine Knoll bungalow colony in Monticello, N.Y., a small town in the heart of the Catskills’ Borscht Belt. It was the late ’70s, and we had tremendous freedom to run around barefoot and scamper about our private community of…

  • Play to benefit anti-violence organizations, raise awareness

    The Garden State Players, a theater group based in Hazlet, is planning a production of Eve Ensler’s “The Vagina Monologues: The V-Day Campaign” to benefit 180 Turning Lives Around. The troupe is seeking women interested in helping in all areas, from performing to the production team. “Last year I was honored to co-produce and co-direct…

  • Photo

    An unusually balmy Jan. 1 provided perfect weather for the American Littoral Society’s 36th annual New Year’s Day Beach Walk, which took participants on a bracing walk from Officer’s Row at Fort Hancock to the northern tip of Sandy Hook. LAUREN CASSELBERRY

  • Aberdeen community garden grows a cookbook

    BY NICOLE ANTONUCCI Staff Writer Volunteers from Temple Shalom and Temple Beth Ahm, both Aberdeen, and Matawan United Methodist Church worked together in the community garden, whose bounty was donated to the UMC food pantry. ABERDEEN — For the past two years, three local houses of worship have taken a practical approach to helping the…

  • Hazlet, Union Beach may pull out of BRSA

    Two host towns approve resolutions ending contract with sewerage authority BYMIKE DAVIS Staff Writer More than 40 years ago, Hazlet, Holmdel and Union Beach formed the structure of the Bayshore Regional Sewerage Authority (BRSA), which has since inducted five more towns into its service area. At their last few municipal meetings of 2011, the governing…

  • IN THE ARTS

    “Abstract Interpretations” “Impressions DuJour” by Sandi Neiman Lovitz The 2012 invitational show “Abstract Interpretations” will open at the Art Alliance of Monmouth County Jan. 7. The show is curated by Oceanport artist, teacher and gallery owner James Kent, who has invited 21 artists to participate in this year’s show. The invitees include artists from Monmouth…