By Chris Rotolo
RED BANK – Shrewsbury Avenue, the borough’s original thoroughfare, is about to get a million dollar makeover.
Earlier this month the New Jersey Department of Transportation announced Red Bank won a $1 million grant for an improvement project to beautify its Shrewsbury Avenue corridor and update it for safety and ADA accessibility. Red Bank won one of 27 federal grants totaling $20 million under the Safe Routes to School and Transportation Alternatives Set-Aside program.
“This all started two years ago. So it’s been a long time coming,” said Mayor Pasquale Menna who credited the Shrewsbury Avenue Citizens Development Committee for helping develop a strategic vision.
These annual federal grants are awarded to nontraditional, community-based efforts that aim to strengthen the cultural, aesthetic and environmental aspects of the nation’s intermodal system, like the main artery that comes off the Route 35 bridge, extends along Red Bank’s West Side and up through the borough of Shrewsbury, before reconnecting with Route 35 near the entrance to Fort Monmouth.
THE SCOPE OF WORK
The grant is less than the $1.2 million proposal submitted by Millennium Strategies of Morristown on Red Bank’s behalf. But it will still fund new ADA compliant curb ramps for special needs accessibility, as well as new sidewalks, crosswalks and curb bumpouts that will extend pedestrian sidewalks and are expected to calm the flow of traffic in the congested corridor.
In addition to public safety improvements, the grant funding will allow officials to create a more aesthetically pleasing environment along Shrewsbury Avenue with the installation of a brick paver strip, trees and decorative poles, benches and receptacles similar to what pedestrians see spanning Broad Street.
The plans also call for the installation of rain gardens and tree pits where the curb bumpouts are situated, a method to help improve drainage and mitigate any negative impacts of stormwater runoff.
COMMUNITY CONNECTION
The borough’s Pilgrim Baptist Church was organized in 1896 and purchased its present home at 172 Shrewsbury Ave. in 1955. The church’s pastor, Terrence K. Porter, was installed in 2003, when he began working closely with former Mayor Ed McKenna and Red Bank’s sitting Mayor Pasquale Menna to create a more unified municipality.
“This particular grant can help grow the sense of a singular identity in Red Bank and will go a long way toward making the Shrewsbury Avenue corridor safer and more accessible, as well as add aesthetic value,” Porter said.
Pilgrim Baptist is not merely a house of worship, Porter said, but strives to be a community resource. The church serves as a report site for Monmouth County’s annual Project Homeless Connect event and, in winter 2018, opened a warming center to provide overnight shelter during frigid conditions. The warming center is also located on Shrewsbury Avenue just steps away from the church.
Despite the outreach initiatives that stretch beyond Red Bank’s borders, Porter recognizes the disparity between the east and west sides of the borough and said a grant of this magnitude and the scope of the work will only strengthen the community as a whole.
“We’re excited about the possibilities of what can be done because, as a community, you really don’t want people driving down Broad Street to see one Red Bank and those driving down Shrewsbury Avenue to see another version.”
ADDED PERSPECTIVE
The developed roadway that would become Shrewsbury Avenue predates 1850, a historical perspective that is not lost on Menna.
“This is where Red Bank started. People think our town was founded on Broad Street, but Shrewsbury Avenue is where everything began. It was a commercial center and it will be again. Development projects will happen and they’ll be done in a way that is respectful to the neighborhood. Shrewsbury Avenue should evolve as its own destination and it will,” Menna said.
One the borough’s largest development projects is the reimagining of the Count Basie Center for the Arts, an expansion effort that will connect new bars and eateries, a second music venue and music education spaces to the historic theater, growing the venue’s footprint to an entire city block on Monmouth Street.
Basie CEO Adam Philipson said improvements to Shrewsbury Avenue, which intersects with Monmouth Street, is an improvement to the entire Red Bank community and one he hopes will create easier access for West Side residents to the Basie’s expanding educational curriculum and entertainment options.
“We have a large audience that comes from the West Side of the borough. We have students that come to us for a multitude of classes and patrons who come to see the performances we have. As an organization we strive to offer diverse programming, something for everyone. And safer roadways will just make it that much easier for residents to reach us,” Philipson said.
