New member joins parking task force

RED BANK — The parking task force established by the mayor to study the borough’s parking situation was intended to be a somewhat amorphous loose-knit group of diverse residents, business owners and others who will look at various options.

That group will have another member when it holds its second session on Monday.

Lester Starnes, Riverside Avenue, has been named by Mayor Edward J. McKenna Jr. to participate in the task force.

Starnes has lived in the borough for 13 years, first on Gold Street, and most recently on Riverside Avenue.

Starnes also has been waging a campaign and legal battle to save the building where he lives.

He is a tenant in the Navesink Gables, an apartment building located next to, and owned by, The Navesink House senior facility.

The Navesink House had wanted to raze the building to build an addition, but residents, rallied by Starnes, have been fighting their eviction notices in court.

"I have no intention of leaving Red Bank," Starnes said.

Starnes said he hoped to bring a different perspective from some of the other people already slated to participate on the task force.

"I think there needs to be open-mindedness on this," he said.

Starnes does acknowledge he was quite opposed to the proposed White Street garage. He said he thought that structure would be a "big eyesore."

"It wouldn’t be aesthetically pleasing," he said.

Despite his views, Starnes said he can be objective to all possible considerations brought forth by the approximately dozen members who will gather to brainstorm for solutions.

"There’s got to be a lot more options than the White Street garage," he noted.

Some of those options include, he said, the possibility of the borough’s acquiring additional property for more lots or building a garage in an area that wouldn’t be in your face as much.

The mayor said he had been contacted by Starnes indicating his wish to participate.

Starnes, as a tenant on the especially busy Riverside Avenue/Route 35 corridor, could bring an interesting perspective to the task force. That, and the fact he is a small-business owner (though not in the borough), is another consideration, the mayor said.

"I just felt he had a couple of things to bring to the table," McKenna said.