'It would have been a tragedy': No townhouses as park opens overlooking Navesink, Red Bank
MIDDLETOWN - When Kevin Mandeville was a teenager in the 1970s, he would rent rowboats with friends and paddle down the Navesink River. They would crab for a bit before parking their boats underneath what is now Senator Kyrillos Bridge connecting Middletown and Red Bank.
“The old bridge was the best private spot in Monmouth County,” he recalled. “It was a great swimming spot. Nobody bothered you.”
Now over 40 years later and the chairman of Monmouth County’s Parks and Recreation Board, Mandeville points to the bridge from the newly opened Swimming River Park in Middletown, located where the Swimming River feeds into the Navesink.
Longtime residents remember the bridge well
“For all the lifelong Monmouth County residents, we all remembered what this looked like,” said Mandeville, who is from Matawan.
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The $4.6 million Monmouth County project turned the defunct Chris’ Deli and Chris’ River Plaza Marina into a public access park with a boat ramp. According to County Commissioner Tom Arnone, the restored park is the first phase of a two-part plan. The second phase will involve the blue house on the edge of the park, which will be turned into a space for boathouses, kayaks and restrooms. It will cost an additional $377,000.
Arnone said the county will also connect the park to the Kyrillos Bridge “so that you can walk off the bridge and come onto the pathway there.”
Swimming River Park open daily
The park opens daily from dawn to dusk, according to the Monmouth County Park System website. The boat ramp opens from March 1 to Nov. 30 for fishing, crabbing and enjoying the views. Boat launches require passes that cost between $50 to 100 per season or $7 to 20 daily. Currently there are no boat rentals or boat storage available.
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Mayor Tony Perry of Middletown said the 18-acre park not only preserved open space for the public, but also prevented future development.
Discussions about acquiring the park first arose in 2006. Tony Fiore, former mayor of Middletown, remembers the first meeting at Red Bank’s Molly Pitcher Inn discussing the riverfront property.
“This would have been a tragedy to see 300 townhomes in this spot,” Fiore said. “It would have been a tragedy on the horizon.”
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Mandeville said when the county first looked to acquire the property, there was a lot of “red tape.”
He credits the Monmouth Conservation Foundation, a nonprofit, with dealing with the initial paperwork that paved the way for the county to acquire the land in 2015.
According to Arnone, Chris’ Deli opened on April 1, 1949, and Chris’ River Plaza Marina opened in 1956. The deli and marina were owned by Chris DeFilippo, who died in 2014 at 92.
Before being a deli and marina, a barbershop and gas station were located on the property. Due to environmental concerns from the gas station, the county needed to remediate the land before opening the park.
“It’s a great asset for the neighborhood, for the boating community to have access boating and to get out on the water and enjoy it,” Steve Remaley, president of Red Bank Marina, said. “The Navesink River is one of the (most) beautiful rivers around here.”
Olivia Liu is a reporter covering transportation, Red Bank and western Monmouth County. She can be reached at oliu@gannett.com.
This article originally appeared on Asbury Park Press: Swimming River Park opens in Middletown overlooking Navesink, Red Bank
