Physical Therpy For Injuries and Pain in Atlantic Highlands, NJ

A New Jersey eatery known for its signature sandwiches has closed.

Big Mike’s Little Red Store announced its immediate closure in a social media post on Tuesday, Aug. 15.

The sandwich shop was located at 101 Navesink Ave. in Atlantic Highlands.

“As we close the chapter on five amazing years at Big Mike’s Little Red Store, we want to extend our heartfelt gratitude to all our incredible customers and the wonderful community we’ve had the pleasure of serving,” the post read.

Big Mike’s Little Red Store grew popular for its sandwiches over its half-decade run on Navesink Ave.

The shop’s “The Poppa” sandwich (charred bologna, potato latke, egg and cheese) landed the No. 22 spot on NJ.com’s most recent ranking of New Jersey’s 25 greatest sandwiches.

The owners of the Monmouth County eatery also announced their future plans.

“We are in the midst of an exciting transition, preparing to open our brand-new restaurant, Saltwater Social Bar and Kitchen by Big Mike!” the post said.

The new endeavor is planned to open at 128 Bay Ave. in Atlantic Highlands this fall. An exact date has yet to be announced.

Saltwater Social Bar and Kitchen is described as “not just a restaurant” but “an expansion to a bigger and better way to serve” the community and customers.

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Christopher Burch can be reached at cburch@njadvancemedia.com. Follow him on Twitter: @ChrisBurch856. Find NJ.com on Facebook. Have a tip? Tell us. nj.com/tip

ATLANTIC HIGHLANDS — The Atlantic Highlands Arts Council will present CONNECTIONS - a Painting Exhibition from Jan. 13 to Feb. 17. This is an exhibition by three distinct voices from diverse backgrounds brought together through art and friendship. The artists are Richard Buntzen, Soody Neshatfar and Anna "AJ" Wainright. The individual approaches to painting by these three artists are seemingly unique, yet, through their admiration of each other's work and their mutual friendship, connections are everywhere to be found. The Atlantic Highlands Arts Council celebrates their work and the profound connections they have made with each other and in their art.

Richard Buntzen is an award winning freelance visual artist who works in oil and print media collage out of his studio space in Asbury Park. Formerly, Buntzen was an art educator in the Alpine School District located in Bergen County. He earned his MFA Degree from New Jersey City University where he studied under the direction of Hugo Bastidas and Dr. Jose Rodeiro.

Buntzen currently studies with Julie Friedman, owner and director of ARTSPACE located in Morristown. He is a Signature

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Member with the National Collage Society. He is also a member of Maryland Federation of Arts, Provincetown Art Association and Museum, Atlantic Highlands Art Council, and The Pastel Salon of New Jersey. He has shown his work nationally as well as in several galleries and museums in both Central and South New Jersey.

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The passion for visual art has always been a part of Soody Neshatfar's life, but formally she started painting under the direction of Master Painter Marge Levine in 2000. She has participated in workshops with Master Pastelists Richard McKinley, Lyn Asselta, and Julie Friedman. Neshatfar continues to study with Julie Friedman, working in both oil and pastel. She is a member of The Pastel Salon of New Jersey.

Anna “AJ” Wainright, PSA/MP, IAPS/EP is a national and international award-winning gallery represented artist.

Driven to paint images that evoke a sense of weather and emotion as well as place, she is known for her atmospheric paintings. After 25 years in public service her pursuit of her dreams to be an artist began in 2007 with pastels as her preferred medium at the time.

After years of work in that medium her efforts culminated in 2022 when she received the top award, Prix De Pastel, in the Master Division of the Pastel World Exhibition at the International Association of Pastel Societies Convention in New Mexico, where she also received Eminent Pastelist distinction as well.

She also has Master distinction in the Pastel Society of America, as well as Signature in the American Tonalist Association and Associate in Oil Painters of America, NOAPS, and the American Impressionists Association. She has exhibited in two shows in China, and last year in Korea. She was recently featured in the “Conjuring the Landscape” article in the Jan/Feb 2021 issue of the Pastel Journal, as well as the publication “Pure Pastel: Contemporary Works by Today’s Top Artists” in 2019. She has received honorable mention several times in the Pastel 100, as well as second place overall in 2019. Her works have shown in museum exhibitions including the Butler Institute of American Art, Ohio; Slater Museum, Norwich, Conn. and Haggin Museum, Stockton, Calif. She has gallery representation at The Artful Deposit and Beacon Galleries in New Jersey, as well as resident membership at the Salmagundi Club in New York City.

For more information, visit the Atlantic Highlands Arts Council website.

Voters in Monmouth County will decide this week whether to merge three school districts into one.

The grades K-6 school districts in Highlands and Atlantic Highlands would join the grades 7-12 Henry Hudson Regional School District, which already serves both municipalities, under the proposal on Tuesday’s ballot.

The regionalization ballot proposal is the first in New Jersey since 2013, when voters in Hunterdon County approved merging four school districts into the South Hunterdon Regional School District, according to the New Jersey Boards Association.

New Jersey, which is home to about 600 school districts, has few regionalized districts compared to many other states. Last year, Gov. Phil Murphy signed a bill that gave districts financial incentives to study consolidation, including combining into county-wide or regional school districts.

Supporters say combining local school districts could save money and reduce school taxes for homeowners. But, some districts have resisted mergers because they do not want to give up local control of their schools and worry students will not be able to attend their neighborhood schools in regional districts.

Some school districts have already combined. In 2017, the Elmer school district was absorbed by Pittsgrove in Salem County, adding Elmer’s 240 students to Pittsgrove’s 1,600 students, after years of debate.

If approved by voters in Highlands and Atlantic Highlands this week, the school boards in both districts would be disbanded in July 2024, according to a description available on the districts’ websites. All three school districts would be overseen by the Henry Hudson Regional School District school board.

Voters are heading to the polls Tuesday, the same day seven school district construction proposals totaling $40.2 million are on the ballot in other New Jersey school districts, the school boards association said.

Highlands, Atlantic Highlands and Henry Hudson Regional are relatively small, with a combined enrollment of 740 students as of last year. A single superintendent, Tara Beams, is already leading what is characterized by local officials as a “tri-district.”

Each district is home to a single school. Highlands Elementary School and Atlantic Highlands Elementary School serve grades K-6. Henry Hudson Regional High School opened in 1962 and serves grades 7-12.

“The topic of regionalizing these three schools has been a decades-long debate, mostly on whether or not the current structures are efficient in running schools,” Beams said at a Sept. 12 community forum.

“The most efficient model, for a child, is that there is a system that they go through, from pre-K or kindergarten, all the way up to 12th grade, and there’s some continuity in those services, regardless of whether you’re in a large district or small district — that you have a team of administrators and educational experts that are making decisions that look at a child’s journey from pre-K all the way through 12th,” Beams said.

In advocating for the change, officials predicted a reduction in taxes stemming from consolidating some services and a boost in state aid that is available to school districts opting to regionalize, according to a proposal overview from the school districts.

The overview acknowledges that approval would result in “some loss of autonomy,” due to dissolving Atlantic Highlands and the Highlands school boards, and that some staff members might be relocated or transferred “although this is expected to be very minor.”

The new regional board “will need to commit effort and resources to assume control of the educational facilities, engage with existing vendors and contractors, restructure contracts, and the collective bargaining agreements with the employees’ unions,” the overview states.

If approved, the current board members in the three districts — along with any elected in November — would continue through June, officials said. Then, an interim regional board consisting of three members from each current board would be seated, leading up to the election of a new board in November 2024.

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