Hopewell’s Economic Development Committee helps
A commitment of $500 by the Economic Development Committee of Hopewell Borough will maintain the earth-friendliness of the upcoming Hopewell Valley Green Market.
The chairman of the Green Market, Tom Adelman, expressed “immense gratitude” for the borough’s sponsorship. “This is a hard time to put on a community event,” said Mr. Adelman. “Even using donated supplies and volunteer help, there’s a certain base line of expenses that must be met.”
Raising money during this recession proved so difficult that until quite recently Mr. Adelman was unsure if the much-anticipated April 18 Earth Day Celebration would even happen. “You need to cover the cost of insurance, pay for things like paint, brushes, lumber, sandpaper, so on. Just as important at this stage, though, is the purchase of carbon offsets.
”The last thing our Valley needs is another neighborhood festival stirring up a frenzy of waste,” continued Mr. Adelman. “That’s about the least earth-friendly thing imaginable. We have an obligation to clean up after ourselves and zero out our environmental impact. Why an Earth Day celebration that can’t fulfill even basic responsibilities to the planet?”
If unable to locate a sponsor of carbon neutrality, the Green Market would have had to start charging event admission or building profit-oriented games. Unwilling to do that, Mr. Adelman said he would instead have first “pulled the plug on the event.”
However, the EDC of Hopewell Borough stepped forward as a sponsor. “Tom came to a meeting of the EDC,” explained Ray Disch, president of the committee. “He described what he wanted to accomplish with his Green Market in Hopewell Borough. It struck us as a smart thing to sponsor, with $500 from our discretionary funds. This is economic development in action, an investment that allows local crafters and merchants to sell home-made, hand-made products in a positive, pro-green atmosphere.”
And so the Earth Day celebration will go on. It begins April 17 at 7 p.m. with a family fun “Bee Awareness” evening at the future Borough Hall (former Masonic Temple), 88 E. Broad St., which includes a free public viewing of the Seinfeld cartoon, “Bee Movie.” It widens into a “Festival of Earth-Friendly Products and Ideas” April 18 from 10 a.m.-3 p.m. at the Hopewell Railroad Station.
Although the Green Market promises to be a fun exercise in community building and environmental education, Mr. Adelman admitted dissatisfaction. “I do what I can to make sure our recycling is correctly sorted at the end, and that vendors don’t hand out giveaways that will simply join the waste stream. Still, we’re going to eat fabulous food from Brothers Moon, Antimo’s, Nomad Pizza, and others, and I just which I could afford to do a better job of greening the food aspect. Recycled cups and plateware are too expensive. Corn resin utensils require a logistical network if they’re going to be composted correctly. We may have to use paper plates, plastic forks, and that just kills me.”
This is one negative consequence of the Green Market — along with the presence of amplified entertainment and trucked-in exhibits, and residents arriving by automobile —which Mr. Adelman has to content himself with being “neutralized” by the purchase of Green-E Climate Certified carbon offsets from Sterling Planet. These represent 13 metric tons of carbon that are offset through verified landfill methane collection and combustion emission reductions originating from the Greenville County, S.C., landfill gas utilization project.
”It’s a less-than-ideal solution,” Mr. Adelman said. “But it’s about the best we can do right now.”

