HIGHTSTOWN: Mayor supports Farmers’ Market

Municipal restrooms now open Friday nights

By Doug Carman, Staff Writer
     HIGHTSTOWN – Restrooms at the borough will remain open during the Farmers’ Market to hopefully keep its customers and merchants from using the toilets at Tavern on the Lake, Mayor Steve Kirson said Wednesday.
     Responding to a petition Tavern on the Lake co-owners Fran and Henry Palumbo started more than a week earlier, Mayor Kirson said he was aware that this was one of the tavern owners’ concerns.
     However, he also said that the borough has no intention to move the Farmers’ Market from Friday evenings this year, despite the petition’s call to have it hosted Saturday mornings instead.
     "We’re here to facilitate their needs," Mayor Kirson said of the Palumbos, "but understand this is a very popular event in the community and something I have no interest in closing."
     At the Borough Council’s May 2 meeting, Ms. Palumbo turned over a petition with 11 signatures, alleging the Farmers’ Market’s customers only patronized the market while filling up the municipal parking spaces, crowding out customers to the local businesses.
     Ms. Palumbo accused the merchants themselves of competing with the locals from out-of-town and being an overall detriment to local businesses.
     Ms. Palumbo did not immediately return a phone call for comment.
     Downtown Hightstown Executive Director Amanda Porter said she was happy with the resolution on the petition.
     She and Mayor Kirson both said there may have been some confusion to the meaning of the petition when they spoke to the business owners. Mayor Kirson said most of the merchants he contacted were actually indifferent on the time of the Farmers’ Market.
     "Really, the petition itself was a non-event regarding most of the individuals," Mayor Kirson said.
     For more information, check Friday’s edition of the Windsor-Hights Herald.