ALLENTOWN: Borough hears calls to help local businesses

Owners, resident ask council for ways to increase shoppers

by Jennifer Kohlhepp, Special Writer
ALLENTOWN — Residents and business owners packed the municipal meeting room June 11 to ask the Borough Council to better support and promote local businesses.
   Flooding during Hurricane Irene and the reconstruction of the Main Street bridge had forced some local shops to close, as did the downturned economy. Now, locals fear downtown Allentown is losing its place as a destination area for shoppers, and urged council members to work with remaining and prospective business owners to keep the downtown thriving.
   Debbie Personette, owner of Bloomers ‘N Things To Do, a business on Main Street, was one concerned business owner.
   ”Allentown used to be a destination town,” Ms. Personette said. “Now, there’s nothing left to do in our town.”
   She urged the council to do whatever it needs to do to help support and promote business.
   ”Otherwise, we’ll have nothing here. It’s going to be a ghost town,” she said, adding there are hardly any shoppers that visit downtown Allentown anymore.
   She also said the Allentown Business Community Association has had to cancel downtown events that bring customers into the area due to the lack of businesses on Main Street.
   ”I’ve been here 13 years. I loved it, but it has gone straight down the tubes,” Ms. Personette said. “I love the town and I love my job. I don’t want to close my flower shop, but if things don’t get better I’ll have to.”
   She and others at the meeting said the Old Mill site drew lots of traffic into town when it was operational.
   The site housed multiple businesses prior to the Main Street bridge reconstruction project, but many were forced to close when Monmouth County declared eminent domain on the site in 2008 for the reconstruction project. The old mill site is adjacent to the Main Street bridge.
   Resident Erika O’Rourke, who also owns the Copper Frog, which is located in the annex building of the Old Mill, lamented the situation.
   ”The county took away the most important building in town and you act like you don’t care,” Ms. O’Rourke said, adding that three borough businesses had recently closed.
   ”Two are going out in the next year if things don’t turn around,” she added.
   Corky Danche, who owns the Old Mill, said he is working with the borough to obtain the necessary permits to reopen the site to businesses and has an application before the planning board to open a restaurant at the site.
   However, he took issue with how slow the process has been with the borough to get his site reopened for business.
   ”I think you people ought to be ashamed of yourselves for letting Main Street get in the condition it is in now,” Mr. Danche said.
   Resident Kelly Owens asked council members to do whatever they could do to get the downtown business community going again.
   ”Business owners have put their sweat and blood into the businesses in town,” Ms. Owens said. “I don’t feel these businesses are supported.”
   In response to the concerns voiced by residents and business owners, Mayor Stu Fierstein said the planning board is currently reviewing Mr. Danche’s site application for use of the mill property.
   The mayor also noted that he met with business owners from the mill property the previous week to discuss the completion of the bridge reconstruction project. He said the bridge reconstruction project has yet to be deemed complete.
   The county wanted the borough to accept the project as complete during Hurricane Sandy, he said, but the borough refused.
   Despite the borough’s stance, Mayor Fierstein assured the public the infrastructure is safe.
   ”That does not mean the bridge is unsafe or that the dam is unsafe,” he said.