The coronavirus pandemic has pushed back a fall tradition for the Bordentown community to next year.
Bordentown City Mayor James Lynch and the Downtown Bordentown Association (DBA) decided last week that the right decision was to postpone this year’s Bordentown Cranberry Festival until 2021.
“We feel it was the right thing to do and I think people in the community understand that,” Lynch said in an exclusive interview. “We thought by now that we would be ahead of the curve with this virus and we’re not.”
The mayor cited the inability for the city to meet the current safety guidelines set by the state as the main reason for cancelling it this year.
The 31st annual Cranberry Festival was scheduled to take place the weekend of Oct. 3-4.
Lynch said the DBA is considering doing an event in place of the festival that same weekend, but no details have been determined yet.
As for the small businesses and restaurants in the downtown area of Bordentown, Lynch is continuing to find ways to help provide them business in any way he can.
Last month, the DBA and the city helped run a Restaurant Weekend that Lynch said was very successful.
The two-day weekend festivities were an alternative to Bordentown holding its annual car show and Bordentown City Street Fair that each got cancelled this summer.
A section of the downtown area from Crosswick Street to either West Park Avenue or all the way down to Veterans Way was closed off for restaurants to expand outdoor dining into the streets that followed all social distancing guidelines.
The event included live entertainment each day.
Lynch said the city is planning on holding a similar event Aug. 14-16.
“My focus is trying to help out the businesses and restaurants in the downtown area as much as I can,” Lynch said.
This spring, Lynch and the rest of the Bordentown City Board of Commissioners created the Bordentown City Small Business Grant to keep businesses afloat during the pandemic.
Small businesses and restaurants were able to receive a total of $5,163 from the grant program.
Lynch said the purpose of the grant was for small businesses and restaurants to use the proceeds as a bridge into the summer months, but admits it’s not a cure all as things with the pandemic have not progressed as they were hoping.
The mayor, however, is optimistic that recent surges with the virus will slow down and that restrictions will be softened in the next few months.
He also believes that restaurants will be able to provide indoor dining at 25% capacity sooner rather than later.
“We’re trying to protect our businesses the best we can,” Lynch said. “Our city has done as much as any town in the state to help their small businesses. We’re all in this together.”