By KENNY WALTER
Staff Writer
OCEANPORT — Borough residents will be able to buy their locally grown tomatoes, corn and peppers every Thursday this summer.
The Borough Council passed a resolution of support during the May 19 meeting for a weekly farmers market to be held at the Oceanport First Aid Squad building on Pemberton Avenue with the proceeds going to the first aid squad.
“The general concept at this point is to do a very small farmers market just as a fundraiser for first aid, using the space in front of the first aid building,” resident Cullin Wible said.
“I think what we are talking about is a way to start it, to raise some money for first aid, to try to keep it relatively simple. If it performs well, then it shows the community is willing to be engaged, and if you grow out of it you reevaluate it for next year and the year after.”
According to Wible, the farmers market will run each Thursday from 4-8 p.m. from July 7 to Sept. 1. He said only locally grown items, including produce, flowers, jams and honey, as well as coffee would be sold at the market.
Wible said Colts Neck-based Laurino Farms has already agreed to be the anchor tenant, and there will likely be three or four other vendors.
However, the implementation of the farmers market occurred after a lengthy conversation that split the council over whether or not the borough could operate a larger scale market.
Councilwoman Ellyn Kahle led the charge for the larger farmers market, suggesting the borough could both support the first aid fundraiser market and hire Community Green Market Organizers (CoGro) to run a borough farmers market.
Wible said running a full-fledged farmers market might be starting too big.
“My personal opinion is we should strive for successes,” he said. “I’m not sure it’s worth trying to do both, and I think we want to make sure if we are doing one, it has the full support of the town.”
After the council approved the resolution of support for the first aid market, Kahle presented a resolution to hire an employee from CoGro to run the borough’s market at a minimal cost that resulted in a 3-3 vote.
Prior to voting against the resolution to break the tie, Mayor Jay Coffey said the idea still needed some work.
“This is a fantastic idea, it needs more time to germinate. There are too many questions, it needs more study and we should do this next year,” he said.
