At Thursday night's Jim Thorpe Borough Council meeting a concern was brought up about the Jim Thorpe Farmers Market. Jim Thorpe Chamber of Commerce member, Robert Gaudreau, voiced concerns about the fee to utilize Memorial Park for the market.

The Farmers Market is sponsored by the Jim Thorpe Chamber of Commerce and will run every Saturday in June through September at Memorial Park. This will be the third year for the market.The past two years the fee for the market to be held at Memorial Park was $25 per day. This year the fee was raised to $100 per day.Gaudreau asked the board if they could consider lowering the daily fee from $100 back down to $25. He said that $100 would be too high for the market vendors."The vendors don't walk away with very much in their pocket every weekend," said Gaudreau.Mayor Michael Sofranko stated, "We started with the $25 to get it started. The $25 was kind of low, but we wanted to see how everyone did with the market. The intention was to see if we could go higher to be fair to everyone else who rents the park."The council discussed lowering the prices for the Farmers Market."Charge them by the season. They are doing it as a group and it is a little unique because it's someone that wants it every weekend," stated Solicitor, James Nanovic.The council decided to charge one fee of $1,000, for the 17 weeks the market will be held. Instead of charging $100 per day, the borough will charge one fee for the farmers market saving them $700.Eight vendors total attend the market. Five vendors bring produce including organic produce. Two vendors bake pastries. Another vendor brings poultry and meats."Memorial Park is the best location. It's family oriented and there is plenty of parking," stated Gaudreau."We get a steady, regular turn out and this benefits the whole community including the farmers," he said.The Chamber of Commerce is looking into having an Electronic Benefit Terminal machine at the market so customers could use SNAP benefits.