Emmaus Borough Council unanimously approved the move of the Emmaus Farmers Market to Emmaus Triangle Park at the Jan. 21 council meeting.

The relocation proposal came after the announcement that the BB&T branch on 235 Main St. was closing. The farmers market was held in the BB&T parking lot Sunday mornings.

Councilwoman Teri Sorg-McManamon feels this move could greatly benefit the downtown shops and market vendors.

“This could be the single biggest impact that we could make on our retail community downtown,” she said. “If they take advantage of it, we know that it will create a lot of additional people downtown.”

Sorg-McManamon said of the roughly 9,000 farmers’ markets across the country, statistics show the most successful ones are within a downtown center.

During the winter months, only a portion of the Triangle will be open for the market. During the summer months, in addition to a portion of the Triangle, the first block of South Fourth Street, which borders the Triangle will be closed as well during operation, allowing for more vendors.

Councilman Roy Anders asked if there was a concern regarding the small section of Fourth Street during the spring when people will be trying to reach the Mercantile Club on Railroad Street by using Fourth Street.

President Brent Labenberg said the only thing he’s aware of traffic wise, that has to be worked out, is the one way alley that comes out onto Fourth Street and how it will affect those neighbors.

The market currently holds 24 vendors, but the move will allow for a slight expansion. Borough Manager Shane Pepe said they have a waiting list of people wanting to set up a booth.

Per the market’s website, it’s open 10 a.m. to noon the second and fourth Sundays January through April and 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. every Sunday May through November. During December, the market runs 10 a.m. to noon Sundays.

In other business, council approved the Shade Tree Plan presented by the Emmaus Shade Tree Commission.

This plan will slowly replace the trees that are causing issues such as cracked and lifted sidewalks, and dropping fruit to name a few. The trees being replaced will extend between Chestnut Street and Main Street from the CVS to the public library. All 184 tree wells, which are curbside cut outs in the sidewalk specifically for trees, will eventually be filled. Trees that have simply reached their life span and were dying will also be replaced.

The project, which will expand over two to three decades, will start by replacing nine trees this year.

Doug Hall, who was one of the Shade Tree Commission members in attendance, said they spent a large portion of 2018 developing the plan which included talking with tree experts, foresters in other communities and looking at the neighboring towns to see what they have planted in their downtown areas.

Hall said there have been a variety of studies conducted showing how trees have a positive effect on the community. One study showed an increase of up to 12 percent on goods and services in business districts with trees. Another study showed tree lined streets have been proven to have a calming effect on traffic resulting in drivers slowing down.

The trees being phased out are the ‘Bradford’ pear, Sugar maple, Horse chestnut, Green ash and full-size zelkova trees. They will be replaced by small trees including the Trident maple, ‘Ivory Silk’ tree lilac, City Sprite zalkova, and the ‘Okame’ ornamental cherry. The Thornless honeylocust, ‘Princeton Sentry’ ginkgo and Sycamore trees are larger and will be planted in limited locations.

In general, Hall said these trees do not have aggressive root systems, will not lift pavements or crack sidewalks and will not drop fruit.

Pepe announced the developers for Wawa will be at the Feb. 4 council meeting to get the final approval for the project.

The developers, Cedar Crest Chestnut Development LP, came to council in February 2018 to get the process started on the potential convenience store. The proposed Wawa will be placed behind McDonald’s located near the intersection of Cedar Crest Boulevard and Chestnut Street.

Council will be getting a packet roughly two weeks in advance to review.

“They made a lot of changes, there’s a lot of plans and a lot of proposed items that you need to see in order for you to make an educated vote,” Pepe said.

Labenberg said he has already seen the packet of information and that “every safety concern that this council brought up was addressed. We were happy to see all that.”

Council unanimously passed the final reading of Ordinance 1185 which will require inspection and testing of lateral sewer pipe connections of homes in Emmaus that are going to be sold.

The inspection will involve the use of high-tech cameras to detect cracks, leakages, pipe collapses, damages by tree roots and other problems that arise. If an issue is found, either the seller or buyer will have to repair the pipe. If the issues are coming from where the pipe hooks into the borough, then the borough will pay to repair the pipe.