The owners of the Emmaus Movie Theatre, Butch Rossetti and Robert Audiburt, expressed their concern over the farmers market parking situation at the Emmaus Borough Council meeting March 18.

This proposed parking ordinance will prohibit parking Sundays May 1 to Nov. 30 during operation of the farmers market and the setup and breakdown time for vendors. This includes the west side of South Fourth Street between Chestnut Street and Jubilee Street and then on Main Street between South Fourth and 332 Main Street.

The idea to move the farmers market to Triangle Park came after the announcement the BB&T branch on 235 Main St., where the market used to be held, was closing. After thorough discussions at committee level, council felt it would greatly benefit the downtown area and shops to move it to the Triangle, as the market draws around 2,000 people each week.

Rossetti’s first concern was they were never notified of this occurrence regarding parking or the moving of the market. He said they found out on Facebook by chance about two weeks ago. Rossetti felt the Emmaus Movie Theatre should have been involved in the planning since they were one of the businesses being affected by the parking restrictions.

The theatre holds birthday parties 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. Sundays and has two showings, one 2 p.m. and then 4 p.m. Rossetti said the matinée on Sunday typically draws an older crowd, so they are concerned about them walking far distances.

Rossetti and Audiburt are both concerned this will have a negative impact on their business, as the restricted parking will deter customers.

Audiburt said there are two show times they rely on to pay their bills, and one of them is the 2 p.m. Sunday matinee. “Sunday at 2 p.m. makes up one third of our revenue for the week,” he said. “Honestly, I’m a little worried if we can even survive.”

He went on to state there have been times the two of them have forgone their payment just to keep the theatre running and if they lose out on this Sunday showing they may be forced to consider selling the theatre, which is the last thing they want to do.

Audiburt stated he disagrees with council’s take on the market’s new location helping everyone. He said people don’t go to see a movie right after they purchase groceries, they take their groceries home.

“We’ve worked really hard in the past five years to build up a clientele and having a setback is really devastating to us,” Audiburt said. “I can’t see anything but obstacles.”

Rossetti also expressed concerns over safety vehicles being blocked by the market. Borough Manager Shane Pepe said the vendors will be located on one side of the street so that emergency vehicles can get through if necessary. He said the borough looked at traffic flow through that specific area on any given day and it’s minimal and they found that trains cross those tracks 75 percent less on Sundays than any other day. Both the police and fire chiefs were involved in this discussion and planning.

In regard to communicating the new market location and parking, Pepe said it was in multiple newspapers, posted on the website and posted on social media. In addition, the Emmaus Main Street Partners told the borough they reached out to businesses in the Triangle. Rossetti said they were never informed by the Emmaus Main Street Partners.

Pepe said they would be more than happy to work with the theatre to help put up advertisements before movies stating the new parking restrictions and where to go. “I have a GSI intern that can actually do the maps and parking areas and maybe we can get together really quickly and have her design what we want to show the public.”

Tom Teprovich was at the meeting with some members of the farmers market and said they would be welcome to working with the theatre. “We have a mail list and we’d love to work with the local businesses to advertise for each other,” Teprovich said. “Let’s help each other grow.”

In regard to business, Teprovich said 30 percent is done in the first hour the market is open, 30 percent in the second hour, 25 percent noon to 1 p.m. and 15 percent 1 to 2 p.m. He said they did a survey in September 2018 and 10 percent of the customers were brand new, which they feel is a benefit to the borough.

Councilman John Hart expressed to Rossetti and Audiburt this can be changed in the future. “I feel that this is one of those situations where worst case scenario, after we try it for the appropriate period of time, that we can change the ordinance,” Hart said. “I think we need to try it to see what happens and we can make tweaks along the way.”

Council voted 7-0 in favor of the parking restrictions.