Stashed away in the back of a garage for the past four years, the Red Bank Townwide Yard Sale may get a dusting-off in September.
On Wednesday, the council approved a request by the public library to hold the event on Saturday, September 18, “with all funds collected going to the library,” according to an agenda item.
Library director Elenyi Glykis did not respond to a redbankgreen request for more information.
If held, the event would mark the revival of one that debuted in 2008 as an annual post-Labor Day event initiated by South Street resident Audrey Oldoerp and redbankgreen. Sellers could have their addresses and information about their wares included in a map package published a day earlier, with the fees donated to the library.
The Friends of the Red Bank Library, a fundraising group, later assumed management of the event, and in 2012 moved the date from September to May.
In 2017, prompted by declining shopper turnout, the organizers hit the pause button on the event, with the intention of bringing it back in 2018 as an every-other-year event. But it has yet to return.
At the council’s semimonthly meeting this week, Mayor Pasquale Menna, who has pushed for a restart of the custom, questioned the scheduling.
Menna said some residents had expressed concerns about holding the event in September when other towns hold theirs in May.
“A lot of people have said that the weather in September may be problematic, people will be going back to school, they won’t be focused on it,” he said. “Just wondering whether we could still have a non-sponsored yard sale, but just publicized, as other towns do, on our website, sometime in the month of June.”
Councilwoman Kathy Horgan noted that “a lot of details have to be taken care of” in the lead-up to the event.
Council members agreed to discuss the matter at the governing body’s next workshop session, scheduled for June 9.
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