Controversy swirls over control of Harvest Day
YARDLEY BOROrdH – Controversy is swirling over who should run Yardley Harvest Day, the annual street and craft fair which was held this year on Canal Street and East College Avenue.
The two groups that co-sponsor the community event that drew at least 10,000 visitors to town last fall are both laying claim to Harvest Day after differences over how it should be run resulted in a rift between the two organizations.
For years, the event has been FR-sSRnsRUHG Ey WKH 0DNHfiHOG Women’s Association ( MWA) and the Yardley Business Association (YBA). Members from both groups comprise the Harvest Day Committee.
At the Jan. 15 borough council meeting, YBA President Margaret Bork announced that the business association would now run the annual event and said that this year’s Harvest Day would take place on Saturday, Sept. 21.
Bork said she wants the event to be focused more on Yardley and less on fundraising.
She asked for council’s support and received it from three of the six members in attendance. Supporting the YBA are Joe Hunter, president; Katherine Cadwallader, vice president; and Rich Wayne. Council member Rob Benbenek was not at the meeting. The other council members did not weigh in on the matter.
When questions arose over whether council has the authority to say who runs Harvest Day, Hunter said that it does by its decision on whether to close borough streets for the event.
“An organization that’s going to run Harvest Day has to come to us. An organization can’t close down the streets,” he said. “We have to know that organization is going to do a good job. Also we provide police as well.”
The YBA’s appearance before council came as a surprise to the MWA, which has used the event to raise thousands of dollars for battered women, children with cancer, the homeless and other charitable groups.
In a statement, the MWA said it is “disappointed to hear that Yardley businesses went before the Yardley Borough Council seeking to end the MWA’s sponsorship and participation in Harvest Day. This was without the MWA membership being nRWLfiHG RU SUHsHnW DW WKH PHHWing.
“We’ve brought this festival to the community for over 40 years, and it is a part of who we are as an organization,” continues the statement. “This comes as a complete surprise to our membership, as we were led to believe that the borough supported our participation in the event and were pleased with our dedication and hard work.“
The MWA further said, if it “is denied this fundraiser, which MWA has been involved with for decades, how can MWA continue to support their wRUWKy EHnHfiFLDULHs DnG RuU community?”
The rift between the two groups came to light in an e-mail sent by Bork prior to last year’s Harvest Day to an unnamed ERURuJK RIfiFLDO, Ln wKLFK sKH requested a list of Harvest Day exhibitors.In the e-mail, Bork said she had been trying in vain to get the information from the MWA, who, she said, refused to share it. She indicated in the email that “there is a chance the YBA will go it alone next year.”
Bork acknowledged sending the e-mail, saying the list GRHsn’W EHORnJ sSHFLfiFDOOy WR either group.
“It’s not proprietary to either the MWA or the YBA,” Bork said. Further, in an e-mail to BucksLocalNews.com, Bork sDLG LW wDsn’W WKH fiUsW WLPH WKDW request was made.
“The list belongs to the Harvest Day Committee,” she wrote. “I made the [same] re- quest over the past year or two. It was becoming obvious that the two organizations were not working well together.”
In the same e-mail to BucksLocalNews.com, however, Bork said she did acknowledge that the e-mail to the borough RIfiFLDO wDs “nRW D JRRG LGHD” and said she apologized for it to the MWA.
According to Bork, the MWA president came to the most re- cent Harvest Day committee meeting with a proposal of its own. Bork said she had come to that meeting prepared to soften YBA’s stance and rededicate its efforts to work with MWA.
“Before I had a chance to fully state the YBA’s position, the MWA president read a prepared statement which contained the proposal that the MWA assume full responsibility for Harvest Day,” Bork wrote in an e-mail to BucksLocalNews.com.
According to Bork, YBA’s membership had no interest in that proposal.
The MWA, in its statement, said it “was made aware of actions on the part of the YBA board that would negatively impact our group. As a result, trust between the organizations was broken. In an effort to proWHFW RuU nRn-SURfiW RUJDnL]DWLRn DnG EHnHfiFLDULHs wH RIIHUHG D proposal to end our working relationship with the YBA and to assume sole responsibility for Harvest Day.”
The MWA said it “never expressed an interest to withdraw from Harvest Day.”
Bork said the YBA’s major gripe with the Harvest Day structure is that it does not allow Yardley businesses to participate “unless they are a paying sponsor. There was the same concern about Yardley Harvest Day not really being about Yardley.”
Bork said that the “YBA general membership and board of directors are in favor of the idea that the YBA assume responsibility for Harvest Day and return it to a Yardley-centric event, with increased focus on the borough, its history, businesses and organizations, along with crafters, food and entertainment.”
Councilmember Mike Ruttle, chairman of the community development committee, said he is concerned for MWA because it uses Yardley Harvest Day as a fundraiser. “They’re going to have to do something else -- are we looking at competing events?” he asked Bork.
Ruttle indicated that if MWA is not involved, an important resource would be missing.