BROOKVILLE — The park board gave its approval to allow a group of Market Street merchants to hold a monthly program in Gruenig Park, located at 120 Market St.

“A group of businesses on Market Street downtown have formed an organization called Market Street Connection and what they have been doing is a lot of community outreach within the downtown area,” city manager Jack Kuntz told the park board.

Kuntz said the group has already conducted activities downtown that include a St. Patrick’s Day event, a scavenger hunt and an egg extravaganza on Walnut Street at Easter.

Kuntz said the group is now asking to use Gruenig Park for a community event that will take place the third Thursdays of the month.

Kuntz said the event will be held every third Thursday from 4-7 p.m. beginning April 18 and ending Oct. 17.

Kuntz said the event will include mobile vendors, crafts and programs for kids and families.

“The group is going to try to only bring in mobile vendors that would not create competition for the local businesses,” Kuntz said.

“It will be mobile vendors that complement the businesses we already have on Market Street,” Kuntz added.

Jessica Cecrle, representing the merchants group, told the park board the event “is almost like a farmer’s market, but not really like a farmer’s market.”

“It would be kind of mimicking a farmer’s market but without the actual farmer’s market title,” Cecrle, owner of Palette of Threads Boutique, located at 112 Market St., said.

“We are trying to stick more with specialty vendors that already have all their permits,” Cecrle continued.

Cecrle indicated the kinds of vendors the group is seeking are the ones that offer “things that we don’t have in the area such as vendors who offer “jams and jellies” and “permanent jewelry.”

“The idea would be to have 10 vendors because there isn’t a whole lot of space,” Cecrle said.

“I assume you talked to all the businesses downtown,” park board president Adam Blevins asked Cecrle.

Cecrle replied all the downtown businesses have been contacted.

“Have you touched basis with any of the churches to find out if they had any events that would take place on those Thursdays?” Blevins asked.

“We’ve reached out to people, but I don’t know if we’ve heard back from any of the churches,” Cecrle said.

Cecrle noted the Bible Baptist Fellowship, located next to Gruenig Park, has an event on Wednesdays, which won’t affect the Thursday event.

Cecrle said the goal of the event is to give the community “something it can look forward to” the third Thursday of every month.

Kuntz said he appreciates the group’s efforts.

“The group has been working with city staff for several weeks to create new outreach programming in the downtown area in an attempt to bring residents in the community and people outside Brookville to downtown to support our local business community,” Kuntz said.”

“They’ve been doing a great job of creating new programming that the city feels is important in terms of our mission to support our local small business community,” Kuntz added.

Reach Terry Baver at [email protected].