North Tonawanda History Museum © City Market

    Elmer Moje has been coming to the North Tonawanda City Market for 85 years. As a child, he came with his father by horse and wagon. Now, he arrives in a truck that rumbles over the uneven parking lot.
    Market patrons like Moje welcome improvements proposed by John Long, the new clerk at the market, including a repaving of the area.
    “There's some rough spots here and there,” said Moje. “It needs to be re-striped as well. Some of the yellow lines are fading.”
    Long said the problem is just going to worsen, and should be taken care of before it gets too bad.
“Sooner or later, it's going to have to be replaced,” Long said. “There's a lot of areas where it's been patched, and it's starting to become a safety hazard.”
    Other improvements Long hopes to make include widening Market Street into a two-way, advertising the market with signs around the area, increasing the market's funding and adding more handicapped parking spaces. The handicapped spaces now available are too small, said Dan Ottaviano, who has been in business at the market for five years. “My brother has a wheelchair and he couldn't come here easily because he needs one of those double-wide spots,” Ottaviano said.
    New handicapped spaces and a two-way Market Street would cut down on the traffic congestion, said Ottaviano, a Lancaster resident.
    Moje, a Wheatfield resident, also thinks more parking and a two-way street would benefit the market. “I've seen people leave the market and go down Market Street the wrong way, so they might as well change it,” he said.
    For Long, maintaining areas of the market — like the rest rooms — has been a challenge.
“My budget is $200 a year for materials like paper products for the bathrooms, and it's not enough,” Long said. “This is a community area that we want to promote. We have to keep it looking nice.”
    Ottaviano would like to see some additions to the market, namely a trash bin. Although he realizes the city's budget is tight, Ottaviano said the market is a good investment. “It brings people out and helps them save money,” he said.
    It wouldn't take a lot of money to make and post a few signs around the town, said Long. And the benefits could outweigh the cost if the signs help promote the market. Ottaviano thinks signs would draw some much-needed attention to the market.
    “I know people who have lived in this area for years who say they didn't even know the market existed,” Ottaviano said. “And lots of people don't know the market is open all year round.”
    As the summer months approach, Long is anticipating a surge of people at the market each week and wants to make their shopping experience as pleasant as possible. “It's a jewel in the rough,” he said. “It's the biggest market in Niagara County and one of the biggest in Western New York.”

Article: appeared in the Tonawanda News - May 3, 2004

City market improvements

Several steps could be taken to improve business

The new clerk of the North Tonawanda City Market has some ideas to improve traffic — both human and vehicle — at the market.
The Common Council heard from John Long, working in his first year as market clerk. Long has a five-point plan to improve business at the popular farmer's market, located on Robinson Street and Payne Avenue.

First, Long would like to see the area around the market repaved. Over the years, the wear and tear the market and surrounding roadways has caused much damage. “I think it is essential. It's just deteriorating more and more,” he said. “I heard the last time it was paved was 1974.” Long said he was told there may be state money available for the project, but as of now, the project remains on his wish list.
Improvement number two would be to add more handicapped parking. There is room to add handicapped parking on Bryant Street on the corner of Robinson. A total of five spots can be created if the engineering and public works departments sign off on the idea, according to Mayor David Burgio.
Third, Long said it is time to make Market Street, which leads into the market from Payne Avenue just before Robinson, should be a two-way street. That plan also should go before the engineering and public work departments for review, Burgio said. “Even before it goes to traffic safety (committee),” Burgio said. “It looks good on paper, but I'll tell you, reality is different.”
Fourth, Long said advertising the market, including more signage throughout the city, would help bring in more customers. Some other farmer markets have cut back their services, so Long said the opportunity to bring new people to NT is now. “According to the farmers, it's one of the best in the area. With gas prices going up, some people aren't going to drive out to the farms.” Burgio, however, worried about the effect extra signs for the market may have on other businesses in the city. “I think you've put yourself in direct competition with others.”
Finally, the market could use some extra funds in this year's budget. While the city's budget process won't begin until next month, Long said he would like to see more funding for the market.

    While the city faces another budget deficit, the council seemed receptive to the idea of giving more money to the market.
    “We'll keep chasing the money if it's out there,” Burgio said.
    “Two hundred dollars a year doesn't pay for anything,” Long added. “We have gutters that have to be replaced. I don't have a fire extinguisher.”

Article: appeared in the Tonawanda News - May 3, 2004

I grew up on Keil Street, three houses down from Payne Avenue, so we went to the market all the time. I remember that on Saturdays, you couldn't find a parking place on the street halfway down Keil, because of the market shoppers. I also used to play ball there and practice tennis against the wall of the old wooden parks department building that used to be there (since torn down and replaced by the present brick one.)

I have a clipping (transcribed below), which appeared in the Buffalo News in 1997 dealing with the market. My dad saved it because it has a picture of, and mentions, his first cousin Elmer Moje, who still lives in the Town of Wheatfield and still sells at the market at age 90.

Doug Batt

"Sales have perennial attraction"

by Bob Buyer (News Staff Reporter)

         NORTH TONAWANDA - These mid-autumn days, it's set up by dawn on Tuesdays, Thursdays and Saturdays for 50 farmers and other vendors who comprise one part of the North Tonawanda farmer's market.
         But as fall drifts closer to winter, dawn comes later and farmers become fewer. Even so, the market at Robinson and Bryant Streets will remain open as long as farmers have something to sell. And that means all winter long.
         Their customers number in the thousands. They are mainly from Niagara County, but more than a sprinkling arrive from Erie County and places even more distant. They can show up as late as 1 p.m. to find their vegetables, fruit, cheese and baked goods.
         Christmas wreaths have not started yet, but stored fruit and hardy vegetables like cabbage, cauliflower and broccoli are still offered.
         Of course, the early shoppers have the widest choices. It's always been that way over the 89 years that the city-owned market has flourished.
         "A brass band played in August of 1908 when the market began," said John D. Slattery, the tall, 66-year-old retired juke box repairman who has been market clerk since 1993.
         "It's an appointed job," Slattery said. "Did you know that Mayor Jim McGinnis once was the market clerk? It's been a good way to meet people. The market is a friendly place. People talk to one another. The market is more than just business."
         Farmers pay $200 a year for single stall, but some take two slots. Day rentals, when available, cost $8.
         Elmer B. Moje, a sturdy 84, is the senior farmer vendor. He's been raising an array of vegetables on just two acres in Wheatfield. He just ended his 1997 selling season with a display of splendid cauliflower.
         "I started coming here in 1917 when I was 4 years old," he said. "My father brought the vegetables by horse and wagon six miles from Townline Road. Now I have a small truck."
         "My father used to raise fruit and rent beehives to pollinate the fruit. When I was 15 I suggested that he buy his own hives and that I would care for them." He did for the next 66 years until 1994, when he sold them to Bill Bamberg, 53, a part-time financial consultant who lives on Irish Road, Pendleton.
         "I have 40 hives and right now I am selling goldenrod, buckwheat and pretty soon some wildflower honey," said Bamberg, whose stall is adjacent to Moje's. "We also sell beeswax candles. Yes, I make a little money, but you don't get rich. I enjoy the bees and meeting market people.
         Lawrence Lederhouse of Porter Center Road, Ransomville, a 75-year-old, has been selling his beans, squash, tomatoes, peppers and ornamental corn here for 12 years.
         "I don't need the money, but my wife, Anna, and I raise the vegetables on six acres and sell them ourselves. We do it to keep busy. We spend three days getting a load ready and three days selling it. Summer vegetables are mostly gone, but I will come every Saturday all winter with parsnips as long as I can dig them up. When I was younger, I grew fruit and had a dairy on 400 acres. You can't take farming out of a farm boy."
         John Senek, 73, started coming to the market with his mother "a long time ago." The 600-acre Senek Farm is on the Youngstown-Wilson Road, Ransomville. These days, John Senek comes with his sons, Mark and Timmy Senek. "They run the farm, do all the work," the farmer said. "I'm just the boss."
         They have a corner stall from which to sell, in season, their apples, peaches, prunes, apricots, strawberries, grapes and cider. "We sell as much here as we do at the Niagara Falls farmers market, but this is better because we are through at 1 p.m. At Niagara Falls, we stay until 5 p.m.
         Doug and Shirley Canfield - he's 69 - of Braley Road, Ransomville, sell fruit right nexdt to the stall operated by their son, Kirk, 35, of Daniel Road, Wilson. Both Kirk and his father agree in laughing tones they are fierce competitors.
        Like John Senek, Doug Canfield says that the old-time Cortland apple is his best seller, but he adds that the newer varieties like Crispin and Jonagold have their place in consumer selections.
         Kathleen Lapp, 39, of West Somerset Road, Appleton, who has been coming to the North Tonaw anda Farmer's Market for 19 years, is another farmer vendor who comes with her children, although they are much younger than the Senek and Canfield sons. Lee Lapp is 16 and his sisters Katie and Margaret are 14 and 12.
         Four other Lapp children are still too young to work. When they reach the right age, they will learn, as the older Lapp children are now doing, that "you have to work for your dollar," said their mother.
         "We pick on Mondays for the Tuesday market, Wednesday for Thursday's and Friday for Saturday's. It takes about an hour each day to load up. We usually sell everything."
         Kathleen Lapp, her husband and children work 17 acres, raising acorn and butternut squash, cabbage, cauliflower, tomatoes, sweet corn, melons, sweet onions, peppers and pumpkins, all to supplement the family income.
         Perhaps the family's best-known crop is small gherkin pickles. "We raise three acres of them and they're all gone now," Mrs. Lapp said. "Over the years, I have built up a loyal clientele. They come from all over."
         "I never miss a market day, but when all our vegetables are used up, we will stop coming. It's anjoyable, but fatiguing. Over the winter, I will rest up to be ready for next spring."

Article: transcribed from The Buffalo News - Sunday, October 16, 1987 by Douglas Batt