Shops near mill still open for business
County to use temporary eminent domain on mill
BY JENNIFER KOHLHEPP Staff Writer
The old mill in downtown Allentown will remain dark and dormant until Monmouth County finishes its Main Street bridge and dam replacement project.

ERIC SUCAR staff Beth Lamanna, of Hamilton, is one of the owners of the Old Mill Crafters Guild shop in downtown Allentown. The shop sells handmade crafts, jewelry, pottery and wood turnings and will remain open during the Main Street bridge renovation project.

The county forced the retail tenants in the mill building on Main Street to close up shop prior to the 2008 holiday season, but has yet to start the bridge project.

The replacement of the Allentown Pond Dam and County Bridge U-12, which carries Route 524/Main Street over Doctor's Creek, will cost $6.5 million and is expected to take 18 to 22 months to complete. The county, which first considered closing Main Street and rerouting traffic with a detour, has decided to install a temporary bridge during construction instead.

Many downtown store owners were worried about losing business when the county said it was considering closing Main Street, and they lobbied for the temporary bridge. The full impact of the bridge project, even with the temporary bridge, on downtown businesses remains to be seen, but at least five businesses on the old mill property have already been affected by the project.

ERIC SUCAR staff Various soaps are just some of the handmade goods that the Old Mill Crafters Guild shop has for sale in downtown Allentown.

For safety reasons, county officials asked the tenants in the mill, including the Black Forest Restaurant, the Off the Wall Craft Gallery and Spiders Café, to close for the duration of the project. Mill property owner Corky Danch said the county has now decided to use temporary eminent domain on the mill for the duration of the bridge project and to use parts of the building for temporary offices.

Danch, who opened Spiders Café in the belly of the mill in October 2007, said the county told the mill tenants to close after Christmas 2007, since the bridge project would start early in 2008. The tenants moved out by May 2008 and were told the project would start in June. Danch said the last he heard, the project was supposed to start in October 2008, but it did not.

"The mill was always the anchor of Allentown," Danch said. "By the county coming in and taking the anchor of the Allentown business community away when they didn't have to for the Christmas season, they hurt the whole town. Allentown took a double hit, because the economy is hurting too."

Although the tenants in the front portion of the mill property were forced to leave, the shops in the rear, The Old Mill Crafters Guild and Pleasant Run Peddlers, remain open.

Beth Lamanna, of Hamilton, who owns the Old Mill Crafters Guild with Stephanie Collins, of Hamilton Township, and Lina Barth, of Bordentown, said her shop's sales have taken a hit since the closing of the mill, because the craft gallery and restaurant were established businesses that brought a lot of visitors to Allentown and a lot of foot traffic to her store.

"The mill closing has been a real hit for us," Lamanna said. "We're working on diminishing that with signs and advertising."

Recently, the shop placed a sign on the mill announcing that the stores in the rear are still open for business.

The Old Mill Crafters Guild, which sells handmade crafts, jewelry, pottery and woodturnings by over 20 local artists, has been in business for over five years.

The women who own the shop liked the idea of creating a craft cooperative.

"We looked at places in a couple of small towns, but we really liked Allentown," Lamanna said. "When you are in Allentown, you feel like you are in a different world. We thought it was the perfect setting for all hand-crafted art."

Lamanna sews and refinishes antique furniture from the 20s, 30s, and 40s. She has purses, organdy scarves and vintage furniture for sale in the shop. Barth is a floral designer and displays her arrangements in the shop, and Collins is a potter, who also creates oil pastel paintings.

The three women also feature other artists' creations in their store, such as handpoured candles, stained glass, handmade baskets, gourd birdhouses, hand-carved luminaries, quilts, handmade dolls, handcarved and hand-painted boxes, and metal sculptural art.

"People come in here to find something that they are not going to find somewhere else," Lamanna said.

Pleasant Run Peddlers, which has been open behind the mill for three years, is a country store that sells Jersey Fresh products, Amish-made products, Made In Allentown items, handmade jewelry, shawls and scarves, and Scentucopia candles, soaps and lotions.

Joanne Capella, who helps her sister Linda Potosky operate Pleasant Run Peddlers, said all borough businesses are hurting, not just because of the closing of the mill businesses, but because of the downturned economy.

"The economy is what it is," Capella said. "We're doing everything we can with pricing and sales. Everyone is hurting."

Capella said no one really knows what kind of impact the bridge and dam reconstruction project will have on the businesses in downtown Allentown. She said the county's decision to install a temporary bridge during the project was a good one for the businesses. However, she said where construction workers park their vehicles and store equipment could affect business traffic.

Capella said despite the bridge project, the store is looking toward the future and plans to expand its product lines and to offer classes in fiber art and other crafts.

The mill's future cannot start until the bridge project is complete. For Danch, seeing the building empty for the first time in 33 years is eerie. He hopes to one day be able to reopen Spiders Café and make it an integral part of the community where lectures and entertainment are presented on a

regular basis. He also hopes to offer space to another restaurant with high-quality nutritional food and to tenants who will be an asset to the

"That's if I can reopen," he said. "I can't develop any interest at this point because two years is a long time and no one knows when they are going to start," Danch said.