Second Business Summit Planned

The township's business organizations are planning to give updates on their efforts since a summit with business owners in March.

A follow-up meeting is scheduled for May 26 at 6:15 p.m. at Town Hall.

Parking is one of the issues business leaders have been working on since the March 24 session, when it was a major topic for discussion, said Harold Klein, Downtown Millburn Development Alliance executive director.

"We've been looking at parking and the pay stations with people from the town and how to improve the situation," he said.

One of the improvements includes a brochure outlining the general parking situation in downtown Millburn. Additionally, they are considering allowing the pay machines to accept tokens and bills, although accepting credit cards can't be done at this time, he said.

"It's all preliminary," he said.

The survey of business owners and consumers will also be discussed, but results won't be available, Klein said. The deadline to take the survey has been extended to June 1.

Shayne Miller, Millburn-Short Hills Business Coalition chairman, said the results would be available after June 15, but they want to get 500 responses before the results are released. There currently are 250 responses to the survey.

"We want to have a good base of people responding," Miller said.

But there is some information available about the survey. Miller said people have very different opinions of the town's businesses, but many feel there needs to be an anchor store to drive traffic.

"There are many different opinions on what that store should be," he said.

The business organizations hope business owners bring feedback to the meeting, he said. The business owners want to know how things have changed since the March meeting, he said. Downtown seems busier, Klein said, but only the business owners can say for sure.

"We want this to be a two-way conversation," he said.