In separate votes, the Shepherdstown Town Council unanimously approved plans for the upcoming farmers market season, an Easter parade, the Freedom’s Run marathon and lent its support to a local affordable housing program.

The weekly Shepherdstown Farmers Market on South King Street will start this year on Saturday, April 3, the weekend before Easter. There will be no market on Easter Sunday. Following Easter, the market will open on Sunday mornings every week until Dec. 19.

Maura Balliet, speaking for the Farmers Market before the Town Council, said that last year the market donated $150 to a gardening program at Shepherdstown Elementary and $150 to the Shepherdstown Public Library. She also asked the Town Council for guidance on placing street signs directing motorists to the Farmer’s Market at four, as yet undetermined, road entrances to Shepherdstown. Mayor Jim Auxer suggested she present plans for signage to the municipal Planning Committee.

Plans for this years Easter Parade have changed slightly from last year. The Town Council approved plans to route the parade from South Church street, down German Street to Mill Street before terminating at Rumsey Monument Park, where the Easter egg hunt will be held. In previous years, the egg hunt had been held on the lawn of Shepherd University’s McMurran Hall, but some parents of little children were concerned that their precious snowflakes would fall into the raging torrent of the Town Run and be swept to sea.

The Town Council also gave their blessing to the Freedom’s Run event, slated for Oct. 2. The event will feature a kids race through parts of downtown Shepherdstown as well as a 5K, a 10K, a half marathon and a full marathon. The Shepherdstown Police Department will be assisting with the necessary road closures. Mayor Auxer asked the organizers of Freedom’s Run to find ways to bring more of the race participants into downtown Shepherdstown so that they might spend money at the local businesses.

The Town Council also lent their support to the HOME Consortium, a local organization comprised of nine local governments in Jefferson, Berkeley and Morgan counties which helps find affordable housing in the three counties of the far Eastern Panhandle. The HOME Consortium is administered by the city of Martinsburg. Patricia McMillan, HOME administrator for Martinsburg, the four year old program has assisted about 80 families with down-payment and closing cost assistance in the three counties.