Rush Township has a 20-year agreement in place with the owners of the Hometown Farmers Market to protect buyers from fraud.

By a unanimous measure, supervisors on Thursday agreed to execute a new agreement with Robert Dunn and Susan Biege, related to the Hometown Farmers Market and the township's transient vendor ordinance.Biege and her father, Dunn, own and operate the Hometown Farmers Market at 125 Mahanoy Ave., Tamaqua, located along Route 54.The agreement still needs to be signed by the owners of the Hometown Farmers Market.Disputes have arisen between the township and Dunn and Biege concerning whether the merchants doing business at the Hometown Farmers Market are subject to ordinances and licensing requirements.On Dec. 27, 1995, the township and Robert Dunn and his wife, Andrea Dunn, entered into a contract in which the Dunn's paid $5,000 annually to the township in lieu of the township enforcing an ordinance against each merchant at the Hometown Farmers Market.That contract expired on Dec. 31.As a result, the township and Dunn and Biege have agreed to enter into a new agreement to resolve their ongoing disputes about the township's ordinances applying to the merchants at the Hometown Farmers Market.Under the new agreement, Dunn and Biege will pay the township $5,000 per year, retroactive to Jan. 1, 2016, and continuing annually for each of the next 20 years.In exchange, the township will refrain from enforcing this ordinance, and any other ordinance that the township may adopt relating to the licensing of transient merchants, against the individual merchants doing business at the Hometown Farmers Market.The payment to the township is to be paid within 30 days of the due date of Jan. 1. Since the agreement was just signed, the payment is due within 30 days.As a result, Dunn and/or Biege are to keep records related to each and every merchant who does business at the Hometown Farmers Market, which will include the name of the merchant, an address where the merchant can be found, a phone number where the merchant can be reached, the general type of product the merchant is offering for sale, and the driver's license number of the merchant.The township is trying to prevent fraud or know where to locate a merchant who may sell a dangerous, defective or counterfeit product to a resident.Dunn and/or Biege will provide the township with this information on all its merchants.The agreement is between the township and Dunn and/or Biege, and is not assignable to any other individual.The agreement would be canceled if both Dunn or Biege cease to have an ownership interest in the Hometown Farmers Market.Dunn or Biege are allowed to expand the scope, size or area of the Hometown Farmers Market beyond its current use.The agreement could be voided if complaints are made about transient vendors committing fraudulent acts against customers.