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<p>WILKES-BARRE &#8212; The city will be expanding its popular farmers market to include Mondays.</p><p>Patty Hughes, special events coordinator for the city, told the Downtown Wilkes-Barre Business Association on Friday that the extra day will focus on health with events like Yoga on the Square and live cooking demonstrations.</p><p>Two regular vendors at the market &#8212; Brace&#8217;s Orchard of Shavertown and O&#8217;Malia&#8217;s Greenhouses of Plains Township &#8212; were unaware of the additional day when asked for reaction.</p><p>&#8220;Hopefully, it will be good for the farmers,&#8221; Paul Brace said. He&#8217;s hoping to have enough product to attend both days.</p><p>&#8220;We haven&#8217;t missed a day yet,&#8221; he noted.</p><p>Gary O&#8217;Malia, brother of greenhouse owner Larry, said they had no advance notice about Mondays being added to the upcoming market schedule.</p><p>&#8220;Wow,&#8221; he said. &#8220;That&#8217;s news to me.&#8221;</p><p>O&#8217;Malia said workers pick market product the day before the market.</p><p>&#8220;I really don&#8217;t know how that is going to work,&#8221; he explained.</p><p>The city&#8217;s farmers market is traditionally held on Thursdays on Public Square from July through November and features vendors and farmers from across the Wyoming Valley.</p><p>According to the city&#8217;s website, this year&#8217;s market will open June 29 and close Nov. 16.</p><p><strong>Remembering friends</strong></p><p>Also at the downtown association&#8217;s monthly meeting, members paid respects to two men who left their mark on the business community.</p><p>Frank Pasquini, a past president of the association and longtime city volunteer, and Phil Rudy, owner of Circles on the Square, both died Thursday.</p><p>Downtown Wilkes-Barre Business Association President John Maday opened the meeting by talking about the effect Pasquini and Rudy had on the community and asked members to join him in a moment of silence to remember them.</p><p>&#8220;I&#8217;m shocked, and it&#8217;s difficult to realize they&#8217;re gone,&#8221; said Maday.</p><p>Larry Newman, executive director of the Diamond City Partnership, said Pasquini and Rudy were important figures who fought for the success of the city during difficult times.</p><p>&#8220;(Pasquini) was an unfailingly optimistic and enthusiastic guy,&#8221; said Newman.</p><p>He said Rudy was a member of the association since it began in the early 1990s and always spoke highly of downtown even when it was struggling.</p><p>&#8220;His business could serve as a case study on how to run a successful retail business,&#8221; said Newman. &#8220;He was so much a part of the fabric of downtown.&#8221;</p><p>Pasquini, 67, died after a more than two-year battle with colon cancer. Rudy, 68, fell ill at his restaurant and was pronounced dead at Wilkes-Barre General Hospital shortly afterward.</p><p>In other business:</p><p>&#8226; Association members discussed their participation in the Wilkes-Barre St. Patrick&#8217;s Day Parade, which will begin at 2 p.m. Sunday, March 12, and the annual Easter Egg Hunt on Public Square, which begins at 10 a.m. Saturday, April 8.</p><style>
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<div class="neFile"><img class="neImage" src="https://www.timesleader.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/03/web1_91106Rudy-cmyk-2.jpg">
<div class="neCaption">Rudy </div></div><div class="metaInfo"><photo0>https://www.timesleader.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/03/web1_91106Rudy-cmyk-2.jpg</photo0><caption0>Rudy </caption0><photoCredit0></photoCredit0></div><div class="neFile"><img class="neImage" src="https://www.timesleader.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/03/web1_Pasquinicmyk-1.jpg">
<div class="neCaption">Pasquini </div></div><div class="metaInfo"><photo1>https://www.timesleader.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/03/web1_Pasquinicmyk-1.jpg</photo1><caption1>Pasquini </caption1><photoCredit1></photoCredit1></div><div class="neFile"><img class="neImage" src="https://www.timesleader.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/03/web1_web1_TTL070116market2-1.jpg">
<div class="neCaption">Derek Belsky arranges flowers at Golumb’s farm stand during a farmer's market last year. (Aimee Dilger | Times Leader)</div></div><div class="metaInfo"><photo2>https://www.timesleader.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/03/web1_web1_TTL070116market2-1.jpg</photo2><caption2>Derek Belsky arranges flowers at Golumb’s farm stand during a farmer's market last year. (Aimee Dilger | Times Leader)</caption2><photoCredit2></photoCredit2></div></div>
<div class="metaInfo"><subheadMeta>Mondays to be added to schedule</subheadMeta></div><div class="metaInfo"><bylineMeta><p>By Sarah Hite Hando</p><p>shando@www.timesleader.com</p></bylineMeta></div><div class="metaInfo"><shirttailMeta><p>Reporter Melanie Mizenko contributed to this story. Reach Sarah Hite Hando at 570-704-3945.</p></shirttailMeta></div>

Wilkes-Barre expanding farmers market to 2 days a week