At a Mars Borough Council meeting Monday night, Mayor Gregg Hartung said that this year's Mars Brew Fest on Sept. 18 raised between $20,000 and $25,000 in funds to benefit the next Mars New Year festival in 2023.

“The crowd was really good,” Hartung said. “It was a good event.”

According to Hartung's report, the Brew Fest brought approximately 1,200 visitors to the town.

“We had some old timers walking through who said, 'where are all these people coming from, I don't know anybody,'” he said. “A lot of them were (coming) from Adams Township and Cranberry.”

The event also saw a continuation of the pilot program designed to share police officers between Saxonburg Borough and Mars Borough. Officers previously also assisted with the Mars New Year event.

“The relationship between Saxonburg and Mars has been really good in terms of the special events,” Hartung said.

“We forged a good partnership there,” added borough council president G. Michael Fleming.

Trick-or-treating

Mars Borough will hold its Halloween trick-or-treating on Sunday, Oct. 31 from 6 to 8 p.m.

At a previous meeting on Oct. 6, the borough council voted to move the trick-or-treating celebrations to Oct. 30, the day before the holiday itself, because Halloween falls on a Sunday.

In response to feedback from residents, and in order to match with Adams Township, which voted to hold their trick-or-treating on Sunday, the borough voted to return the celebration to Oct. 31.

“Because of the past, it's always been on the 31st, and so (Adams') supervisors decided just to keep it on the 31st,” Hartung said. “I think the only reason the 30th was discussed here and there initially was the concern for school kids and being a Saturday versus a Sunday night, but that got enough pushback from various people saying they were fine with the 31st, so that's what they did. We just want to make sure the borough and the township are on the same night.”