[media-credit name=’Herald file photo’ align=’alignnone’ width=’648′][/media-credit]Whether renting portable toilets for the Mifflin Street Block Party or organizing a cleanup after the event, Capitol Centre Foods and the Mifflin Street Community Cooperative are questioning the date of the block party and when to follow through with their plans.

After the block party last year, Capitol Centre Foods ordered about a dozen Port-a-Pottys for May 7, according to manager Bill Beale. Beale said it is “up in the air right now” whether the Broom Street grocery store will supply portable toilets for April 30.

“When we set it up last year, we set it up for the seventh, but with the way things are going right now, it looks to be [the block party is] going to be more of the 30th,” Beale said. “They’re working with us as far as the dates go.”

According to Ald. Mike Verveer, District 4, Capitol Centre Foods sent employees along Mifflin Street two weeks ago to take a poll of which date the party was expected to be in preparation for the rush of customers the downtown grocery store receives on the day of the party. A large majority of the residents chose April 30 as the day they thought ought to be the party, Verveer added.

The Mifflin Street Community Co-op sponsors a cleanup the day after the block party, offering coffee and trash bags to help “rally to clean up,” according to manager Lauren Miller.

“That’s the thing that’s kind of crazy this year,” Miller said about the possibility of two separate parties. “We’ll be out definitely the day after the party, whenever it happens. We’ll probably at least have the trash bags and the coffee going.”

Although the community co-op does not usually sell disposable cameras and cans of beer, they will sell these items during the event, Miller added. Staff member Leigh Weaber said the co-op will offer more general kinds of beer, as opposed to the small, local microbreweries they usually offer.

Beale said Capitol Centre Foods sees more customers than usual during the block party, who mainly buy “a lot of beer.”

“Their store is a goldmine on the day of the Mifflin Street Block Party,” Verveer said.

According to Weaber, the Mifflin Street Community Co-op’s business increases during the event as well and many people who would not usually shop there stop by during the party. However, the additional customers come with a price, she added.

“Some regular customers who would usually come in don’t,” Weaber said. “It’s kind of an adventure every time.”

Cigarettes are not sold at the co-op, but if they were, Weaber said the natural-foods store, which promotes healthy food alternatives, vegetarianism and local farms, could “make money hand over fist” during the block party.

The co-op usually sponsors free “flower-planting” for the community garden, in front of the large painted mural on the side of the building, during the cleanup, but this year the tradition may not continue, Miller said.

“We are hoping, this year, to hold off to the second weekend [for the garden],” Miller said. “We don’t want our flowers trampled.”

The Mifflin Street Community Co-op used to sponsor the entire block party until the early ’90s, according to Miller; now, the store opts to only sponsor the cleanup. After the city imposed more and more regulations and requirements on the block party throughout the years, the event started costing the co-op more money than it was making.

“It just became expensive and a big liability,” Miller said.