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Farmers Market might stay in Roadside Park

Town advises market vendors to create organizing board
The Reynolds family has sold produce at past Bayfield Farmers Markets in Roadside Park.

The Bayfield Farmers Market might be allowed to stay in the Highway 160 roadside park for this summer. A few vendors set up for the first time this season on May 21, a few weeks earlier than previous years.

Several vendors were at the May 17 town board meeting to argue for keeping the market there. Trustees didn't take any official action.

Town Manager Chris La May said, "We've been working with the downtown (revitalization) group. We are still trying to bring activity downtown." He cited all the kids' sports activities in Joe Stephenson Park on Saturday mornings and suggested those families could become farmers market customers. He has proposed moving the farmers market to the grassy area at the north edge of Joe Stephenson Park.

"We still believe there's some potential here and that it's worth exploring," he said. "It's my opinion that it would be a successful market if it was advertised appropriately."

Longtime town resident, potter and painter Connie Bennett said she has been selling at the farmers market for about four years. "There are probably two local people that buy my stuff. The rest are the RV park, people travelling through, guests of local people."

She continued, "Moving the farmers market won't fix anything downtown. Until you can get people here doing their business here, nothing is going to happen in Bayfield. It's silly to stop something that's working."

Vendor Paula Nelson from Forest Lakes said, "The farmers market is the only thing that slows people down (on 160). It's not the locals. It really is the tourists (buying at the market). It slows them down, then they are hungry, so maybe they go into town to eat. It's a really cool town. People actually say that."

Moving the market would be "kind of ripping us apart," Nelson said. She cited recommendations last year from a downtown assessment. "I read the assessment. There was nothing that said move the farmers market. It was add benches, make the businesses look like there's actually a business there. Address those and then invite us. Don't just say we are moving you."

Vendors Roger Dodd and Randall Faber said customers have no problem getting in and out of the roadside park, and elderly customers can move around there. "I'd hate to see it move," Faber said.

During board discussion, trustee Michelle Nelson said, "I think it's wonderful that we have public participation tonight, and we need to listen." She said she doesn't want to move the market, but maybe instead invite the vendors to other events. "I've seen towns where every Thursday night they close the main street and it's a great event for everybody. If CDOT has a problem (with commercial activity in the roadside park), you never know what CDOT is going to do."

Trustee J.J. Sanders tended to agree with trustee Nelson and thanked the vendors for showing up.

Vendor Jacqui Day said, "All of us are willing to come to your weeknight events, but to lose our place on the highway, you are speculating that it will work."

Town representatives brought up other issues including retail sales on town property, business and sales tax licenses, and liability insurance.

"I went to the Durango (Farmers) Market and think you need to create a (governing) board," Mayor Matt Salka said. "And a sales tax license if you are selling things that are taxable. They (in Durango) have to have liability insurance and a business license."

Day responded, "We don't make enough to be considered a real business by the state."

As for a governing board, Bennett said, "We've never been organized. We all just showed up. I run the Facebook page. We don't have a ruler."

Trustee Rachel Davenport commented, "We may come to where the agreement with CDOT for that property, to not have commercial enterprises there, up to this point it hasn't been a problem. The other thing I heard last week (at the May 11 community meeting at the library), other businesses go through the process to get a special event license. The town hasn't had that type of contact with the farmers market." It's changed from the original intent of residents selling extra garden produce, she said.

Day asked, "What kind of regulations do you intend to impose on us? It's been 20 years."

Paula Nelson added, "Nobody has asked us these questions. We're kind of in shell shock. ... All of us are open to change through discussion and mutual agreement. It's new to us."

Day persisted, "These are not commercial businesses. We are artisans."

Town attorney Jeff Robbins cited the CDOT deed restriction that the land must be used for a park. "Special events are probably okay," he said. "This is the first I've heard of this. You've grown and evolved and gotten to where you have enough of a presence there, you should be treated the same as other special events."

Salka said vendors should get a "transient" business license. La May said that's $25 for the year. That would be each vendor.

Trustees didn't take any formal action on the market. Vendors were advised to create a governing board and work with the town manager.

CDOT turned over the roadside park to the town via a quit claim deed in August 1989. The town paid $1,430 for the 5.17 acres. The deed says, "The above described parcel 8X is conveyed for park purposes. If and when it ceases to be used for said purpose, ownership shall revert to the State Department of Highways..." However, it does not specifically prohibit any sort of commercial activity in the park.