Previous Issues
The farmers come to town
?It’s always fascinating to discover which issues will divide Uxbridge’s current Council. You wouldn’t think the mayor would have to use his precious deciding vote on something as innocuous as the location of our slowly but surely burgeoning Farmers’ Market, but that’s what he had to do this week (see our story page 13) as the Market’s governing board came to Council looking for its annual permit for the Sunday morning festival of food and crafts.
The Market applied to return to the Arena parking lot, its location ever since it outgrew the Coop site several years ago. But three councillors thought it was time for the Market to return downtown, to become yet one more reason for Uxbridgers and visitors alike to frequent the heart of the town. It’s significant that two of those three were the men who between them represent the downtown merchants, Mr. Ballinger of Ward 4 and Mr. Highet of Ward 5 (supported by Bev Northeast). They obviously felt their constituents would benefit from the Market moving east.
But it’s equally significant that the two farmers on Council, Mr. Eng and Mr. Herrema, supported by Pat Mikuse of Ward 3, backed the Market staying where it is. Among them the three probably represent over 90% of the food producers in the Township. The participants in the Market feel comfortable at the arena, they said. It’s easily accessible for vendors, with lots of parking for customers, and best of all, it’s easily expandable. If the Market suddenly had 20 vendors one Sunday instead of 12, the arena site can smoothly accommodate that.
It’s hard to think of a site downtown that can meet these criteria. The largest space that comes to mind is the municipal parking lot behind Coffee Time, but most of it is severely sloped, which presents safety issues not only for customers, but for carts or tables stacked with vegetables or glass containers of maple syrup. Other more level municipal lots like Church Street or Albert Street are not only small, but out of the way. The same applies to Centennial Park. Attractive as a grassy area might be for a Farmer’s Market, the vendors prefer a more visible site, one that can attract a lot of drive-by or even walk-by traffic. The arena certainly qualifies. And Elgin Park, a beautiful site for any event, is unfortunately unavailable for several Sunday mornings during the summer and fall.
One appealing possibility for the future is Kennedy House. The soccer fields are busy on weekends come fall, but that might provide an even larger customer base for the Market. What better while your kid is playing, than to pick up the coming week’s groceries? If the dormitory is indeed coming down, its location might provide an ideal Market site. But the future of Kennedy House is hazy for a while at least.
Perhaps a downtown site might appear sometime. But for now, it’s hard to conceive of anywhere providing the list of positives that line up for the site at the arena. The Market has grown steadily in its time there. Why mess with what is so obviously working well for both vendors and buyers?
