By QUINTON SMITH/YachatsNews.com
The city of Yachats stepped in Friday to formalize the process for operating the Yachats Farmers Market after efforts by two groups hoping to organize it apparently spiraled into confusion and acrimony.
The deadline to submit applications to operate a “vendor-run market” is noon Friday, April 12, City Manager Shannon Beaucaire announced Friday.
The city will review proposals for compliance with its insurance for events on city property, Beaucaire said, and then forward the proposals to the Parks and Commons Commission at its 3 p.m. Thursday, April 18 meeting. The commission will forward its recommendation to the City Council at its May 1 meeting, 12 days before the market is scheduled to start
The city is asking for a basic plan of operation, a manager, rules, regulations and layout for vendors and a $2 million liability insurance policy.
Someone or some group needed to step up to run the market after the sponsoring organization and insurance carrier, Friends of the Yachats Commons, disbanded in December. Similar markets throughout Oregon operate with their own boards, bylaws and insurance – Yachats has none of those.
David Brownsanders of Crewswell, a vendor, and Ron Vil, a vendor and market manager, approached the city in December about running the market. But that effort stalled and there was no communication with most previous or potential vendors. Vil apparently passed their efforts on to Blythe Collins, owner of Bread & Roses bakery whose parking lot abuts West Fourth Street where most of the market vendors set up.
Few people knew of that effort, however, so Tuesday night more than 40 people met to discuss putting together a proposal to run the market. Starla Gade, a vendor from Waldport, organized that meeting.
But Friday morning the Yachats Farmers Market website — which hadn’t been operating for more than a month — posted information on market and vendor rules and asked vendors to submit applications. Because the website is private, Yachats facilities manager Heather Hoen said the city did not know who was operating it.
After the city announced its new procedure Friday, whomever was operating the market website took down all the information.
Collins did not respond to several requests for comment from YachatsNews.com. Hoen said this week that Vil told her he was no longer involved in the organizing process. Brownsanders told YachatsNews.com Friday that he’s “no longer involved in this at all.”
Linda Hetzler, president of the Yachats Chamber of Commerce, said the chamber was willing to organize the market when asked by the city three months ago, but stepped back when the first vendor group started working on it. Hetzler, who is also president of Polly Plumb Productions, said the farmers market did not fit that organization’s mission.
Gade confirmed Friday that her group will submit a proposal to the city next week and that no matter who ends up operating the market, returning vendors should plan on being ready to set up May 12.
“The city will work it out and make their choice and the market will go on,” Gade said. “But it’s been extremely befuddling.”
Several people involved in organizational efforts said Friday that emails between vendors aligned with the two groups turned nasty this week.
Tuesday night’s meeting
“We can all agree that everyone here cares about the market and wants to see it thrive,” Gade told the gathering she organized Tuesday night. “But no one from the other organization is communicating with us and we can’t force them to communicate.”
Hoen told YachatsNews.com that she has also been getting calls and emails from vendors asking what was going on.
“A more robust farmer’s market is to everyone’s benefit,” John Purcell, chair of the city’s Parks and Commons Commission, told the group Tuesday night. “Get one group, one board.”
Several people Tuesday night offered to help set up a nonprofit organization. Gade asked for up to 10 volunteers to tackle issues like insurance, bylaws, notifying previous and potential vendors, and help write the proposal to give the city.
Anja Chavez of Newport told the group the Yachats market should be “board and vendor run” and that she has already gotten quotes for insurance and could quickly get city and state licenses once a legal entity is set up. She also introduced Kelly Greer and J.D. Rogers, managers of the popular Newport Farmers Market, who said they would be willing to discuss managing the Yachats market.
“We’re ready to go,” she said.
Tuesday’s group also asked for greater transparency of market income and expenses. It’s unclear whether the current market has a bank account, but Gade said she understands there is no money left from last year’s operation.
The market runs 27 weeks and vendors pay $15 a week to be in it – up to $12,000 a year total, depending on the number of vendors. But other than $1,500 to $1,800 paid to Friends of the Commons for insurance there apparently is no accounting of what’s been collected or what the market manager has been paid.
“I’d be interested in knowing how much of that money went into the market and how much was used to enhance the market,” said vendor Kevin Square of Yachats.
Gade and others said the group has the opportunity to improve how the market is run, to explore ways to expand it, to communicate better, to create a governing board and to hire a manager who is not a vendor.
“I’m absolutely thrilled everybody’s here,” said Bob Rudel of Rainforest Mushrooms. “We have an opportunity to work together. Yachats is a special place.”