By QUINTON SMITH/YachatsNews.com
The Yachats Parks and Commons Commission will recommend to the City Council that a new, vendor-run group take over management of the popular Sunday food and craft fair in downtown.
Four of the five commissioners Thursday preferred a proposal from a vendor’s group organized by Starla Gade of Waldport. That proposal beat out one from Blythe Collins, owner of Bread and Roses bakery and whose parking lot adjoins West Fourth Street where much of the market is located.
Commissioners did not know who submitted three proposals because city staff redacted organizer names before giving them to the group. But except for a third proposal most everyone in an audience of 25 on Thursday knew of their origins.
If approved by the council May 1, the market will be known as the Yachats Sunday Farmers Market and have a new website for vendors and the public. That’s because Collins apparently controls the old Yachats Farmers Market website, which has registered that domain and business name.
“I think it’s all going to come together,” Gade said after the commission’s vote. “We’re pleased that it will be a vendor-run market.”
The market decision landed in the commission’s lap after its original sponsoring group, Friends of the Yachats Commons, disbanded in December. The city thought it had three previous vendors to organize a new market, but that fell apart in January. Collins picked up the effort, with the help of former market manager Ron Vil, but did not communicate with a larger, second group of vendors. After not hearing anything for months, the second vendor group approached the city about running the market.
That led the city to ask for proposals to be judged by the Parks and Commons Commission. It’s recommendation now goes to the council which will have to make a decision 11 days before the market opens on Mother’s Day, May 12.
“I wish it was a decision and not a recommendation,” Gade said after the Thursday vote.
The three proposals totaled 53 pages. Collins’ plan was labeled as “Proposal B” and Gade’s as “Proposal C.” The unknown party’s third bid was “Proposal A.”
The commission’s discussion had barely started when commissioner Dean Schrock objected to the city redacting the names of the market organizers. He said withholding names lacked transparency and hampered any effort to know if the organizer or market manager could work with the city.
“I don’t think it’s fair or appropriate,” Schrock said.
No other commissioner commented on that issue and the discussion moved on.
Commissioner Linda Johnson said while she spent a lot of time poring over the proposals, admitted that “I don’t think I have the knowledge and expertise to make this decision.”
But commission chair John Purcell urged the group to make a recommendation because vendors and the community were counting on the fair to open.
“I don’t see another way around doing this,” he said.
Commissioner Craig Berdie said he favored Gade’s Proposal C because it had a governing board made up of both vendors and community members and a detailed budget. Collins’ proposal said she would run the market with the help of a manager, bookkeeper and publicist.
The only commissioner to favor Collins’ bid was Schrock who said “Proposal B felt better for me.”
No one supported Proposal A because it would have required each vendor to get $2 million in liability insurance and wanted higher market fees without accounting for how it would use the income.
Purcell said the commission now hopes vendors can heal any rifts and open the market on time.
“I have faith that the vendors are going to step up,” he said. “This should be a better way to manage a vendor-run market.”
Thank you, for reporting on this issue. I was curious what was happening. Glad it’s been worked out.