Efforts continue to dig up a new summer home for Coldstream’s Farmers’ Market.
Since moving out of the Women’s Institute Hall for the summer, the weekly Wednesday afternoon market set up shop at Kal Lake Store. But regulations and costs have forced the market and District of Coldstream to find a better suited space.
“There are a couple of issues that we are trying to grapple with,” said Mike Reiley, Coldstream’s director of development services. “No. 1 which is trying to find land that is zoned appropriately.”
Of the potential locations, which included the Creekside Park parking lot and Sovereign Park, Cenotaph Park is being eyed by the market.
Since the market plans to return to the Women’s Institute in the winter, it makes sense to return to the area, said market manager Anita Fletcher.
“Every year you move a location it takes two years to get back to where you were,” said Fletcher of building a business.
But ultimately, she will be seeking the market vendors’ approval.
Meanwhile, some residents are eager to see the market return to the town centre area.
“I’m missing the Coldstream Farmers’ Market,” wrote Hagen Tanner in a letter to council. “I loved going there, it was a place where I could buy fresh, locally grown food, get to know the vendors, meet my neighbours, make new friends.”
Both Tanner and Fletcher urged council to make space available, free of charge, for the market.
Fletcher used the Vernon Farmers’ Market and Avenue Market as examples of those provided free space.
“Last year we paid $40 an hour for the space in the Women’s Institute,” said Fletcher, adding that the market can afford to pay in the winter when it has more vendors.
