Port Angeles Farmers Market to Try Gateway Pavilion
The Wednesday Farmers Market will be at the Gateway pavilion on June 17th and 24th. Depending on how things work out, the market might continue using the Gateway pavilion on Wednesdays for the rest of the summer; and they might even relocate to Gateway for their year-around Saturday market.
According to Market Manager Michele d'Hemecourt, the city is not charging them any fee for these first two Wednesdays at Gateway. During this two-week test period, the Saturday market is still being held at the Clallam County Courthouse parking lot.
The Gateway pavilion is supposed to open late next week.
More information about the Port Angeles Farmers Market is available here.
According to Market Manager Michele d'Hemecourt, the city is not charging them any fee for these first two Wednesdays at Gateway. During this two-week test period, the Saturday market is still being held at the Clallam County Courthouse parking lot.
The Gateway pavilion is supposed to open late next week.
More information about the Port Angeles Farmers Market is available here.
Labels: Farmers Market Gateway Pavilion, Farmers Market Manager Michele d'Hemecourt
posted by Tom Harper at 4:14 PM
14 Comments:
I'm not seeing where there is enough room there for that when they have been taking up a whole block.
No charge for the first two weeks? Isn't that sweet of the city? Build stupid shit with taxpayers money and then charge them to use it.
Now I'm really pissed because I didn't think of that.
What ^ anon 7:39 said... It doesn't look big enough to hold the farmer's market. And it still looks dark and grungy to me. Well, I'll check it out and see.
What about just west of downtown? Where that giant awning is near the estuary? Is there room for the Farmer's Market there. What's that thing even there for? I never see anyone using it.
what a bunch of whiners....they're going to "TRY". And, the city makes allowances for them to use it FOR FREE....
I guess if you cry loud enough, the city will break it's own rules for you!
what a bunch of whiners....they're going to "TRY". And, the city makes allowances for them to use it FOR FREE....
Listen to me you idiot, the people that live in the city are the city and they pay the taxes that builds shit.
So tell me something, why should they have to pay to use it?
What whining? What are you talking about? It's a damn trial offer.
Look, say a salesman for a brand new toothpaste approaches a big, burly, bearded dude... we'll call him "Lambchop"... and gives him one of those travel size tubes with the option to buy the full sized tube. Would Lambchop be "whining" if he wanted to try the brand new toothpaste before buying it? I wouldn't think so, I doubt the salesman would either.
The City offered the Farmer's Market the Gateway for a few weeks as a trial. Presumably, this is to get an established market using it, letting the market's built-in customer base generate interest so other groups will want to rent the Gateway too.
The Farmer's Market has already stated they aren't sure if this would work logistically... there isn't room to drive a lot of their gear into the Gateway... I'm not sure how much more the rent is there versus the Laurel Street parking lot, or the courthouse, and no one's sure how much foot traffic would go through the Gateway versus the other places and if the increase traffic (if it exists) would offset the presumably increase in costs. So, yeah, it makes perfect sense to try before you buy. I would. Lambchop would. Most people who want to live in a free market economy would.
Honestly, I've lived five other places besides Port Angeles and, even setting aside the "blocking Laurel Street" battle, none of those other places had such outright hostility as Port Angeles to a group of small, local farmers setting up a weekly market to sell directly to the consumers.
Maybe there's something in the water here... Or maybe I just wasn't reading the comment section of blogs back then...
to the last moron.....
WTF? You have to PAY to use the pool. You have to PAY to use the Vern Burton GYM, oh, wait convention center, whatever it's called now. You have to PAY to get a permit to shut down your street if you want to have a neighborhood BBQ. You have to PAY to use a lot of things around town. For the Gateway Pavilion to be given to use FREE to one group, means it should be free for everyone, but.....newsflash...it's NOT! I've heard numbers as high as $150 a day to use it....
So, ding dong, wake up..just because your $$ built the thing, don't mean it's free to no one.
Can we all say FAVORITISM?
the problem is..the Farmers Market is kind'a arrogant. You keep hearing the POOR ME stuff. But it's a whole attitude that has brushed a lot of people the wrong way.
They act like they're doing everybody some big favor. I don't see that they are gracious about anything --the attitude is that they deserve the red carpet rolled out for them and they're the martyrs.
All hail the Farmers Market.
Problem is, they don't follow the golden rule...
don't the structural problems with the Gateway preclude anyone driving anything onto the gateway covered area?
A TRIAL OFFER?
What makes their sh** not stink? How come they have to get a trial when some of our fine service clubs and organizations have to jump all kinds of city hoops -- and are still waiting...because the city council can not assign rent fees or make agreements until AFTER the place can be used (final building inspection and the state stuff). But meanwhile, the farmer market can just waltz in and do whatever they want and get priority? So, they're better than the service groups that actually do something for charity?
I'm not gettting it. is this some backroom deal?
Bwa ha ha ha haha!
The Gateway Project was the perfect cover for the creation of my Super Secret, Ultra Evil Subterranean Bunker, Genetic Modification Laboratory and Personal Parking Garage. Taxpayer money has funded another of my Insidiously Evil Schemes!
I'm beside myself with glee and I can't wait until I run my slate of Mind Controlled Minions for the City Council elections this November.
ciao,
Doctor Nosferatu
Vicky in Seattle (comment not published): I'll need your e-mail address. Could you submit another comment that includes your e-mail address? I won't publish the comment.
I don't want to give my e-mail address in the comment section here. I get tons of negative/obscene/spam comments here (which don't get published), and the last thing I need is to have my e-mail in-box getting bombarded by these same people.
Thanks.
So I'll backtrack on this a little bit. If I were the owner of the gateway, approaching it as a business, then I would stand by my points. As soon as it opened I would want to get as much foot traffic through, as much people using and enjoying it, as much general buzz around town as possible. Especially with that thing's history. Getting the Farmer's Market there for a few weekends would make sense. They have a built-in customer base and, like it or not, they do generate traffic and buzz. People would see what the Gateway's for, more renters would come in, and hopefully the thing wouldn't fall apart and kill everyone. Life would be good.
But, of course, I'm not the owner of the Gateway, and it's not a business. It is a "public entity".
I would argue that we taxpayers have actually paid for it. According to the PDN "The Gateway is funded with $8.1 million in state and federal grants, $6.1 million in city funds and $500,000 from Clallam Transit." Did we really have $6.1 million just lying around? What about the state and federal grants? The Fed has been running a deficit for years. Does the true owner of the Gateway reside deep in the heart of Communist China, clutching a U.S. Treasury Bond with the words "Port Angeles Gateway" scrawled across it?
In other words, I think we'll be paying for it for a long, long time, one way or the other. And by we I mean everyone in Port Angeles, Clallam County, Washington State, and the United States of America. That's why I wish the city would treat it like a business. Probably the rent they're charging will just go to maintenance and cost overflow. (And, yeah, they should have a contract drawn up and rates established by now.) But if all these "Bridge to Nowhere" projects could contribute what they could, maybe we could get that much further towards digging this country out of the massive mound of debt it finds itself in.
Of course, as long as I'm wishing, I might as well ask for a horsie with wings and a magic sword to fight dragons.
Sure, I'll agree....the Gateway needs to become PART of the community, but not with backroom deals and "trials".
The Farmers Market has never embraced, or been embraced by the town. I don't know why, or what the issue is. Other towns really celebrate their Farmers Market..but something is amiss. The market has always put themselves off to the side, and at odds with business...a lot of finger pointing and bad feelings all the way around.
The relationship is rather contentious, sometimes dismissive, and always at odds.
This article stresses how it's a "test run" which makes it seem put upon them, and somehow fake. Like one of those smiles that is just a little too tight lipped to be friendly.
If they WANTED to be at the Gateway....then it wouldn't be called a "trial". Because you don't TRY something you want.
You DO IT.
And, if they WANTED it, they would go through the right channels that are set up in our city to get the right permits, and get in line with other clubs and businesses who have expressed an interest in doing events at the Gateway Pavilion (only to be told that the building needs to pass inspection and the city council needs to set a rate for rentals -- so wait wait wait)
It's the attitude that is grating...not the concept of something AT the Gateway. It's the murky part of the story. Why are they getting preferential treatment? Why does everyone else get a "wait and we hope it will be ready" for charitable events? No one else can get a commitment. So, what shady deal was struck, what conflict of interest was ignored? What council member was doing a favor, and ignoring the right channels?
I think that favoritism is a bad thing -- it garners more suspicion. This is compounded by an odd arrogance and lack of enthusiasm -- and an attitude of "we're special, you're not".
Whats the deal here? More backroom deals...I guess. Business as usual.
Well as the new market manager it certainly is interesting to see all the June comments on the market at the Gateway. I think it is unfortunate that the majority of the people posting comments have such strong feelings about the market and the Gateway project, but don't have enough courage of their convictions to "show their face" and identify themselves. It's very difficult have communication in a community where some hide behind their anger and won't come out and actually talk about it.
I hope as the new manager, people will approach me and voice their concerns/support for our market. I welcome your input and hope that we can share some ideas like adults who really care about their city, it's people and it's businesses. Be a part of the solution and not a part of the problem. I look forward to talking to you.
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