One special meeting, one resolution, one new farmers' market. That was the result Tuesday morning after the Dunkirk Common Council met in special session to approve Resolution 63-2012.
According to 63-2012, Mayor Anthony J. Dolce is authorized to "enter into an agreement between the city and Community Chamber Development Corporation (CCDC) to provide primary administrative oversight and operation of an Agricultural Marketing Program in the city." The agreement also calls for the use of a Lark Street parking lot and the lot at Washington Avenue and Lake Shore Drive, along with the expenditure of $500 to the CCDC for sponsorship of the 2012 program.
Greg Krauza is the Chautauqua County Chamber of Commerce Director of Member Development and was present along with Chamber intern Kevin Lowther. Krauza said the CCDC is an affiliate of the Chau-tauqua County Chamber of Commerce.
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OBSERVER Photo by Gib Snyder
Chautauqua County Chamber of Commerce Director of Member Development Greg Krauza and Chamber intern Kevin Lowther attended Tuesday’s special meeting of the Dunkirk Common Council to talk about the farmers’ market the Chamber will run on Lark Street in the city.
"The Chamber wants to thank the city council and particularly Mayor Dolce for making this such a cooperative endeavor. The Chamber sees this as a great opportunity to assist in ... downtown Dunkirk, to assist our agri-business partners and members," Krauza told council. "We wanted to get it started because we look at what we see as a 10-week window to get it started for next year."
Krauza said there were three farmers with another possibility but he has not heard back from the current vendor, who would be welcome.
"We've got three or four farmers, several crafters, several artisans. In fact, I just heard back this morning from Chuck Cornell at the college and he's very interested in getting the college involved, some of their artists," Krauza explained. "We have a Spanish vendor and a sweets vendor. ... We were particularly sensitive to not bringing in a hamburger, hot dog or sandwich guy because we've got three or four businesses downtown that we don't want to compete with."
Krauza said there would be 12 or 13 sites, depending on how they are arranged.
"That's another reason we'd like to get it started this year, because I'm sure that after a 10-week, for lack of better term, initiation, that we'll be able to do a little bit better configuration, things like that for next year."
Council passed the resolution unanimously and adjourned.
Lowther will oversee the market as it begins. He was asked about the farmers who will have a presence at the market, scheduled to run from Thursday to Oct. 4 with hours from 11 a.m. to 6 p.m.
"Our big farmer right now is Roberto Fred. We have Someday Maybe, and right now we have McCutcheons and hopefully we'll have Feinen," he replied.
Krauza welcomed people to come to a ribbon cutting ceremony scheduled for Thursday at noon, adding it will be more than just a market.
"We're hoping for some special events. We've scheduled some wine tastings in the afternoon ... fits right in with our agri-business theme," Krauza explained. "We'll have some music. We want it to be more that just a farmers' market. We want it to be an event."
Krauza said the Lake Shore Drive lot likely won't be used this year.
"We'd love to see a Sunday market down on Washington and Lake Shore Drive. We think it's two different markets," he explained. "We've got the downtown crew and that's where our primary focus is, but I do think there's a, if we can get the farmers and the other folks to participate, that there could be a market for a Sunday in the harborfront kind of market."
Krauza was asked if the market would be cash only.
"We will not be able to get the EBT for this year. We've already started the paperwork with the USDA," he replied. "We may have it by the end of the season but it's about a six-to-10- week process so we may not have it for this year. We're also working on a POS, a credit card merchant system, so somebody could come down and use their credit card to buy $10 worth of coupons or something like that and then go spend that money.
"But for the first couple weeks it will be cash only."
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