To the Editor:
I attended the Pike County Commissioners Meeting via YouTube on Jan. 21 at which time the current Farmers Market location in the County Office parking lot was discussed. I was astonished at the resolution to not renew their permit for a fourth year at this location.
The Farmers Market had finally found a place in Milford Borough that held all their vendors and provided ample parking behind the county offices and was in the heart of the borough. This location was also ideal from a safety standpoint since no one would have to cross Broad Street.
The reason cited by two of the three commissioners was that the Farmers Market had morphed into something that was presenting unfair competition for local brick and mortar businesses since not everything being sold there were farm products. A further comment in a letter to the editor from the commissioners was that “Farmers markets play an important role in our communities. When they focus on their core purpose of giving local farmers a place to sell fresh produce and genuine farm products ....” defy the County Commissioners to find a farmers market anywhere in Pike County that has farm products ONLY!
As for the impact on local brick and mortar businesses, the farmers market is one day a week for three hours. If your business can’t survive that, you don’t have a business.
What should also be a consideration is that non-farm product vendors use the Farmers Market as a “petri” dish to see if their products are in demand locally, which then leads to the possibility of opening another brick-and-mortar business in Milford Borough, generating additional tax revenues?
This action by the commissioners is unwarranted since the Farmers Market will relocate within the borough so the same unfair business practices will still exist, and the problem has not been solved. It should be noted that one of the commissioners was open to exploring a compromise solution which was not acted on.
Fred Weber
Milford