Staff Writer
FORT FAIRFIELD – The first-ever Fort Fairfield Community Market – set to open Saturday, June 21 – could feature everything from antiques to onions.
“It’s not just going to be fruits and vegetables,” said Janet Kelle, executive director of the Fort Fairfield Chamber of Commerce. “We’re inviting crafters, artisans, antique dealers, booksellers and more.” “They will join us as time goes by,” said organizer Gary Kaszas. “Pretty much anybody can come and sell.”
The market will be located at 227 Main St. in the I Care Pharmacy parking lot.
“The purpose is to promote business in Fort Fairfield,” Kaszas said. “The market is located off of Main Street, and we want to create a draw to the downtown. It also provides an outlet for local community people to sell.”
Membership fees are $55 for the season, or $20 per week. The market season will run through Nov. 1 with the exception of the week of the Maine Potato Blossom Festival (July 12-20), during which time the market’s board of directors may opt to move the location or suspend the market during Festival week.
Kaszas said the town has attempted to host a farmers’ market for years.
“It was never much of a success,” he said, “so the Community Market will replace the farmers’ market. It’s innovative in the sense of its organizational structure. The weakness of these kinds of markets is that they’re usually vendor controlled. What that leaves is no capacity at all for strategic planning, applying for grants, and thinking five years down the road.
“When you’re dealing with vendors, their primary interest is selling,” said Kaszas, “and there’s just no capacity for them to devote the time to these other things, so those markets tend to fail. Our Community Market has a board of directors that will be responsible for growing and developing the market.”
The board will select a president, vice president, treasurer, secretary, market master and/or market representative. Present members include Kelle, Kaszas, Brent Churchill, John Herold, David Deschesne, Pat Canavan and Terry Greenier.
“The board will be charged with approving members, overseeing the bylaws, and promoting and growing the market,” said Kelle.
“We anticipate it’s going to take two or three years to grow this into a significant event,” Kaszas said.
Kelle said five years down the road, the board would like to see the community market be “a year-round, indoor market.”
The immediate task is to get an “established base of vendors.”
“It’s going to take a few years to do that,” said Kaszas, “but we’re committed to it. The Community Market is open to vendors outside of Fort Fairfield. One of the vendors confirmed is from Perham.
“We also need to work to find grant money, and to acquire a site that we can have a permanent structure over our heads,” he said.
The Community Market will be open from 2-6 p.m. Wednesdays and 7:30 a.m.-2 p.m. Saturdays and Sundays.
For more information including an application for membership in the Fort Fairfield Community Market, log onto www.fortcc.org or call Kelle at 472-3802.
