Seed planted for farmers market

published in the Current

SOUTH PORTLAND – The Portland Farmers’ Market opens next week, but, if all goes according to plan, by late June there will be an option on this side of the stream as well.

At a City Council workshop session on Monday, plans were put in motion to bring a Thursday farmers market with up to 20 vendors to Thomas Knight Park, in the shore-side shadow of the Casco Bay Bridge.

The announcement was heralded as an “awesome, awesome thing for the city,” by Crystal Goodrich, one of two citizens who stood during a public comment period.

The other was Leah Lippmann, chairman of the Knightville/Mill Creek Neighborhood Association.

“I think everyone is really looking forward to this,” she said. “Since the new bridge has been put up, it’s become a really sleepy place.”

However, based on the number of people who throng to the park for prime Fourth of July fireworks viewing, traffic won’t be an issue, Lippmann predicted.

For their part, councilors expressed no reservations about traffic, and few of any other logistical nature. Their primary concern seemed to be for the vendors, based on the fact that a farmers market was tried in Knight Park once before, without lasting success.

Caitlin Jordan, who runs the Alewives Farm in Cape Elizabeth, and who also manages the Scarborough Farmers’ Market, said the problem with the previous attempt was too few farmers for too many markets staged on the same day. To counter that, she said, the South Portland market will run on Thursdays, from 3 p.m. to 7 p.m.

Penny Jordan, co-owner of the 60-acre Jordan Farm, on Wells Road, in Cape Elizabeth, said the market will offer agricultural education, to make the site a draw for families, along with enough variety that shoppers can provision an entire, balanced meal on a single visit.

Only two sites were seriously considered for the market, Penny Jordan said. The other, Mill Creek Park, was determined to have too many issues, not the least of which is the potential for farmstands to be overrun by roving hoards of hungry ducks. Besides, Thomas Knight Park already is zoned for a market.

The next step, per city manager James Gailey, is a Planning Board hearing, scheduled for Tuesday, May 10, followed by two official readings before the council.

According to Tex Haeuser, the city planning and development director, the Planning Board will deal with necessary amendments to Chapter 14 of South Portland’s code of ordinances. Chief among those will be the setting of a permit fee.  Gailey said the fee to vendors will be $100, with $25 going to the city and $75 to an as-yet-to-be-created market association.

Haeuser said the council will deal with required amendments to South Portland’s zoning rules – items he characterized as “little changes” – primary dealing with timeframes, definitions and the maximum number of allowable stalls.

Of all those who spoke in favor of the market Monday night, there may have been no greater champion than Mayor Rosemarie De Angelis, who made its return a centerpiece of her campaign.

“I’m dying for a ribbon cutting,” she said. “I’ll buy the ribbon. “I’ll do anything. I’ll dress up as a cucumber at the intersection and just flag people down there.”

“Somebody’s taking minutes, right?” asked Jordan, with a laugh, apparently intent on holding the mayor to her promise.