Possible 2024 farmer’s market schedule leaves Pitt County vendors concerned

GREENVILLE, N.C. (WNCT) – Vendors, Pitt County staff and concerned residents gathered Tuesday night for the Leroy James Farmers’ Market Advisory Meeting to talk about market renovations, advisory committee expansions and the 2024 market schedule.

The Leroy James Farmers Market closed earlier in the year for renovations and repairs. Current plans see the market reopening in mid-March

Vendors said they were not pleased with the proposed schedule, saying there were not enough days to sell goods and produce in 2023. The 2024 proposed schedule includes the market opening on Saturdays from March to October and then three days in total between November and December.

“When I first started at the farmers’ market, hell it was Tuesday, Thursday, Friday and Saturday and I come every day when I was able to raise everything,” vendor Bobby Yates said.

“If you want to kill the market, just close it down and ain’t nobody come to buy anything and that’s all I’ll say.”

Another vendor expressed concern regarding the building use when the market closed.

“It makes no sense to have that building there and spend money on it and not use it,” vendor Wendy Stallings said.

“Now look at what we got, a field full of vegetables and nobody to buy,” another vendor said.

According to the Pitt County Government website, in 2023, there were 83 planned market dates (Attachment 4, page 17). Vendors told 9OYS fees for the entire year would have totaled around $300.

This document from the first quarter meeting of 2023 shows the annual membership vendor fee cost $50 (Attachment 5, page 21). There was also a $5 weekly fee for vendors to rent a booth. With 52 weeks in the year, and a $5 weekly rental fee plus the $50 annual membership fee, a vendor who attended every week in 2023 would have paid $310 to participate in the market.

In an e-mail to 9OYS, Hannah Smith, a Pitt County staff member working with the market, explained fees were waived after July 1, 2023. The e-mail statement reads, “The fee schedule in effect for the 2024 market season was approved and adopted by the Board of County Commissioners on June 26, 2023, and became effective July 1, 2023, at the beginning of a new fiscal year.

“County staff recognized that this change in the fee schedule occurred mid-season of the market calendar and chose to waive vendor booth fees for the remainder of the market year.

“To clarify, vendors operating at the Leroy James Farmers Market in 2023 were required to pay a one-time annual fee upon application approval and then a daily booth rental fee from January 1, 2023 – July 1, 2023. After July 1, 2023, no vendor fees were collected.”

This means in 2023, vendors attending each week paid a $5 weekly fee for 26 weeks, totaling $130 up to July 1, 2023, after which weekly fees were waived.

Adding the $50 annual fee, a vendor attending each week would have paid $180 in total to rent the booth for the 2023 market season which included 83 dates.

In 2024, the market combined the annual and weekly fees into a one-time payment of $300. This one-time payment covers 36 proposed market dates (Attachment 3, page 12).

Vendors also expressed concern because there are only three scheduled dates between November and December.

“I don’t know about everybody, but I make a pretty good chunk of change from November to December and cutting that out and I’m paying the same amount but I’m getting less,” Vendor Terry Snowden said.

Other vendors said the new schedule cuts out the peak season for winter crops.

“Three of the apples that everybody wants is best sold … don’t even get ripe until the first of November, so it’s gonna cut out on a lot of sales,” Yates said.

It could also hurt the sale of year-round products like meat, eggs and craft goods, said another vendor.

“If you close the market for those months, we will lose almost 50 percent of our income from the market,” Vendor Ainslie Guion said.

Vendor Patricia Shegas said the proposed schedule would hurt people who use SNAP or EBT benefits as well as the county’s elderly citizens who walk across the road from the senior center to the market.

“Cutting these hours, they will not be able to come out on the Fridays that they usually come out to when the Senior Center gets buses and brings them out to the Farmers Market,” Shegas said.

Pitt County staff said this market schedule is just proposed and it is open to change.

“Is it more of a Tuesday-Saturday to consider additional days? Versus a Friday-Saturday? Because what I have witnessed, Fridays not happening. Fridays are very, very scarce vendor-wise,” Pitt County Planning Director James Rhodes said.

County staff said their data showed Saturday had better vendor attendance and adding market dates was a possibility.

“Going back to what I’ve heard, it’s better to have two kinds of separate days instead of having them side by side,” Rhodes said.

The advisory committee and county staff agreed discussions would continue.

“We would like for the county to reconsider adding a few more dates to the calendar to be open,” McLawhorn said.

“Please take into consideration the general comments of the public tonight when you go through and work this calendar out.”