After a challenging season, the Allen County’s Farmers Market is winding down. The hope is that it comes back next year even bigger and better.
But the obstacles are high. Of them all, the Highway 54 rebuild has been its greatest while at the same time most easily remedied. By next year’s growing season, downtown Iola will be a glowing example of the trade-offs that come with major road construction, including better traffic flow, parking and crosswalks.
Though Calvin Parker and Robin Schallie, president and vice president, respectively, of the organization keep reminding themselves of those brighter days ahead, other factors can’t be ignored.
First is the market’s location, which they feel is not ideal. Situated on Jefferson Street on the east side of the square, the market lacks shade and public restrooms.
“Most days it’s been dreadfully hot,” said Schallie, who worked as its market director from 2017 to 2021 and has since served on its board of directors.
A visit to Thursday’s market was testimony to that observation. With the sun bearing down from the west, the handful of vendors faced east.
“Over there, you roast,” said Marilyn Logan, pointing to the east side of the street.
Logan and Debbie Bearden are regulars at the market, manning Allen County’s GROW Council — Growing Rural Opportunities Works — booth to facilitate the SNAP and Double Up Food Bucks program for consumers who receive Kansas food assistance benefits.
“You can’t get a canopy big enough to block the sun at this time of day,” said Bearden.
Meanwhile, on the courthouse lawn, children were enjoying inflatables situated in the shade of the massive trees.
Bearden, who helped form the farmers market 17 years ago, said the courthouse lawn is off-limits to vendors, despite multiple requests to Allen County commissioners.
Parker and Schallie, who also have requested use of the courthouse lawn and received a similar answer, said even that poses problems in that “Rules say you can’t put produce on the ground,” said Parker. “And, realistically, you can’t have a truckload of watermelons on a table.”
Just about everyone’s dream is to have a multi-purpose pavilion-like structure that provides protection from the elements.
“It needs to be permanent; bolted down to the ground with a cement floor,” Parker said.
“As it is, people just want to grab their produce and get back into their air-conditioned cars,” Schallie said.
The cherry on top would be for the structure to include plumbing and were equipped with a public restroom.
