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A road closure request by the Kosciusko County Farmers & Artisan Market was tabled Friday to March 6 at the Warsaw Board of Public Works and Safety Meeting after complaints were expressed about the market’s location and frequency of the road closures.
The closure request Friday was for Center Street, between Lake and Buffalo streets, and Buffalo Street, between Center and Market streets, to be closed every Saturday from 7 a.m. to 1:30 p.m. from April 18 to Oct. 31. The market would run from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m.
Lisa Hawley, representing the market, thanked the Board of Works for use of the streets last year, saying it was very successful.
“We’re asking to open up early this year, April 18, instead of the first week in May. We also are going to stay uptown through the end of October, Oct. 31,” she said. “We would also request to open up Buffalo Street again. We have what we’re calling Cars & Coffee. It was a big success last year with the businesses along Buffalo. We also have more vendors this year than what we had last year.”
She said they probably won’t close Buffalo Street if they don’t have at least five or six cars plus the vendors. The cars take up at least half of Buffalo, between Center and Market streets.
“The businesses are OK with that. It helped them last year, along with we had some extra business from the Cars & Coffee,” Hawley said.
Kosciusko Chamber of Commerce and Main Street Warsaw CEO and President Rob Parker said it’s been a pleasure working with Hawley on the farmers market. “It really is a part of the vision that we have for Warsaw 2030 Plan, plus the Cultural Arts (District), making sure that there’s activities in the downtown, for all the people to go downtown, to increase foot traffic. Really make it a vibrant and lively place for our community, that’s what a downtown should be,” he stated.
He said Hawley and her team do a great job of bringing people to the downtown and “we’re fully supportive of that.”
Board member and Councilwoman Diane Quance said some of the merchants on Buffalo Street “have contacted us and said it impedes their businesses.” Parker said of the businesses they talked to, they hadn’t heard that. Hawley said she talked to Male Fashions, Cindy Dobbins, Maggie’s Coffee, Lakeland Art Gallery and the two restaurants and they didn’t have any problems.
Dobbins, who owns Buffalo Street Emporium and sits on the city council and Main Street Warsaw Board of Directors, was not present at Friday’s Board of Works meeting. However, Quance said Dobbins texted her and said it has been an issue for her business. Parker said he had not had that direct feedback from Dobbins personally.
During the city council’s strategic planning session, Quance stated, it came out people were frustrated with the road closures every single Saturday.
“Especially right now with the construction with Lake City Bank,” she said. “That really leaves no north-south main road where I can see a visitor to town getting stuck downtown, not knowing how to get out of there if we start in April, and I don’t know if we have a timeline as to when Indiana Street will be opened again, but if we also close (Buffalo) Street before that project is finished, then that’s a concern that came up with the council, for safety reasons and just for wanting to attract people to the downtown.”
She said she didn’t know if there could be a compromise to only closing Center until the LCB construction is finished.
The other issue that came up at the council’s strategic planning session was the Freedom Fest parade on June 6. Parker said he’s talked to Freedom Fest organizer Mike Loher about it but he hasn’t seen the details of what that will look like.
Board member George Clemens said the farmers market request wasn’t for a typical road closure request as those are usually just for a couple hours on one day. “This is for months, and I’m hearing a lot of flack,” he said, noting he heard concerns from the other city council members. “They are urging us to at least stop and think about this and table it.”
Mayor Jeff Grose said there’s not a hard date for LCB to finished with its building construction, but he believed it may be early July when Indiana Street is opened up again.
Quance said she loved how the farmers market expanded with the artisans, and she wanted to go to the drawing board and figure out a place where everyone can be accommodated and the market isn’t moving back and forth throughout the season.
Grose said he talked to Loher about the America 250 Freedom Fest parade “weeks and weeks ago” and sent Loher to the Warsaw Police Department. Grose asked WPD Chief Scott Whitaker if any formal parade request was presented. Whitaker said not to his knowledge, but Capt. Joel Beam would be the one to handle that. Deb Wright, Freedom Fest committee member, said she believed Loher talked to Beam but nothing formal was put out. Grose said to his knowledge Loher has not formally got the parade together. Whitaker recalled that Beam said he was waiting for Loher to return his call after Loher was going to touch base with the farmers market.
Parker and Quance agreed that the June 6 may be a date when Buffalo Street shouldn’t be closed.
Hawley said Center Street is full now for the farmers market this year. They don’t stop taking applications until the end of March, so she couldn’t say how many vendors they will end up having. There is a sponsor for the Cars & Coffee.
City Councilmen Juergen Voss and Mike Klondaris were in attendance at Friday’s BOW meeting.
Voss said the discussion on the farmers market and road closures came up because there are a lot of issues with it. “Many of the merchants have come to us. I know that they say it’s all good, but behind the scenes they’re coming to us and saying this is kind of bad. Our people have to park two blocks away, three blocks away. They’re just not coming, we’re losing a lot of business,” he said.
The other issue is the traffic, Voss stated. He said the traffic gets backed up because of the blockage on Center. He also expressed concerns about safety.
“Center Street is our main thoroughfare. Buffalo Street is also a main artery. We’re blocking both of those on a busy Saturday when people are off work and they shop or just get through town,” Voss said.
He said the farmers market is a great thing, but “maybe we don’t need it right downtown.”
Parker said public safety is a big concern, and that’s one of the reasons the city needs an events/festival street.
Grose said he nor his office had received any calls or concerns about the farmers market road closures.
City attorney Scott Reust asked how many people did the farmers market bring to downtown Warsaw. Hawley said on average on a Saturday she has 150 customers at her booth. “We are extremely busy. And it starts the first Saturday until the end,” she said.
When they move to the Pete Thorn Center for the winter, “nobody knows where we are” no matter how much social media they post, Hawley said. “It would be nice to have a place where we can go inside and just be there week after week.”
Clemens asked how many vendors were “from our community.” Hawley said most of them are, but a few are from LaGrange or Marshall County, but most are from Kosciusko County.
Klondaris said, “This is an issue that has been on the table in my mind for a number of years. I had discussions with the previous mayor, we were in disagreement. I support the local farmers market. ... As a representative of my constituents living in the city limits, some of whom are merchants, I get an earful. Most of the vendors at the current farmers market, I think, do not live in the city so they’re coming from outside of the city, yet the city is carrying the burden, the cost of hosting the farmers market.”
He said Dobbins couldn’t be at the BOW meeting but she would like to see a change. “Every council person that I have spoke with wants to see a change,” Klondaris said.
Along with Klondaris, Voss, Quance and Dobbins, the other council members are Josh Finch, Jack Wilhite and Jerry Frush.
When former Mayor Jeff Plank initiated the Central Park project, Klondaris said part of the impetus behind that was to start a farmers market down there. He said it’s a beautiful park and it needs to be used, and people would know where the farmers market is if it was there.
“The current location creates congestion every Saturday,” Klondaris stated. “... This is not a this-year problem. This has been going on and on and on. In my own capacity as a councilman, I have tried to steer administrations to move that farmers market.”
He said he feels the council would like to see a change. He said they want a farmers market, but in a different place so the downtown can be freed up.
Quance eventually made the motion to table the road closure request to the BOW’s March 6 meeting and Clemens seconded it. The motion passed 2-1, with Grose opposed.
