City council tables farmers market ordinance

Rachel Mendell — Staff

Galion City Coun­cil dis­cusses the Farm­ers’ Mar­ket Ordi­nance at length.

Inquirer Edi­tor

Eddie Lou Meimer, man­ager of the board of direc­tors for Farm­ers’ mar­ket Man­age­ment Net­work, attended the Galion City Coun­cil meet­ing Tues­day evening, Nov. 9, to share her knowl­edge and expe­ri­ence with Farm­ers Mar­kets. She explained the work of the Farm­ers Mar­ket Man­age­ment Net­work through­out Ohio and urged the coun­cil to change some of the pieces of its new Farm­ers Mar­ket Ordinance.

Meimer has been involved in farm­ers mar­kets for years includ­ing those in West­er­ville, Mar­ion and Chill­i­cothe. The largest one in Wor­thing­ton boasts 75 ven­dors and 3,000 cus­tomers at peak season.

After read­ing a let­ter of sup­port from the pres­i­dent of FMMN, she noted changes she feels are needed to the ordi­nance includ­ing the abil­ity of the city to view a vendor’s books and charg­ing the indi­vid­ual ven­dor fees to the city. She said of all the farm­ers mar­kets she is involved in none of them charge fees to the city. There are, how­ever, nor­mally a small fee for a ven­dor to par­tic­i­pate in a farm­ers’ mar­ket, as well as paper­work to sub­mit, assur­ing that farm­ers mar­ket that the ven­dor will offer safe and healthy materials.

Mendy Sell­man, local pro­ducer, also spoke on behalf of farm­ers mar­kets. She said mar­kets con­nect local pro­duc­ers and con­nect peo­ple with their local food. Mar­kets are within walk­ing dis­tance of healthy food. The mar­ket is a happy atmos­phere, she said, and this is some­thing the city can build on.

Julie Fogle of the First Pres­by­ter­ian Church spoke on behalf of fewer reg­u­la­tions for farm­ers’ mar­kets as well. Her church feels it is an out­reach effort and their loca­tion is unique in that res­i­dents don’t have to drive to get there. She said there have been no com­plaints about God’s Lit­tle Acre. She feels it is a healthy and safe envi­ron­ment for fam­i­lies, chil­dren and the elderly. While her church believes in obey­ing author­ity, she feels an ordi­nance is not nec­es­sary. She also reminded the city that God’s Lit­tle Acre is on pri­vate property.

After dis­cus­sion, coun­cil voted to table the Farm­ers’ Mar­ket Ordi­nance. The issue was given to the plan­ning, zon­ing and util­i­ties committee.

The coun­cil approved the find­ings of the fact finder in the case regard­ing col­lec­tive bar­gain­ing issues with the Fra­ter­nal Order of Police and Ohio Labor Coun­cil Inc. The bonus (work smart) was removed, but salary increases remained. This is the last con­tract to be approved. Coun­cil­man Walt Kieb noted a sav­ings of $4,200 on the con­tract with the cost of the fact finder at about $1,400. City Man­ager Gene Toy said with other costs of the nego­ti­a­tion the city broke even.

Terry Grib­ble of the Cen­ter Y was on hand to give coun­cil an update on the Heise Pool activ­ity. Because of the prob­lems at the begin­ning of the sea­son, three days were lost to repairs, so rev­enue was a lit­tle down from last year. That, and the inclement weather dur­ing the sea­son, also cre­ated fewer expenses. The pool was open 419 1/2 hour net­ting $34,024 for the sea­son. The Cen­ter Y will be reim­bursed $3,371 by the city. Coun­cil mem­ber Cathy George requested the pool be open before reg­u­lar hours for lap swim­ming. Grib­ble said he would look into it for the 2012 season.

In other busi­ness, the coun­cil passed a mutual aid agree­ment for emer­gency ser­vices with the vil­lage of Crest­line. Appro­pri­a­tion increases were made to cover West­moor fund pay­ment. A license was granted to the Zim­mer­man Group LLC to con­struct the hand­i­cap ramp on Hard­ing Way West. The city will pur­chase a new lime slaker for the water treat­ment plant.

It was announced that Audrey Brodzin­ski has resigned as city finance direc­tor and Karen Wal­ters will be interim finance direc­tor for the time being.

In com­mit­tee news, Wal­ters reported water and sewer funds at 53 per­cent which is ahead for this time of year.

Laws and Ordi­nances took a look and mak­ing the 6 a.m. cur­few ear­lier and decided to leave it at 6 a.m. because other area cities had theirs at the same time. The com­mit­tee is research­ing how to han­dle sit­u­a­tions where neigh­bors are shar­ing elec­tric­ity with a power cord, which is dan­ger­ous. The com­mit­tee is also look­ing into reg­u­la­tions regard­ing recy­cling and ask­ing for proof of own­er­ship of mate­ri­als to be recy­cled, hop­ing to alle­vi­ate theft.

The Plan­ning com­mit­tee is look­ing at clos­ing an alley near Atwood, but sees it as dif­fi­cult since entrances to garages are involved.

A res­i­dent spoke before coun­cil ask­ing for help in deal­ing with her elec­tric bill. She had got­ten behind because of dif­fi­cult cir­cum­stances, had gone to var­i­ous agen­cies look­ing for help, and none of them could help her. Elec­tric ser­vice is now can­celed on her home and she has been with­out elec­tric­ity for two weeks. She felt she has been unfairly treated. Coun­cil mem­ber Roberta Wade requested Toy look into the sit­u­a­tion, to which he agreed.

The next meet­ing of the Galion City Coun­cil will be Nov. 22 at 7 p.m. in coun­cil cham­bers. The pub­lic is encour­aged to attend.

Rachel Mendell — Staff

Eddie Lou Meimer, board mem­ber of Farm­ers’ Mar­ket Man­age­ment Net­work, presents infor­ma­tion on Farm­ers’ Mar­kets around Ohio to the Galion City Council.

Posted by Rachel Mendell on Nov 9 2011. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS Feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.