Brainstorming The Move Of The Market - Take It To Workshop!
On March 25, 2019, the City Council held a Workshop meeting about what to do with the farmers market, based on Phil’s concerns, which you can listen to during his presentation during a Workshop on April 29, 2019. Ideas were debated by the City Council on what to do with the farmers market, with the one-sided consensus being that the farmers market would move to the DMV parking lot in one month. Representatives from the Beacon Farmers Market did not agree.
The funny thing about Workshop meetings is, plans that are discussed aren’t binding. The workshops are brainstorming sessions to discuss items officially put on their Agenda, to be discussed further. The next step after a Workshop is to have a “Resolution” about what was just discussed, which is when the members of the City Council and the Mayor vote Yay or Nay on that Resolution (aka, the decision they marched toward during the Workshop).
After the Workshop is held, the Resolution is put onto an Agenda for the next City Council meeting, where it is usually read out loud by the City Attorney. The council members might bite through a couple points, but if nothing changes, they vote how they are going to vote.
However, these votes can sometimes swing in an unexpected direction, like we saw with the Airbnb vote, where the council members were marching toward legalizing Airbnb-type short-term rentals after having gone through many drafts of writing the law. During the vote, they split, and did not all vote in favor of the law they had been writing, essentially tabling regulation of Airbnb-type short-term rentals.
Proposal And A Possible Vote
This part is key, because at the next non-binding Workshop on April 29, 2019, just days away from the May 5 opening of the 2019 season of the farmers market, no lease agreement had been signed between the Beacon Farmers Market at the City of Beacon. The City Council seemed confident that the farmers market would be moving to the DMV, yet had asked the farmers market for a proposal on March 25, 2019, to be presented before a vote.
The farmers market team thought that this idea of the move had been floated, but not inked. Pressure was put on the farmers market by Councilperson Lee Kyriacou for not knowing that they were moving to the DMV: “I'm sorry, what have you been doing to prepare since you last came?” said Lee. “It seems like you didn't like the message.”
However, all was spelled out by the City Attorney on March 25, after Paloma Wake, manager of the Beacon Farmers Market, asked the Council several clarification questions about the agreement. “Is the proposal synonymous with the agreement?” asked Paloma. The City Attorney answered: “Your proposal leads to the Council then adopting an agreement. The Council needs to get a proposal, then the Council adopts a Resolution for a one-year agreement.”
According to Paloma in a supporting letter submitted after that meeting: “Neither myself nor the Committee understood until Tuesday, April 9, that the City Council and Staff were awaiting a proposal from the Market for our License Agreement or that a vote on April 15 would not be possible. We were evaluating the proposed move and awaiting answers to our questions posed on March 25. Given the short timeline, I hope that you will give this matter your immediate attention and that we will be able to come to a consensus at the next Workshop Meeting on April 29.”
So What Happened At The Second Workshop?
The second Workshop was held on April 29, and more points were discussed about why a move to the DMV in one week would be difficult. Mayor Randy Casale saw no problem in flipping locations. “If we were moving you back to the riverfront, that would be a substantial change. The question is, are we going to have a market, and if so, where it’s going to be… You're running a Farmers Market. You can either open at one location or the other.”
Paloma responded: “Our committee and myself feel that our vendors need more time to adjust to that. And to allow the customers time to adjust to the new location. We found that when we moved [from the waterfront] the last time [three years ago], we are still getting customers looking for us at the waterfront. Regardless of how much marketing we do, it still takes time for folks to realize a change has been made. This would be a third year on Veterans Place. ... We are starting to build a real audience in that location.”
Council Member Lee Kyriacou wouldn’t entertain a second discovery session, having thought the first non-binding Workshop had solved it: “We already had this conversation. I haven't heard anything differently. I don't know why we are litigating it. There is $1 million of revenue on Main Street. We have to accommodate them.”
Editor’s Note: We tried fact-checking this revenue number. We cannot find a sales tax number for Beacon yet, and are pursuing different offices for an answer. Under an agreement with Dutchess County, which began in 1989 and has been renewed multiple times, the Cities of Beacon and Poughkeepsie “surrendered their rights of preemption to the Sales Tax,” whereby Beacon’s sales tax is sent to Dutchess County, and a fixed amount is paid to Beacon. Under the latest agreement from 2013-2023, Beacon is paid a fixed rate out of a grand total of $25 million that gets paid to Poughkeepsie, Beacon, and other towns and villages outside of Beacon and Poughkeepsie. In the latest renewal of this agreement, Beacon’s portion is $4,158,686 in total over those years. If “Growth” occurs, then an additional amount is paid to Beacon and Poughkeepsie. The amount is calculated based on the net collections of Sales and Use Tax. After their calculations are done to the formula in that agreement with Dutchess County, “if the difference between the two amounts is positive, then the County shall allocate 18.453% of that difference to the Cities of Poughkeepsie and Beacon and to the area outside the cities on the basis of population set forth in 1262(c) of the Tax Law.” This agreement, signed June 14, 2013, is up for renewal in 2023, and is identified as 13-0193-3/23-F1.
Council Member George Mansfield pointed out in the first Workshop meeting that several of the surrounding businesses did support the farmers market in the Veterans Place location: “For the record, there are a lot of letters of support from brick and mortars, including Beacon Natural, who you could argue is a direct competitor, and is in support [of this location].”
The former manager of the Beacon Farmers Market, Sarah Simon, then approached the podium to express her take on the move: “At this point, we have 30 vendors and customers who want us to open. Paloma works very hard to make this happen. The fact that there are two buildings [near the DMV] that are actively under construction is a very big deal. I think this move is unfair. As a resident of Beacon, I don't think this is happening in the right way. Five businesses right across the street have written letters of support and that have helped their business. We are being made to move based on one business. I'm not convinced we will resolve other issues.”
Regardless, the council people started proceeding with the move to the DMV by suggesting deadlines. They began negotiating with the farmers market about how much time the market had to move. One week? Two weeks, they asked? One month was decided upon, and the meeting began to wrap up. Phil rose from the audience and voiced his objection. As Council Member Terry Nelson packed his bags, he replied: “Phil. You won.”
The final vote was set for May 6, 2019.
At The Final Vote - Does The Farmers Market Stay Or Move?
In between the time of the second Workshop and the final vote at the May 6, 2019, City Council meeting, many Beaconites wrote into their council representatives. Each council person ended up wanting to keep the farmers market at Veterans Place, after hearing feedback from their constituents.
Amber Grant: “After hearing from people ... I think we keep them at Veterans Place.”
John Rembert: “At least for this year, until we re-evaluate it.”
George Mansfield: “I’m leaning in that direction. I'm not confident that the problems we are trying to solve won't repeat themselves in another location. In addition to involving the County. And I think the timing is a little bit off. This should have been started early in the winter, long before it got to this point. I think the DMV lot has potential. I'd like to see it after the other buildings are built, to see what kind of congestion we will see.”
Terry Nelson: “I received a lot of feedback too. I agree with George to revisit it earlier. … I’m inclined to stay at Veterans Place.”
Jodi McCredo: “I feel like we needed more time to have this conversation. … I feel like now we’re being pressured to make this decision and there are just so many variables and so many things up in the air. I don’t feel comfortable with this. It would make sense to keep them at Veterans Place and have a date to know when we are going to discuss this for next year.”
Lee Kyriacou, who is running for mayor against current Mayor Randy Casale, was absent for this vote. Council members who were there voted to keep the farmers market at Veterans Place for one more year, and Mayor Casale voted against.
When the council members went to cast their votes, a woman from the back of the public audience area called out a question, stating that she thought the issue had been settled, and asked for clarification, pointing out that the business owner leading this issue was not in attendance at the meeting. The Mayor responded: “There’s no settled issue until the Council votes on it in a Council meeting. We discussed it at the Workshop, and they were going to move them. There is no set agreement until we vote on it at a Council meeting. That’s the way everything happens.”
RESULT:
The Beacon Farmers Market will be at Veterans Place again this year. Despite all that, nothing changed - for 2019, at least. Mark your calendar for November 2019, when the negotiating parties said they wanted to revisit the issue and discuss future placement.
Early Questions Circling DMV vs. Veterans Place Location
As the Beacon Farmers Market and the City Council began to debate the logistics, a few issues emerged:
Hot Summer Heat On An Open Parking Lot: The farmers market folks were concerned about the direct heat wilting the produce if in the DMV parking lot. Veterans Place does offer shade, they said. If you speak to the vendors of the Beacon Flea located behind the Post Office, they will tell you about the parking lot heat.
DMV Parking Lot Currently Unused, But Is It Because Of No Sign? Jessica Reisman, owner of Homespun Foods, attended the meeting, and spoke at the end. She questioned the presumed emptiness of the parking lot, presenting the idea that no one knows it is a free parking lot. The Mayor objected, saying that he makes announcements during these City Council meetings. Knowing that the parking lot issue is not clear to everyone, A Little Beacon Blog years ago created a Free Parking Lot Guide, and we have received compliments on it by readers who found it online. But in truth, people passing through Beacon who have never watched a City Council meeting would not look at the DMV parking lot as a free lot - unless it had big, friendly signage. Which it currently does not. It has a faded, broken DMV sign, which presents what is inside the building. There’s not a specific parking sign (see picture below). According to Mayor Casale, the parking lot is waiting for a sign from Dutchess County, who owns the lot. There is a nice “Welcome to Beacon” sign, however.
Will The DMV Parking Lot Heavily Be In Use After Two New Buildings Open? Buildings next to and across from the DMV parking lot are going up, and are set to open with apartments. How will the free DMV parking lot be impacted when the buildings fill with residents?
Good Faith Effort To Accommodate Business Neighbors: Relations between businesses are just as important as between residents in their homes and apartments. After the final voting meeting, Jessica from Homespun suggested that the farmers market offer picnic tables to its customers, as well as port-a-potties to help keep unwanted overflow foot traffic out of the Towne Crier Cafe.
[EDIT: 5/13/2019] Port-a-Potties Already At Both Markets: What was not discussed at either workshop or the final voting period was that each market has had a port-a-potty at their market, for a total of two port-a-potties. The Beacon Flea has a port-a-potty at its market behind the gas station. That was how 2018 went, and how it was proposed that 2019 go. However, the proposal that the farmers market put forth was not published onto the City of Beacon’s website on the Agenda page that contains supporting documents (like letters, draft legal documents, etc.). Otherwise, we would have reviewed it for this article and could have seen that port-a-potties were already included in the 2019 year.
PS: The only reason we know about the port-a-potties is because after the original publishing of this article, a new business in town reached out to us because they wanted the bathroom foot traffic, and saw a port-a-potty as a marketing opportunity. So we unintentionally learned a little bit more about the bathroom situation.
Pictured below is the current signage at the DMV parking lot:
