Lansdale Gives Preliminary OK to Moving Farmers' Market to Ninth Street

Bruce Schwartz•

The award-winning Lansdale Farmers' Market will likely open next month — in a scaled-down version and in a new location.

The borough's Public Safety Committee voted at Wednesday’s virtual council work session to recommend that Borough Council allow the market to operate at the Ninth Street parking lot off Moyer Road adjacent to Lansdale Electric early next month.

Full council will vote at the May 20 business meeting. But judging by sentiments expressed Wednesday, passage seems assured. The market was forced to find a new location after the North Penn School District locked down all its properties, including Penndale Middle School, the market’s home the past few years, due to the continuing COVID-19 pandemic.

Target opening day would be June 6.

Farmers markets are considered essential services under Pennsylvania’s emergency restrictions regarding the coronavirus. And the Lansdale Farmers' Market "has a very detailed plan in place to avoid gatherings and use social distancing, to protect all participants,” said Lansdale Police Chief Michael Trail Wednesday. "I don’t see that there is a rational thought to deny them, except that Borough Council would have to allow them to use borough-owned property.”

"I think that it’s important that we try to make this work,” said councilman B.J. Breish. "I think a lot of people rely on this resource.”

The market’s proposal to council maps out a means of mitigating any close contact or crowds. At least to start, all goods would be preordered, prebagged and prepaid; shoppers would arrive by time slot, alphabetically by the first letter of their last name, for pickup only. At the beginning, there also will be fewer vendors than in years past — 11 to start, then adding 11 more each of the next two weekends.

"What we’re proposing on Day One is preorder and prepay,” said Carol Bailey Zellers, Lansdale Farmers' Market board secretary. "But we did make a cash exception — some vendors just don’t take cards, and only accept cash, and some customers only pay with cash. It’s all no-change-given, just put your money in the cashbox.”

"We are very mindful about being classified as a life-essential business,” Zellers said. "And one of the things we’re striving to do with this model is to practice social distancing at the highest level.”

If the first week goes well, Zellers said that the market hopes to add retail sales as early as Week Two. "We want to transition to retail sales as soon as is reasonably possible,” she said, "because the opening-day model is not encouraging to many customers, and while we’re worried about safety, we’re also worried about keeping these vendors in business.”

On-site sales would also look quite different, Zellers said. Instead of tables full of fresh produce and products for customers to peruse, "It will be an empty table in the front, and samples of what the vendor has to offer behind them.”

"Consumers will not be able to buy one or two apples at a time,” she said. ”They will be able to buy a bag of their favorite brand, and those bags would be packaged in inventory.”

Throughout the season, hand-washing stations would be available, and face masks would be required as dictated by health officials, she said. "The market that we know and love doesn’t exist in 2020. The market that customers can come to is a stripped-down version.”

Council Vice-President Mary Fuller voiced some concern about the transition to retail sales. "I want the Farmers' Market to happen. I want good food to get into the hands of people who need and want it. I want to support these local businesspeople,” she said.

"But on the other side, I worry that if it looks like we’re condoning letting people gather, I want to be very careful," she said. "On paper, the way it’s laid out, it doesn’t look like it should be an issue. But I want to tread carefully between Weeks One and Two. If it goes as well or better than expected and everybody is comfortable with it, then I feel fine.”

"We know we have the best vendors of any market in the area,” Zellers said. "We also believe we have the smartest customers, and we know this is a beloved market, and we are going to enlist their support.”

Councilwoman Carrie Hawkins Charlton noted that North Penn Little League, which uses the ball fields adjacent to the Lansdale Electric lot, often fills those parking spaces during the season. And while no decision has been made about having a 2020 season, Charlton, who is a Little League board member, said, "I think everyone's hopeful for July, August, maybe September. ... If the market stays there, it could be pretty chaotic."

Added Borough Manager John Ernst, "There may be a time where we'll have to manage overlapping events in that parking lot."