It’s official: The Lansdale Farmers Market will open June 6, in a new location and with a new set of rules.
Lansdale Borough Council unanimously approved the opening and moving of the market at its monthly business meeting, held "virtually” on Wednesday. The new location will be adjacent to Lansdale Electric, in the Ninth Street parking lot off Moyer Road.
Also included in the motion to approve was a detailed set of guidelines, submitted to council by the market’s administrators, designed to avoid crowding, promote social distancing and prevent transmission of the coronavirus.
"We are cautiously optimistic for a positive outcome,” said Carol Bailey Zellers, Lansdale Farmers Market board secretary. "We heard your concerns for public safety. We mirror those concerns, and that is why we have developed the plan before you for approval tonight.”
The revamped operational guidelines for the market include:
- In the first week at least, all goods will be preordered, prebagged and prepaid. If all goes well, the market could expand into on-site retail sales as soon as Week Two.
- Visitors will arrive by assigned time slot, arranged alphabetically by the first letter of their last name, for pickup only.
- There will be fewer vendors than in years past — 11 to start, then adding 11 more each of the next two weekends.
- Cash will be accepted on a limited basis, but without contact and with no change given; the money will just get placed in the cashbox.
- No produce or products will be on display for shoppers to touch and root through. All will be behind the counter, prepackaged and ready for sale.
"I visited two out-of-county markets this weekend,” Zellers told borough council, "and as a result, I am more confident than ever that we have developed the appropriate plan. While I am envious of those other markets’ wide-open space, I appreciate more and more how the West Ninth Street parking lot will allow us to more effectively practice crowd control.”
After the meeting, Zellers explained that those other markets "had ample opportunity to generously space in between the vendors, (but) the sites were so porous that entry for the number of people in the market was uncontrollable, and traffic patterns were in many cases non-existent.”
With a more-controlled site and situation, the Lansdale Farmers’ Market "will operate, look and feel very different this year,” Zellers said. "However, in its new format it represents a return to the essential and fundamental nature of what it means to be a farmers’ market. And that is, simply, farmers selling what they grow and food artisans selling what they craft; locally grown and nutritious, delicious, wholesome food.”
