Fate of Greenwood farmers market in question
A Greenwood farmers market’s fate is uncertain, but board members don’t want park renovations to oust them from the building they’ve been in since the 1980s.
The Greenwood County Farmers Market is housed in a building at 1612 S.C. Highway 72/221, between the American Legion baseball field and the Wilbanks Sports Complex.
Work is planned this year under the Capital Project Sales Tax at the sports complex, and initial design proposals suggested taking the farmers market out of its building and out onto an open lawn. The building would be used to house the park’s maintenance staff, but when the farmers market board caught wind their vendors would be out of a covered building and selling on the grass, they made their displeasure heard.
“It’s just kind of befuzzling to me that whoever the company was that came up with this design didn’t consider the farmers market,” said Carroll Culbertson, a farmers market board member who has been involved since its early years. “I mean there’s a big sign out there that says ‘Farmer’s Market’ and it’s the biggest building out there.”
Culbertson said the Greenwood County Farmers Market started in 1975 after the Clemson University extension office pushed for Greenwood and Abbeville county residents to start a local farmers market. It gained momentum over the years. Eventually, Greenwood County helped the farmers market put up the building the market has been hosted in ever since.
About $9.6 million in county funds and capital project sales tax dollars are going toward renovating the adjacent Wilbanks Complex, including putting in new ball fields, pickleball courts, restrooms, concession areas, walking paths and green spaces. CPST coordinator Josh Skinner said if the county can get the project out to bid soon, construction could start this summer.
The initial design concepts shared with the public in mid-January, designed by McMillan Pazdan Smith Architecture, proposed housing maintenance in the farmers market building and putting the market under tents on a lawn.
“I’ve got closer places to home to sell my goods if I want to sell out in the dirt,” said market board member Diane Lee at a meeting Wednesday.
The farmers market is used by vendors to sell their produce, but it’s also a site for senior food voucher federal nutritional assistance programs, Susie Culbertson said. The building is used as event space for the annual Greenwood County Sheriff’s Office deer supper, among other club events.
“It’s not just a farmers market, it’s a resource,” she said. “And it’s ideal to have it here with the sports complex because the farmers market is a cornerstone for those people eating healthy.”
At Wednesday’s board meeting, the members spoke with county councilmen Robbie Templeton — who serves as chairman for the committee that will suggest a final design for the site’s upgrades — and Theo Lane. County Manager Toby Chappell, Skinner and Parks and Recreation Director Brad Cuttill also attended.
“The concerning part to me was that somebody had to meet with this planning group. … I don’t see how they missed the farmers market,” Carroll Culbertson said.
Templeton said the design team was made aware of the farmers market prior to their designs. He said a committee was formed to handle the CPST parks renovations more than two years ago, and although they gathered a group of stakeholders for the park site, it did not include a representative of the farmers market.
“Carroll’s right, in their plan they want to move the market to an open-air market in a green space,” Templeton said. “We haven’t seen the final plan, we don’t know what’s going to be on it.”
Current maintenance storage is simply too small for the expanded park site, Cuttill said, which is why they wanted the market building. County Councilman Mark Allison, who serves on the farmers market board, said he wants the county to take that building for maintenance but wants a new building for the market.
“To stay that’s a farmers market building is a stretch. … It’s a multipurpose building is what I would say,” he said. “But I will not vote on a plan that has nothing but a green space for the farmers market.”
Allison proposed putting up a new, smaller metal building, closer to the front entrance of the Wilbanks complex, that could house the market. The board conceded that if they can’t keep their current building, they’d like a new one.
Templeton said he’d take their feedback to the design team and his committee, which in the coming days will be reviewing design plans and making a final recommendation to county council in a public hearing at 5:30 p.m. Feb. 15, at the Greenwood County Library.
Originally Published by Index-Journal on:Feb 4, 2022
By DAMIAN DOMINGUEZ ddominguez@indexjournal.com