Planting new seeds

Hines takes aggressive stand on farmers market

When Oct. 31 rolls around, the Rogers Farmers Market will sell its last produce at the city-owned land at First and Walnut in downtown Rogers.

Mayor Greg Hines has uprooted it, leaving a sour taste among supporters of the nonprofit organization that has operated the market since 1985.

Hines notified farmers market manager Kimberly Scott near the end of September that the city would not renew the organization’s permission to operate on the city-owned lot after its 2015 season concludes.

“They are not going to be the market that the city allows [to use] public property for them to operate on,” Hines said. “They haven’t been performing to the standard that the citizens prefer. We have not seen any movement to enhance their standards.”

Why would Hines dismantle a mainstay of downtown Rogers now?

It’s all part of the movement to revitalize downtown. Residents want a better farmers market, according to consultants hired by the city to revamp downtown.

Apparently, in Hines’ judgment, the solution is a clean slate, clearing out the old to create something new. Main Street Rogers, bolstered by start-up funding from city taxpayers, has begun making plans to open a new farmers market in 2016. The amount of the city’s subsidy to Main Street, which already operates with $60,000 in city funding, has not been determined.

Scott, who criticized the city as uncooperative in the farmers market’s efforts to grow, has pledged to find a new, private location for the farmers market she has managed for the last 14 years. Is this good for Rogers? Mayor Hines, by taking such heavy-handed action, has essentially committed to a course with a promise that the new version of the farmers market will be better for a downtown area city leaders are trying to breathe new life into.

The longtime farmers market has never reached its potential, and even supporters have complained that it needed to improve. Scott says the city hasn’t been cooperative. Perhaps, but what’s undeniable if a farmers market is going to grow is the need for city support. Without it, the potential will never be realized.

Downtown Rogers has a lot going on these days, with a commitment of the city to inspire a more vibrant level of economic and social activity in a part of the city that hasn’t thrived for years. Sometimes it takes shaking things up before real progress can begin.

Will Main Street Rogers be successful? Nobody knows at this point, and it’s a risk. Hines and Main Street officials have taken on the challenge of a bigger, better farmers market.

Will the seeds they’ve planted produce a farmers market that will exceed what’s been happening in recent years? It’s too soon to tell, but it’s a bold step in the right direction for aggressive change.