Sumner city council considers establishing farmers co-op in Red Apple building

After seven years of vacancy, plans for the Red Apple building in Sumner may be coming to fruition. The site is set to serve as a place for local venders to sell farm fresh and artisanal products.

By Theresa De Lay • April 9, 2013 4:13 pm
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After seven years of vacancy, plans for the Red Apple building in Sumner may be coming to fruition. The site is set to serve as a place for local venders to sell farm fresh and artisanal products.

Council members Nancy Dumas and Randy Hynek are pooling their experiences in small business/retail and the community garden, respectively, to execute the plan they have been dreaming up for several years.

Countless hours have been spent in the research phase. Successful co-ops from across the country will be used as models, said Dumas.

Dumas assured residents that the co-op will reflect what the people want in a marketplace.

“The Indoor Farmer’s Market Community Co-Op will have product offerings based upon the interests and needs of the local consumer, guaranteeing a broad and ever changing range of products versus a chain stores national sales plan,” she said.

The goals of the Co-Op include:

  • Year round access to locally and organically grown produce;
  • Support for independent retailers from Sumner;
  • A local offering of distinctive artisans and entrepreneurs;
  • Job creation;
  • Farmland preservation;
  • Generation of city revenue and
  • Balancing out of tax dollars invested in the Red Apple building.

Not everyone agrees that the farmer’s market is an acceptable use of the land which the Red Apple building sits on.

City Administrator John Galle issued a memorandum on March 25 which stated that the building – built in 1958 – requires too much work for the city to implement such a project and that it may be better suited for the real estate market, which is rebounding.

“The city has received calls requesting information on the availability of the building for development. To encumber the building in this climate would be, in my estimation, a lost opportunity to the city, our downtown, and our citizens. I think a farmers market would be fabulous, but not as a burden to city resources or taxpayers.”

As it looks at the time of press, the city will continue moving towards the next steps of implementing the market co-op.

A community meeting will be held by the beginning of May to provide a forum for Sumner citizens to have direct input regarding the market. For questions and details about the project’s progression, contact sumnermarketco.op@gmail.com

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