The solar canopies at the Crescent City Harbor could house produce vendors at the local farmers market next summer. File photo: Jessica Cejnar

After a season that saw a change in layout and a decrease in vendors due to COVID-19, Rural Human Services is considering moving the Crescent City Farmers Market from the fairgrounds to the harbor next year.

Angel Hanson, who became market manager two weeks before it was supposed to start last summer, submitted a letter to the Crescent City Harbor District Board of Directors on Tuesday stating the nonprofit organization was looking for a “fresh new look” and was hoping to attract more patrons.

Hanson also hopes to attract more vendors and get a head start on the 2021 season. She plans to send applications to artisans, farmers and others in April, have them collected by May and begin the season on June 5, 2021.

Hanson also envisions placing fliers in local hotels letting visitors know about the farmers market.

“With the harbor doing all of its updates and constantly keeping it clean and keeping the grass mowed and the new solar panels and everything, I think it’s going to bring more business for the harbor,” she told the Wild Rivers Outpost on Wednesday. “When people are over there doing their shopping at the farmers market, they’re more apt to say, ‘Let’s go over to Fisherman’s and grab something to eat.’ ‘There’s an art gallery, let’s check it out.’ Hopefully they’ll patronize other businesses that are there also.”

In addition to starting a week later than anticipated last summer, Hanson said RHS had to get its layout plan approved by the state fire marshal since California owns the facility. It then had to be approved by the Del Norte County Public Health Branch because of the pandemic, she said.

Then there were challenges with traffic from Java Hutt as well as other vendors and activities at the fairgrounds, Hanson said.

“They wouldn’t let us know having some sort of a rabbit show that had traffic going through,” she said. “Then we had the fire in Gasquet and we had to close because they had all the emergency evacuees over there. It seemed like every other weekend we ran into difficulties with either the layout or them having some sort of things going on when they would put vendors in the parking lot. It blocked off half our parking lot and yet we’re paying.”

Along with her letter to harbor commissioners, Hanson included a potential layout for the market. She proposed using the green space along U.S. 101 for artisans, housing the hot food vendors in a corner of the inner boat basin parking lot and produce purveyors underneath the port’s newly-installed solar canopies.

Hanson told commissioners that it’ll be easier for vendors to stake their canopies into the grass, making them better able to withstand the wind. For farmers selling produce, the solar panels will protect their veggies, she said, adding that the green energy development goes with the way the growers do things.

At the harbor district’s Tuesday meeting, Board President Brian Stone asked Carol White and Rick Shepherd to work with Hanson to help determine if the port would take a percentage of the sales from each vendor and whether they would have a choice of using the grass or the paved parking lot. Insurance requirements will also be an issue White and Shepherd will help Hanson with.

Last summer, due to COVID-19, the farmers market had to change its layout, making sure there was one way in and one way out.

According to Hanson, in previous years the Crescent City Farmers Market would attract 84 vendors. Last summer the market averaged about 32 vendors each week, Hanson estimated. The decrease had to do with a change in insurance requirements as well as COVID, she said. Hanson hopes that getting insurance information and application packets to vendors earlier will help answer their questions.

“Regardless of whether they’re at the harbor or at the fairgrounds, they still need to be informed,” she said.

According to Hanson’s letter, she’s looking into displaying a banner that would advertise the market to north and southbound traffic on U.S. 101 near the harbor. She said she also hopes to be added as a tourist destination to the Crescent City Visitors Bureau as a way to draw a bigger crowd.

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