Wrangell is set to have its first community market in May, giving residents the opportunity to purchase Alaskan-made or manufactured goods including locally grown vegetables, homemade pottery and crafts and possibly fresh seafood.
Markets will take place every third Saturday of the month beginning May 19 and could continue through September.
The market steering committee – a group of community volunteers and members of city and Wrangell Medical Center (WMC) staff— held a public meeting Feb. 8 to generate input on the possibility of beginning the markets in Wrangell.
Nearly a dozen people attended with about half saying they were interested in selling goods at the future markets. Market committee members discussed possibly charging vendors a minimal fee of no more than $5 in order to advertise and manage the markets.
Father Thomas Weise, pastor of St. Rose of Lima Catholic Church in Wrangell, said he would be willing to pay the vendor fee in order to sell his pottery. The markets would help local crafters expose their work, he said.
“The real truth is, we don’t have a place to market our goods without something like this,” he said. “We’re selling to our friends or a neighbor or at a garage sale. We’re just really not getting it out there, and this would give us a lot more exposure.”
A location for the markets has not been finalized, but those at the meeting agreed to pursue using the covered play area outside the elementary school. If weather was bad enough to prevent the market from taking place outdoors, the vendors could possibly move inside to the elementary school gym, the committee decided.
The Wrangell Parks and Recreation Board has yet to approve the market’s use of the outdoor space. However, Parks and Rec Board member Carly Allen said at the meeting she doubted approval would be a problem.
Last year, WMC received a grant to study the feasibility of having a community market in Wrangell. The city, which administered the grant, put out community surveys asking residents if they would be interested in buying or selling goods at a community market.
Amber Al-Haddad, projects manager for the City and Borough of Wrangell Public Works Department, said 67 people responded to the consumer survey and 14 people responded to the producer survey. That was a good response for Wrangell, she said.
“I think there is a lot of potential in Wrangell,” Al-Haddad said at the meeting. “I think it’s just a matter of getting people interested, and I think consistency is the biggest thing.”
Having a market at the same place at the same time every month will be key to the market’s success, she said. That will give possible vendors confidence there will be a place to consistently sell their items, Al-Haddad said.
“As long as we know we have a place that, rain or shine, we know that this community market will happen,” she said.
Katherine Ivy, a local gardener and community volunteer whose efforts have helped moved the markets forward, agreed consistency the first year will help future markets in Wrangell grow.
“I hope if we start small, folks don’t get discouraged,” Ivy said. “But, I think as long as we are there, and we are consistently there, that it will build and grow.”
Ivy also said she didn’t want possible vendors being discouraged if they only have a small number of items to sell at markets. For those vendors who might not be able to occupy an entire table, Ivy suggested having shared tables at the markets.
Vendors, however, may need to receive the necessary permitting required by federal and state laws in order to sell their goods at the market. Items like homemade pies or jams or homegrown herbs and vegetables can be sold in Alaska without a permit. However, the sale of fresh seafood, which those at the meeting agreed would help draw customers to the market, would require a permit.
Individuals with a commercial fishing permit can sell some seafood if they do so from their boat, but an additional permit is necessary in order to take that seafood and sell it at a different location, Ivy explained at the meeting.
Community markets are tentatively scheduled for 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. If markets become popular, committee members said the time could be extended by a couple of hours. Those details will hopefully be worked out through trial and error, committee members said.
“Really, we see this as an evolving project,” said Al-Haddad. “This year, we want this to kind of be our pilot year. Let’s see what works.”
The community market steering committee plans to hold another public meeting by the end of March to finalize market plans. A date and time has not been scheduled yet for that meeting.
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