Waterville farmer’s market will have a new home in the spring of this year, right in the middle of a nice quiet park in midtown with hardly any parking. The first question to be asked is, do the organizers of the farmer’s market just want to invite pedestrians to shop?
Or do those who made the decision to locate the market in Castonguay Square think customers will drive around downtown trying to find a parking space within three or four blocks to shop at the market? It is quite easy to forecast that fewer visitors will be willing to search for parking when the market is relocated to Castonguay Square.
A better plan that would encourage more shoppers coming downtown in cars to the farmer’s market, would be to locate the market in Head of Falls Park where there is a great number of underutilized parking spaces all along a nice, long paved drive. And, there is adequate space for the vendors to park their vehicles along the grassy area.
Head of Falls is a perfect location for both pedestrians and those coming to the market in cars. So what could the farmer’s market planners possibly have in mind to bring the market into a nice grassy park downtown with vendors trucks on the grass or parked in the street blocking parking and confusing drivers on how to go around onto Front Street, where there is no parking.
Hanne Tierney, who with her husband, Dan, owns Cornerstone Farm, doesn’t like the idea of having the market in Head of Falls. While some people consider Head of Falls as part of downtown, Tierney does not. (Looks like part of the downtown to me in the photo above).
Now is the time to contact Charlie Giguere, president of Waterville Main Street Telephone (207) 680-2055 and insist that the market not be located in Castonguay Park.
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