THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Friday, September 20, 1996 TAG: 9609190162
SECTION: VIRGINIA BEACH BEACON PAGE: 04 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY MARK YOUNG, STAFF WRITER
LENGTH: 85 lines
Amid a groundswell of concern over its future, the city's charred Farmer's Market will host the 23rd annual Neptune Festival's Country Fair Day events this weekend.
Only a portion of the market's 20-year-old wooden structure survived an as-yet unexplained fire Aug. 22. Workers have cleared the fire's debris, areas have been repaved and water and power have been restored. Tents will be provided to allow vendors to sell their wares as the fair goes on from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Saturday and Sunday.
A group of citizens will be out in force this weekend at the fair and elsewhere trying to gather signatures on a petition calling for the city to rebuild the market on its current site at Dam Neck and Princess Anne roads.
June Poole, a longtime Farmer's Market customer, is helping lead the effort.
``They've hired an out-of-town consultant who doesn't know the heart of this area,'' she said of the city's deliberations over the market's future. ``He's telling the city they can make a lot of money. In the long run, I believe there are a lot of other important things, too.''
Poole said hundreds of signatures already have been gathered, and this weekend volunteers from the Key Clubs at Salem and Kempsville high schools will be seeking signatures at shopping centers in the Kempsville, Lynnhaven and Salem Lakes areas.
Although the Farmer's Market has not been specifically threatened with extinction recently, as far back as 1992 some questioned the value of continuing the city-subsidized operation. A task force that grew out of those concerns completed its report in 1995, recommending that the market be maintained and that a long-range plan be developed for expanding it into a rural heritage resource center.
In recent years, the market has gained a secondary life as a community center, hosting about 450 people at Friday night hoedowns and 200 for Saturday night line dancing.
Louis Cullipher, the city's agriculture director, issued a report Sept. 10 to the City Council outlining the city's three options on the market: discontinue it, rebuild it on the current site or rebuild it on a new site. Cullipher's report recommends rebuilding an expanded market at a more spacious site.
The reports suggests that if rebuilt at its current site, the facility ``would be able to generate some additional rental and fee revenues,'' but ``some General Fund support for operations would need to be continued.'' The market would remain a city-subsidized project, as would a market built at a new site, the report states.
Cullipher recommends that the city look for a possible new site of about 40 acres within the nearby, city-owned Lake Ridge property. The report suggests the expanded facility, called ``Farmpark,'' could be co-located with an equestrian center.
Cullipher's report notes that the current property might be sold for as much as $2.5 million. Though building at a new site would require an expenditure of $1.2 million more in construction costs than rebuilding at the current site, the report suggests a majority of the costs would be offset by additional rental and fee revenues.
The City Council is not expected to make a decision on the market for several months.
Meanwhile, this weekend's events at the Farmer's Market promise to be as folksy and fun as in past years with country music and the smell of barbecue in the air. Live country music will be featured on the surviving Center Circle stage each day, and from 3 to 5 p.m. everyone is invited to join the country line dancing.
Nearby, the Creeds Ruritan Club will purvey its home-grown pork barbecue. Those who prefer their pigs still squealing will get a kick out of the Hoggard Family Farm's pig petting. Giving urban youngsters access to barnyard creatures is also the province of the 4-H Club's petting zoo and exhibits. Urbanites and country cousins alike get to enjoy the Fun Barn where a variety of children's activities will be offered.
``We've got a Hay Jump, Simulated Cow Milking, Farm Animal Coloring and all the fun things we can think of between now and then,'' says Farmer's Market secretary Phyllis Franklin. MEMO: For more information about Country Fair Day, call the Farmer's
Market at 427-4395. ILLUSTRATION: Staff photos by D. KEVIN ELLIOTT
ABOVE: Ed Rogers, left, Baron Sorrell, Anthony Bailey and Jelani
Simba of Affordable Tent Rental Co. raise a tent at the Farmer's
Market site Tuesday.
LEFT: Louis Cullipher, the city's agriculture director, prepares to
unload Beachy the cow for this weekend's Country Fair Day. by CNB