At Monday night’s Athens City Council meeting, the Athens Farmers Market held a presentation to request a permanent place for their business.
To get their market up and running, Ann Fugate, at-large board member of the market and partial owner of Rich Gardens Organic Farm, said she needs five to seven acres of land to work with.
“We need a permanent place, pipes and plumbing, paving, parking, power and potties,” Fugate said.
With 102 current vendors and another 50 on the waiting list, Maureen Burns-Hooker, another at-large board member of the market and owner of Herbal Sage Tea Company, said the farmers market is an important resource in Athens.
The market is currently facing some dispute with the University Mall on East State Street — whom they share the parking lot with — because of the amount of space they take up on Saturdays.
Burns-Hooker and Fugate said that keeping their market on East State Street would require them to move down the street and sacrifice parking availability for consumers.
“Just give us a big, grassy place and we’ll get going; we want to be able to plan our future,” Burns-Hooker said.
Councilwoman Chris Fahl, D-4th Ward, added that expanding the farmers market from five to seven acres could take several years, noting that it’s a “multi-step process.”
After discussing the farmers market, some local residents voiced their concerns about the overpopulation of deer in Athens County.
Chris Smith, assistant wildlife management supervisor for the Ohio Department of Natural Resources’ Southeast Ohio district, has been looking for a method of controlling the overpopulation of deer.
“Wildlife populations are not an exact science. You use years of data to establish a trend,” Smith said. “I don’t know if there is something that we can immediately put our hands on.”
To prevent deer from destroying gardens and plants, Smith suggested using landscape with plants that deer are not attracted to — such as irises and dandelions —, building electric fences or even taking up archery.
“I can get about six feet away before they start to stamp at me,” said Michele Papai, D-3rd ward. “They are not scared at all.”
Smith suggested that City Council issue a citywide survey about deer problems to try and find out how to stop deer from getting into the city.
However, Jeff Risner, D-2nd ward, said that he is concerned that the survey results would be inconclusive because people who are affected will respond and those that aren’t will not.
“Statistically it wouldn’t have any validity at all,” Risner said. “If I don’t have a problem I won’t fill out the form.”
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