Home

Steamboat Springs — There is room for compromise between Mainstreet Steamboat Springs and a handful of its members who want to ban crafts vendors from downtown's summertime farmers market.

Requiring crafts vendors to sell only handmade products they manufacture themselves could be an important step toward such a compromise, as could raising vendor fees for booths that sell nonfood products. But banning crafts vendors all together or otherwise jeopardizing the future of the farmers market would be short-sighted and detrimental to most downtown Steamboat merchants.

The issue arose recently after a group of about 15 downtown businesses signed a petition to the board of Mainstreet Steamboat Springs demanding that nonfood vendors be immediately banned from the Saturday farmers market. According to the petition, the businesses are concerned that the vendors don't pay property taxes, don't bear the expense of maintaining a storefront and sidewalks, and don't support local charitable and civic organizations.

What vendors do pay is $35 a week for a 10-by-10 space. That fee also covers advertising, live music and trash containers. Vendors are required to pay sales taxes to the city, and the vendor fees are a major fundraiser for Mainstreet Steamboat Springs (to the tune of $12,000 this summer alone; Mainstreet's annual operating budget is $130,000).

Mainstreet Steamboat Springs' mission is to preserve, promote and enhance downtown Steamboat. To that end, the farmers market - from 8 a.m. to 2 p.m. Saturdays from mid-June to the end of August - adds vitality and pedestrian traffic to our downtown shopping district.

There's no doubt the farmers market has increased in popularity since its creation four years ago. This year's markets have attracted 50 vendors each Saturday, compared to just 15 in 2004. The mix of vendors is improving, too. Where crafts vendors used to consistently outnumber food vendors, the percentages have evened this summer.

And although at least 15 businesses have expressed concerns about the farmers market, others readily acknowledge that the markets have generated increased business on Saturdays.

It's not uncommon for Mainstreet organizations and local chambers of commerce to encounter resistance from some of their members concerning certain programs. But the bottom line is that Mainstreet Steamboat Springs exists to attract people to the downtown corridor, and the farmers market increasingly has proven it can accomplish that goal. It would be an impossible task to organize and attract events that don't create competition issues for one business sector or another. However, it's hard to argue that putting more feet on downtown sidewalks doesn't create more sales opportunities for all businesses.