Council delays Farmers Market

By Janet DelTufo, Assistant Editor

The planned Farmers Market in Wickenburg, originally scheduled to launch this Saturday (Oct. 25) at the Desert Caballeros Western Museum Pavilion, will be postponed one month due to an ordinance delay.

A town ordinance, or text amendment to an ordinance, does not become effective until 30 days after it is approved by the Wickenburg Town Council.

Because of a previous delay in the council reviewing a text amendment that would allow for a Farmers Market to fall under the umbrella of an accessory business, the 30-day waiting period after the approval of the ordinance would have gone beyond the planned Oct. 25 launch date.

The council earlier this week attempted to approve the ordinance on an emergency basis, which would have eliminated the 30-day waiting period, but passage under this condition requires a super majority vote of at least six council members.

Councilmen Scott Stewart and Chris Band voted no to both the approval of the Farmers Market text amendment and to voting the issue as an emergency.

“Where does this item meet the emergency standard regarding the health and safety of the community?” Stewart asked. “If we make this an emergency, then we might as well make everything an emergency.”

This was not the only issue Stewart and Band had regarding this text amendment. Stewart pointed out that when the council last year approved the accessory business ordinance, the council specifically said an accessory business would only include services and not sales of any kind including food items.

There was also an additional issue regarding sales tax and which items sold at the Farmers Market would be taxed and which items would not be taxed.

Councilwoman Kristi Henson, who is in favor of the Farmers Market, agreed that the tax issue needed more clarification. She also suggested that perhaps any item requiring taxation should be eliminated from the Farmers Market.

Royce Kardinal, who is coordinating the local Farmers Market with a professional farmers market contractor, is now working toward a Nov. 22 launch at the museum pavilion.

Kardinal can be reached at 684-2272.

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