In 2006, the Couer d’Alene downtown area wasn’t the bustling center of commerce that it is today. Instead, many of the buildings weren’t in operation and proprietors had trouble gettting customers.
According to Emily Boyd—the executive director of the Coeur d’Alene Downtown Association, That’s when the Coeur d’Alene Downtown Association had an idea: they would ask the already thriving Kootenai County Farmer’s Market Association (KCFMA) in Hayden to host another market in the downtown area. This would help the downtown businesses—whom the Downtown Association represent—get new customers.
The Downtown Association set out to get the requisite permits from the City so the two would be able to host the event legally.
For more than a decade, the arrangement was beneficial to both organizations. However, a couple years ago, it became apparent that costs were rising more rapidly than the association was able to deal with under the current agreement. For example, the association has to pay for cleaning up garbage, a portable bathroom unit, street setup, etc.
One way the Association thought to fix the problem was to allow downtown brick-and-mortar businesses to make money on the event directly.
However, this solution didn’t allow the KCFMA to stay true to its mission. The Market is committed to being a place where farmers who don’t have storefronts can sell their goods according to KCFMA Director Susi Faville (a member of KCFMA’s board of directors). Obviously this wouldn’t include downtown storefront owners.
Thus, the Downtown Association decided to part ways with KCFMA. Nevertheless, the Downtown Association appreciate the relationship they had with KCFMA. According to Boyd, “We actually really wanted to continue working with [KCFMA] and wanted to work out an agreement, but without either organization kind of going against their mission or making accommodations it wasn’t going to work.”
As it retained the license for the Downtown location, the Association decided to start its own market, which kicked off Wednesday. While the Downtown Association is hosting it’s own market, Boyd doesn’t see it as a direct competition with KCFMA, but rather an outgrowth of a growing community: “I think it’s gotten so big and we just had a market yesterday and there were so many people down here for the beginning of May, our vendors were selling out of product. And so I hope their market is going to help because we don’t necessarily want our market flooded with thousands and thousands of people. Coeur d’Alene can support two markets and they’re both going to bring something fantastic. Speaking on behalf of my board, I think it’s going to be fine and both markets are going to be wonderful.”
KCFMA was able to obtain a new location in the Riverstone area. The organizers are very excited about the opportunity the new location offers according to Faville: “They got the permit before we did, so we moved. We are very happy to move to Riverstone. They have been very welcoming. After 17 years at 5th and Sherman, we have a large following and are thrilled with the overwhelming public support for our market. Our entire cadre of vendors, including farmers and ranchers, bakers, honey people, food producers and hand produced juried crafts, is moving with us.”
Ultimately, both parties seem happy about the direction that they are moving forward in, even if it’s not same as it has been for almost two decades.
UPDATE Friday, May 12 10:55 PM
While the KCFMA is looking forward to a great future, Faville expressed some concern for the way the Market was forced to move: “In the past, we paid the [Downtown Association] half the cost of permits and quite an additional sum to help with their expenses. We provided help to remove the barricades at the end of market (they said they had to pay overtime) and I’m not that sure the streets were left so bad that they had large expenses for street cleanup. We paid for insurance, our managers, all advertising, etc/ in addition to half the permit fee. This year, the Kootenai market was fully prepared to shoulder the entire cost of permits from the city, amounting to over $5,000. We were willing to run the entire market ourselves and when we went to apply for the permit, found out the DTA had secured the permit with the intention of hosting their own market.”
