By MELINDA J. OVERSTREET
for Glasgow News 1
After a two-week delay due to snowy weather on the originally scheduled date, city, county and state officials formally celebrated Tuesday the beginning of construction of a local year-round farmers market facility in Glasgow.
The 3,600-square-foot facility is to occupy land owned by the City of Glasgow along West Main Street, between the post office and the future site of a Barren County justice center. The funds are coming from agriculture grants from the state and three counties that are home to vendors and matching funds from the city.
Mayor Henry Royse, who acted as emcee for the event, welcomed Warren Beeler, deputy commissioner of agriculture for the commonwealth, as a special guest. Other speakers included Courtney Deaton, operations officer, and Dylan Baker, CEO, from Concentric Corp. of America, parent company of Staco Construction Inc., the primary contractor for the project; Griffin Botts, executive director of Sustainable Glasgow, the nonprofit organization that manages Bounty of the Barrens Farmers Market; Sarah Shirley, past president and current vice president of Sustainable Glasgow’s board of directors as well as a market vendor. Several others involved in the project were introduced throughout the course of the celebration as well.
Royse said everyone there was a celebrity because they had interest in what was happening in one form or another.
In this design rendering of the future farmers market facility in Glasgow shows the end that is to face West Main Street as well as the porch side, which will have four garage-type doors.
Deaton and Baker briefly expressed gratitude for the opportunity to be involved in the project and the latter provided props to the mayor and Jim McGowan, city engineer, and to David Aldana, chief engineer for Concentric.
Botts said that when he joined the organization roughly 18 months ago, the first thing every vendor asked was when they were getting their building, so his mission was clear, and he was thrilled to learn that Royse and his administration felt the same way – “that farmers and small businesses across Barren County are worth investing in.”
“The expanding access to fresh, local fruits, vegetables, meat, eggs and dairy are critical to not only feeding our families but fueling our economy here at home and ensuring that the American agricultural dream is alive and well across Glasgow,” Botts continued.
He added thanks to Royse, to the city’s grant writer, April Russell and to McGowan as well, to make sure they could secure the funding and that the project is managed properly; to the agriculture development boards of Barren, Allen and Hart counties, which put in $70,000, $10,000 and $2,500, respectively, and the state officials who approved the $250,000 agriculture development grant; and to the board, patrons and other members of the community who worked in various ways to make this happen. He gave a “special shoutout” to Brandi Button, the previous executive director, and her husband, Josh Johnson, longtime market manager, for their longstanding efforts toward this goal and all they’ve done for the organization, the farmers and the community.
When Sustainable Glasgow started more than 15 years ago, Botts said, the founders wanted to see “a resilient agricultural ecosystem, a flourishing economy, and an environmentally and socially conscious community that promoted sustainable living in a collaborative spirit, one that brought folks together to pull Glasgow in a positive direction. I think this is a monumental step in fulfilling that purpose, and as I look out and see my 10-month-old son …, I’m definitely excited to see how we can continue to build these things for our kids.”
He concluded by saying he hoped to see everyone who was there one Saturday morning soon supporting the farmers market.
Sustainable Glasgow’s president, Jeff Bruce, was in the audience but had deferred to Shirley, who has been involved with the market from the beginning.
“I don’t think anybody is excited to be here today as much as I am,” Shirley said. “I am sooo excited.”
She said that Growing Boys Farm, her business, has been at the market since her boys were babies, and now they’re grown and have families of their own.
“I don’t know how many of you all have farmed. It’s not a easy job, and if you have farmed and then loaded all your stuff in a truck – your tables, your tents and your toddlers – and driven to town and met the community and sold your stuff, also not real easy, but we are so thankful and so blessed to have this job. It is the best job ever,” Shirley said.
She said that once this facility is open, she won’t ever have to haul and set up tents and tables again or stand out in the rain or heat or cold to sell her wares.
She expressed gratitude for the support of those who show up to buy things at the market in all kinds of weather, and her voice began cracking with emotion as she continued her thanks to those who provided financial support.
“Welcome to Bounty of the Barrens’ new home,” Shirley said.
Royse said he could feel the excitement in the air.
“We’re finally here. We’re finally here,” the mayor said.
Beeler, a lifelong advocate of agriculture with a 220-acre livestock farm in Caneyville and an adjunct instructor of agriculture for Western Kentucky University, his alma mater, congratulated Glasgow and Barren County on the progress of the project.
“I am proud for you as anybody could be from the standpoint of that,” Beeler said.
“You know, the whole world has kind of figured out with this local food thing that there’s a difference between eating out of the can and eating out of the garden, and once you find it, you just get there and come back and come back and come back,” the deputy ag commissioner said.
He said the commonwealth now has 170 farmers markets in 112 counties.
He explained a little history of how the states’ came to receive funds from the tobacco industry through a legal settlement and said Kentucky was the only state of 46 that that had the right people in the right place who put half of those funds into healthcare and half into agriculture – more than $800 million into agriculture, he said. Barren County gets the most funds of any county because, historically, it has been a huge producer of tobacco.
Beeler said that while the primary use of this new facility has to be the farmers market, because it’s a requirement of the grants.
“But when it’s not being used as a farmers market, you take this building and you use it for everything that Glasgow and Barren County can use it for; it’s a community building,” he said.
A ceremonial pitching of shovelsful of earth took place after the speakers wrapped up their remarks.
Glasgow News 1 asked Baker and Aldana about the timeline for the project.
Aldana said that October had been the targeted time for completion, but, not entirely unexpectedly, they found some issues with the soil on part of the site in terms of ensuring the compaction rate needed that created a bit of a delay, so now they’re thinking it may not be ready until November.
“So let’s say by the end of the year,” he said.
Baker said the area where the tent was set up and several cars had parked for Tuesday’s event would be the parking area for the facility, while another area just to the west would be the footprint of the building.
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