PORT ANGELES — A new outdoor market is coming to Port Angeles’ downtown on Sundays.
The Port Angeles Community Market will be “European-style” and will include not only fresh produce from farmers, but also the opportunity for artisans, businesses, clubs and others to set up a booth, co-organizer Mimi Smith-Dvorak said.
The weekly market will also be themed — starting off with “Non-Profit Day” this weekend.
The Sunday market will run from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. in the Clallam Transit lanes adjacent to The Gateway at Front and Lincoln streets.
Smith-Dvorak and Aric Mackey, her co-organizer, said they wanted to have a Sunday market to take advantage of the open street when Clallam Transit doesn’t run.
“I wanted to have something that was inclusive to everyone,” Smith-Dvorak said.
She said that she was briefly involved in the Port Angeles Farmers Market before she decided to start up another one because she wanted to expand to include all sorts of businesses.
For example, on “Kid Day” which is upcoming, she hopes to bring in a bicycle mechanic to help repair bikes at a low cost.
She said she also hopes to have a “Pet Day” in which a pet parade might be called for.
Port Angeles Farmers Market board member Betsy Wharton, a City Council member and Port Angeles’ deputy mayor, said the market had no comment.
The Port Angeles Farmers Market is at The Gateway on Wednesday afternoons and in the parking lot of the Clallam County Courthouse on Saturdays.
‘Not the same thing’
“It isn’t the same thing as we are doing — it’s something totally different — and so we have no comment,” Wharton said of the community market.
The first Port Angeles Community Market day will be in coordination with this weekend’s Arts in Action festival, Mackey said.
“We’ve worked with Arts in Action, and some of the overflow from the vendors on the pier will probably join us,” Mackey said.
The city of Port Angeles issued a permit which runs through Nov. 15 to the market Wednesday night, said Sue Roberds, planning manager.
The market has the capacity for up to 75 vendors, Mackey said.
Both Mackey and Smith-Dvorak said they hope to build up to that.
“I am hopeful that organizations can use this to get their names out there and recruit people or that the Humane Society can come out with animals to adopt,” Smith-Dvorak said.
Smith-Dvorak said she goes to farmers markets throughout the region, including the Port Angeles and the Port Townsend markets.
“What we want to do is have a community street market,” she said.
“I have read in many places that street vendors are the fastest-growing business area, and I truly believe that it is local business startups that will get us out of this current economic condition,” she said.
Mackey said he is hopeful the market can also draw out businesses that locals might not be aware of.
Said Smith-Dvorak: “We want people with things that aren’t readily available, like tomatoes. They are really hard to find around here. I’d love to have someone come over with some tomatoes.
“And I’ve been looking all over the place for a knife-sharpener, because that is something a lot of people need but can’t always readily find.”
For more information, vendor costs and applications visit www.portangelesmarket.com or phone Smith-Dvorak at 360-417-0386 or Mackey at 360-450-3580.
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Reporter Paige Dickerson can be reached at 360-417-3535 or at paige.dickerson@peninsuladaily
news.com.
