SEQUIM — The Sequim Open Aire Market will hire a new boss, and the deadline for applications is this Friday.
Manager Mark Ozias, who’s built the market into a prosperous community gathering over the past four years, is moving on to another locally focused line of work: running a new grocery called the Red Rooster in downtown Sequim.
He and his wife, Lisa Boulware, hope to open the store at 134 ½ W. Washington St. just before spring; their soft-opening goal is set for March.
Ozias, 39, said last week that he will continue as Open Aire Market manager until Dec. 31 or until a successor comes on board.
The 20-hours-per-week manager organizes the market’s dozens of vendors, musicians and community booths and promotes the locally grown and produced nature of the event, which happens each Saturday on Cedar Street in downtown Sequim.
Annual budget
The manager also works with a $45,000 annual budget and tracks sales and vendor numbers.
The salary ranges from $14 to $20 per hour depending on experience.
Candidates with management and nonprofit development experience are preferred, and should send resumes and letters of interest by Friday to: P.O. Box 4046, Sequim 98382, or e-mail them to masima5@yahoo.com.
More information about the job is at www.SequimOpenAireMarket.com.
On Ozias’ watch, the market has turned into a bustling scene, with shoppers, children and dogs often in tow, browsing among local farmers’ stands, artists’ displays and freshly made snacks.
This year, the season has been extended past its traditional October closing, with produce and other vendors setting up from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. each Saturday.
This will go on
This will go on, Ozias said, as long as vendors and shoppers keep coming to the “Market Square” on Cedar Street between Second and Sequim avenues.
He and Boulware, meantime, are looking eagerly toward establishing an unusual market of their own.
They plan to stock locally grown foods, from fresh vegetables, fruit and grain to preserves and other products from across the Dungeness Valley. They also want to offer grab-and-go meals made with organic ingredients.
The couple moved from West Seattle to Happy Valley in 2004 to open A New Leaf, a nursery where they grow plants, vegetable starts, tomatoes and other crops.
Good glacial soil
Since then, Ozias has said, he and Boulware have discovered that this region is rich in good glacial soil, a year-round growing season and people who are hungry for local produce.
The pair envision the Red Rooster as a place to both shop and catch up with neighbors — a “community hub,” Ozias said.
Managers at two other local-food outlets, Nash’s Farm Store in Dungeness and Sunny Farms in Carlsborg, have a more-the-merrier attitude toward the forthcoming store.
“It’s about time,” somebody opened a little grocery store in downtown Sequim, said Nash’s outreach coordinator Kia Armstrong.
“The more natural foods stores the better, really.”
Sunny Farms operations manager Walt Ward added that another outlet — situated between his store and Nash’s — is likely to nourish the local economy.
“Anything that will help people buy locally is always a benefit,” he said. “We wish everybody the best.”
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Sequim-Dungeness Valley Reporter Diane Urbani de la Paz can be reached at 360-681-2391 or at diane.urbani@ peninsuladailynews.com.
