Published in the May 24, 2017 edition

By MARK SARDELLA

WAKEFIELD – The Wakefield Farmers Market has refused a request from a Wakefield business to participate in the weekly market, and many in the community as well as several members of the Board of Selectmen aren’t happy about it.
The Bread Shop, a popular bakery located at 411 Main St., applied in early May to have a table at the weekly Wakefield Farmers Market this summer but their application was denied by market co-manager Wendy Dennis.
Margaret Shimek, co-owner of The Bread Shop, said yesterday that she was disappointed after applying to be part of the market in early May.
“We went through all the proper steps to be accepted,” she said, only to be “shockingly denied.”
The issue came to a head at Monday’s Board of Selectmen’s meeting, where Dennis was present to ask the board to renew the Farmers Market’s license for 2017. The Wakefield Farmers Market runs on Saturdays from June to October at Hall Park on North Avenue.
Selectman Edward Dombroski asked Dennis to reconsider her decision and allow The Bread Shop to participate at the Farmers Market this year.
“I don’t think any local business should be excluded,” Dombroski said, noting that the market takes place on public land. “It troubles me when I hear of a local business downtown that does not have access to a farmers market in our town, because it’s such an important opportunity to promote local business.”
Dennis said that she did not want to add another bakery to those already represented at the market.
“If I saturate the Farmers Market with a certain type of vendor,” she said, “that will hurt everybody.”
Dombroski noted that there were multiple vendors at the Farmers Market selling other similar products, such as fruits and vegetables. He indicated that he could not support renewing the Farmers Market’s license “knowing that a local business has been excluded.”
Dennis countered that it was not part of the Farmers Market’s mission to be a venue for local businesses or to support specific local businesses.
“We don’t have the clientele to support another baker,” Dennis asserted. To bring in The Bread Shop she would have to kick another baker out, she said, and that would damage the trust that other vendors have in her.
Dombroski said that the other vendors should understand that it’s the Board of Selectmen’s job to foster local businesses.
“I don’t see how it makes sense for us as a town to support an initiative that is deliberately keeping out a local business,” he said.
He pointed out that the Farmers Market contract gives the Board of Selectmen the right to adjust the terms of the agreement as it sees fit because the market is on town land. He said that he didn’t think that any appropriate Wakefield business should be excluded from the Wakefield Farmers Market.
“We have a local business that we’d like to see grow,” Dombroski said. He also noted that The Bread Shop was “a downtown anchor” and having them at the Farmers Market would help to foster that much sought-after link between the Lake and the downtown.
“That’s a good connector,” he said, “and I think it’s a real missed opportunity for the downtown.”
Dombroski again asked Dennis if she would reconsider.
“Not at this point,” she said, adding that The Bread Shop reached out to her after she already had the vendors set up for the coming season.
Dennis said that if a local business group wanted to set up a tent and a table at the market and feature a different local business each week, she would be fine with that.
Selectman Mehreen Butt asked Dennis if she had reached out to the Wakefield Merchants Group this year regarding that idea. Dennis admitted that she had not.
Dombroski asked how many of the bakeries currently featured at the Farmers market were Wakefield bakeries.
Dennis conceded that none of them were from Wakefield noting that when the market started out there wasn’t a bakery in town.
“I feel that it would severely jeopardize the market to add another bakery,” she said. “If I am not loyal to my vendors they won’t be loyal to me.”
Dombroski acknowledged the growing success of the Farmers Market each year.
“But we have a real opportunity here to grow our own businesses,” he said, “and I think it’s inappropriate not to allow them to do that on our own public land.”
Chairman Paul DiNocco said that he respected Dennis’s point that she had to plan ahead, but he agreed with Dombroski regarding including local businesses.
Selectman Ann Santos made a motion to approve the renewal of the Farmers Market license as presented.
Dombroski moved to amend the motion to approve the license with the condition that The Bread Shop be allowed to participate. He stressed that presently out-of-town businesses are getting to participate while a Wakefield business is excluded.
The vote on Dombroski’s amendment resulted in a 3-3 tie, and therefore did not carry. Dombroski, Tony Longo and Peter May voted in favor of the amendment to allow the local business. Santos, Butt and DiNocco opposed the amendment.
The vote on the main motion to renew the Farmers Market license for this year was 5-0 in favor. Dombroski abstained.
Shimek said that other local businesses supported The Bread Shop in its wish to participate in the Farmers Market, adding that after her business brought the issue to light, the support from the community has been overwhelming.
“It could have been a really lucrative opportunity for us,” she said, noting that on their busiest day (Saturdays) there will be four out-of-town bakeries at the Farmers Market.
“There are a lot of people who will go the Wakefield Farmers Market who won’t even know that we exist,” she said.
The Bread Shop has been accepted at the Melrose and Andover farmers markets, she added, but not Wakefield.