Power struggle at renovated market
Teri Pecoskie January 31, 2011
As the Hamilton Farmers’ Market reopens today, many vendors say their electrical needs aren’t being met in the newly renovated space.
“We’re trying to stay positive,” Pierina Legedza, owner of Sam’s Cheese and Meats, said yesterday. “But the things that were really needed didn’t happen.”
Like several other stallholders, Legedza requires a substantial amount of electricity to power her fridges, freezers and other equipment — more than the standard wattage the city supplies to each stall.
While the city has tried to accommodate the shortage by drawing power from other vendors, Legedza said it’s still not enough to get all of her equipment up and running. She’s only operating at about 80 per cent of capacity and she had to leave a 3.5-metre cooler behind in the move.
Maria Materno said she’s having similar problems — though hers come at a higher cost.
She said she invested $32,000 in a new pizza oven for her business, but the city won’t let her install it because it takes too much electricity.
“We went ahead and made signs for it,” said Materno, owner of Genuine’s Bread House Bakery. “Now it’s sitting in Toronto.
“We just hope we get the power that we need so we can bring this equipment in and get on with our lives.”
Director of culture Anna Bradford said the city is working closely with vendors to try to accommodate their electricity requirements, but finding a solution will take time.
She said the city attempted to create a flexible system that allows vendors to come and go and not be restricted by the needs of the previous stallholder, but adapting the system to suit the needs of the current stallholders has been a challenge — in part because some vendors are bringing in more equipment than they originally claimed.
Bradford said working out the vendors’ power problems is a priority, but her primary concern is getting the businesses back up and running. The market was temporarily shut down Jan. 9 to give vendors an opportunity to move back into the renovated space.
She also noted that today is the market’s “soft opening” and she anticipates many of the problems will be resolved before the market officially reopens Feb. 11.
“We’ve asked people to work with us,” Bradford said. “We just need a little more time.”
For many stallholders, however, the city’s reassurances offer little consolation.
“We thought the whole renovation to the market was to fix the power problem,” said Shane Coleman, president of the stallholders association and owner of Dilly’s organic produce stand.
For Coleman, many of the problems — electrical and otherwise — could have been avoided had the city consulted with vendors more closely from the start.
“We’re the stakeholders and we know what we need,” he explained, adding it’s too late to do much about it now.
“We want a good opening, so we’re just going to have to make do with what we have.”
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