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By: Brendan McDonough, Reporter for North Tonawanda
Vendors at the North Tonawanda City Market will soon be paying more. Last week members of the Common Council voted to increase fees. City Market Clerk Dale Rodgers requested the increase from 175 dollars to 225 for half a year rental.
The move comes as the City wants more oversight in order to allow customers to use SNAP benefits. Rodgers also justified the increase by saying that other area farmers markets, charge more than North Tonawanda.
In order to qualify for SNAP benefits, the farmers must grow a certain percentage of the fruits and vegetables that they sell. It’s a common practice that some of the vendors purchase some of the fruits and vegetables that they sell.
As a result, Rodgers now performs spot inspections to make sure and to verify that the farmers are growing, what they are actually selling. That increase travel and responsibility has make his part time job more difficult and lawmakers agreed that in the future they may need to increase the stipend that Rodgers gets to account for the increase travel time.
The fee increase is for vendors who rent space during the summer months. The fee for year round rental remains at $300.
