Changes coming to 'Community' Market

KELLOGG — After the success of last year’s weekly Farmer’s Market, the Silver Valley Chamber of Commerce is ramping up to put the event on again this year, but with some confirmed changes and a few other potential ones.

The first confirmed change will be the name of the event, which will be going from the Kellogg Farmer’s Market to the Silver Valley Community Market.

This change relieves the market’s organizers of the pressure of constantly needing to have fresh produce vendors and allows for a broader spectrum of vendors to fill the spaces.

“We may be able to attract more produce vendors in the future, but we still feel that calling it the community market still encapsulates what we are trying to accomplish in being the primary weekly summer market in the valley,” Community Market organizer Nathan Duggan said. “We want everyone to come to Kellogg on Thursday evenings to enjoy it with us.”

There will be some increases in fees for vendors, but despite this, the market will remain one of the more affordable vending opportunities in Shoshone County.

In an effort to encourage vendors to join the SVCC, vendors who are chamber members will only owe 5 percent of their weekly market sales, as opposed to non-chamber members who will owe 10 percent.

“The chamber covered a lot of costs last year out of pocket,” SVCC director Mallory Phillips said. “We want to see the event grow and succeed, but we need people to support their chamber, so we can make this happen.”

This year, the market will be slightly shortened up. Instead of running from May and into October, it will begin in mid-June and end in mid-September.

One of the biggest potential changes could be the location of the market itself.

In the past, the market utilized the area outside the SVCC office and the Trail of the Coeur d’Alenes, which allowed for shoppers to have a nice paved surface to walk on as they visited each vendor.

But spatial concerns, as well as visibility within the community were some of the struggles the market faced because of this location.

The Community Market board is looking into a few options, but none may be more exciting than potentially using the Kellogg City Park.

“The move would obviously give us more space for parking, access to bathrooms and more community feel,” Phillips said. “We also could make the market more conducive to our musical guests, which could increase visitation.”

While the potential move could be huge for the market, it has not been green-lit by the city of Kellogg yet.

As the SVCC fine tunes the rules, vendors should begin watching for the registration date. In the meantime though, vendors can contact Mallory at the Silver Valley Chamber office at 208-784-0821 to discuss the new rules and ask questions.

Vendors can also discuss their options for joining the Silver Valley Chamber of Commerce by contacting Mallory.