By: Patrick Ellis / Demopolis Times Writer

The Market is coming to Livingston…

Monday night during the Livingston City Council meeting, the council voted to accept the offer from the Alabama Farmers Market Assocation on establishing a market in Livingston. The Sumter County Extension Agent Willie Lampley said that this is a wonderful opportunity for the fresh vegetable producers in Sumter County to peddle their goods.

“There has always been an opportunity for farmers to sell their goods. I think this will be a wonderful thing for vegetable farmers and give them a place to call home,” Lampley said.

The City Council finally agreed to lease the piece of land across from Wal-Mart and adjacent to the Fire and rescue squad building to the Alabama Farmers Market Association.

The Alabama Farmers Market Association approached Mayor Tartt with an offer that wouldn’t cost the city any money, but would require the use of some of the land the city owns. He said the city would lend them the land for a period of 10 years.

The AFMA will be responsible for building the metal building to house the market. Mayor Tartt also said that they even offered to move the building if the city ever needed to use the land to expand the current building or build something new.

“They approached the city with this offer. They would pay for everything, but just needed the land to build on,” Mayor Tartt said.

The AFMA has also offered to do all the legwork of promoting the market to the local farmers. There currently isn’t a place in Sumter County for the farmers to sell their crops.

“This would be a terrific thing for the farmers of Livingston and Sumter County,” Mayor Tartt said.

Mayor Tartt talked about the city had a place in mind for the farmers’ market. He said there is a piece of land adjacent to the fire and ambulance building across from Wal-Mart. But, the location could not be agreed upon at the meeting. So, the city council decided to look at a few more possible locations and talk about it again at the next meeting on January 26.

Other interesting topics discussed during the meeting:

*Representative from the Mandela Teen Center asked for permission to have the Black Heritage Festival on the first Saturday in May.

*Raised the salaries for the incoming Mayor from $1,000 a month to $1,500 a month and Council members from $350 a month to $600 a month.

*Senator Richard Shelby will be speaking at the city hall on Saturday January 31 at 4:30 p.m.