The head of Vance County’s Farmers’ Market Committee, Pete Burgess, asked the Vance County Board of Commissioners on Monday evening to approve up to $40,000 for a feasibility study to be done by the Earth Wise Company of Wake Forest, North Carolina.
The money would come from a $75,000 grant awarded to the committee for just such a study.
According to Burgess, seven requests for quotes (RFQs) were sent out, and Earth Wise was the only respondent.
Commissioner Dan Brummitt expressed some discomfort on being asked to approve the request due to a lack of information in written form. He said that he would feel more comfortable having some of the information before making a decision.
County Manager Jerry Ayscue stated a need to “go ahead and get this work underway”. He asked if the commissioners could approve the request contingent upon the commissioners’ review.
Member Deborah Brown also serves on the Farmers’ Market Committee. She said that she did not believe that the committee needed to bring anything to the board for action, as no county money was being used. She said that Burgess’ request was “for our information, for all intents and purposes”.
Brown frequently requests information in writing in the form of monthly reports from various county departments. She was instrumental in changing the format of the report of the Vance County Tax Office to include additional information on why tax charges were written off, for example.
Brummitt said that he did not want to hold things up, and that he was “fine” with proceeding contingent upon review.
A motion to approve up to $40,000 for a contract with the Earth Wide Company passed with no opposed.
Commissioners also approved the addition of the Health Department’s Jackie Sergent, the Henderson-Vance Chamber of Commerce’s president Bill Edwards, and Denise Hight to the Farmers’ Market Committee. This raises the number of committee members to seventeen.
Burgess described the initiative to build a farmers’ market as one with “lots of possibilities; have to get over this first hurdle first”.