Dryden City Council is leaning towards moving the Cloverbelt County Farmer’s Market from the AgCentre back to the parking lot of Dryden Memorial Arena in the downtown core.

Council will discuss with city staff to push this proposal further.

“This would allow the market to be accessible to people who can’t drive and people in long-term care facilities,” said Benjamin Feagin Jr., CEO of grocery store AgriTech North and presenter of the proposal. “It will also provide the market access to people being able to conveniently stop on their way out of work.”

“The traffic is probably tenfold, if not more, better in the history of the farmer’s market at [the arena parking lot] than at the AgCentre.”

Feagin said the AgCentre has been very accommodating, but Dryden needs to incentivize vendors to return after poor performances in recent years.

“Food is not a forgiving market,” Feagin said. “It’s a very low margin, so it takes a lot to keep it alive.”

The proposal was received positively at Tuesday’s council meeting.