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Farmers' market proposed for Boston Road corridor

By Courtney Llewellyn

Reminder Assistant Editor



WILBRAHAM Rick DeBonis, senior vice president and director of marketing for Hampden Bank, met with the Planning Board last week to discuss the possibility of the bank's 2005 Boston Rd. location hosting a weekly farmers' market.

DeBonis said the idea for the market came up several weeks ago at a marketing meeting. The proposed market would take place on Wednesdays the slowest day of the week for the bank for the past four years, according to DeBonis for four hours.

"Something like this becomes more than a farmers' market," Glenroy Buchanan of the Pioneer Valley Growers' Co-Op said. "It's a community event. Local farmers will choose to sell their wares in the town they're in. The farmers who come [to markets] are pleased because they sell their stuff and they're networking."

Buchanan has helped establish farmers' markets in Northampton, Springfield and Holyoke. He and DeBonis agreed that Wilbraham farmers would be the first considered for the proposed market. Buchanan added that four or five local growers have already shown interest in selling at the market.

"It's a win-win for a lot of people," DeBonis told the Planning Board. "Customers [at the bank] have expressed a need or a want for this. It would showcase local growers in a high visibility area and it could become a community focal point."

The Planning Board had some questions for DeBonis and Buchanan, but Buchanan explained that their meeting with the board was simply "exploratory."

Ted Stevenson, a member of the Planning Board, said that the bank needs to keep the new Big Y, located across the street, in mind. Buchanan said he thought the farmers' market wouldn't be a big issue for the supermarket, since it would only be open one day a week.

Planning Board Chair Dick Butler said the bank also needs to keep its abutters in mind while moving forward with its proposal.

"I think [the market] sounds great," board member Adam Basch told DeBonis.

If the plans for the Hampden Bank farmers' market move forward, Buchanan said another market could also be established in the middle of town.

"It would be a victory to establish two [markets]," he said.

DeBonis will need to meet with the Board of Selectmen and the Board of Health before moving forward with their farmers' market plans. If established, all participating sellers in the market would also be required to have permits from the Board of Health.