By Keily Alfonzo, Interning Correspondent for The Apopka Voice
The Apopka City Council, at its October 2nd meeting, approved the license agreement for the Market on Fifth with a 5-0 vote, an event organized by Propagate Social House in downtown Apopka.
According to Parks and Recreation Director Radley Williams, the market is open on Fridays from 5 to 10 pm.
This is not the City of Apopka's first license agreement with a farmers' market. Back in 2020, the city had a three-year term license agreement with the farmers market at Kit Land Nelson Park, but it "fizzled out," according to Williams, towards the end and was not renewed due to a lack of demand in vendors and attendees.
Propagate started a farmer's market nearly three years ago with just 12 vendors. They launched a pilot market on their property, which thrived for a year and grew to 35 vendors and 200 weekly attendees.
"The market on Fifth has shown signs of success and stability since its start in March of this year with steady vendor growth," Williams said.
"We are incredibly excited to enter this new chapter for Apopka's Farmers Market," said Ella Duke, Propagate Social House. "This partnership exemplifies the power of community support and collaboration, and we look forward to seeing the market flourish in its new location."
Despite the excitement, the market has raised concerns among the council, including Commissioner Nick Nesta, who expressed his reservations about parking for attendees.
"The access point to the parking lot on the East side is privately owned," Nesta said.
However, Apopka Police Chief Michael McKinley explained that the police department has taken precautions to address the issue.
"Initially, there was going to be a fire truck at that first entrance to the parking lot on the far East, but we didn't feel that was safe because we're going to have police cars at both ends of this," McKinley said.
McKinley explained that the APD will enforce that approximately nine feet on each side of the street will stay open so the fire truck can go down the road without being blocked by vendors.
"The parking lot to the left will just have a barrier so that in the event of an emergency, they can just move it, and the police department, fire department, and ambulances can all get through quickly and effectively," Ella Duke from Propagate Social House said.
Nesta also had reservations about the costs of the event.
"We don't even have an estimate of how much this will cost the city, so I need to make sure that we're not setting a precedent that we're paying for other events to happen," Nesta said.
Several Apopka residents expressed their feelings about this event during public comments.
Glenn Lubin described the event as "an opportunity for kids to have a space to go to and have a good and safe time."
Anthony Shoemaker, a new resident of Apopka, said that this farmers market is an excellent alternative to having them travel to other cities to attend one.
"As a new resident here, I see myself always looking for new things to do, and I was sadly disappointed to see that I had to go to Mount Dora or Winter Garden." Shoemaker said.
