The Finney County Commission settled a few new-year business items Tuesday, including approving an event that might become a community staple.
Fairgrounds Director Angie Clark recommended leasing more than nine acres of county land on the western end of the fairgrounds on an annual basis to a company specializing in flea market management. The commission approved a one-year lease agreement with Harvest Flea Market, LLC, to operate a flea market at the fairgrounds, and if successful, the Harvest Flea Market (HFM) might be set to become a seasonal tradition.
From Friday to Sunday starting May 4 and lasting until Oct. 13, the HFM plans to rent paved and unpaved fairground space to vendors selling to the public. At this time, approximately 265 15-by-25-foot spaces are planned and about 25 people would be employed through the operation.
Roughly 3,000 to 6,000 visitors are projected to be enticed to the community by the project. Fencing and storage containers would remain on the property for the duration of the lease even when the market isn’t open for business.
“It is a very underutilized space,” Clark said. “To me, this is a definite opportunity to take something we have discussed turning into gravel and being able to continue to maintain it and bring guests to our facility, into our community — because when they attend this event, they are going to also patronize other businesses in our community.”
Clark says representatives from Beef Empire Days, Inc., and the Beef Empire Days Rodeo Committee have been notified of the potential for the development. She expects the event to boost Beef Empire Days’ turnout in the summer months.
Another popular local event, Peddlers Market, is set to occur the last weekend of October. Clark says HFM would take place the prior weekend and fairground personnel would be careful to make sure that the two events do not conflict. All plans are still tentative, and Clark said the issue could be revisited sometime in August.
“This is a new event for our facility,” Clark said. “We have not done anything like this in the past.
HFM's Jeff Arkebauer told commissioners the project has been underway for “just short of a year now,” using “close to three dozen” flea markets across the country as potential models for the event, including ones in Wichita, Denver and Colorado Springs.
He expects the market to attract visitors within a 150-mile radius and between 40 and 60 full-time vendors who would each pay admission, in addition to other “seasonal” vendors looking to sell their wares over the course of a few weeks.
Arkebauer described flea markets as “entrepreneurial incubators.”
“There will be a lot of businesses born at this flea market that will go on to expand,” he said. “The more ethnically, more culturally, economically diverse the community is, the more successful these markets are.”
In other business:
• The commission swore in new County Clerk Dori Munyan and appointed Commissioner Larry Jones to the chairmanship.
• Commissioners authorized County Engineer John Ellermann to advertise a request for qualifications as part of a search for a consultant to assist in the redesign and reconstruction of the Community Road Bridge.
A redesign of the Ravanna Road bridge previously was scheduled for adoption as part of the 2018 Capital Improvement Program, with the Community Road bridge slated for redesign in 2021. Ellermann recommended that the projects be switched after inspections in 2017 by the Kansas Department of Transportation showed that the Community Road bridge is deteriorating more quickly than the Ravanna Road bridge.
Without bids, design estimations submitted by Ellermann currently stand at around $50,000, and consultant fees will be sourced from the 2018 and 2019 Road and Bridge department budgets.
• The commission approved the purchase of two pickups for use by the Road and Bridge department and one for use by the Noxious Weeds department for a total of about $84,843. Of that, $55,016 will be paid out of the 2018 Road and Bridge budget and $29,827 from the Noxious Weed capital outlay fund.
• In board appointments and reappointments, Ken Seirer was approved for another term as the Finney County representative on the Southwest Regional Council; Marc Gigot and Leonard Hitz were reappointed to three-year terms on the Planning Commission; and Bill Harmon was reappointed to a four-year term on the Finney County Board of Zoning Appeals.
Contact Mark Minton at mminton@gctelegram.com.