by Dennis Dalman
news@thenewsleaders.com
Market Monday, the summer farmers’ market in Sartell, will likely be known as Market Saturday – at least during the winter months.
The Sartell City Council agreed at its Monday meeting to rent the golf-course club house to the owner/operator of Market Monday for the purpose of hosting a winter farmers’ market just one Saturday per month through the months of December through March.
The vote to accept the rental offer was 4-1. Council member David Peterson voted against it because he said he is concerned the city might have to say no to other groups that might want to rent that building in the winter months.
The club house is located on the former Sartell Golf Course, which was purchased some years ago by the city as the locale for Pinecone Central Park. The golf course there and the club house are operated in the summer months, through a lease with Sartell, by a private golf-course company from St. Cloud.
Market Monday, an outdoor farmers’ market, was founded by Sartell resident Amy Braig-Lindstrom in 2011. Now in its second year of operation, it has been open every Monday from 3-6:30 p.m. next to the Bernick’s Arena in Pinecone Regional Park.
Rental of the golf-course club house will be $40 per each Saturday it is used by Market Monday. That, she said, should be enough to cover heat. During the winter months, the club house is not used, but the heat is kept at about 50 degrees to prevent freezing of pipes, Sartell Public Works Director Brad Borders noted.
Sartell City Administrator Patti Gartland said rental of the club house could serve as a kind of pilot project to see how well it works, opening the possibility the rental functions there in the future might be expanded.
More information about the winter farmers’ market will be published as it becomes available.
