FARMINGTON — During their Tuesday meeting, selectmen will consider a request from the Sandy River Farmer’s Market to move the market to Meetinghouse Park on Tuesdays and maybe Friday.

While the market has used the town-leased Front Street parking area next to the Better Living Center for more than 10 years, recent parking changes, potential litigation over the lot, a new restaurant and cement barriers at the end of the theater property have market members questioning whether they can continue there, Mitra Luick, president of the market group, said.

After watching recent Friday activity around the lot, Luick has considered whether it’s even possible for vendors to set up along the driveway. There’s also concern for the safety of market customers as they park and walk around the 15 to 18 vendors.

The space beside the concrete barriers is considered a fire lane but some drivers are using the barriers as a curb to park beside, she said.

When theater owner John Moore put the barriers in earlier this year, he posted “no parking-fire lane” signs as the barriers blocked direct access to the theatre and businesses from Front Street, fire Chief Terry Bell said.  It’s not up to the department to enforce the signs.

The Police Department doesn’t enforce fire lane violations, police Chief Jack Peck said. The fire lane is on private property and enforcement isn’t written into the town’s ordinance. 

The market has decided to ask for the use of Meetinghouse Park on Tuesdays from 2 to 6 p.m. for the approximate half dozen vendors who participate. 

They have reconsidered their request to use space at 411 High St., the town  site at the intersection of High Street and Farmington Falls Road. 

Earlier Tuesday, Luick is meeting with a Front Street business owner in hopes of keeping the Friday market on Front Street, she said.

While the High Street space is  only about a mile away, it would not be the same farmers market, she said.

Many of the same people come to the market and the health food store on Friday. A move doesn’t help serve those customers, she said.

“It takes away from the downtown Farmington area. Something the town should consider as an asset,” she said.

Farmers markets have “turned into a Farmington phenomenon,” she said. The Sandy River group now has Tuesday and Friday markets. Another market is held on Saturdays in front of the courthouse on Main Street and an online market features several of the same vendors.

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