The Flagler Beach City Commission approved extended hours for the city’s farmers’ market on April 11 as the market partners with Turtle Fest the whole day, but with a strong caution from Commission Chair Eric Cooley: “I worry that we as a city are getting overzealous on closing streets and roads.”
Cooley wasn’t targeting the farmers’ market specifically, but it is one of the organizations he was referring to. “The people who live there and have businesses there do not like it, and I hear about it,” Cooley said. “This is a general comment that applies across the board. It’s not just the farmers market. It just seems like there’s a lot of things that come up where we’re closing roads in this immediate vicinity, and we do it a lot, and I am of the mentality that if we can have the streets open for an event the size of First Friday, then we can have the streets open for other events.”
Cooley was speaking last Thursday during the portion of the commission meeting when it sits as the board of the city’s Community Redevelopment Agency, or CRA. It’s an odd arrangement that has the commission playing a dual role, with governance over the CRA’s downtown redevelopment area, which has its own budget and rules. The farmers’ market is a weekly if limited fixture in the CRA.
“As a property owner in this area, I do appreciate your comment about not closing streets as much as possible, because it does affect the businesses and the people that live there,” a property owner told the commission.
Almost a year ago the farmers’ market moved from the Wickline Center off South Daytona Avenue, where it had been since 2022, to South 2nd Street in front of City Hall. Its vendors put up their tents and their wares from South Central Avenue almost to State Road A1A. The market closes the street to vehicular traffic between 9 a.m. and 1 p.m. every Saturday.
The market is partnering with Turtle Fest on April 11 and with the Cedar Bridge Foundation, which organizes the Autism 4K Walk/Run event on April 25. Turtle Fest is the Flagler Volusia Turtle Patrol’s annual fundraiser, held every year in Veterans Park from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m.
“The objective is to open up foot traffic between the two events, and vendors will exist in both events,” Jim Kelling, who runs the farmers’ market with Tracy Callahan-Hennessey, said, referring to Turtle Fest. Normally the market is off the street by 2 p.m. It would be off the street by 5 p.m. on Turtle Fest day.
The market is not seeking longer hours on April 25, but will likewise open foot traffic between its vendors and those of the Cedar Bridge Foundation’s event. The market is a fundraiser for Flagler Strong, the nonprofit. But not on those two dates: “Of note here is that we will be donating the vendor fees for these events to the organizations,” Kelling said. “So from my point of view, it’s marrying two things together as a good opportunity and making the events a little bit more tied together.”
Commissioner James Sherman recalled how it wasn’t long ago that South Central Avenue was closed from South 2nd to South 4th for months, impacting and infuriating businesses along the way. “I just had a little bit of a concern about that,” Sherman said, calling himself conflicted. He thought that when the farmers’ market wanted extra hours, it could use the private parking lot owned by Anthony Cinelli. The lot has an entrance on South 2nd and stretches in a broad L-shape to A1A. Cinelli is, in fact, allowing free parking for both events on April 11.
Commissioners R.J. Santore and Scott Spradley wanted to ensure a hard stop at 5 p.m., to prevent any interference with the dinner crowd. Santore suggested moving all the farmers’ market’s vendors into Veterans Park, but that’s not an option, his colleagues told him.
“There’s a model for the farmers market that was agreed on a while back,” Cooley said. “If there’s an event, then the farmers market sets up one way. If there’s not an event, they set up another way.” He was referring to an arrangement that would have the farmers’ market set up in the Cinelli lot. Beyond, that Cooley said, “I’m not a fan of closing any street for any reason, unless it’s very, very significant. I just think that our citizens deserve better. You’re inconveniencing a lot to benefit a little.”
He agrees with his colleagues that the farmers’ market’s partnership is beneficial, and that it would not make sense for the market not to operate all six hours that Turtle Fest does. But closing streets should be a last resort. “We should keep an eye on it,” Cooley said, before lending his support for the market’s formal request for the two special exceptions to partner with the April events.
The commission approved the requests unanimously.
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