What a wacky week. We are please to tell you that all three markets will
be up and running this weekend! We hope to see you in town and/or country to celebrate our farmers and support the local economy. Every time you choose to purchase locally grown produce you are making a statement in support of local agriculture. We like that! Let's all make statements this weekend!
WHEN IS A ROAD, NOT A ROAD?
Monday, we received word that the State of Hawaii Department of
Transportation issued our Hale'iwa Farmers' Market an order to vacate, within five days. It seems that the little strip of asphalt that was once the Kamehameha Highway and has been sitting fallow since the opening of the Joseph P Leong Bypass in 1993, is still technically a 'road, ' and thereby fell under Section 264-101 of the Hawaii Revised Statutes: "Vending from highways is
prohibited."
Luckily, today we were able to sit down with the Department of
Transportation. Everyone agreed that it would be a travesty to close the market on such short notice. The farmers have grown crops to sell at the market, and the community expects to feed that produce to their families. By this afternoon, we received a call from our attorneys that the DOT is allowing us to continue operations through the end of the month. We hope that all the powers that be will come up with a solution that will allow us to continue operations until we can find a new suitable home in Hale'iwa.
Please continue to spread the word of our Petition to Save Haleiwa Farmers' Market. Your signatures and comments (64 pages of them!) have been delivered to the DOT. How many more pages shall we add to that?? This extension is just a reprieve... we have a long way to go and need your support to make it happen. And please join our FaceBook page to keep current on this issue. Mahalo!
Below you will find a link to Ben Gutierrez' piece for Hawaii News
Now, which gives a good overview of the issues we have been faced with this week. Thanks, Ben!
By Ben Gutierrez - bio | email
HALEIWA (HawaiiNewsNow) - A popular outdoor Sunday event on Oahu's North Shore is in jeopardy after the state issued a notice to
vacate to the operators and owners of the Haleiwa Farmers' Market.
The market has been an icon in the community since it started back in 2009. Recently, the issue of where the market operates has drawn
some controversy.
The Department of Transportation says the 2.5 acres of land at the intersection of Kamehameha Highway and J.P. Leong Highway is
technically a highway right of way, and is zoned for agricultural use, not for doing business.
According to the DOT, that puts the state at risk for possible lawsuits if
something should happen at the market.
"I really want to stress that we've been working with these people, I mean we've really been working hard with them trying to figure
everything out," DOT spokesperson Dan Meisenzahl said. "We haven't been charging them rent. Once again, we support the effort."
The owners said they're shocked and confused by the state's response and add that they felt they met all the conditions of an annual lease.
The roadway, once part of Kamehameha Highway, has been used since the Joseph P. Leong Highway bypassing Haleiwa opened in the 1990s.
"Even though it's been dead for 12 years, unless somebody changes that, that name of it, to this road, then that statute applies to that dead piece of dead end road," said Farmers' Market co-owner Annie Suite. "Go figure."
The DOT said the department discovered the legal problem when it was trying to come up with a more formal annual agreement. The state has been allowing the Farmers' Market to use the property, rent-free, on a
month-to-month basis.
The abrupt shutdown will affect local North Shore farmers. "They have a lot of produce in the fields. One of the farmers sells a hundred dozen eggs out there every week, and we're very concerned about where
this product will go this week," said Farmers' Market co-owner Pamela
Boyar.
"It's a big thing on the North Shore," said Howard McGinnis of the Hawaiian Honeybee Co-op." It's a quality market that you don't just find everywhere, because its more than just a market."
But right now, it's a road.
"That kind of thing takes a lot of time to change," said Meisenzahl. "It's really an unfortunate situation, but our hands are tied."
"I worry, not so much for myself because I have other markets that I can survive on," McGinnis said. "But I worry about the farmers that are only at those markets, and to shut something down so abruptly, how long before it opens back up? Yet they still have bills to pay."
"We'll find a place to have them sell their produce if we have to open up another market somewhere else," said Suite. "If we have to do that, we have to do that." She said, however, that the longtime location had been perfect.
According to Meisenzahl, the HFM will be allowed to operate for the next three Sundays.
The DOT will honor April's agreement, but after that, the HFM will not be allowed to operate due to liability issues.