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The County Times
Thursday, July 23, 2009
6
Farmers Market Starts On Town Square Planning Council Approves
By Guy Leonard Staff Writer
Ben Yoder, a member of the Amish community in Mechanicsville, can remember the first time he went to Leonardtown; it was about 30 years ago on a bank errand for the family. He said it was a big deal. “That was my first trip with my father’s money,” he said. Since then there have been other trips, but his appearance on the Leonardtown square on July 17 was for business of his own. He, his wife and young son, one of seven children, were selling baked goods from a booth he had fashioned on top of a trailer bed; members of a Mennonite family were next to his stand selling fresh produce.
It was the beginning of a farmers market town officials have been trying to put together for years. “Right now we’re testing the waters to see how it goes,” said Laschelle McKay, town administrator. If more farmers from the area are interested, town officials could arrange for a larger space to be set up across from The Good Earth natural foods store nearby, McKay said. Farmers had expressed interest in having another site to sell produce, baked goods and even crafts away from the market in Charlotte Hall next to the library off Route 5. Space there is at a premium, and there are often duplication of products, McKay said. The Leonardtown site might prove to be a more open market, she said. Yoder said that farming and some of the other businesses in the Amish community have had to change along with the rest of society. “We’re more going into produce, because dairy and hogs have vanished; that’s because of the [lack of] availability of land,” Yoder said. “[Vegetables and produce are] more profitable per acre. “There’s a real demand for it, for fresh vegetables.” The farmers market on the square will be open every Friday from 11 a.m. to 6 p.m. Yoder hopes it will be successful in these difficult economic times. “It’s all a matter of readjusting to where we are,” Yoder said. “You have to do what you have to do.”
Hospital Expansion
By Guy Leonard Staff Writer A St. Mary’s Hospital plan to expand with a new two-story building that will include a cancer treatment center and financial and accounting departments won approval from the Leonardtown Planning and Zoning Commission Monday. Hospital officials say that it will be the first phase of a much larger overall expansion that will increase the number of patients that can be treated there. Frank Fearns, a hospital spokesman and commission member who sat out because of his position, said that the original plan was for a three-story building totaling 22,000 square feet and that the latest plan is for a two-story building totaling 28,789 square feet. “It’s slightly larger,” Fearns told the three sitting commissioners. “At one time it was going to be a three-story building, now it’s going to be two.” The vacated portions of the hospital will become space for information technology activities, he said. Despite the expansion, there should not be any additional vehicle traffic generated, because the new space will accommodate current staff and activities, Fearns said. But traffic was a concern for the commission, since the next phase of the build-out will be to increase patient capacity. Commissioners were worried that the surrounding Singletree neighborhood, which is close-knit and residential, might be negatively affected if roads were not improved. They said that the town, hospital and State Highway Administration should cooperate to do a traffic study to determine needed improvements to Doctors Crossing Road and Route 245. “We need to get it in writing that we expect a traffic study to be done,” said Jean Moulds, commission chair. Commission member Jack Candela echoed her concerns. “It’ll be part of the approval process when you come with the next phase,” he said.