{"id":37262,"date":"2025-11-27T13:27:46","date_gmt":"2025-11-27T18:27:46","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/?p=37262"},"modified":"2025-11-27T13:28:00","modified_gmt":"2025-11-27T18:28:00","slug":"town-set-to-take-over-management-of-the-aurora-farmers-market","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/town-set-to-take-over-management-of-the-aurora-farmers-market\/","title":{"rendered":"Town set to take over management of the Aurora Farmers\u2019 Market"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

The Town of Aurora will take over the day-to-day management of the Aurora Farmers\u2019 Market next year in a new funding model approved by Council.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Local lawmakers last week approved a $23,922 increase in the Aurora Farmers\u2019 Market\u2019s allocated funding as part of the 2026 Budget. This funding, along with a contribution of $13,500 from the Market itself, will be used to fund the positions of a Market Coordinator, a Seasonal Supervisor Support Assistant and Operations Coordinator under the Town umbrella.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The management shift was pitched to Council earlier this month at the start of budget deliberations by Market Manager Cathy Williams who said while the growth of the Market in recent years has been \u201cincredible,\u201d it\u2019s brought about \u201cincreasing administrative, operational, and communication demands.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cOur Market Coordinator is retiring after this season and the workload \u2013 vendor management, logistics, social media, volunteer coordination, and regulatory compliance \u2013 has grown beyond what a volunteer board can sustain. Simply put, we\u2019ve reached our limits of what a volunteer-run structure can manage,\u201d said Williams.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cOur Board proudly served this community for over a decade, but we are now operating with just five active members down from nine. Recruitment has proven difficult as administrative and logistical workload has become too demanding for volunteers alone, therefore likely discouraging others from volunteering on the Board. We are also seeing an increased need for expertise in risk management and health and safety compliance \u2013 areas that require professional oversight. While our commitment has never wavered, the reality is that the structure that once worked no longer fits the needs of today\u2019s market.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The present situation is \u201curgent,\u201d she added, and without staffing supports in the season ahead, the Market \u201ccannot continue beyond the 2025 season in its current form.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWithout this partnership, the Market would have to scale back \u2013 fewer vendors, fewer community activities, and diminished programming,\u201d said Williams. \u201cWe have worked with Town Staff regarding this proposal and we are respectively requesting that the Town transition to the Market Staffing structure to come under Town Management. This would include Town employees managing day-to-day operations, vendor applications, compliance, insurance, communications, and social media.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A Market Coordinator would be needed for about 12 hours a week, an Operations Coordinator eight, and a Social Media coordinator for two, she added.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe’re asking the Town to consider supporting a shift in our structure from a working board to a governance board. This would allow us to focus on oversight, approving vendors, ensuring compliance with Farmers Market Ontario standards, and guiding programming,\u201d said Williams, noting similar models have been adopted in other York Region municipalities. \u201cThis partnership would ensure the long-term sustainability of the Farmers Market and safeguard its role as a cultural and economic asset for the Town. It would support local small businesses and farmers, sustain weekly cultural programming and entertainment, strengthen community connections, and align directly with the Town’s strategic priorities of community vitality, economic development, and food security.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWithout this support, the future of the Aurora farmers market beyond 2025 is uncertain. A closure or even a scaled back version would represent a significant loss to our community, economically, socially, and culturally.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Support was found across the Council table which approved a Budget Amendment brought forward by Ward 1 Councillor Ron Weese to establish the requested model.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI do believe this is the right step forward,\u201d said Robin McDougall, Aurora\u2019s Director of Operations, last week. \u201cIt\u2019s a good opportunity to evaluate 2026 in the governance model that we\u2019re looking to move ahead with. They still retain responsibility and oversight of the Farmers\u2019 Market; we are just there to support from a staffing structure. They have worked hand-in-hand with Shelley Ware, our Special Events Supervisor, on developing this structure and we\u2019re confident that it would be a useful exercise to go through next year and we\u2019ll learn from it as well.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

While Ward 3 Councillor Wendy Gaertner said she was in favour of the move, she did not approve of the funding coming from the Town\u2019s Tax Rate Stabilization Reserves. Mayor Tom Mrakas, however, argued it was an appropriate funding source.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe\u2019ve done it with the Windrows, we\u2019ve done it with many pilot projects,\u201d he said. \u201cThis is exactly what the Reserve is supposed to be used for \u2013 a defined pilot. It\u2019s a small amount and in 2027, if the pilot works, we can\u2026make those adjustments moving forward into operations.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Councillors too were looking to the future.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI\u2019m in support of this and the increased oversight and giving the Market what it needs to also expand,\u201d said Ward 5 Councillor John Gallo, adding, in future years, he would like to see funding come from the Community Services Department.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Ward 2 Councillor Rachel Gilliland added that, in her view, the shift was an example of how the Town can support its own local economy \u2013 and residents at large.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThis is what we love \u2013 keeping things centralized and local and being able to connect with our local community, walk in the park with your kids, and if we are going to be investing in any of our community partners, to me, this seems to be the place,\u201d she said. \u201cIt\u2019s been really the heart of what makes us still such a small town.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

By Brock Weir
Editor
Local Journalism Initiative Reporter<\/strong><\/p>\n\r\n\"Facebook\"<\/a>\"twitter\"<\/a>\"mail\"<\/a>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Town of Aurora will take over the day-to-day management of the Aurora Farmers\u2019 Market next year in a new funding model approved by Council. Local lawmakers last week approved a $23,922 increase in the Aurora Farmers\u2019 Market\u2019s allocated funding as part of the 2026 Budget. This funding, along with a contribution of $13,500 from […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[4,5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-37262","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-general_news","category-news"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p3D2k4-9H0","publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-04-30 07:40:50","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/37262","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=37262"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/37262\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":37263,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/37262\/revisions\/37263"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=37262"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=37262"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=37262"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}