Sean C. Morgan
Mayor Greg Mahler told city staff and the City Council last week that the city needs to take some kind of action to solve problems related to the homeless and others who have been hanging around the Sweet Home Farmer’s Market this summer.
Carol Porter and Chris Bain of the Sweet Home and Lebanon farmer’s markets spoke to the council about the problem during its regular meeting on Sept. 24.
“We are here to discuss a situation that has arisen where we do our farmer’s market, which is in front of the old City Hall,” Porter said. “Since you have left that area, we have been running into some serious problems with people who are coming into the parking area and who do not like us being there, that feel we’re invading them.
“They have now gotten to the point where we have had to call the police. Our customers flee like they’ve been shot out of a cannon with what’s been going on, the screaming, the hollering, the profanity. Our musician had money stolen from his tip jar, and he told me that he lives in Eugene and that doesn’t even go on in Eugene. It has every week been getting worse.”
Excrement from dogs and humans is found on the ground in the square between the old City Hall and the library, she said. Bain, “before our market starts, has to move vendors around depending on where it was located so that people don’t step in it, don’t take it on their shoes. I myself have even seen where it’s been cleaned up and people have bought pastries. They’re with their family. They’re sitting in an area that’s under a tree, and we cleaned up excrement there, and their kids are sitting on the parking lot ground.
“It is not safe, and we really do not know what to do. I guess we’re trying to ask the City Council to help us with this situation. We would like to return next year. Today was our last Farmer’s Market for the season, but we need to make decisions before we start up again in June.”
“All of our vendors are suffering from this situation,” Bain said. “As soon the people come in and cause this disruption, literally you can look around and there’s no more customers. Everybody leaves. You can see people come up. They’ll get out of their car. There’ll be someone across the street at the library yelling and screaming. They get right back in their car and leave. They don’t want to come back to the market because they don’t feel safe.
“I’m talking about the homeless people that are living in the parking lot, defecating in the parking lot, having their dogs in the parking lot, causing fights and yelling and screaming, coming in and stealing money from my vendors.
“Our main concern is trying to make sure that our vendors are safe and a decent atmosphere where we could bring in more vendors to the city to help everyone out. We just don’t know what to do.”
While the market is there six hours one day a week, it’s a problem for everybody, Bain said, “but it seems almost to me that the surrounding areas have become numb to the situation and just figure it as the norm.”
Samaritan Lebanon Community Hospital operates a program called Power of Produce, granting the farmer’s market funding to have things children can do to help them learn about eating well, Porter said.
“We average a hundred to 120 kids at market,” Bain said. “That’s a lot of children coming through that area that somehow we need to figure out how we can keep them safe or protect them.”
Councilor Lisa Gourley asked if a “no loitering” sign would help.
Police Chief Jeff Lynn said the enforceability of it would be an issue.
“That seems to be the ongoing problem that I have speaking with all the officers, is everybody’s hands are tied,” Bain said.
“The right to gather is guaranteed within the federal Constitution, so you can’t have a no loitering area on public property,” said City Manager Ray Towry.
“We’re definitely aware of some of the issues going on and some of the individuals that are causing the issues down there,” Lynn said. “A couple of individuals would be classified (as) homeless and transient, so I’m familiar with the issues we deal with them. They suffer from mental illness as well, both of them. I’m also familiar with the tip jar incident. Again, the individual suffers from mental illness. That individual isn’t homeless, (but) that person can’t go back to the area during the Farmer’s Market.”
“This is an issue we’ve been trying to come up with some answers for. A lot of it is occurring on the outskirts of the Farmer’s Market, near the library, near the old City Hall, that we’re trying to deal with. We were there several times today (Sept. 24), trying to be proactive in what we’re doing. One individual was arrested on unrelated stuff. Another was cited for consuming alcohol in public, wasn’t on the Farmer’s Market, had nothing to do with that, and was excluded from the library and that area.
“There was another incident later in the day with a female who was yelling again. And again, that’s mental illness right there, not making excuses for it. But the officers had to go and were able to get her to calm down and stay calm for the rest of the time without having to arrest her for disorderly conduct.”
“There’s really nothing we can say that keeps them from coming back,” said Councilor James Goble. We can trespass them, but what they have to lose is nothing, so they just keep coming back.”
He asked whether an ordinance passed in the past couple of years to exclude people from city property temporarily worked or they didn’t care.
Lynn said police can cite and exclude people for a limited time from city property, and the response has been both ways.
“Is it reasonable to assume that having a patrol car there on site during this time would help change certain behaviors?” Gourley asked.
“I will say today that I noticed more police officers in our area than I have the entire season we were there,” Bain said. “The parking lot was clean when we got there today. The sweeper came in, swept the whole parking lot, and there were officers cruising all around today, and it definitely seemed to make a bit of a difference.”
“We’re definitely really aware of the concerns that the vendors have,” Lynn said. “That’s why I’ve talked with the city manager and we’re just trying to have that presence down there to deter that kind of activity.”
“We currently are working on ordinances,” Mahler said. “The timing is right on vue with what we’re trying to accomplish right now. It’s a problem I think we need to address and find a solution. I think protection of everybody needs to be there in place. From now and next June, we need to come up with something that’s a win-win for the city and the Farmer’s Market.”