The farmers market started in 2008, and since 2012, it has been held every Saturday, rain or shine, from 9 a.m.-noon, she said. The market is held at 205 W. Main St.
Kelly said she worked with the city of Tomball to get sunset markets approved in February for 2022. The city asked her to acquire more lighting for the market grounds and have more police officers on hand, among other requests, before signing off on evening markets, she said.
“For years, people have asked us to do an evening market during the week because a lot of people can’t come on the weekends,” she said.
Kelly said the market has never had the staffing or ability to debut evening markets, and City Council had not given approval.
While vendors and visitors wanted a weekly sunset market, it is too much work to pull off regularly, Kelly said, so only three a year are planned as of March. She said she also does not want to overextend the farmers and vendors who regularly set up at the weekend market.
For the first sunset market city officials signed off on Dec. 21, Kelly said she informed the businesses on Main Street and invited them to stay open late to benefit from customers attending the market.
She said the first evening market in December had 3,400 people attend despite the evening market having fewer vendors than the weekly Saturday morning markets.
The next sunset market is planned for Oct. 2 from 4-7 p.m. and will be held in partnership with the city’s National Night Out festivities.
Adding opportunities
In addition to adding weeknight markets, Kelly said market and city officials are discussing starting a community garden where local residents can lease spots. Kelly and city staff are still in the process of finding land for a future community garden, but there are funds in place for starting one.
She said the vision for the community garden is to have a space where students, retirement communities and veterans can all access it. The community garden would give those who otherwise do not have the opportunity for fresh produce the ability to grow their own.
However, a timeline of when a garden could be created has not been confirmed, she said.
