Board Members for the Duluth Farmer's Market Explain a Major Problem They've Been Dealing With

DULUTH - To many folks Wednesdays and Saturdays mean picking out new plants, fresh produce and exploring what locals have to offer at the Duluth Farmer's Market, but there's one issue it deals with every year.As healthy eating habits have improved over the years the Duluth Farmer's Market has seen success, but as it's grown in popularity a parking issue has flared up."That's one of the major complaints that people have about the market is that it's so hard to park here," said Duluth Farmer's Market board member Bill Ulvi.On-street parking fills up quickly and sometimes traffic backs up on the surrounding roads."So what we wanna try to do here is improve traffic flow so that everyone can move around the building and add some parking spots," said Ulvi.One solution brought to the city of Duluth was putting in a retaining wall for 18 parking spots.The city says that can't happen because it would conflict with power lines; an easement already being used by Minnesota Power."If the utility breaks or it needs to be moved or expanded, now we're taking up an improvement that someone put a dollar investment into," said Keith Hamre, Director of Planning and Construction Services for Duluth.The city suggested striping for the season or remote parking."Because it's a residential neighborhood the spots are usually full, especially Saturday mornings people are home so that's when parking in the neighborhood is at a premium and that's when we need it too," said ULvi.As the parking problem continues, moving the market to a different location is a suggestion posed by the city."In no way, shape, or form do we want them to move, we just know that parking is an issue for them because of on–street parking. It's one of the densest parts of our community," said Hamre.