The Carter County Community Advisory Board will work toward the goal of a farmer’s market for Carter County-Elizabethton in coming weeks.
CAB members convened at the Carter County Health Department’s Truman Clark Health Education Annex Thursday following a meeting of the farmer’s market subcommittee — and according to committee member Cheri Tinney, ideas for a market are beginning to gain traction.
“We had a very engaged meeting,” Tinney told the CAB about the subcommittee meeting held beforehand.
The committee, comprised of Tinney, Ashlee Williams, Thomas Davis, and Regina Wilder, was formed during the June 2 meeting in an effort to bring a market closer to citizens.
“We’re going to go through the vetting process of figuring out the information and interest for what we need to do to set up a farmer’s market,” said Davis, who serves as the vice-chair for the CAB, adding the results from the surveys would be brought before the CAB’s next meeting in August.
One of the key components of an Elizabethton-Carter County farmer’s market would be the utilization of SNAP benefits, Davis said, adding that a future market would ideally provide various activities to the public.
During Thursday’s meeting, minutes from the June meeting were provided that mentioned the committee worked alongside the Roan Mountain Farmer’s Market and that the UT Extension has an employee that works at the market and would be willing to extend their services to another market.
On the note of community gardening, the CAB is looking at the potential of grants for future growth of gardening locally. The group received two donated beds from Eastman, which may be used to plant fall vegetation.
Throughout the old business portion of the meeting, Josh McKinney with the United Way of Carter County, followed up East Tennessee State University on the development of letterheads for the CAB. The CAB will move forward at their next meeting to approve the letter head designed by McKinney.
Regina Bowman, with Tennessee Early Intervention System and LICC was spotlighted during the meeting for the groups’ work with children across the area.
In the future, the CAB will begin meeting at the Elizabethton-Carter County Public Library due to renovations underway at the health department. The next meeting is scheduled for August 4 at Noon.