OXNARD : Farmers Market Expert May Be Hired

The Oxnard City Council Tuesday will consider paying a consultant more than $30,000 to help the city organize a farmer’s market downtown this spring.

The city staff has proposed that the Redevelopment Agency hire Rosemary Leigh, a consultant who helped organize the Escondido Farmers’ Market and has won various awards, said Steven Kinney, director of the agency.

The council is likely to approve hiring Leigh because it has expressed interest in establishing a market that will complement the area’s farm economy, Kinney said. A year-round marketplace “would be an attraction and a draw to get people into the downtown,” he said.

Since October, the Redevelopment Agency has researched the issue by contacting downtown merchants and similar markets in Santa Barbara and San Luis Obispo counties and by working with Leigh.

Five locations have been suggested in Oxnard, including several lots near Heritage Square, Kinney said.