ORO VALLEY, Ariz. — For nearly a year now, vendors and customers alike have had to deal with having zero covering and very little electricity at the Steam Pump Ranch farmers market after the old ramada was destroyed last summer.
It's something 15-year farmers market vendor Elizabeth Robb couldn’t be more excited about."That is so heartening. Because like I said, summer is coming, it’s almost here, and the fact that there’s an end where we’re actually going to have a cover and the shade and the misters and all the other stuff and electricity for the vendors that need it – fabulous, wonderful, cannot wait."
The absence of any type of shade during one of the hottest times of the year caused a dip in business for many of the vendors, says Nick Szumowski, the executive director for the Heirloom Farmers Market. Now, the town of Oro Valley is preparing to spend more than half a million dollars to install the much larger steel structure standing at 26-by-180 feet — a definite upgrade from the previous structures that were only 12-by-50 feet, says Deputy Director for Parks and Recreation Matt Jankowski.