BERLIN, Ala. – For many months, the Town of Berlin has been eagerly awaiting the opening of its official town hall, as well as its own local farmers’ market. During its meeting Monday night, the town council reported that while work on the town hall is moving forward steadily, the unfavorable weather earlier in the year has resulted in the decision to delay the opening of the market until later in June.
Mayor Patrick Bates reported the town hall building has been successfully placed and anchored according to code, the first round of gravel has been laid for the parking lot and some used poles have been acquired for meter bases. Bates said he has been in contact with a resident of the area who has been working to try to get the council access to leftover funds from a grant to go toward building a handicap accessible entrance.
As for the farmers’ market, the weather earlier in the year delayed both the site plans and the local growers’ planting dates, so neither the council nor the growers were able to coordinate for a June 1 opening. As such, the opening date has been pushed back to either mid- or late-June, though no definitive date has been set yet.
While on the topic of the market, the council had a heavy discussion about the possibility of allowing customers to use SNAP/EBT cards as payment at the market and how that could be made possible. Bates said he learned, after talking with a representative from the USDA, most markets that allow EBT payments have a system where payments are made to the market itself in exchange for some kind of voucher or tokens, which are then given to the sellers in exchange for product, and at the end, the sellers turn in the vouchers or tokens they receive and are reimbursed by the market for the appropriate amount. Some very large farms may set themselves up to accept EBT payments directly, but Bates said that for the sellers he expects for the start of the market, this system would be the way to go. This consideration was given extra weight because the town clerk received a call specifically asking if EBT would be accepted at the market.
To get an idea of what response the market could expect from EBT users, Bates called on councilman Bruce Bentley, owner of 278 Rock Grocery, to share his thoughts on the subject and his experience with local card holders. Bentley said things could be different at a farmers’ market, but in his experience the EBT users in the area almost always went to his store to buy what would be considered snack food.
“I would say probably 95% and higher purchase nothing but snacks,” he said. “I’m talking energy drinks, chips, candy bars. Very rarely do they come in and buy eggs, bacon, cereal, milk, stuff like that. In this area they just never did buy that stuff.”
He went on to say, “EBT has its place, and it’s a good thing, I think. But there’s so much abuse of it, and in this area there’s probably more of it than normal, I’d say. Not that everybody’s abusing the cards, the privilege, but there’s a lot.”
He said he believes the amount of people in the area who would use an EBT card at a farmers’ market would be very low.
After further discussion and deliberation, the council agreed to set up an EBT payment method to see how it would go, as the USDA representative Bates talked to said the first year of using the program is free. The only costs incurred for the first year would be that of ordering custom tokens for the exchanges, and even then, Bates estimated only $100 for 500 tokens. He went on to say that if the initiative was a success, further upkeep of the system would only be $200 each year.
Bates agreed to draft up a resolution outlining the plan, including plans to make unique tokens to avoid counterfeits and implement a no refunds policy on EBT payments.
Other council business included passing an ordinance officially declaring the Berlin Community Center a polling location for municipal elections and announcing that a worst-case scenario for getting power to the town hall building would be another six weeks.
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