Christine Nordstrom, chair of the Downtown Sarasota Farmers Market board, asked the Downtown Improvement District (DID) board on May 6 for $59,250 to support a multi-part plan that centers on marketing, family gardening activities and safety barricades.

Nordstrom told the board she has led market initiatives for five months and wants to “apply the same tactics” she used to grow her business, 5 O Donut Co., to raise market attendance and vendor counts. She said the market’s marketing request is $25,850 and that a previous impact study found the market draws “approximately on average 20,000 visitors each Saturday into Downtown Sarasota.”

The market also requested funding for gardening-supply kits for a weekly Sprout Squad children’s activity and submitted quotes for deployable hostile-vehicle mitigation barricades; DID staff flagged barricades as ineligible under the current grant rules but the market and DID directors discussed the possibility of a longer-term lease or shared-purchase arrangement.

After board discussion about alternative funding sources, vendor capacity, and the market’s existing budget pressures — Nordstrom said the market pays roughly $13,000 a year in city permit fees and about $450 a week for police coverage — a board member moved to award $5,000 immediately “towards their application or whatever they deemed to be appropriate fiduciary use of our funds.” DID staff said they would need a specific grant application and a grant agreement to define allowable uses of the funds.

Julie (staff) told the board she could not guarantee the item would be ready for the next meeting in two weeks but committed to preparing a draft for the December meeting. The board instructed Julie to meet with Nordstrom to define permissible uses before the DID issues funds.

The board and multiple directors expressed interest in the market’s family-focused programming and in exploring other revenue avenues Nordstrom described, including rentals of barricades to other events and applications to community foundations; Nordstrom said she had applied to Gulf Coast Community Foundation and been denied.

What happens next: staff will meet with the market to prepare a specific grant application and grant agreement for consideration at a future meeting (staff committed to have a draft by the December DID meeting). The board’s $5,000 pledge is conditional on that formal application and a subsequent grant agreement.