By Jessica Dillon
The Bassett Farmers’ Market reopened Monday, Jan. 12, following months of repairs after the demolition of an adjoining building caused the market’s roof to collapse last year.
Owner Tine Furr said the closure happened abruptly after county officials raised safety concerns about the neighboring two-story building.
“The county came in on Monday, inspection to, they had a complaint about the adjoining building, the two-story, and wanted to inspect ours, which, of course, I agreed to,” Furr said.
“On Tuesday, he brought in an architect to see the integrity of our building. So, on that Friday, they came in, looking at what the inspector did, at 3 o’clock, after all of our vendors’ deliveries, and gave us paper. We had till 8 p.m. to empty the building, and not to return,” she said.
The adjoining building had been condemned, and officials were aware the farmers market roof could potentially collapse.
“We were very upset about it, but at the same time, we understood completely,” Furr said. “So the day the county hired a contractor, which I will not name, to take that building down, as they were taking it down, it did fall over and collapse. So that day, there were a lot of uncertainties.”
Furr said the contractor was fully responsible for the damage to the farmers market building, but only replaced part of the roof.
“They did replace a partial roof. We had leaks back here that we never had before. We had water damage done to the walls. They refused to fix it,” she said. “There wasn’t an inch in our storefront that was not destroyed. They refused to fix that.”
Furr said she and her husband decided to move forward with reopening the store on their own.
“We decided we weren’t waiting. We were ready. Our community and us had been waiting for over a year,” she said. “So we checked out of pocket and did what we had to do. We had to redo the whole storefront.”
Because they had sold off equipment and products during the closure, Furr said they rebuilt the store gradually.
“We had started over,” she said. “So each week we just bought an ice cream cooler, and the next week, we made a produce stand. The next week, we just kept doing that until we could get the store back open.”
After receiving approval to reopen, the Bassett Farmers’ Market returned to strong community support.
“We did expect for our community to come through, but not in the way that they have,” Furr said. “They have come through.”
The market sells produce and ice cream. Its produce currently comes from the Meadows of Dan area, and the business hopes to partner with additional local farmers in the future.
Bassett Farmers’ Market is up and running again after a demolition of the adjoining building caused severe damage to the roof.
Refrigerated products are available for sale again at the market.
Cabbage, pinto beans, and other fresh produce are available for purchase.
