By Tom Ayres, Senior Staff Writer
A last-minute effort to facilitate the temporary relocation of the Woodstock Farmers’ Market (WFM) bakery to the kitchen at Peace Field Farm was derailed late Tuesday when WFM owner-operator Patrick Crowl declined to pursue an emergency measure that would have allowed the market’s bakery to operate at the proposed farm-to-fork restaurant’s kitchen location on Pomfret Road.
Woodstock Planning and Zoning Administrator Steven Bauer contacted Crowl and Peace Field Farm owner John Holland via email early Tuesday morning, in advance of a special Woodstock Selectboard meeting slated for that night at which there was scheduled to be a discussion of a potential emergency effort to allow the WFM to temporarily operate its bakery at Peace Field’s Pomfret Road location.
“Governor Scott’s office has reached out to discuss potential next steps in supporting an emergency measure that would allow WFM to temporarily operate at Peace Field Farm,” Bauer wrote in a message to Crowl, Holland, and Woodstock Municipal Manager Eric Duffy early Tuesday morning. “The Selectboard intends to discuss (not vote) on this at their meeting tonight. I’m emailing you both to confirm that if arrangements can be made to make it happen, are you both still interested? Please let me know as soon as you can.”
About 90 minutes later, Crowl responded in the negative.
“Hi all. Thanks for reaching out,” Crowl stated in an email. “I am sorry to report that the window for the Peace Field decision has closed. Time was of the essence to get a strategy together 3 weeks ago,” he continued. “WFM made the decision of rebuilding the bakery in its previous location at 21 Mosher Mill Road. It was not the strategy we wanted to take but what’s done is done.
“Thanks to all, especially John [Holland] for the flurry of emails to try to make it happen. It was unfortunate to hit the state roadblock. The state seems to feel that we can mosey down a path of slow decision-making,” Crowl continued, voicing his consternation with Vermont’s regulatory processes. “In business, it’s survival of the fittest. Quick decisions about staffing and revenue during a flood crisis are critical. We learned this during Irene.”
In a late Tuesday evening phone conversation, Crowl elaborated on the position he communicated to Holland, Bauer, and Duffy earlier in the day.
“I think the Peace Field idea was great if it could have gotten done weeks ago, but we’re in a position where time is money,” Crowl said. “We’re not going to drag our feet. You remember that [initial] email exchange where it was clear that the state was going to drag their feet, so we just decided to cut and run. When I got the notice three weeks ago, we really had to pivot quickly — and we just decided that it would be better off to just go back into the original [bakery] building at Mosher Mill Road. We own the building, we have a mortgage on the building, and it’s the cheapest alternative, although John [Holland] was very gracious and we’re grateful in terms of his offer. We didn’t talk lease terms or anything, but he always assured me that it wasn’t any big deal.”
Crowl and WFM employees have projected via the Farmers’ Market website that the main store could be reopened by the middle of next month. The reopening of the adjacent bakery, which also services the WFM’s satellite store in Waterbury, is another matter.
“It might be a little bit behind,” Crowl said Tuesday night. “It’s second in line because we had to get contractors and remediation in line on the market first. So we started on the bakery about a week or two ago and it’s getting there. We’re on to a route after the market opens, but you never know. We’ve pulled some things off quickly before,” Crowl concluded.