HOULTON, Maine — The Community Market held in downtown Houlton during the summer months received a special visitor Saturday as Conrad Brown from the Maine Department of Agriculture was in town to check out the market.
Rob Lawless, market master for Houlton’s Community Market, said he had the opportunity to spend the day with Brown, showing him how the venue operates. Lawless added the visit was not part of a specific complaint filed against the market.
“As the market has grown, our visibility has increased, so it’s likely we just came up on their radar,” Lawless said. “The State Deptartment of Agriculture routinely checks markets for compliance and they finally got around to checking us.”
Brown spent time speaking with the many vendors Saturday, and was “very accommodating.”
“The message I’d like to get out to people is that we are not aware of a complaint being filed, and our market is in compliance with the state,” Lawless said. “Conrad asked me to relay the message that inspectors should be viewed as a resource to vendors, and they simply assure that vendors are selling safe, healthy food. Conrad assured me that part of his job is to see that community markets such as ours succeed.”
