InTouch with Southern Kentucky July 2020 | Page 10

She said she had had her own
plans for a similar space for two
years, but it wasn’t until Keck
presented a farmers market as part
of several projects he wanted to
start in Somerset that the idea took
hold.
“He saw that I was interested in it,
and he gave me the reins,” she said.
The project was funded through
a $250,000 Governor’s Office of
Agricultural Policy grant and a
matching $250,000 from the city.
The decision was made to build
it where most people were used to
seeing a farmers market, in what
used to be the parking lot next to
the former Food Fair building.
That market was started 45 years
ago by Lois Alexander.
Alexander, now 85 years old, is
still active in the farmers market
scene, and Carroll said she will not
only be a vendor at the new market,
but that the Lake Cumberland
Farmers Market Advisory board
voted to give her a special spot that
no one else can use.
The metal sign posted just
outside of the parking lot that had
announced the presence of the
former market will be taken inside
and placed on the wall in her booth.
“It was unanimous,” Carroll said of
the board’s vote. “We were tickled
to do it.”
10 • In Touch with Southern Kentucky July 2020