The Community Artisan Market will make its debut for the 2026 season next week, but it will be under new management — the Crescent City Harbor District.
Harbor commissioners unanimously approved being the primary sponsor of the market after Harbormaster Mike Rademaker said its previous sponsor, Rural Human Services, “decided not to do the farmers market this year.”
RHS employee Angel Hanson has volunteered to run the market for the Harbor District this summer, Rademaker told commissioners on Wednesday.
“It’s going to be the same structure as it was last year in terms of timing and vendor fees,” he said. “The harbor would be the primary sponsor with Angel being the project manager.”
The Community Artisan Market starts for the season on June 6 and will be held on Saturdays through Aug. 29. Held in the marina parking lot, it typically attracts about 60 vendors and is open to the public from 9 a.m. to 2 p.m.
Vendors will pay the same fees that they were previously charged, but the proceeds will go to
the Crescent City Harbor District, Rademaker said. Vendor fees are $30, he said.
“Angel has reached out to a majority of the vendors and they like the harbor,” he said, adding that there may be competition with the Del Norte County Fairgrounds’ Country Market, which will also be held on Saturdays from June through August. “We’re going to have a majority of the vendors we got last year.”
The Harbor District’s decision to become the market’s primary sponsor comes amid public concern that there would be no market at the port, Board Chairman Rick Shepherd said.
According to Rademaker, RHS’s decision not to operate the market this year stems from some “internal restructuring or internal decisions.”
The harbormaster, however, refuted a statement from county resident Linda Sutter, who said RHS was “supposed to be closing down at the end of this week.”
Rademaker said he had spoken with an RHS representative about an hour before Wednesday’s meeting and it’s not “for sure” they are shutting down.
On Wednesday, an RHS representative told Redwood Voice Community News that an organization meeting would be held later that evening to discuss the market.
On Thursday, another employee stated that the harbor was going to take over the market, but when asked about the nonprofit’s future operation, said she couldn’t comment.
Rural Human Services is a nonprofit organization that has been operating since 1981, according to its website. It operates a food bank that distributes in Del Norte’s outlying communities as well as at its facility on 286 M Street.
Rural Human Services also operates the local domestic violence shelter, the Harrington House, while its Helping Hands program supports adults with intellectual and developmental disabilities.
RHS also spearheads the Salmon in the Classroom program in partnership with the California Department of Fish and Wildlife, Del Norte Unified School District and the Rowdy Creek Fish Hatchery.
On Wednesday, Sutter urged Harbor commissioners to invite Oregon vendors to sell at the market.
Shepherd said the harbor would extend an invitation to Oregon growers to sell their produce at the market. He said he also hopes local fishermen would sell some of their catch at the market.
In addition to markets at the harbor and at the Del Norte County Fairgrounds, the DNATL Community Food Council will hold the Downtown Crescent City Farmers & Artisans Market at the old Bank of America building at 2nd and H streets in Crescent City. The market will start on June 3 and will be held every Wednesday through October.
