Open for business
If you didn’t have the chance to get outside and support local small businesses this past weekend, you’re in luck — the parking lot along First Street behind Columbus City Hall is filled with vendors again today.
That will be the case for the next several Saturdays, as the Columbus Farmers Market has kicked off its 2021 season.
Organizers estimated that more than 400 mostly-masked people visited the market when it opened on May 8, the largest crowd since before the COVID-19 pandemic started in 2020.
It’s encouraging that the inaugural market had a strong turnout, and we hope that participation continues to increase in the coming weeks and months.
All the buzz
Columbus is known for a lot of things, but a group of locals is looking to add another merit to the city’s resume in 2021.
Columbus Pollinator Committee, with the Columbus Design Institute, is launching free public programs to pursue a “Bee City USA” designation for Columbus from the Xerces Society. Bee City communities support landscape collaboration and establish and maintain healthy pollinator habitats.
Local efforts will commence on May 21, as Fresh Start Recovery Center’s lawn will be redesigned by Columbus-based landscape architect Rachel Kavathe of Loci Creative to feature hundreds of beneficial native plants and flowers.
The city has long been known for its expertise in design, which makes this project a perfect match as it will also benefit the environment .
Baby boom?
Due to public health conditions, many local families decided to hold off on having children in 2020.
Now that pandemic conditions have improved, that’s no longer the case.
Births at Columbus Regional Hospital in January and February were down 29.5% and 32.4% compared to the same months the year before.
This past March and April, however, numbers were in line with figures for pregnancies in 2020 that began well before the pandemic.
Don’t be surprised if we see a significant bump in newborns as we move into the summer and fall months. Even if there isn’t, we’re glad to see that the community is starting to grow again.
