Citizens who have something to sell but no place to sell it, will be in luck next month.

William Wooten, the owner of Crown Photography said starting next month he will be organizing a community yard sale along Columbia Street.

Wooten said the community bazaar is an effort to draw people to Columbia Street and anyone can participate, they can sell anything they want and there’s no cost to vendors.

“It’s going to be nothing but a big community yard sale once a month,” he said.

The first one will kick off April 16, and it will be every third Saturday of the month through the fall.

Wooten is asking for people who are interested in selling to call him now to make arrangements. His number is 985-241-5142 and he said he has 60 spots to fill, including either 12-foot-by-12-foot squares or 20-by-20 squares. Wooten said he will not provide tables and chairs.

He said he plans for vendors to set up at the green space in front of The Daily News and to continue along the sidewalk on Columbia Street toward Willis Avenue. Wooten said storeowners who have retail stores and would like to participate can set up goods outside the stores, but storeowners who are not participating have agreed to let members of the public set up in front of their stores.

“And I don’t care what they sell in that park, so long as they clean up after themselves,” he said. “They can sell auto parts, they can sell homemade baked goods or homemade cooked goods.”
Wooten said the idea of the community sale was his solution to lagging Street Strolls. Wooten said the Columbia Street Merchants’ Association, of which he is a member, sought him out to improve turnout.

“They have been doing these Street Strolls and they’ve not always been successful, and we get a lot of complaints from the merchants about the streets being blocked off,” he said. “I was on vacation three weeks ago and they asked me if I wanted to take care of it and I asked, ‘can I do it the way I want to do it?’ And they said ‘yeah,’ and then I said, ‘let’s do it for the community.’”

Wooten said he expects a little bit of everything.
“If a church wants to bring baked goods and have a bake sale, if they want to do car washes, all they have to do is come and sign up. I don’t care if it’s a church group or a youth group or anybody, we’ll supply the space,” he said.

Wooten said he will also have a space set aside for a farmer’s market next to Esma’s Second Time Around Consignments. There will also be popcorn.

“We’re having a gentleman coming who’s bringing his kettle corn machine so we can sell kettle corn,” he said.

At some point in the future, Wooten said he would like to show movies against the wall of Esma’s.

“Everything’s going to be free. The only thing we’re asking if for donations,” he said.

The donations would go toward students in the high school ROTC program who will monitor the parked cars.

In addition to the vendors, Wooten said he will sell donated items to raise money for Cassidy Park. Wooten said if anyone has anything they would like to donate, they can bring it by his photography studio and drop it off.

Crown Photography is located at 415 N. Columbia St.