Betsy Proctor is an entrepreneur who has owned and operated The Limited Edition Art & Antiques Store since 1994 on Second Street, along the heart of Old Town Katy. For the last 30 years, Proctor has operated Katy Market Days, which became a tradition for residents and visitors alike. But now, it’s all over. The years of organizing hundreds of vendors each season are now done for Proctor. There will be no more monthly market events along the old town corridor because, in recent weeks, Betsy Proctor has discovered there is just one way to work with the City of Katy: theirs. Her store is just a stone’s throw away from City Hall, and those in office want to assume control over Katy Market Day as a city-sanctioned event.
City of Katy shuts down Katy Market Days
Earlier this past summer, Proctor sent in her annual request to close the street for the market, but this year it was never addressed on the City Council agenda. She was eventually told they wanted her to sign a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) that would grant permission to use city barricades and the usual agreement that she would make sure the market area is clean after the event is over. But in a meeting with the city, she was asked about retirement.
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Betsy Proctor
Founder of Katy Market Days
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Proctor said they asked, “When are you going to retire?” Taken by surprise, as she had not been planning to do so, she says, “Then they were like, ‘Well we need to know when you are.’ I said, well, when I do, I’m going to give the market to my son who has a rock shop around the corner. He can run the market when I get too old to do it. They said, ‘No, no. City Council really doesn’t want you to do that. They really want you to give the market to us.’”
In assuming control of Katy Market Day, Proctor said the City wanted to pay her $15,000 for intellectual property and her DBA (Doing Business As), in addition to training a new city employee to do the work she has been doing at no cost to the city for 30 years as a private event.
Katy Market Days took place once a month from the beginning of spring to just before Christmas each year. Proctor says it is not a revenue generator for her, but the event does bring extra foot traffic to local businesses in addition to the vendor booths that line the streets. She feels this move by the city is a 100% power grab. “They don't care about money. It's power. They've got tons of money. They throw it away on events they don't advertise. They'll put ten grand into a retro rewind and bring in all this weird old equipment to play games, but then they don't advertise, so nobody comes. It's a typical government,” says Proctor. Each year, she says the event has covered the cost of inflatables, snow, music, and a petting zoo. Her goal has been to maintain a free event for Katy.
In addition, Proctor says the city has no interest in renting public facilities for other private events. “They don't want anybody to use any of the facilities from the civic center to closing the square unless it is a city event. So nobody can rent the civic center for a wedding, which was the initial intent. No one can rent it for a baby shower. No one can rent it for anything. The only people that can use it are the city, and they say because they paid for it, and I said no, no, actually, we paid for it. We're the taxpayers. We paid for that. We should be able to use it. No, they're not going to let us. That's the new policy,” she stated.
The final Katy Market Day took place on Saturday, December 7th, with the annual Christmas Market. Houston City Beat reached out to the City of Katy by email and twice by phone in an effort to provide their side of the story, to no avail.
