BY KATHY BARATTA
Staff Writer
HOWELL — Thanks, but no thanks, is the Southard Grange’s reaction to the official response to its proposal to build a community garden on township-owned land.
Representatives of the Southard Grange wanted municipal officials to allow the Grange to oversee a community garden on about 15 acres of a township-owned former farm.
Grange Master Elaine Taylor, who is an organic farmer residing on Maxim-Southard Road near the 31-acre Price farm, made the proposal to the Township Council last week on behalf of the Grange members.
Taylor touted the community garden proposal as something that would give people who live in condominiums and apartments, as well as anyone else with an interest in gardening, to participate in the activity. She said the project would have included workshops and given participants a chance to benefit from the expertise of local farmers.
But it now appears to be a dead issue for the Grange.
Helene Schlegel, director of the recreation department and of buildings and grounds, said she would welcome the involvement of Grange members as township volunteers in a community garden project, but not as a private enterprise.
Taylor was steadfast in the notion that the Grange members would only pursue the project if they could do it as a separate entity from the township.
Schlegel said when she applied for a grant that was used to purchase the Price farm she made a community garden one of the proposed uses for the location. She said she would be violating the parameters of the grant if any individual or group other than the township were permitted to operate any enterprise on the property.
Regarding the Grange’s hard stand in the matter, Schlegel’s response was, “Anyone is welcome to participate in a community garden, but only under the auspices of the recreation department.”
Speaking after the Dec. 14 council meeting, Taylor said the Grange would not be pursuing the community garden project unless it was “a Grange project, not a township project.”
“We regret that we are unable to simply be volunteers for the recreation department. We wish them the best in their endeavors,” Taylor said.
According to Taylor, the irony in the situation is the fact that the former owner of the Price farm, Margaret Price, was a 50-year member of the Southard Grange.
“We wanted to do this in her name. A reminder. She wanted the land to remain a farm,” she said.
Taylor said she felt “blindsided” by Schlegel’s response at the Dec. 14 council meeting when she, Taylor, had been communicating the garden idea to township officials for months.
“We feel that our government is so caught up in the process of governing that they are unable to see a good deed,” she said.