Main Street Columbus pitched the idea of a community garden near the Hitching Lot Farmer’s Market during Columbus City Council’s Thursday work session.
Main Street representative Lilly Wills and Director Barbara Bigelow, as well as City Engineer Kevin Stafford, said the idea was “very preliminary” and they wanted to take the council’s temperature before they moved forward with actually pursuing grants.
Garden proposal
Wills said the proposed location is adjacent to the old Boy Scout hut at the Hitching Lot Farmer’s Market. It would occupy an area to the east of the building, taking up the grassy area where the magnolia tree grows as well as a portion of the parking lot on that side. In total the area in question is about 32 feet by 115 feet.
“There would be a combination of picnic benches and other work benches, places to sit,” City Engineer Kevin Stafford said. “The primary focus would be growing vegetables and other types of plants, with planters and raised beds and things of that nature.”
The area would be fenced to keep vandals and animals out, Stafford said, and it would be built so that traffic could flow around it.
“At this point the question is whether the city would like to dedicate that space,” Stafford said.
Wills explained that beds would be rented out for between $30 and $40 per season.
“We provide the bed and the soil,” she said. “People can grow whatever they want. I’ve had a lot of interest from homeschoolers and people who live on (Columbus Air Force Base) and who maybe can’t have a garden.”
Wills also suggested that overages could be donated.
“I would also like to start a program where if people have surplus produce they can donate it to Helping Hands or Loaves and Fishes or any community organization that needs it,” she said. “There’s also a food pantry across the street at Munson and Brothers, and we could put surplus produce in there, too.”
Volunteers and Main Street personnel would oversee gardening activities, she said.
“We would have work days where people from Lowndes County Master Gardeners or Main Street would go and be there,” she said. “Then also school groups or Boy Scout groups may want to come to do school work, so we could have a schedule for them and a volunteer or Main Street staff could be there.”
Mayor Keith Gaskin said he supported the idea.
“This would be an opportunity to also be a learning element for the community,” he said. “It would improve the looks of the area there, and it would tie in well with the work going on in Burns Bottom and the activity around the Farmers’ Market.”
Council pushback
Some of the council weren’t as enthused, though, and felt Gaskin and Main Street should have looped them and city Property Manager Rogena Bonner into the discussion earlier.
Gaskin, who brought the matter to the council, said he had included Ward 5 Councilman Stephen Jones — whose ward the Hitching Lot is in — and Bonner by emailing them rough plans for the garden.
Bonner, however, said that she didn’t know much about the particulars of the project until the work session that day.
“(Bonner) said she wasn’t involved in the initial plans, but she saw the plans,” said Ward 1 Councilwoman Ethel Taylor Stewart. “It seems like you skipped a step here. She is responsible for what goes down there at the Farmer’s Market. This seems like a good idea, but why was she overlooked in the initial phase?”
Gaskin disagreed that Bonner had been left out.
“(Main Street) came to me to see if it was something the city would be interested in,” Gaskin said. “I took a look at it, asked (Stafford) to see if it would be feasible. As soon as they gave me the documentation, I emailed (Bonner and Jones).”
Bonner said she wanted to know when something involving city property came up.
“When instances like this come up, as properties manager I would like to know,” she said. “…I got a plan through email, and I said in that email I was open to discussion. I haven’t heard anything else about it.”
“This is the discussion,” Gaskin retorted.
Ward 2 Councilman Joseph Mickens said Bonner should have been involved from the start.
“Anything that is going on, let me make myself clear, (Bonner) needs to be part of it,” Mickens said.
Ward 4 Councilman Pierre Beard said he thought the garden was a good idea.
“This is an awesome thing,” Beard said. “There are other areas in Downtown that are bigger that maybe can be looked at. But I like it.”
Jones suggested looking at the Magnolia Bowl.
“I think it’s a great idea,” Jones said. “I would like to see some conversations with the school system about the Magnolia Bowl. I’d like to see it on a bigger stage.”
Lilly said the idea was that Main Street wanted to start small to gauge interest.
“We were planning to make it mobile so it could be picked up and moved somewhere else and expanded as needed, if there is a lot of community interest,” she said. “If we have a first season and it goes really, really well we could potentially move it and expand it.”
Conflict disclosure: Managing Editor Zack Plair is currently in legal proceedings that involve the city of Columbus and Rogina Bonner. Plair was not involved in the editing of this story. Details are available in previous reporting.
Brian Jones is the local government reporter for Columbus and Lowndes County.
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