Westport may soon “pave paradise, and put up a parking lot.”
Or a school. Or athletic fields.
Lou Weinberg is chair of the Westport Community Gardens. For over 20 years the land just south of Long Lots Elementary School has been a soothing, lush home away from home for hundreds of Westporters.
From folks in their 80s to families with little children, they grow fruit, vegetables, flowers, herbs and grasses, in a wide array of designs and colors.
Bees pollinate. Birds feed. Youngsters learn about the environment. Intergenerational friendships bloom in a common space with a pergola, picnic table, grape vines, bocce court and Adirondack chairs, It truly is a “community” garden.
Westport Community Gardens — a bird’s-eye view.
Along the perimeter, Weinberg has helped create the Long Lots Preserve. Three of its 4 phases are complete, thanks to $40,000 in contributions from residents, and grants.
Invasive plants have been eradicated, replaced by a New England forest filled with mature oak trees and native plants.
It’s one more way to preserve, nurture and appreciate nature, in a town that has lost far too much of it.
Long Lots Preserve.
But on Monday morning, Weinberg says, he learned that the Long Lots School Building Committee — charged with renovating or replacing the 70-year-old elementary school — has come up with 3 options.
All, he says, involve eliminating the Westport Community Gardens and Long Lots Preserve.
“06880” reached out yesterday morning to Building Committee chair Jay Keenan. A request for comment had not been received by 9 p.m. last night.
However, committee member Don O’Day — chair of the previous committee that renovated Coleytown Middle School — says, “We are a long way from paving paradise and putting up a parking lot,”
The committee’s next meeting was scheduled for tomorrow (Thursday). Due to the fireworks, it’s been rescheduled for Friday (June 30, 10 a.m., Town Hall Room 309).
There will be public comment and/or questions regarding the entire project, then a work session with the design team for project updates, and a review of “feasibility study options.”
If time allows, there may be a chance for public comment and/or questions after the work session ends.
A community gathering, at the Westport Community Gardens.
Weinberg says, “One of the options, as I understand it, is to build the new school on the Gardens and Preserve, while students continue to attend the current school.
“Another option is to build the new school on the athletic fields on the other side of the current school, and cover the Community Gardens and Preserve with athletic fields to replace the ones they would be losing.”
Weinberg is not anti-school, or anti-fields. However, he hopes to find a solution that does not involve losing “a community asset that we have all built over the past 20 years, and which will continue to be here long after we are gone.
“The Gardens serve over 100 residents every year, at very little cost to the town. The Gardens are in oasis away from the hustle and bustle of suburban life. The Gardens and Preserve practice extremely effective environmental stewardship of the land. Isn’t that what we are trying to teach our kids?
“Athletic fields are replaceable. A community garden built with love, blood, sweat and tears is not.”
“The Gardens and Preserve are an incredible educational opportunity for the schools. I never thought that we would have to defend a town asset that we’ve been building for 20 years.”
Taking a quick break, at the Community Gardens.
The Community Gardens and Preserve have long been supported by selectmen, the Departments of Parks & Recreation and Public Works, and the public schools.
Kowalsky Brothers, Belta’s Farm, Gault, Daybreak Nurseries, A&J Market and Gilbertie’s Herb Gardens, Robbie Guimond, AJ Penna and Bartlett Tree Experts all pitched in. The Green Village Initiative, Wholesome Wave Foundation and New England Grassroots Environmental Fund provided money.
Weinberg hopes he can show the building committee exactly what the Community Gardens and Preserve are, and do. He also offers a tour to any resident who asks. His email is WestportCommunityGarden@gmail.com.
(For an earlier “06880” story on the Westport Community Gardens, click here. For the Community Gardens website, click here. For the Long Lots Preserve website, click here.)
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Gardeners donated surplus food to needy families, through the Grow-a-Row initiative.
A visitor to the Westport Community Gardens.