RTM Petition: Restore Community Gardeners’ Hours

On April 3, Westport’s Parks & Recreation Commission adopted a regulation restricting access to non-school personnel and guests, on schools and adjacent property, between 7:30 a.m. and 4:15 p.m.

The Board of Selectwomen approved the regulation on April 10.

The Westport Community Gardens, near Long Lots Elementary School, is among the sites impacted by the new rule.

Toni Simonetti — a 23-year town resident, and longtime Gardens member — has petitioned the Westport Representative Town Meeting to reject the regulation, or modify it to restore prior hours of operation for the Community Gardens. (Gardeners were previously restricted from 8-9 a.m. and 3-4 p.m. only, when school was in session.)

The RTM has not published the agenda for its May meeting yet. Simonetti’s petition has 24 signatures.

Simonetti hopes members will examine these points:

— The Westport Community Gardens are “non-school grounds, but rather public town land adjacent to a school but a great distance from the school building and outdoor play area.”

— The garden is fenced and locked. No other part of the property, encompassing the entire perimeter, has a security barrier. Bauer Place is “within a few feet of the school’s’ playground.”

— Only Garden members can unlock the gate. The combination is changed each season.

The Westport Community Gardens gate. (Photo/Peter J. Swift)

— “Members and registered guests, restricted to town residents and employees, are screened by the garden’s Steering Committee; names and addresses are submitted to the town of Westport for sex offender status. Those approved must carry a hand pass while in the garden when school is in session. The town
knows exactly who the gardeners are and where they live. This is a significant security measure that far exceeds any other public space in Westport — including the unrestrained and unrestricted access that Compo provides anyone from anywhere to approach the hundreds of children (and staff) at Camp Compo.”

— There have been no “untoward incidents” in the Gardens’ 20 years at the Hyde Lane location.

— Gardeners can actually serve as “a valuable early notification adjunct for school resource officers and local law enforcement.”

— “Resources are better spent securing the grounds at more exposed school sites such as Greens Farms, Saugatuck and Kings Highway Elementary Schools.”

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