New site selected

Once again, the Jasper Local Food Group has a new home for its proposed community gardens. Or rather, two homes. The new gardens will no longer go into the Lions Park for this summer. Instead, the town of Jasper is offering the food group the use of land behind the Jasper Library and land by the Jasper Environmental Services building.

“It looks like we’ll have a garden this year after all,” said Town Manager George Krefting at the May 18 general town council meeting. 

Krefting told the municipality that the gardens would not impose any financial burdens on the town. The site is already watered and while fences, boxes for the plots and some other improvements will be needed, the Jasper Local Food Group will cover those costs, said Krefting.

“It was decided that given the opposition to the use of the Lions Park lands, in order to get the pilot project underway, it was best in the interests of all to proceed on lands other than the Lions Park,” reads a town document on the matter.

“It’s good. We are happy,” said Ursula Winkler of the Jasper Local Food Group, who also attended the meeting.

She said there were currently plans to open about 14 to 19 plots at the new gardening sites. Those plots will be given out to interested people through a lottery system. Winkler stressed  the lots will only be given out in a fair, transparent and equitable manner. No one will get a plot just because they know somebody in the food group.

“We will try it out, see how things work,” said Winkler.

She said all planned activities for the summer at the library would still go forwards and the gardens would not stop anything already planned. She reiterated she did not want the gardens to be a burden or an annoyance for anyone. Her group just wants to grow food in peace for the good of the community.

The garden at the library will only last for the year, as an expansion of the library is planned for next year. 

“They’re looking at it as an opportunity to develop a long term strategy. They can get it started and use it as test bed for future plans,” Krefting told council. He explained that once the group finds out how many people are interested in gardening and how it is to run the gardens for a season, they can work with the town on developing a more detailed strategy for community gardens in Jasper. 

At the conclusion of the 2010 growing season, the town will conduct a review of how the garden project went and will determine whether or not they should continue to allow the group to garden land leased to the town. The Jasper Local Food Group has agreed that should the town ask them to leave at the end of the season, they will vacate the land.

The Environmental Services building is located on the east side of the train tracks that run through Jasper, near the Parks Canada non-administration buildings.

The decision comes on the heels of broken down talks to place a community garden on a portion of Lions Park. That proposal resulted a petition signed by 90 community members opposing the project.

Krefting did not indicate if neighbouring residents had been consulted about the proposed plots.