During the Town of Montgomery November 28 meeting, the board discussed the town’s Community Garden, located in Benedict Farm Park, and speculated how it should be handled after receiving several complaints from residents.

Theron Adkins, director of the town’s parks and recreation, opened the discussion with a presentation regarding the garden’s current state, explaining that its members feel distressed due to conflicting interests over the garden’s rules and regulations.

“We were approached a couple of months ago about ongoing issues with the community garden. It came to light that things in the garden became confrontational and volatile. I was told by one gardener that she felt physically threatened,” Adkins said. “There seems to have been issues with personality conflicts affecting the enforcement of the latest adopted rules.”

Adkins stated that he and the town board currently hold authority over the garden and both are speculating on the best course of action for it.

“There was a long list of issues and complaints brought forward by the then-current board and general garden members. At the time, it was decided that the town needed to take control of the garden for the remainder of the growing season. I was given all the plot assignments, minutes and the treasurer’s reports to review,” Adkins said, adding that the garden was funded by some town money.

“I believe that our town board needs to decide how liable they want to be for this community garden to continue. There are currently 58 gardeners, with only 36 of them being town residents. That’s 0.15 percent of the Town of Montgomery. You would need 230 gardeners to be one percent of our residents,” he continued.

Adkins then suggested that the board should either close the garden permanently or until 2025. He also offered a draft of his own rules and regulations if the town kept it open.

“I had a couple of suggestions. First one is to abolish the garden and maybe revisit it in the future. The other one is take a year off, allow the ground to recover, start again in 2025,” Adkins said. “If the town board decides to allow the garden to continue, then I have a draft of new rules and regulations that should be adopted by the town board before the next gardening season.”

Mary Lippincott, a member of the garden, spoke about her experiences, both good and bad, and hoped that the garden would remain open.

“I certainly hope that the town of Montgomery does not take our garden away from us. There are a lot of friendships that have been made at that garden, we help each other when we can,” Lippincott said. “But there is a lot of confrontation, and I think that we just need to reorganize and start again in the spring.”

Lori Schnieder, former secretary of the garden, shared Lippincott’s testament and agreed that the garden’s internal conflicts are disruptive.

“I think we need to keep this community garden going. I agree that there has been a lot of turmoil in the past two years, and a lot of members who were originally very active have stepped back because of the turmoil and the ways the rules were developed without a lot of insight and input,” she said.

Richard Phelps, a gardener who helped build and design the property in 2009, questioned how Adkins gained control over the garden. Councilwoman Kristen Brown explained that Town Supervisor Ronald Feller granted Adkins that authority.

“The garden was established by a motion of this board, and is it my understanding that you were appointed in charge of the garden by a motion of this board? Because if it hasn’t been that way, then you’re not in charge until the board moves to put you in charge, overriding a previous motion of this board,” Phelps said.

“He was put in charge of the community garden as per the supervisor’s direction, which is direct manager,” Brown responded. “The bank account was not his decision, that was Ron and mine.”

Tom Steed, a member and a former president of the garden, asserted that the town only funded the garden once during former Supervisor Brian Maher’s term and nothing more.

“Brian Maher, in his graciousness, was given $100,000 from Medline for community projects such as parks. He gave us approximately $6,000 to buy a new pump and tank. He’s the only one in town government that ever gave us a single penny,” Steed said. “We are self-sustaining on our $25-a-year, annual membership fees for their plots.”

Steve Vriesma , another gardener, questioned what would happen to the garden’s bees and beehives if the board closed them down and if he would be reimbursed.

“If you’re not going to be letting us do any gardening, I want to know what you’re doing with our bees. Because if you’re taking this away from us, I want my money back that I put into those beehives,” Vriesma said.

Brown explained that several gardeners sent her numerous complaints over the course of her term and recently approached her during her visit to the garden.

“Since I’ve been elected four years ago, I’ve had complaints about the garden. This has come to me from members of the community, family, friends over dinner tables,” Brown said. “I went up to the garden one day and I saw six people there. And of the six people there, five of them came up to me upset about many things that were happening in the garden.”

Brown also read a lengthy letter submitted by Lynn Thompson, a former Walden Village Trustee, who shared her experiences with the garden, emphasizing mismanagement of plots and behavior during its meetings.

“I actually went to a reorg meeting in 2022 and left, it was horrific. Yelling, screaming, people insulting people, throwing of papers of people. I stood up and stated that I was contemplating joining, but after this display, forget it,” Thompson wrote.

“I hope the Town of Montgomery council can come up with some creative ideas that can be implemented for 2024. I hope a waiting list for members who’d like to experience the joy of gardening can be eliminated,” she continued.

Adkins then clarified that the town’s funding for the garden includes general maintenance of the area, such as mowing the lawn or expanding infrastructure.

“The town does spend money up there, we mow, $25,000 to put that road in. There are things that we don’t write a check and hand it to the garden, but the town spends money up there upkeeping certain areas,” Adkins explained.

At the end of the discussion, the board decided that Town Supervisor Ronald Feller, Brown and Adkins would meet with three representatives at the garden, share a draft of the town’s proposed rules and solidify how the garden and its committee would move forward.