DEAD MAN’S FLATS – Interest in creating a community garden in Dead Man’s Flats has withered up, forcing the community association to postpones its plans.
In a letter sent to the Municipal District of Bighorn, the community association said it no longer intends to create a community garden this spring after only a fraction of residents who were initially interested in the plan responded to an email asking for help with construction of a garden plot.
“So much time has passed since the inception of the community garden two years ago that we believe a lot of interested residents have established gardens within their own yards, or have lost interest in the project,” wrote Lynn Brown, secretary for the Dead Man’s Flats Community Association.
“Our financing for this project through a federal government grant was predicated on an established amount of community involvement for which we no longer have the numbers.”
She said the organization also encountered an unresolved liability issue to access water from Skogan Court, creating more issues for the 60-by-60-foot garden, which was supposed to be located between River’s Bend Gate and Second Avenue, east of Pigeon Creek.
While the community association won’t be building a garden in the spring, it hasn’t given up on the project all together.
“It is our intention to revisit this project when the community (specifically River’s Bend) is completely built out. Hopefully at that time, we will have more interested gardeners and will have addressed the water access issue,” wrote Brown.
CAO Martin Buckley said he was disappointed, but willing to work with the organization when they are ready to move forward.
“We’re certainly disappointed because we worked hard with that group to try and make this a reality,” said Buckley.
In April, councillors unanimously approved a caretaker’s agreement to allow the community association to proceed with its gardening ambitions, however, because the majority of the site was located on Alberta Transportation land, the group had to still get approval from the provincial agency before it could till the land.
Administration was initially opposed to the site and tried to push the community association to locate the garden at the north end of the hamlet, however the community association was firmly opposed to this idea because a water supply wasn’t readily available.
Officials suggested resolving this issue by burying a temporary water line from a nearby hydrant to the garden site, however, the community association remained opposed to the suggestion.
After further discussions, administration relented and accepted the community association’s preferred site, so long as the group was prepared to accept some uncertainty with it.
According to the community association, they chose the location because of its accessibility, water access and sun exposure.
