- November 14, 2024
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A garden created by children at the Flagler Beach Montessori school won't be removed by the city, but officials may set standards for the grooming of its leafy greens.
School owner Kerri Huckabee and a group of about 30 parents and children argued for the garden's preservation at an April 14 City Commission meeting after word leaked — inaccurately, city commissioners said — that the city wanted to tear it down.
"A plant or something that might seem worthless to you is the world to a child," Huckabee said. "Life and trees and plants mean the world to our children."
"Please do not take our special garden," an 8-year-old girl asked the commission, reading haltingly from her prepared statement. "We love it so much. It is beautiful. It means a lot to us."
One parent called the garden "a living illustration" of concepts taught in class, and one that teaches children to be inquisitive, patient and observant.
"The whole reason my 7-year-old eats vegetables is that garden," another parent said.
City officials weren't going tear the garden down, city commissioners told the audience, but they did have concerns over how the garden — which sits in the middle of Wickline Park — has been managed.
"I don’t think the issue was the value of a garden to a school," City Commissioner Jane Mealy said. "The question was: It’s the people’s park, and if the garden wasn’t living up to what other people in town thought it should look like, that’s what I thought we were discussing."
Commissioner Joy McGrew said she would be "the last one to vote to do away with it."
"It was never about taking away the garden," she said. "It was trying to make it look ... like the old paradigm," with neat rows of plants.
Commissioner Kim Carney thought the city should reconsider the lease that lets the school use the park, and set guidelines.
"I think that the garden should be defined; I think it should be part of the lease," she said, adding that the school should pay for any city water it uses to water the plants.
Commissioner Rick Belhumeur noted that the garden sits in the middle of a green space that could be used for other things — playing ball, for instance — and that residents have complained about its appearance.
"It hasn't been maintained," he said. "You’ve got trees, you’ve got hedges — you know, it’s going beyond what it was supposed to be to begin with. And it’s a public park; it’s not a place for a private garden. ... I don’t think it should be unmaintained in the middle of a good green space, and the only recreational space that we have."
Mealy asked the school to maintain the garden, and said the city will look at the lease and work with the school.
McGrew said the issue could be solved with good communication. "If we communicate, we can come up with a solution," she said. "We always do."
