Town Meeting Coverage | camford301

            The recent proposal to build a 17-acre organic community garden was met with an overwhelmingly positive crowd at this month's Community Preservation Commission meeting.

            Approximately 30 residents ofNorthampton and Florence showed up for the public comment session of the meeting, where they voiced their support for the construction of the gardens. The speakers provided all manner of evidence and justifications, from statistics to pictures to personal preferences.

            First to the podium was Lily Lombard, of 39 Monroe Street, the director of Grow Food Northampton and the organizer of the large turnout at the meeting. Lombard presented the CPC board members with a document bearing 100 signatures of citizens who supported the creation of the organic gardens but were unable to attend the meeting.

           Lombard then asked all who were in support of the proposal to stand, at which time all but about five people rose from their seats.

            "It's quite a large crowd," she said with a smile.

            The next speaker was city councilman Gene Tacy, who described the overwhelming support that he has seen from the town.

            "I got in excess of 3,000 emails on this," he said. "And only eight of 3,000 emails were negative on this project."

            Subsequent speakers also voiced similar support for the project. Statistics were presented, including a set from a man who revealed that the average carrot travels 17,000 miles before becoming dinner, which he said could be compared to 17,000 miles worth of pollution. Another set of data came from Cooley Dickinson Hospital, presented by a resident who claimed that 60 percent of adults and 30 percent of children in the local area have been found to be obese. The same presenter also iterated his feelings that a local source for fresh produce would serve as a great incentive to encourage those citizens to get more fruits and vegetable in their diets.

            Other speakers voiced their frustration with the current community gardens, saying that the area is simply too small to accommodate demand. At present, the community garden comprises just seven acres of land, divided into just over 400 square plots measuring 20 feet by 20 feet.

            After the meeting, Lombard stated that the project has received overwhelming support from other city councils as well as citizens.

            "The Recreation Commission, the Historic Commission, the Conservation Commission (and) the Agricultural Commission all voted to endorse this project," she said. "So I think we're in really great shape."