By Thane Grauel
WESTPORT — First Selectwoman Jennifer Tooker’s latest podcast, facilitated by the Y’s Men of Westport/Weston, recently addressed the planned replacement, renovation — or something in between — of Long Lots Elementary School.
Her guest was Jay Keenan, chair of the Long Lots School Building Committee and a member of the Representative Town Meeting from District 2.
Some of what was said regarding the school project’s potential effect on the Westport Community Gardens raised new questions rather than putting old ones to rest. In particular, Keenan saying one option was to “modify” the gardens.
What many understood previously was that only the renovate-in-place option for the school would mean the gardens wouldn’t be displaced. Modifying the gardens appeared new.
Interest in the fate of the community gardens that have been near Long Lots for 20 years has been considerable.
The building committee’s in-person meeting last week drew an overflow crowd to a third-floor conference room at Town Hall — many of the attendees community gardens stakeholders and neighbors — while the roomy auditorium downstairs lay fallow.
People dragged chairs in from the other spaces, clogging aisles and the doorway. But they were allowed to have their say, though it was hard for many to hear what was being said at the committee’s table.
After an initial public input opportunity, Keenan said he’d stay — and he did — to field any questions remaining after a work session where the public couldn’t talk.
But podcasts are a different from public meetings. They’re generally a controlled conversation. No live audience, no up-in-arms citizenry. And no one calling in or raising their Zoom hand or actual hand to ask questions.
“As you know, the members of the community garden have been activated, and are very interested in what may happen to the community garden,” Tooker said during her podcast.
“And there is a narrative out there that we have some examples of what would happen on that property that we are both destroying and eliminating the garden,” Tooker said.
“And that is not true,” Tooker said. “So, would you like to set the record straight on that?”
“Yes,” Keenan said. “Even prior to attending our meetings, there has never been a version of any of the options which eliminates the gardens from the property,” Keenan said.
“There are options where they remain where they are,” he said. “There are options where we modify them, and there are options where we relocate them on the property.”
“There has never been an option where they’re eliminated from the Long Lots property,” Keenan said.
The notion of modifying the gardens was news to some, including Louis Weinberg, chair of the Westport Community Gardens Steering Committee and director of the Long Lots Preserve.
It was puzzling when that might have been discussed by the committee before percolating up in the podcast.
“We’ve never heard that one before,” Weinberg said.
“There’s been no discussion of modifying the garden, and nobody I know has any idea what that one means,” he said.
He also hit back at the supposed ease of relocating the gardens.
“Moving or relocating the gardens means destroying them, eliminating them, and starting over,” Weinberg said.
“It is a 20-year build, including mature trees, thousands of perennial plants, bocce courts, established fencing built in concrete,” he said. “One hundred and twenty different families operating there … approximately 10,000 community work hours to build a property that you don’t relocate or move.”
The Long Lots School Building Committee will meet next at 6 p.m. Aug. 10 in Town Hall, according to the town website.
Listen to the podcast here.
Thane Grauel grew up in Westport and has been a journalist in Fairfield County and beyond for 35 years. Reach him at editor@westportjournal.com. Learn more about us here.
With all due respect, the gardens cannot be relocated. Once they are removed they are gone. And, why are plans being drawn for LLE prior to redistricting which won’t be done until 2025 per the Board of Ed? Lastly, we are in a climate crisis and should be adding green space, not removing it. Where there is a will, there is a way. Hopefully the town will do the right thing and leave the gardens fully intact.
While we all are in agreement that Long Lots Elementary needs improvement and that our town excels in the education we give our youngsters, it’s impossible to imagine why a valuable educational resource like the Westport Community Gardens would not be valued and preserved.
It is not just soil being planted each season. When members join they become stewards of a plot, which in my case is four, four by eight raised beds. With the reasonable assumption that I would be gardening in them indefinitely, I had taller-than-usual raised beds built out of non pressure treated wood, and filled them with the best organic soil from Gilbertie’s. This was a significant investment for my family, but was worth all the years we have had growing and sharing organic produce and flowers.
Any change to the WCG would destroy all I have invested. There are members who have spent far more money than I have over the years to build up their soil, build structures, and create gardens that are havens for bees, and birds.
I am very disturbed that MY investment in the WCG is being disrespected in the any of the possibilities the Building Committee is considering, including modification, and there are over 120 members who will be angry voters when the next Town elections come around if their right to keep their gardens intact is not maintained.
As far as I know, the Westport Community Garden’s are not on Lots elementary school property, but rather adjacent to the school, and I believe is under the purview of parks and rec. So why do these people keep saying that the gardens are on Long Lots property? Even more important, moving the gardens to a different location “on the property” so to speak eliminates 20 years of hard work, often backbreaking work, that it took to bring the gardens to what they are now: a wonderful asset to the town
It is not “misinformation“ to say that relocating the Garden would destroy the Garden. The true “false narrative” here is the one that pretends it is possible to move or relocate mature trees, shrubs, and plants that have been nurtured for 20 years. To get a sense of the magnitude of the Westport Community Gardens, please watch the video below:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rrlkHpSYVjI
Why is there so much obfuscation and double speak regarding the still Unseen plans for the new school? “Relocate” should read “Eliminate”. Being “Transparent” should read “Conceal”. We can only guess what “Modify” means now – “Cut in Half?” Please tell us. Discussions and meetings about the refurb/new LLE school started quietly way back in September 2022 without reaching out to stakeholders or Westport residents. The Town Hall meetings are in a little room with over-flow into the halls making it difficult for a large, meaningful back and forth discussion with residents to flush out what is being proposed and to concerns/objections to the plans. Why not just be upfront and let everything be hashed out without false narratives that leave lots of wiggle room. It reminds me of the old Peanuts cartoon – except its the supporters of the Garden staying in place who are Charlie Brown, the football is the 20-year old Garden/Preserves and the town officials are Lucy. Swipe goes the Gardens, erh, football.
Why can’t we bus or otherwise transport the kids to neighboring playing fields during the 2 year building period and leave the gardens alone? Surely such a relatively minor inconvenience is better than destroying or even “modifying” the gardens.
This issue seems to be getting unnecessarily complex. The gardeners are asking for an option that keeps the gardens where they are as is. None of the options for rebuilding the school currently allow this – in each one the gardens property is used for something else. Terms such as “relocating”, “modifying” are just other ways of saying the gardens will be destroyed. It would be great if the town representatives could drop the Orwell-speak.
It is my understanding that the garden isn’t even on Long Lots school property. Shouldn’t this be addressed from the onset? Also, how do you ‘modify’ a garden? Or the preserve? Transitioning in language from ‘elimination’ to ‘modification’ is a stretch when you’re taking about two decades of environmental effort.
Thank you to the volunteers on the Long Lots Building Committee for exploring options for a much needed new school. Volunteering is at the heart of local projects – the Westport Community Gardens and Long Lots Preserve had ~10,000 volunteer hours put in by members of the community and that number grows with every community workday.
Community members, other than Community Gardeners and hundreds of town residents that have volunteered to build the community gardens in the preserve include the Eagle Scouts, Girl Scouts, Staples High School Service League Of Boys, Aspatuck Land Trust, Earthplace, Bartlett Tree Experts, AJ Penna and Son, Gault, Michel Nischan‘s Wholesome Wave foundation, Gilbertie’s, Green Village Initiative, Sustainable Connecticut, the New England Grassroots Environmental Fund, Anthropology, the Westport Garden Club, and Grow-a-Row.
Creating the gardens was no small feat – it truly took a village, and 20 years to establish plants, turn compact rocky dirt into fertile organic soil, build supporting structures, and sweat and tears to create the thriving ecosystem it is now. I would ask the committee and First Selectwoman Jennifer Tooker, please don’t discount the community efforts that went into the gardens by claiming that re-locating them is not akin to destroying them.
I’m confident that the committee can find a solution to build an incredible new school, find temporary field space in Westport for the students, and keep the gardens in their current state adjacent to the school.
As a LLS parent I support building a new school. Long Lots is overcrowded and it needs to be modernized and expanded. As a WCG member, too, my sons have benefited from the gardens which are a underappreciated asset of the town. We can rebuild the school without “relocating” or “modifying” the gardens which other words for eliminating the existing garden. The town can live without a baseball field for two years… we don’t need to wipe out the 20 years of environmental gains for another baseball field.
It is my understanding that the Westport Community Garden and Long Lots Preserve are NOT located on the Long Lots Elementary Campus, but part of the Parks and Recreation of Westport?!? Why is the garden even in the discussion of the Long Lots Elementary Campus Plan?
Also, what is all of the double talk and change of narrative? “Relocating” and “modifying” regarding gardens means elimination!!! You can’t just “move” a garden. These gardens have been in this same spot for 20 years, that is thousands of hours of volunteers working the land, spending their own money to make the garden what it is today. Most towns in this country would be proud to have such beautiful, productive, well-tended garden. What is up Westport???
I am a retired educator, education is important to me, but so is greenspace and nature. The Garden, Preserve and LL Elementary School can grow together! If you have not seen the Westport Community Garden and Long Lots Preserve come by and take a tour. It is a little piece of paradise in the middle of our town.
How does the saying go- if you repeat something enough times people will start to believe it? It was clear the point of doing the podcast was to emphasize a narrative the town is trying to instill- that the Gardens/Preserve will not be removed/destroyed. Anything short of leaving these two community jewels in place results in technically removing and, yes, destroying the Gardens/Preserve that have been established over 20 years by thousands of volunteer hours from hundreds of community members. There may be a new parcel of land with the “garden” name on it. It is not the same. Think mature gardens and wildlife ecosystem vs. new subdivision with saplings that may or may not grow.
When they talk costs, who is going to rebuild the new Garden/Preserve with all of its structures/plantings? (I assume not the tax payers who will foot the bill for the rest.)
If the town takes issue with transparency, then include the Gardens and Parks & Rec in the podcast and release the draft drawings that have been requested multiple times.
We are all for building a great new school (in which ever form the town bodies approve). We can all grow together.
The building committee, BOE and First Selectwoman keep saying that nothing is decided, and that there are no scenarios which eliminate the Garden and Preserve. But it sure seems like the process is being kept under wraps, and information is being shared in a controlled and constrained way.
Like others here, I would love to understand what is meant by modified. I also agree that relocation is akin to destruction. While it may be easy on paper to draw the garden on a different part of the property, in reality it cannot be picked up and moved. It is soil and fauna and flora. And even more than that, what of the Preserve? Trees and habitat cannot be moved. While the Garden is a product of 20 years and tens of thousands of hours of investment, the trees in the Preserve are older than all of us.
The discussion of misinformation is not productive. We ought to be focused on solutions. How can we build a beautiful state of the art new facility to accommodate the growth and development of our school community while minimizing environmental impact and respecting the work of other parts of Westport’s diverse community. It should not be a hard problem to solve.
It is no wonder that Community Garden members and their supporters have been activated by the mixed messages from the administration and the Building Committee. Our request is for the Committee to propose a solution that will keep the Garden in place where it now is and has been for twenty years. The Garden was unanimously approved by town government including the RTM when founded and ten years later when it was expanded. Just two years ago unanimous approval was given for the establishment of a Reserve around the garden to eliminate invasive species and replace them with native plants that support our environment and its pollinators. The Community Gardens and local businesses have invested many thousand hours of hard labor and their money to build and maintain these unique assets. What has been built cannot be moved anywhere, including to another location on school property. The Community Gardens members and their supporters acted to their detriment in reliance upon the multiple approvals from Westport authorities. Clearly implied in these approvals is a promise that all this should not be taken for another use. I appreciate the hard work and good intentions of the volunteer members of the Building Committee, but an approach that keeps the Community Gardens and the Reserve in their current location must be considered. A written suggestion I previously made to the committee was that if a new school is built, it could be sited on the existing parking lot. The upper field could be used as a temporary parking lot. When the existing school is demolished a new parking lot could be built there and the upper field could be restored. I do not know if this suggestion has been considered. I look forward to any proposal from the Committee that leaves the Gardens and Reserve intact, as and where they are now.
Superb comment, Jerry.
I understand and appreciate the compassion the gardeners have for the WCG. I have participated for the past 5x years with my son and his family. It is a great joy to see my grandkids learn the value of growing your own food and working with the community. The WCG is truly a gem for the town of Westport.
I hope the powers that be can come up with a viable solution that keeps the garden in tact. That would be a great thing.
So many thoughts, now that the town is talking about Long Lots project. They are talking now, but not really sharing much information.
I join others in thanking the building committee for their service. I fully support giving the highest priority to providing a safe and enriching learning environment for our children. This can be done without disrupting, moving, modifying or otherwise destroying the community gardens and preserve.
Also it is my understanding the garden and preserve are not officially part of the “school campus,” but are separate property parcels.
A couple of other comments:
Gardeners and others have spent 10,000 volunteer hours building the gardens and preserve over 2 decades. Relocating the gardens is a euphemism for destroying them.
Modifying the garden is a confusing new option. What does that mean? Sharing the schematics of all these options would be helpful … and transparent.
On the issue of transparency, there is very little transparency in this process. I would argue there is more an effort to obfuscate and/or withhold information.
The town is providing public notice of meetings and posting very sparse meeting minutes. Minimal public disclosure at best. They talk alot about misinformation, but don’t provide real information.
Most of the materials being discussed at the meetings are NOT made available to the public. My FOIA request for documents in 7 of 9 specific areas has been denied. The reason stated by Mr. Keenan is that the town typically does not release such documents and that this is the domain of the town attorney.
FOIA Section 1-210 says documents may be withheld ONLY if the public interest would be better served by withholding the information. Not convinced this test has been met and yet the request has been largely denied.
Ms. Tooker and Mr. Keenan have not convinced me they are being transparent, no matter how they spin the narrative. Their actions demonstrate they would rather skirt the spirit of “transparency” with rhetoric and obfuscation.
Whenever a citizen has to resort to a FOIA request, it should be a mark of shame for the town. Whenever a FOAI request is turned down, it should be cause for a recall election. We need to make “Automatically Share” become the Default Setting for all non-personal information the town has or generates.
Just adding another name to the above comments regarding the absurdity that the Gardens can be relocated and/or modified (whatever that might imply). You simply can not “modify” the 20 years of hard work, community engagement and not to mention the thousands of dollars the people have put into the current beautiful gardens. It takes a lot of effort toiling the current soil to produce the spectacular flowers, herbs, fruits and vegetables that, if you visited the gardens, you could see.
The space currently occupied by the Gardens makes it an easy target for the expansion of LLS. However, this does not entitle the planning committee to simply assume that it’s their land to do as they wish. The land is the property of the Parks and Rec, who I am sure will work dilligently to find playing fields for a couple of years while the new school is built on the current fields adjacent to the school.
We have built something special for the town of Westport and it would sure be nice if we could continue to create food for the needy, educational programs for the community and a speical place for those of us who garden at the WCG.
I appreciate all of the hard work that the Long Lots School Building Committee is devoting to this important project and am grateful for their efforts to satisfy all of the stakeholders. I think many of us who are members of the garden came to Westport – and have stayed in Westport – in large part due to the wonderful school system, the beautiful location/nature and the fantastic and progressive vibe of the town.
As you have heard multiple times already, the gardens cannot be moved or modified without destroying them; so any plan that proposes to move them is essentially requiring a complete do-over
The Wakeman Town Farm has been a wonderful addition to our town on so many levels. The Community Gardens and Preserve could represent a related opportunity for our students to be exposed to and get involved in activities that focus on our planet (climate change, sustainability, food sources, etc.). After 20 years, the Gardens and the Preserve are in a great phase and are ripe for new programs and activities.
Let’s please continue to work together to come up with a solution that satisfies all of the priorities and doesn’t destroy any major progress and potentially awesome opportunities for our kids.
Unbelievable.
My heart goes out to the community gardeners… the pod cast was the writing on the wall..
anyone following town politics knew it.
Parker Harding… same garbage… a literal denial to acknowledge reality…
We are in the age of administration tantrum.
I’m disappointed that this has all been done under the cover of darkness which has never been in the spirit of our historically inclusive and peaceful town,
Let’s not divide folks against one another and pit students against athletes against the garden community.As many have said stop with the nonsense that the community gardens can be moved – stating what should be an obvious truth – that would be terminal.
The latest podcast from town hall regarding the gardens is full of sanctimony – “transparency…modify…relocate” – nonsense – you were found out – own it and stop with the spin — it costs you credibility.
This is a vanity project as currently constituted – are we going to call the new school “Tooker Elementary?” I’m certain there will be consequences at the ballot box.
Someone needs to look in the mirror and remind themselves about the inclusive and open way we do things inclusive way we do things here in Westport – please leave the scorched earth politics to cable news.
Save the garden where it is!
Change the LL redevelopment plan. For those who get it, the garden is a piece of our town’s collective soul. This public outcry makes it clear that the garden should be deed restricted as a community garden in perpetuity.
It is time to move the discussion to other plans. Yes, it will take a couple of years of disruption ….but that is what construction is. We have ball fields, and theaters and other resources across the town than can be used during construction. We can definitely build a great school… and keep the garden! The best part of all this debate is how so many people are now learning about this treasured town resource. Let’s continue the celebration…and let it grow!
Well said Jennifer Johnson.
This does not need to end badly.