Victory Gardens get a stay, will be back in production

The lake at the garden site is a popular
place for people to fish.

An agreement between the City of Marion and Victory Gardens Inc. late last month will keep the community garden plots open through at least the 2019 growning season.

Inmate works crews have already reset the fencing around the Victory Garden facility, which is next to Marion-Crittenden County Park on Old Morganfield Road.

Until a meeting in late March between Mayor Jared Byford and Robbie Kirk, county jailer and head of the non-profit group that oversees the Gardens, it looked as if the venture was over. The city had designs on selling in late 2018 its 42-plus acres that serve as home to the Gardens. With the future beyond 2018 bleak for continuing the gardens on the lands it had already developed, Victory Gardens Inc. voted to spend no more money and to forego the growing season.

But an informal meeting between both sides led to the discovery of a lease agreement originating in December 2014 that offered use of the city’s land to Victory Gardens Inc.  through Dec. 16, 2019. The lease is for $1 annually, and “may be extended if deemed so desirable by the City of Marion.”

Byford said the city has every intention of honoring the lease now that it has been discovered. Until that meeting in late March, there had been no mention of the document.

The lease preceded Byford’s appointment as mayor, Kirk’s term as jailer and Adam Ledford’s hire as Marion City Administrator.

The city may ultimately choose to sell the lands off Old Morganfield Road that include a pond, but that would give Victory Gardens Inc. almost two full years, at least, to find a solution.

“We will maintain the garden there for the next two years, and the city and the non-profit will work out a lease agreement for any years past that,” Kirk told The Crittenden Press.

But work on this year’s Gardens is already behind schedule. The uncertainty of the land’s ownership and decision by the non-profit to halt operations has left equipment unserviced and land unfertilized and prepped for planting. Crews have begun trying to catch up.

Starting a bit late, though, should not prevent the 27 plots of vegetables like corn, cucumbers and squash as well as tomatoes from being ready in time for distribution, which typically begins in June. Also on the land are fruit trees and blackberry vines that should be fruiting before the current lease ends.

This article first appeared in the March 29, 2018 issue of The Crittenden Press printed edition