Tuesday, May 14, 2013
'Most of the money in place' to install garden, with state approval, engineer says.
Chatham’s community garden may be taking root in a new location. Borough Engineer Vincent DeNave told the Borough Council on Monday that a portion of undeveloped Woodland Park could be used for the garden. DeNave said there is a 120-foot by 120-foot area in the park on Woodland Road that could accommodate 60 plots. “Overall, it is very doable,” he told the council. Because the land was acquired with Green Acres funds, the state would have to give permission to locate the community garden on the parcel, but DeNave said he anticipated no obstacles with that. He estimated the cost to prepare the property, including grading, clearing and improving the access road, at about $15,000. But the borough already has about $17,000 in reserve for the …
Wednesday, March 13, 2013
Utility company cited safety concerns with new monopoles as their reason for ending the lease.
The Chatham Borough Community Garden will close this year due to PSE&G terminating its lease for the land. PSE&G representatives said there are safety concerns with respect to the new monopole erected near the garden, which can be seen on the north side of Kings Road east of Division Avenue. A letter sent to gardeners from Julia Callahan of the Community Garden Committee said in part, "PSE&G engineers have determined the distance of safe space from the new monopoles to our community garden be outside a radius of 130 feet. This is far greater than previous reports and, unfortunately, the location of our garden is severely compromised by these new regulations." The letter went on to say borough officials met with representatives from PSE&G …
Tuesday, March 8, 2011
18 more plots and a pilot program for children are in store this growing season.
A slight warming in temperatures and the promise of a soaking rain put members of the Chatham Community Garden committee in good spirits. The garden, which will begin its second growing season at the corner of Division Avenue and Main Street once the weather warms, was to expand to an area directly across Main Street. But protests from Madison neighbors, which influenced land-owner PSE&G to revoke the lease of the land, changed all that. The expansion will now add a row of plots to the existing area. Eighteen new 10-foot-by-10-foot plots and a triangular area for a pilot children's gardening program are included in the new area. The expanded section of the garden is in the works, and Community Garden Chair Marcy Wecker hopes it will be …
Wednesday, December 15, 2010
New space will create 18 new plots and three kinder-plots.
The recently-approved southern expansion to the existing community garden began Wednesday when workers from Coviello Brothers laid the soil mix. The expansion, Marcy Wecker said, "will at least allow us to move forward...and it will allow us to get some of the people off the waiting list." The new soil was spread out 10 feet to the east of the existing garden on the PSE&G property at Main Street and Divison Avenue. The current easterly fence will be moved back another 10 feet to include the new plots. Many local companies who donated time and material to the garden in its inaugural year, including Green Path Organic Landcare and Whole Foods of Madison, are expected to do so again. Garden officials had hoped to expand to an area on the …
Wednesday, November 24, 2010
Borough Council decides to send letter regarding Brooklake Road community gardens despite position remaining unchanged.
The Madison Borough Council decided on Monday night to draft and send a letter back to Chatham Borough after its council urged Madison officials to approve the construction of community gardens on Brooklake Road and formally indicate to PSE&G that they have no objections. However, the letter will not contain the sentiment Chatham is hoping for. The Madison council, especially MAdison Mayor Mary-Anna Holden, has been steadfast in its opposition to the gardens on the road. Madison residents that live directly across from where Chatham was proposing to construct them have been fighting against their construction since late July. A number of times those residents had believed the issue was a dead one. The latest came when PSE&G …
Thursday, November 18, 2010
Extending fence to the east will add 18 more plots to the Community Garden.
The Community Garden Advisory Committee voted Wednesday night to approve the proposed expansion of the existing garden to the east by one row, adding 18 more half-plots. "It will at least allow us to move forward," Marcy Wecker said, "and it will allow us to get some of the people off the waiting list." Garden officials had hoped to expand to an area on the north side of Main Street along Brooklake Road, but those plans were slashed last month when PSE&G terminated the signed licensing agreement for the space. Council member Len Resto said efforts to convince Madison residents and the Madison Council to rescind their objections to the proposed expansion along Brooklake Road had not been successful. At the Nov. 8 Madison Borough Council …
40.738487
-74.384788
Chatham Borough Municipal Building
54 Fairmount Ave, Chatham, NJ
/articles/garden-committee-approves-expansion
26715
/locations/2469475
Monday, November 8, 2010
Sustainable Jersey awards Chatham Bronze Certification.
Borough Mayor Nelson Vaughan and Green Initiatives Committee Chairwoman Cindy Steffens will travel to Atlantic City on Nov. 16 for the Sustainable Jersey awards luncheon to celebrate Chatham's new bronze certification in the program. "This is great news," Vaughan said. "It wouldn't have been possible without [Steffens]. She made it happen." Steffens said, "We're very pleased, very excited. We're still kind of getting used to the idea, it's still sinking in. We're thrilled." The borough submitted for 225 points and won the full 225 through various "green" programs and initiatives. The requirement for bronze certification was 150 points. "A lot of people worked very hard on our submission," Steffens said. "It takes a lot for a town to get …
40.738487
-74.384788
Chatham Borough Municipal Building
54 Fairmount Ave, Chatham, NJ
/articles/sustainable-certification-for-borough
26715
/locations/2389990
Tuesday, October 26, 2010
Mayor: 'We want to be good neighbors, and we want them to be good neighbors.'
The Chatham Borough council unanimously passed a resolution Monday night to reaffirm its commitment to developing a new community garden along Brooklake Road, immediately adjacent to the borough line with Madison. The resolution, which follows on the heels of the message the Borough received last Thursday from PSE&G (which stated that the energy company was terminating the licensing agreement for the garden as the result of outcry from Madison residents) urges Madison officials to approve of the garden's construction and formally indicate to PSE&G that they have no objections. Before presenting the resolution during the council meeting, Mayor Nelson Vaughan said that he, Council President James Collander and Borough Administrator Robert …
Saturday, September 4, 2010
The Chatham Community Garden's Sunflower Contest
The Chatham Community Garden seeks entries now through Sept. 18 for its Sunflower Contest, which we first told you about in June. Sunflower seeds were dispensed at the beginning of the summer at community events like the Fishawack Festival and the Farmers Market. Now at the end of their growing season, the sunflowers should be at their full height. Volunteers from the Community Garden hope people will bring their flowers to the Farmers Market to be weighed, measured and entered into the Sunflower Contest. Prizes for the biggest, tallest flowers include gift certificates to local vendors and restaurants. Winners will be announced Sept. 25 at the Farmers Market, said volunteer Mary Goodbread, pictured here with her granddaughter Sarah Lowe. …
40.73998
-74.38372
Chatham New Jersey Transit Station
Fairmount Ave & Railroad Plz, Chatham, NJ
/articles/look-out-for-big-trees-and-big-sunflowers
148972
/locations/1831367
Saturday, August 28, 2010
It's Patch's weekly summary of everything you missed this week in Chatham Borough and Chatham Township.
Think you missed anything in Chatham this week? We bring you the Week In Review, where you can catch up on all the top stories in Chatham. This week saw numerous stories about police activity and volunteers and community events, as well as the announcement of a change of staff at the Chatham Patch. On Monday, we told you about two DWI arrests in the Borough, one of a 45-year-old Basking Ridge resident and one of a 19-year-old Florham Park resident with an open bottle of vodka in the car. We also told you about local opposition to proposed water rate hikes in Chatham. We also told you about Keith Lynott and the North Jersey Red Cross, which is one of the first respondents to any tragedy or disaster in the area. On Tuesday we told you about …
Yelowhownd
12:20 pm on Friday, May 17, 2013
It's true, when the community garden movement was growing and more people wanted plots Chatham gardeners asked PSEG for more land along Brooklake and reached an agreement until people from Madison who live near the power lines complained that the garden would attract deer, rabbits and other animals as well as increase traffic. more ›