Lynn garden meeting brings out opponents, supporters

LYNN – Leymi Olivero works for the Food Project, the organization that manages the Ingalls School garden.He’s watched the garden provide fresh food for elderly residents, homeless people and others in need. He’s also seen scores of teens arrive at Ingalls for summer gardening jobs. And he knows students at Ingalls use the garden as a hands-on classroom.”All I know is that it’s not just helping us, it’s helping the community. I have seen it since day one,” Olivero told the School Committee this week.The lease on the Ingalls’ garden is up for renewal and neighbors who have complained for years about problems at the site are hoping the School Committee will now shut it down. About 75 people turned out for this week’s School Committee meeting to express either their support for the garden or their objections to it.Those who want the garden out of the neighborhood say rats are the biggest problem.Ward 2 City Councilor William Trahant represents part of the Ingalls School neighborhood and he said he has had a lot of complaints from neighbors who have seen a serious spike in the number of rats.”I was a big supporter of the garden at first, but now it’s with a heavy heart that I would like to see it closed down,” he said.Darren Cyr, who represents the other part of the neighborhood as the Ward 3 city councilor, acknowledged that rats are a problem throughout the city, but it’s worse in his ward. And like others, Cyr believes the garden is to blame.”We’ve had major clean-ups in the neighborhood, but it hasn’t helped,” said Cyr. “We’re at war with the rats.”Cyr also told the committee that the Health Department believes that the garden is contributing to the problem. Others say the rats are attracted to the site because it provides plenty of food and shelter.However, Chairman of the School Building and Grounds Committee John Ford said a report from Environmental Services of Boston said that gardens in and of themselves don’t cause rat problems. Ford said the report cited piles of household trash and uncovered barrels are the attraction for rats.”If you have a bag of cheetos and a tomato, rats will go for the cheetos,” said Ford. “They are not very different than we are.”School Committee Chairwoman Mayor Judith Flanagan Kennedy said she had spoken this week with Public Health Director Mary Ann O’Connor about the garden.”I asked her if the garden went away would the rats go away and she said no,” Flanagan Kennedy told fellow committee members.Margarite Puleo has been complaining about the problem for years and her objections are not limited to just rats. She said the garden brings gangs to the neighborhood. She also said she had court documents that show one of the workers hired to work in the garden was a convicted sex offender.Puleo gave the committee a petition with 75 signatures from neighbors who have had enough. “Rats, Vandalism gangs – get rid of it,” Puleo said.But the garden also has a strong show of support from other neighbors who like what it brings to the area and from teachers and parents who say the garden has been a tremendous resource for students.Jay Harrison, who helps manage the garden, said it has raised 30,000 pounds of produce for food banks and needy residents and it employs 45 teens every summer.Harrison also said there has been no evidence that the rats have been eating the crops and the Food Project workers are doing everything they can to help get rid of the rats.Ingalls Principal Kim Powers said the garden has been at the school since 2004 and it has become an important part of the school’s science curriculum and a resource for Ingalls families.”The Food Project represents something that is uniquely good within our community: farming the land, teaching students, guiding youth and cultivating respect,” Powers said.Kennedy has been speaking with residents on both sides of the issue and she has proposed a slate of compromises such as installing a higher fence and gates with locks. She also suggested that the scho