The Town will soon be installing 18 planter boxes for a community garden outside the hub thanks to a donation from the Amherstburg Community Foundation and a Youth Innovation Grant secured by the Mayor’s Youth Advisory Committee.
The community garden project will bring additional life to an already bustling hub, a campus of compassion that is home to agencies serving both youth and seniors, like Amherstburg Community Services, the House Youth Centre, Fighting Island Boxing Club and a Nurse Practitioner-Led Clinic that can service 2,400 patients.
The community garden is “envisioned to be a catalyst project for seniors supporting youth and youth supporting seniors, potentially to the benefit of providing meals to those in need and as an educational experience,” said a report to Council. “The synergies created between tenants is unique as it supports youth, seniors and persons with disabilities engaging in all manners of community support and inclusiveness.”
The ACF provided a grant of $12,000 to construct eight wooden planter boxes. A member of the Mayor’s Youth Advisory Committee led the grant writing process and secured $10,000 that will be used for ten Green Circle garden wheelchair accessible planters that “offer unrivaled wheelchair access” and use “hydroponics to grow bigger, healthier plants.”
ACS will help plant and tend to the gardens as part of their operations, with no operating costs to the Town.
I can't wait to see these new gardens take shape! The more than 300 perennials planted last year by volunteers with the Amherstburg Fort Malden Horticultural Society are bursting into life and look absolutely amazing in front of the hub!
In other funding news, the Town secured 50/50 funding under the County Wide Active Transportation System Municipal Partnership Program for two bike repair stations for $11,000 and four bike racks for $22,000.
Town staff also secured a $20,000 grant from the Southwest Ontario Tourism Corporation Tourism Adaptation Fund.
The money will be used to purchase three ADA wheelchair accessible picnic tables and five picnic tables and benches for the King's Navy Yard Parkette, or fountain area.
The money will also be used to purchase equipment to facilitate the management of events, including ten steel support planter bases and 50 flex post bollards.
