'Zombie' property to become community garden tended by kids
http://www.dailygazette.com/ne.....en-tended-kid/?dgzrg
SCHENECTADY — One year after fire destroyed a vacant building at 822 State St., life is returning to the site.

Where hoses were used to douse the blaze, children will sprinkle water on seedlings. Where the charred shell of a house once stood, vegetables will grow.

It will be a welcome change, said Quest founder and director Judy Atchinson.
It was a crack house, and I made over 35 complaints to the police department,” she said. “People were doing drugs right outside in the backyard.”

The property associated with the house was given to Atchinson’s nonprofit organization by a donor who wishes to remain anonymous, she said. The house was destroyed by fire in May 2014, and disposition of the property was complicated at that time by the fact that its owner, Prakash Singh of Amsterdam, was in prison for robbing a bank in Amsterdam and will remain there until at least 2016, when he is first eligible for parole.

The city of Schenectady paid more than $24,000 to have the two-story home demolished. City officials said at the time that Singh claimed the house had been foreclosed on by Wells Fargo Bank, but the bank apparently never moved to take the property back.
Located next door to the lot, Quest offers an after-school program and a hot meal five days a week to children who struggle with poverty and emotional and mental problems.

Quest volunteer James Buhrmaster, whose family runs Buhrmaster Farms in Glenville, offered to help the organization start a community garden on the lot. He helped the children who attend Quest start zucchini, bean and lettuce plants indoors and is teaching them about what it’s like to work on a farm.

Other produce planned for the plot includes strawberries, squash, watermelon, onions, celery and leafy greens.

Buhrmaster said he plans to amend the soil with compost and rototill it sometime this week. Plants will go in the ground soon after.

The garden will be called Jay Farm, after Jay Street, Atchinson said.

“The kids are going to plant everything,” Buhrmaster said. “They will do a good amount of the work.”

Buhrmaster’s sister, Anna, and other community volunteers will also have a part in tending the garden.

“Vale [neighborhood] people are very excited about this,” Atchinson said. “They’re telling me to make sure we do kale and collard greens. They are going to come in and help.”

A fence will be erected on one side of the garden to prevent people from using it as a cut-through. Atchinson said she won’t fence it in entirely because she doesn’t want to shut out the community or children.

She said she’s not worried about people helping themselves to what grows there.

“I would be thrilled if they stole produce,” she joked. “We’re going to give it all away anyway. Nothing is going to be sold.”

Produce from the garden will be used in meals at Quest and community members will be invited to enjoy dishes created with the homegrown fruit and vegetables. Children who go to Quest will take part in cooking classes that teach them how to prepare the fresh produce at home.

Any produce not used in meals at Quest will be given away in the community.

Jay Farm will be a gathering place, with one or two picnic tables, one of which will be built by children who attend Quest, under the supervision of a local carpenter. A grill might also be added to the site and there will be rosebushes, which have already been donated by Buhrmaster.

Atchinson said she thinks the garden will be of great benefit to the children Quest serves, and not only for its nutritional value.

“I hope it will be a life-changing experience for them to see what they can accomplish, because we’re starting with nothing,” she said. “They’re going to see something literally rise from the ashes, and they will have been a force of change.”

http://www.dailygazette.com/news/2015/jun/16/foul--threatens-schenectady-community-garden/?dgzrg
SCHENECTADY — The city is trying to negotiate an agreement with Quest to manage a garden at a vacant lot on State Street after miscommunication between the city and Quest left the property in limbo.

Quest founder and director Judy Atchinson said she decided to clean up the property and develop it into a vegetable and flower garden after the city gave her the OK to do so. But two months later, she received a letter from the city that the land did not belong to Quest after all.

“They identified the land as ours,” Atchinson said of the property at 822 State St., next to Quest. “After that, we started talking about putting in the garden in the beginning of April. We saw a chance to do something good. We did this with all the right intentions, then the city sent us a letter that we are using a lot that belongs to the city.”

The 30-by-200-foot lot was left vacant after fire destroyed a house there a year ago. After the home was demolished by the city, the site was basically a dump, Atchinson said.

“We had to clear it first because it was full of needles and human feces, and you don’t even want to know what else,” she said. “People used to pull down their pants and go to the bathroom, and people were having sex out in the open. We complained and got nowhere and just kept getting the runaround.”

Quest offers an afterschool program and a hot meal five days a week to children who struggle with poverty and emotional and mental health problems. Atchinson said James Buhrmaster, who volunteers for the nonprofit organization, came up with the idea to have the children harvest, cook and serve vegetables from the garden.

“James went to City Hall in March to see what he [could] do,” she said. “He came away with the answer that the lot was ours and they gave the purchase date as the same date we purchased our property. Now, the city says they did not make a mistake and we were confused with the numbers.”

Corporation Council Carl Falotico said Quest provided the city with the address of their current property, rather than the lot next door, which led to a misunderstanding about the ownership of the property.

“We gave her valid information for the question that was presented to us,” he said. “But it is a city property on a commercial corridor.”

Atchinson recently offered to purchase the property from the city and submitted a bid of $500. The City Council discussed the potential sale in executive session during a committee meeting Monday evening, but did not approve the sale.

“The council did not accept the $500 offer,” said David Fronk, director of operations for the city.

Fronk said the city is instead looking at combining 820 State St. with neighboring 822 State St. — which is also vacant — and getting more money.

“We were looking at that option before the offer came up,” Fronk said of Atchinson’s bid. “The combined lots would be at least $41,700. But the council wants to continue working with her.”

According to county property records, 822 State St. is assessed at $29,668.

In the meantime, the city’s Law Department is negotiating a lease with Atchinson for Quest to continue using the property. Falotico said Quest holds an insurance policy and the city was named on the policy last week.

But Atchinson said she does not want to enter into an agreement that limits Quest’s use of the site. She said the city offered for Quest to use the property for six months, and she counter-offered with seven years.

“They chose not to sell us the lot,” she said. “We’re still using the lot, and we hold the insurance policy. The initial proposed agreement did not have an end date. We do not want to be kicked out at any time if and when a buyer comes along.”

Falotico could not provide a timeframe that might be established in the agreement for Quest to use the property, citing ongoing negotiations.

“We spent a long time with her discussing Quest’s continued use of the lot and provided her with a draft agreement to sign,” he said. “We told her we’re open to something that would give a set amount of time so the city couldn’t just sell it next week. That timeframe would depend on what is in the agreement.”

Atchinson said after cleaning the site, children and volunteers started planting in the community garden last month and also placed stones around the garden and installed a sprinkler system.

“The children started growing seeds on the third floor of Quest,” she said. “Everyone has a seed they scattered and started growing their own plants. Everyone dug dirt together — kids, grown-ups, passersby.”

Atchinson slammed the city for the miscommunication and handling of the property.

“The city knows they are at fault, but they banded together to protect themselves,” she said. “We did all the work and made it shovel-ready. They will wind up with a beautiful space, I would pay for the insurance and it would be at no cost to the city. But they figure they can get a lot of money and are looking for development on State Street. They really don’t care about the people and the kids.”

City Councilman Vince Riggi said he believes there should not be a price tag on something that’s for the good of the community.

“Everything seems to be for development and not what’s good for the area,” he said. “Right now, how do you put a price tag on what Quest is doing? The lot is worth much more, but it was garbage before and Quest had to deal with it. This is for the community.”

Maybe PLEX's fingerprints are on this being it is a "commercial corridor".

The city ignoring what is really needed in this city--a place that neighborhoods are invested in, and proud of.

I believe that's it, Parent.

another example of ........... while rome's burning...........

Nah, this is, to me, close to home and well within my sphere of influence. I believe those neighborhoods have suffered enough at the hands of the government. They had a long-time business driven out in favor of a million dollar Poverty Palace, now they are finally rid of an open air latrine and the city is claiming "April fool!" It matters to them a lot, this is their lives. Greece doesn't matter so much to people with no bank accounts and no cars, no jobs or low-wage jobs. Their lives won't change for the worse because of world events as much as they are changing for the better by practicing self-reliance.