Community garden in Vandergrift can be maintained during pandemic

Vandergrift will officially resume tending to community gardens, after a disagreement between council members broke out during Monday’s Zoom meeting.

Under the town’s Declaration of Disaster Emergency, which went into effect in March and was extended Monday until Aug. 31, all parks in the town are closed to the public. But posts on social media showed that Chloe Kruse, co-founder of the Vandergrift Parent Project (VPP), had entered the community garden with Councilman John Uskuraitis to maintain it.

Uskuraitis did not respond to request for comment Wednesday.

“What’s the significance to our borough if we violate our own emergency plan?” asked Councilwoman Karen McClarnon on Monday. “The work that was done was for a vegetable garden that does not belong to the borough. It’s for the Vandergrift Parent Project, which is a wonderful thing, but it should not happen during our emergency declaration.”

Uskuraitis said he had permission from Council President Kathy Chvala, and the garden was in need of routine maintenance, which is permissible under the emergency order.

McClarnon argued that keeping a garden does not equate to “maintenance,” especially when it does not belong to the borough, and that borough resources – including the labor of a maintenance staff member and use of Vandergrift’s maintenance truck – should not have been used for this purpose.

“The Vandergrift Parent Project does good things, but they should not be allowed in our parks,” McClarnon said at the meeting.

Attorney Alaine Generelli, who sat in for Borough Solicitor Larry Loperfito, agreed that the garden work should not have occurred.

“Unless it was imminent or an emergency or routine maintenance that needed to be done, it probably shouldn’t be happening right now,” Generelli said.

Other council members were frustrated that so much disagreement was spurred over what many saw as a technicality.

“You’re nitpicking,” said Councilman Lenny Collini. “Let it go.”

Uskuraitis argued that maintaining the garden in Franklin Park, while it is not owned by the borough, still falls within his duty as chairman of the Parks and Recreation Committee.

The council eventually moved on to new business, but revisited the issue later in the meeting, when Generelli said she found guidelines on the Department of Agriculture website that would allow a community garden to remain open. Uskuraitis made a motion to keep the VPP’s garden maintained under the Department of Agriculture’s guidelines. Franklin Park will still remain closed to the general public.

All members, including McClarnon, supported the motion.

She said she was making sure council members do things “the right way.”

Kruse said she was confused and hurt by the backlash that she has encountered with the garden.

“It hurt my feelings,” Kruse said. “I felt like we were doing something really good. The backlash of it was just unsettling.”

Kruse wondered if there was a personal issue that was causing McClarnon to take issue with the garden, saying it felt like she was trying to “pick a fight.”

Monday’s meeting was the latest in which McClarnon took issue with matters of protocol, leading council members bicker amongst themselves. In March, McClarnon raised concerns over the council’s use of personal emails and the legality of Vandergrift’s uninsured website. She also led a charge in January to have all council members sign paperwork required by state law, which members had neglected to do for the past six years.