Stafford residents want to know why thousands of dollars in landscaping at the Town Hall and Post Office on Rt. 237 was ripped out and replaced with a gravel garden and large boulders.
Beth Carr says she was at the Post Office this past week as the landscaping was being torn out.
‘I was astounded by this and I inquired from the man standing at the Post Office where this came from and he said, “Don’t blame the Highway Department, blame the Garden Society, they called the Highway Department and said everything needed weeding so we’re ripping it all out.”
Carr asked the Town Board who authorized the decision and wondered how the Garden Society got thrown under the bus?
“I guess I will have to plead guilty to that,” said Town Supervisor Robert Clement.
“So you unilaterally decided that thousands of dollars in landscaping should be ripped out?”
Clement says, “We talked with other people around and considering the appearance of the landscaping this last year, most of the time it looked terrible, we talked amongst ourselves here in the building, Steve and the guys.”
“Its called urban blight,” it really is horrible, says Carr.
Councilman Ron Panek says he recalls the Board talking about it at this meeting and the meeting before.
“We found out how much they wanted to trim the hedges, which was expensive, and that is when we had the discussion, should we go with stone instead and whatever landscaping we had will be in planters, including the trees,” says Panek.
Carr still thought it was a terrible decision and had nothing to do with the Garden Society pointing out that it needed to be weeded.
“It was a very sad decision. it reflects a totally man’s decision and shouldn’t have been left to the men,” says Garden Club Member Linda Call.
“It doesn’t look nice and its very sad. It’s gravel gardening at its best and we are sad to think that weeds couldn’t be pulled out before all the beautiful bushes and years of growth had disappeared.”
Clement says the Highway Department has been doing the weeding and trimming.
“Whatever we have done hasn’t improved it.”
“The landscaping by the Post Office sign and flag out there was impossible to make it look like anything, you trim, you trim, the evergreens had yellow flowers growing up through them.”
Carr says it was unfortunate the topic was not brought up to the greater group to ask what they wanted and what they wanted it to look like.
Clement says if the greater group had an opinion he did not hear from them.
“It was a board meeting I unfortunately missed, and we don’t get minutes for these meetings and they are not easy to come by in this community,” says Carr.
“When you have a Garden Society in a community like this, why didn’t you talk to them about it?”
Clement says the problem has existed for many years with the landscaping.
“I do not recall anyone from the Garden Club giving a suggestion, I never heard from them. This is a big maintenance problem.”
Clement says the gravel garden is not done as of yet.
“The plan was to plant some ornamental trees and then maybe put some planters out to plant some flowers, that’s the plan, its a starting point.”