Editor’s note: The following press release was submitted to The Reporter by Noblesville Public Safety Director Chad Knecht.
On April 1, 2016, the City of Noblesville entered a five-year agreement with Live This Way to use city-owned property for a community garden. The agreement included six parcels on Pleasant Street and one across the alley on Walnut Street and Third Street. The agreement expired on April 1, 2021, and Live This Way was dissolved according to state records on Sept. 5, 2021. Live This Way has not had an active agreement with the city since it expired over a year ago.
A neighbor complaint about the nuisance property was made to the Noblesville Street Department on May 4. Knowing it was a city-owned property, a department supervisor made a visual inspection of the site that same day. Crews returned to the properties on May 5 and 6 to address the complaint. While it was a thriving garden years ago, the area was overgrown and showed no signs of upkeep, maintenance or current gardening activity.
Crews prepared the area to meet the standards of any city-owned property. This particular site is important to keep safe because it is adjacent to Southside Park and in close proximity to the Riverwalk Trail. Crews removed weed barrier and large metal landscape staples and used a mini excavator to flatten dirt and a compost pile that had grass growing on it so the site can be mowed safely.
Crews also inspected the condition and safety of all items on the property. Tomato cages, a rain barrel, landscaping tarps, a garden hose and four concrete benches along with an empty birdfeeder and one beehive, which was missing a top and had no signs of a colony, were all removed from the site and are being stored at the street department.
Wooden benches made of 4-by-4 lumber were rotting and breaking at the connection of their cement footers. Crews removed these benches for safety reasons since they were beyond repair and unsafe for anyone to use.
The work done by crews was purely to make the area safe, level for mowing and free of other hazards. There were no visible signs, markings, or flowered plant growth of a pollinator garden prior to minor site work done on the property, nor was there any known or authorized gardening being done on the properties in the past year.
None of the site work hinders future growth or use of the area. The city is in discussions with new urban gardening organization leadership and local residents to hopefully recreate the community gardens. The goal of city officials was and continues to be to keep the city safe and to help neighbors take pride in where they live.
Photos provided by City of Noblesville