McAllen’s garden on the chopping block
Plans to expand fire station would encroach on land
McALLEN — When Alison Brovold’s family uprooted from California and moved to this border city, its community garden was a big reason why.
Brovold’s husband, Alexis Racelis, was interviewing for a job with the U.S. Department of Agriculture, and while touring the city they were introduced to the garden. Set among pecan and ash trees, bordered by grape vines and replete with rows of sugar snap peas and kale, the garden appears as a bucolic oasis in the middle of town.
“We saw the garden and said, ‘This is cool,’ ” Brovold, 42, said. “The garden recruited us here.”
But today, plans to expand the neighboring fire station would pave over a significant portion of the garden, threatening its very existence.
City officials say Fire Station No. 2, the oldest station in the city, needs to be torn down and replaced. Inevitably those plans would encroach on the community garden.
Even as city leaders attempt to strike a balance between public safety and livability, they are also grappling with questions of the identity they are shaping for their border community.
“I want public safety, but it shouldn’t come at the expense of quality of life,” Brovold said. “McAllen deserves both, and we think the city can do that.”
A vegetable garden is a living organism, experts say. It takes time to grow a healthy soil, continually adding organic matter and nutrients to the point where the soil is easily tilled and soft.
Many attempts to launch community gardens across the Rio Grande Valley have been shortlived, but where others have failed McAllen’s garden has thrived, aided in large part by John Goolsby, the USDA scientist behind the garden and its president.
‘It meets a real need’
The land adjacent to Fire Station No. 2 was a long way from garden-ready back in 2005 when Goolsby selected the abandoned lot for McAllen’s first community garden.
“It had all of the essentials to start a garden,” Goolsby said. “We had a meeting with the city. Some doubted it would work, but were willing to give it a try. It’s been sold out every year.”
In some years interest has outpaced availability for the 18 to 20 plots, which cost $75 each per year. The gardening season begins in September and ends in late March, but maintenance continues periodically throughout the year.
It took years, but the garden soil is now in good condition. Additionally, the site offers access to flood irrigation, shade, grass for children to play, everything to operate an optimal community garden.
“It meets a real need for people in McAllen,” Goolsby said. “If we don’t leave enough for the community garden, there might not be a community garden in the future.”
City Manager Roel “Roy” Rodriguez is confident the city can accommodate the fire station and the community garden at the same location, but it will take compromises.
At first, city engineers designed a two-story fire station with two bays for brand new fire engines, a larger parking lot and a driveway entrance on one corner with an exit on the other. That plan, which angered gardeners, would have paved over a significant portion of the community plot.
Since then the city has drawn up revised plans that reduce the height of the new structure by about eight feet, and reduce encroachment of the parking lot by several hundred square feet. Engineers were also able to maneuver around some trees, and reduce the driveway from 24 feet to 14 feet.
City commissioners split
Still, under the new plan, the garden would lose its shed, several large trees and a grassy area adjacent to the garden where kids play.
“It’s just grass,” Rodriguez said. “I certainly want to accommodate kids, but we have parks for that.”
Rodriguez expects construction to begin by early next year on the estimated $2 million project.
“We continue to try to work on a solution that’s good for everybody,” Rodriguez said. “The community garden folks would like to have a solution where we have no impact to the garden — that is very nearly impossible.”
Fire Station No. 2 has served the community for more than 50 years, and now the building is showing signs of age, according to Rodriguez.
During a city commission meeting in late November, McAllen’s Mayor Jim Darling questioned whether the next fire station would serve the community another 50 years. McAllen Fire Chief Rafael Balderas, who deferred comment for this story to Rodriguez, responded that too many accommodations may indeed shorten the utility of the new station.
City commissioners also appear to be split over the fire station expansion, and the battle lines run through John Ingram’s district.
One alternative being floated on the commission is to reduce the size of the current garden, while starting a second garden a few blocks away.
Ingram scolded commissioners who made light of gardeners’ passion for their small patch of land, yet his proposal to move Fire Station No. 2 instead of the community garden to another location gained little support.
“I think the community garden people would like to see me be able to have the fire station moved,” Ingram said. “I think I have a chance, but it’s a little bit of a long shot.”
Complicating the gardeners’ position is the Memorandum of Understanding agreed upon at the time the garden was created that entitles the city to take back the property at any time and for any reason, Rodriguez said.
Goolsby has tallied the annual garden harvest at 3,000 pounds, with 54 types of organically grown vegetables, citrus, bananas and blanc du bois grapes that a local amateur vintner turns into a few cases of wine. Gardeners get a bottle at harvest in June and pruning in January.
Rallying to the cause
In response to the fire station plans, the gardeners rallied neighbors and concerned citizens. They also created a Facebook page called Preserve the Community Garden, which has more than 200 followers, suggesting their cause resonates well beyond the small community of gardeners.
On a recent afternoon, the community garden hosted a barbecue with live music. Neighbors ate produce from the garden, and children ate peas straight off the vine. Even the firefighters from Fire Station No. 2 joined in the festivities.
Tonya Kostenko, 45, grew up in McAllen, moved away for years, then returned to raise her boys, ages 10 and 6, in her hometown. Amid the escalating tensions, Kostenko asked her children what they liked about the community garden.
“They like growing their own food and learning about science,” Kostenko said in recounting their conversation. “And they said, ‘We get to go in the firehouse and talk to the firemen.’ ”