Community Garden Committee Honors Former Chair

Chatham Borough Council President Len Resto and Community Garden Committee Chair Katey DePinto presented Marcy Wecker with an engraved stepping stone as a thanks for all her work establishing the community garden.

"I felt it was very important to give some recognition to someone whose dedication and vision helped build this garden," DePinto said.

Wecker was the first chair of the Community Garden Committee and the driving force behind establishing the community garden. Though she stepped down as chair this year, she still kept her plot.

"If it weren't for Marcy, we wouldn't have built a garden," DePinto said.

Numerous local businesses and residents donated labor and materials to the garden, including Tom and Mike Bucuk of Green Path Organic Landcare and Pete Coviello of Coviello Brothers, first when it opened in 2010 and again in 2011 when it expanded.

The borough signed a lease with PSE&G for land near the intersection of Main Street and Division Avenue to use for the garden. PSE&G recently terminated the lease and gardeners learned they would have to vacate their plots by May.

Though there will be no growing season in 2013, the committee is already looking for alternate locations and plans to re-establish the garden in time for the 2014 growing season.

"We're going to use this as a model going forward, since this has been done and was such an incredible success for several years," DePinto said. "We're going to do exactly what Marcy Wecker has done."