The Jacksonville City Council approved a 3-year agreement with the Jacksonville Parks Foundation Monday night to place a new community-based farm and orchard in East Park.
Located on Myrtle Street across from the Jacksonville East Cemetery, East Park has been in focus for different city leaders as a place of opportunity to build out infrastructure and to help rebuild the neighborhood.
Morgan County Commissioner and Jacksonville Parks Foundation Garden Initiative Chair Dr. Michael Woods says that build out for the farm is expected to start this Spring: “We want to advance East Park and turn it into a community-based farm and the orchards all combined together. We are waiting on the final, solidified grant funds for the orchard with the federal activities changing some things. We’ve had a few delays and we’re waiting on that, but we are moving forward with building out a whole new community-based farm called ‘East Park Acres.'”
Woods says that the city won’t accrue any additional costs with the community farm at East Park because water utilities are already hooked up to the site. City Attorney Dan Beard says that the city also has some opportunity to acquire some other nearby lots and properties that are unused that will give more room for the farm and orchard to coexist with the park itself. The city’s operating budget currently has a line item to rehabilitate East Park’s basketball courts.
Woods says it’s about engaging with a portion of the community that has been overlooked and under served in years past.
Woods says he’s going to some other places looking for help with with the farm: “We’ve reached out to both colleges and the high schools. We do have some students from the Illinois School for the Visually Impaired actually working with us right now. We have partnered with the Illinois School for the Deaf as well, and we are trying to partner more with Illinois College, reaching out to Susie Drake over there to work on their internship program to try to get more engagement throughout the entire community. We also want to work with the local FFA chapters. Jacksonville High School has a wonderful program, and we would love to partner with them. I know that they are going to be adding a new Ag program at the middle school, and we’d love to partner with them as well.”
He says the foundation will be primarily focusing on building out the farm and orchard in the near term but look forward to partnering with the city to build out the park further as a nature-focused destination in the future.