By Kathy Chaffin
kchaffin@salisburypost.com
CLEVELAND ó A woman here wants to plant a community garden on town property adjoining the Town Hall.
Shonda Donaldson, who lives on Brevard Street, presented the idea to the Cleveland Board of Commissioners Monday night. Donaldson said she would solicit donations of tools, seeds and plants and grow and tend the garden herself.
“I just like to help out everybody as much as I can,” she said. “I’ve been wanting to do it for a long time.”
Donaldson, who attends Third Creek Baptist Church, said vegetables grown in the garden would be shared with townspeople. Some of the town’s elderly residents, for example, can’t afford to buy fresh produce at the grocery store, she said.
Commissioner John I. Steele Jr. asked how she would handle dispersement of the vegetables and whether anyone would be helping her with the work.
“They can help out if they want to,” Donaldson said. As for dispersing the vegetables, she said she would try to divide them so that everyone who wanted some could get them.
Donaldson offered to deliver the fresh vegetables to any elderly and disabled residents who are unable to come get them.
Steele responded, “I just don’t want you to be put in a bind because a lot of people will be coming to get fresh vegetables.”
Mayor Jim Brown said board members, if they decide to consider Donaldson’s request, would need to designate a specific area where the garden would be and have it staked off. It would need to be accessible to the public, he said.
Mayor Pro Tem Danny Gabriel said he would like to see how many people are interested in working on a community garden and encouraged Donaldson to see if anyone at her church would like to volunteer to help.
“If you can’t get any help, it’s going to be hard on one person,” he said. Gabriel said anyone interesting in helping who can’t reach Donaldson can call someone on the board.
Donaldson, at Mayor Brown’s request, said she’d return to the board’s January meeting to discuss the project further.
Also at Monday’s meeting, town commissioners voted unanimously to allow a conversational Spanish course to be held at Town Hall. Steele said the course would be for an hour one night a week for 10 weeks and would cost $100.
The course would be taught by a Spanish teacher at West Rowan High School, he said, and would not require a textbook. “We’re not getting college credit or anything like that,” he said.
Steele said he knows of 10 people who are already interested in taking the course. The perfect size would be about 20, he said, and if there are more than that interested, he said the course could be held on two different nights.
The cost would cover the salary of the teacher, Steele said. “I would encourage it,”he said. “I’d certainly like to see it done, the utilization of the building and so we can offer it to the people.”
Brown said it would be a great course to offer town residents.
Gabriel said he would also like to see an English class offered to Hispanic parents instead of longtime residents catering to them by learning Spanish. “The parents have an obligation to learn English,” he said.
Steele said he didn’t consider offering a class in conversational Spanish to be catering to local Hispanics.
Gabriel responded, “Well, a lot of people feel that way, and we represent the people.”