Bountiful council backs facilitation model for community garden, directs staff to install irrigation and refine details

The Bountiful City Council on March 25 directed staff to proceed under a facilitation model for a proposed community garden on city-owned cemetery property, with volunteers responsible for day-to-day management, insurance and fee collection.

Council members and staff discussed options for city involvement after parks staff and volunteers met with Centerville representatives and city leaders in February. Gary Hill, a city staff member, told the council the staff assumption following an earlier work session was that the city would act primarily as landlord — supplying property and installing irrigation — while an organized volunteer group would handle maintenance, sign-ups and money. Hill also noted that if the city were to collect and hold fees, the Utah Money Management Act would apply because those funds would be public money.

The volunteer leadership team attending the meeting—identified in the discussion as Lori Partridge, Joy Ames and Caitlin Reich—described experience running or supporting community gardens and said they were prepared to take primary responsibility for operations. A volunteer representative told the council an independent liability policy for a comparable group would…