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The Cordata Community Gardens is receiving lots of support from the community and great coverage in our local newspaper, The Bellingham Herald. Here's a copy of another article from the paper today telling about a grant our gardens have received through the City of Bellingham!
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Mar, 25, 2009
Bellingham's Small and Simple grants fund community gardens, other projects
ANNA WALTERS / THE BELLINGHAM HERALD
Bellingham's Small and Simple grants fund community gardens, other projects
ANNA WALTERS / THE BELLINGHAM HERALD
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BELLINGHAM - Volunteers are just waiting for another sunny day to finish driving fence posts and putting up fence wire for the Guide Meridian/Cordata Neighborhood Association's community garden.
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"We have work days scheduled for this weekend," said Ben Andrews, who is coordinating the garden project with his wife, Dee Andrews. "If it doesn't rain, we hope to get up a lot of fencing and some of the gates and some of the raised beds built."
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Once the 53-bed garden is ready for planting in early May, neighbors who have purchased a plot for a yearly $35 fee can grow their own produce using tools and supplies provided by the neighborhood association.
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Some of the materials used to build the community garden - which will cost about $25,000, Ben Andrews said - were paid for by the city of Bellingham through a $2,500 Small and Simple grant. The Small and Simple program funds neighborhood and community projects in Bellingham.
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Across the board budget cuts caused the city to reduce the money pool for this year's grants to just under $17,000 - about half the amount of 2008's awards. Eight local projects got a chunk of that money.
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"There's got to be some things that we continue to do, but in a smaller fashion," said Linda Stewart, neighborhoods and special projects coordinator for the city. "Of course we could shut down all kinds of nonessential everything, but we're trying to keep things going during a temporary downturn."
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In recent years, the grants often have gone to nonprofit or community-based organizations and schools, but this year the program's focus shifted to have neighborhoods bring such groups into the fold to work together, with neighborhoods leading the way.
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Local organizations submitted 36 applications totaling more than $56,000 this year, according to the city. Applications were reviewed by a panel of community members and city staff before the eight were chosen.
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Projects that will be funded this year include Mt. Baker Bicycle Club's Bike to Work Day and improvements to the Fairhaven Rose Garden.
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MORE INFORMATION
• For more information about the 2009 Small and Simple Grant awards, go to cob.org.
• For more information on volunteering for or gardening at the community garden, contact Dee and Ben Andrews at cordatagardens@yahoo.com.
• For more information about the 2009 Small and Simple Grant awards, go to cob.org.
• For more information on volunteering for or gardening at the community garden, contact Dee and Ben Andrews at cordatagardens@yahoo.com.
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This truly is a great project for our community!
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