The property at 7101 Stevens Place in Lantzville, which is overgrown with blackberry bushes, will be designated a park, but plans for $2,500 for native plants hit a snag at the March 6 council meeting. Photo: Mick Sweetman / CHLY 101.7FM

A proposal for school children to help clean up an empty lot led to a heated debate at the Lantzville council meeting on Wednesday, March 6.

The original motion was for district staff to develop a work plan and agreement with Seaview Elementary School to restore 7101 Stevens Place to a natural park space, have city staff remove all the invasive blackberry bushes, and allocate $2,500 to purchase native plants.

The motion also included that council rezone the property as a Park Zone.

Mayor Mark Swain spoke in favour of the original proposal.

“I think this is an excellent project in the sense that it's a real community partnership project, especially with our with our students — our youngest residents in Lantzville — and to bring them into the fold and and to see what you know, local government can do in collaboration with students while achieving the common goal of preserving the environment, so I think it's an excellent opportunity.”

However, an amendment by Lantzville councillor Ian Savage, struck the $2,500 in funding from the motion, adding instead that council would consider a request for funding from Seaview Elementary School.

“It'd be nice if we woke up with money under our bed every morning,” Savage said. “But I'd rather go through a process of coming up with their plan, budgeting what they think their needs would be. And how cute would it be to have kids make a presentation to council? I'd love it.”

Councillor Joan Jones supported the amendment to remove the funding.

“The $2,500 I would relate to giving a kid their allowance before they even ask for one or show that they have a reason to have earned an allowance,”she said. “And sorry if that analogy is a little bit harsh, but I definitely want to see the students come up with a plan and a budget and come to council and for a five minute or maybe even a 10 minute presentation.”

After the amendment passed 3-2, Mayor Swain said he was upset.

“It's a momentum killer,” he said. “We've had a group come in, they want to do this work. And now we're putting roadblocks in the way. I might say I'm a little bit upset about it actually. I just can't believe we're actually going in this direction.”

Swain said that making the school come back to council with a funding proposal could delay the project.

“We're marching into springtime, this is the opportune time to get the work done,” he said. “And now we're teaching them lessons on budgets?”

Mayor Swain says that the council is making the school jump through hoops to clean up the park.

“If this is the business we're in now is always putting hurdles in front of things. We're doing a great job of it.”

Councillor Savage disagreed with the Mayor, saying he was proud of his amendment to eliminate the funding.

“This is residents' money,” he said. “And if kids have now got an opportunity, how much fun is that they get to come in and learn about presenting to council?”

Councillor Jonathan Lerner, who voted against the amendment with the mayor, made the point that the school would get the money, not the children.

“Yes, it's something that we steward the public's money,” he said. “But in this case, if we deem this a project worthwhile, $2,500 is a bargain. And it's something that I think we have to trust that the school is the one receiving the money, not the individual children, And the school will steward that money effectively.”

After half an hour of discussion on the proposal Mayor Swain said Lantzville council has other priorities that it should be working on.

“We have bigger fish to fry, we have a thing called Pierce Woods Marine Park, which we're barely touching, which is a very high priority for this council and we're going to waste all our time on this,” he said. “We're going to waste staff time and resources bringing us back to another meeting.”

The motion as amended passed unanimously.

Funding Note: This story was produced with funding support from the Local Journalism Initiative, administered by the Community Radio Fund of Canada.