Hi Folks,
The liability issues are generally for those not covered by standard
insurance situations. As an example there is liability insurance for kids
playing on swing sets, kids running, parents getting cold cocked from a
child jumping off a see saw and kaboom. Gardening entails other risks not
generally associated with specific uses you have in gardening or for
forseeable dangers when the property is being used as it was designated
originally, ie. playground, ball field, picnic area, walking trails.
Community gardening is now a new use.
A rake is left on the ground that was being used and someone steps on it
and it goes through their foot or it comes up and breaks someone's nose.
Someone sprays malathion on tomatoes and kids playing on those same swing
sets then decide to eat the tomatoe and gets sick or worse than that an
unsupervised child finds the bottle of malathion mistakenly left open and
swallows it. Yes it is public land and it is public money and now my public
tax monies go to pay for one's use of public property for their specific
purposes which resulted in actual damages due to one's negligence.
My basic gut reaction though is to immediately say thank you and repeat
it often for even being allowed to use the public's land, not yours as all
the public pays taxes and all have certain things they would like to do with
the land, how about building a pond, so Don can quit doing those rain dances
in Charlotte, but you've been allowed to use the public land for your
private purpose and enjoyment.
Find out how much the insurance carrier will cost and pay it without
making a ruckus.
-----Original Message-----
From: Don Boekelheide [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]
Sent: Monday, June 04, 2007 1:33 PM
To: community_garden at list.communitygarden.org
Subject: Re: [Community_garden] Liability Insurance
Hi, Julie,
It is on city-owned land? The city (our tax dollars
pay for this) has liability policies already (and the
county does, and the public schools) covering much
more dangerous activities than recreational gardening
(highly competitive sports, upkeep and operation of
heavy equipment, law enforcement, jails etc etc).
While you can't change policy in a day, it is very
reasonable to ask for a rider to cover community
gardens, even if it means setting some basic
restrictions on gardener behavior. I urge you to be
nice about it, but to at least raise the issue.
You may well get some support from Cooperative
Extension in Gaston County, which is working on
community gardens and from - GREAT NEWS!!! for North
Carolina - veteran community garden supporter and (I
think) past ACGA Board Member Lucy Bradley from
Arizona, who is now Dr. Lucy Bradley, newly arrived on
the faculty of NC State with a portfolio covering
Urban Agriculture.
My sense is that, at least here in the Southeast,
often liability policies are a ruse to prevent
something new and not well understood, like community
gardens in NC, from gaining a toehold. I've even seen
it here in Charlotte - you might want to chat with
June Blotnick, now director of our Clean Air
Coalition, who ran into this same problem with her
community garden on public land (in a park, no less)
last year: director at clean-air-coalition.org
Dorene is right, of course - this list does need a
'how to' guide covering nuts and bolts (seeds and
roots?) of community gardening. No, one doesn't really
exist now, unfortunately. But, I guess, we all share
responsibility for letting such shortcomings persist,
and we all need to roll up our sleeves and change the
situation. Rather than join ACGA's Advocacy Committee
(though it sure would be cool to work with my friend
Bobby), maybe some of us should get cracking on this
kind of practical stuff. A FAQs would be a good start,
at least.
Don Boekelheide
who has been doing rain dances in Charlotte for the
past 2 days - we NEEDED it!!!
>----------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> Message: 1
> Date: Sun, 03 Jun 2007 19:47:41 +0000
> From: "julie young" <theyoungwoman at hotmail.com>
> Subject: [Community_garden] Liability Insurance
> To: community_garden at list.communitygarden.org
> Message-ID:
> <BAY120-F203796D2ACDA6BA03553F3A6220 at phx.gbl>
> Content-Type: text/plain; format=flowed
>
> The city that we are leasing the prperty from has
> asked us to get a million
> dollars worth of liability insurance. I am sure many
> of you have done this.
> Any suggestions, estimated cost, wording.
> Julie Young
> West Shelby Community Garden
> ------------------------------
>
> Message: 2
> Date: Sun, 3 Jun 2007 20:41:02 -0400
> From: "garlicgrower at green-logic.com"
> <garlicgrower at green-logic.com>
> Subject: Re: [Community_garden] Liability Insurance
> To: community_garden at list.communitygarden.org
> Message-ID:
>
>
> Hi, Folks!
>
> Not that I'm not in "fired up against the Machine"
> mode, but didn't we just talk about this?
>
> It's ruse -- check the archives for details.
>
> Now that we have a new ED and a new office in
> Columbus, shouldn't they be putting together a "Best
> of"
> FAQ out of all of our replies for the website?
>
> Dorene (not at my computer, so no sig)
