Re Liability: The way that NYC's Clinton Community Garden has avoided dog generated lawsuits has been to keep them banned from the garden. In addition to keeping dog feces and urine out of plantings, food beds, etc, somebody's beloved pit bull doesn't eviscerate someone's kid.
This is common sense. And common sense is key to maintaining a safely maintained volunteer run public space. A decent paralegal can do a web search through Lexis for any "community garden liabiliity law," but my guesstimate is that there ain't much court law relating to community gardens. In addition to making sure that all garden rules are posted in the garden in the language of the community ( the Clinton Community Garden has it's rules posted in English, Spanich and Arabic) all folks who have keys to the garden need to have read and agreed to the garden rules via a keyholder agreement ( the CCG has over 5,000 of these signed by keyholders - this is doable. ) Many gardens also have an " at your own risk," clause in their written agreements and in their signage. But....all the written rules mean nothing without gardeners being careful with tools, rolling up garden hoses, and being clear about visitors and visitor's children not runnning about the garden or engaging in any unsafe activities. Good governance, consistantly maintained garden rules and safe commonsense operational practices can keep lawsuits and liability issues to a minmum in citizen maintained public spaces like community gardens. Best wishes, \ Adam Honigman Volunteer, Clinton Community Garden ______________________________________________________ The American Community Gardening Association listserve is only one of ACGA's services to community gardeners. To learn more about the ACGA and to find out how to join, please go to http://www.communitygarden.org To post an e-mail to the list: [EMAIL PROTECTED] To subscribe, unsubscribe or change your subscription: https://secure.mallorn.com/mailman/listinfo/community_garden
