The Elm Street Community program has initialized plans for a new
community garden on Bank Street, which was unveiled at a public
meeting Thursday.

Interns Kara Smith and Rachel Ence, landscape architecture
majors at Cornell and Penn State universities respectively, are
heading up the garden project on Bank Street.

Smith and Ence unveiled a drawing of their suggested layout for
the vacant lot on Bank Street, just west of Mechanic Street. As
this meeting was to gather information and input from community
members, none of the plans are set in stone as of yet.

The plans featured numerous planting beds which would be open
for the community to plant and grow in. The area would be enclosed
by hedges and fences and shares a border with the Grace Lutheran
Church, which owns the property. The plans showed entrances both
from Bank Street and from the main property of Grace Lutheran.

Smith and Ence also proposed different uses for the garden area,
such as gardening workshops or as group projects for various
organizations around the community.

The interns explained they are hopeful the program will be
mostly complete, including construction, by the time their
internship in Bradford ends on Aug. 8.

“We are planning to start construction by mid-July,” said Ence.
“It shouldn’t be very difficult so we think we can finish by the
end of the summer.”

Both Smith and Ence were granted internships through the
Pennsylvania Downtown Center, in cooperation with other
revitalization organizations. They, along with around 30 other
students, were then placed in various programs, mostly in small
towns around the state, though they did have some say in where they
went.

“We did get to choose preferences and Bradford was my top
choice,” said Smith. “I was drawn here by the whole Allegheny
National Forest and outdoors atmosphere.”

The Elm Street Community program is funded through various
grants and by donations from private donors as well as in-kind
donations.