Groton — The Town Council voted 5-4 Tuesday to end the agreement with the Noank School Public Gardens Task Force and directed the town manager and staff to recommend possible uses for the property.

The council stipulated that all potential uses for the roughly 6-acre property include a small public garden area, natural playground and perimeter buffer.

A new three-member task force will be appointed so the garden can be cultivated this spring until the Town Council decides what to do with the property, according to the motion approved by the council. Town Parks and Recreation will operate the community garden until the task force is set up.

Last month the Town Council Committee of the Whole, in a 5-3 vote, had recommended terminating the task force’s guiding document.

At Tuesday's Town Council meeting, Town Mayor Patrice Granatosky and Town Councilors Juliette Parker, Rachael Franco, Conrad Heede and David Atwater voted in favor of officially terminating the agreement, while Councilors Aundré Bumgardner, Lian Obrey, Rita Schmidt and Joe Zeppieri voted against it.

Zeppieri has announced that he intends to introduce a motion at the next Town Council Committee of the Whole meeting to rescind the motion to terminate the agreement.

The public space currently has 25 garden beds, a garden to grow food to be donated to low-income families, evergreen saplings, fruit trees and a memorial garden. The Town Council had approved in 2014 an agreement to turn the former elementary school site into community gardens. The council voted in 2017 to extend the use of the site as community gardens by four additional years.

In discussions over the course of past meetings, several councilors have called for ending the agreement with the task force over issues concerning the lack of progress of cultivating the site, fundraising capabilities and frequent failure to file minutes and have said the town needs to consider what would be the best use for the site. Other councilors, however, said the site should remain as open space and the town should follow through with its commitment to the task force and allow the group to pursue its plan for the Groton/Noank Community Park and Gardens. The group's plan included a healing garden, native plant walk, rain garden, and youth playing field, with the first project being a pavilion, according to a February presentation.

During public comment at Tuesday's meeting, Raymond Johnson, vice chairman of the task force, one of two supporters who spoke Tuesday, said the gardens "meant a great deal to us."

"We like to think that those gardens enhanced the community spirit that existed among the members who came there to garden and to enjoy times together," he said. He said the 25 people who spoke at the March 5 council meeting in favor of the gardens — while about 10 opposed — "delivered a very clear message."

He implored town officials, as they determine what to do with the property, that they give strong consideration to something that would make everyone proud and be beneficial to the entire community and to Groton and Noank.

Representative Town Meeting member Kathy Chase said Noank residents can go to nearby Haley Farm or have backyard gardens. Referencing the fiscal year 2020 budget, she said the state is deciding how much, if any, costs will be passed down to towns, and the town has to consider upcoming school costs and regular maintenance expenses. She said the proposal to use $1.5 million from the town's surplus to keep the tax rate flat is not sustainable.

"If we don’t start thinking about the necessities and not the wants of Groton, we’re going to have some big problems," she said. "Decisions by the council must be made for the town as a whole, not just one neighborhood."

k.drelich@theday.com