The first step in an attempt to create a community garden in the Village of Cassopolis drew 13 people Saturday to the Flagg Room at the Cass District Library.

Carol “CeeCee” Wilson hosted the meeting, which was designed to gauge the amount of interest in the project.

Among the participants in the meeting were the Cassopolis Girl Scout Troop 30741, who will be using the project to help them earn their Bronze Award.

“The purpose of Girl Scouts is to make a difference,” troop leader Jessica Pompey said. “We had two ideas, which was to make our own park or work with the Animal Shelter. My mother-in-law Sandra Larkin said hey, I’m part of Cass Can and they are trying to do a community garden. I was like that would be wonderful. When Carol sent me all the information about how it can help the community and cut down on crime, I sent that to our council and said that this was for us.”

The concept of a community garden for Cassopolis actually began in 2012. However, last year’s drought and a lack of water to the site put the plan on hold.

At a special meeting of the Village Council Monday, Wilson said they approved running water to the garden, which would only be used as needed.

She also discussed things that would be needed, including cleaning up and preparing the land, what tools would be needed and the prospects of getting a shed to store them in.

The community garden, which is located on East Street, would consist of one large “community” plot and then smaller individual plots could be set up for families that wanted to grow specialty items. The larger plot would be used for the more traditional items such as tomatoes, corn and green beans.

Also discussed was perhaps adding a picnic type area or benches that gardeners and other members of the community could use.

Wilson used the Niles and South Bend gardens as examples of what can be done.

Niles in particular has had its community garden project grow quickly. The community now has four locations throughout the city.

Dave Markel of the Niles Community Garden will be on hand to answer more questions when the structural meeting is held in the Flagg Room at the Cass District Library April 15 at 6 p.m.

This meeting is where the design of the garden will be discussed, as well as other details leading up to the actual breaking of ground and planting begins.