Whately Select Board approves community garden grant application, names Right to Farm horses

WHATELY — June 15, 2026 — Whately Select Board names farm sign horses "Maple and Sugar" and backs a $30,000 community garden grant. The board, meeting June 15, selected the names submitted by Gioia Broffman — a Wilder Hill Road horse farm owner — over the runner-up pair "Denny and Dawn," submitted by fifth-grader Lucas Emery Potter, for the horse figures on the town's new Right to Farm signs designed by artist Amy Anderson. The board also unanimously authorized a community biodiversity grant application, deadline June 24, seeking roughly $30,000 with no match required to design and install a native-plant-fenced community garden at Conway Grammar School, a project spearheaded by Teresa Carter in partnership with the Food a Table regional food-access initiative. Separately, a board member warned that the Festival of the Hills "desperately needs volunteers" and may not take place, with two critical positions still unfilled.