It took three years for Jodi Mika to get the OK to start a community garden on land owned by Lansford Borough.

Now, after three years of operation, there is a chance that the garden could close because borough council has proposed to sell the lot.The borough recently announced plans to auction off a property it has owned for more than a decade, located at 201 W. Bertsch St.Council president Martin Ditsky said that they decided to sell the property after getting interest from parties looking to buy it.The news came as a surprise to Mika, who helped start the garden in 2014. A volunteer at Grace Community Church, Mika said she heard recently that there was some interest in the property, but did not know that the borough was ready to sell it.“It’s just heart-wrenching to take something that so many people in the community worked on and just pave it over,” she said.Mika said that she worked for four years to hammer out an agreement to use the property for a community garden. The church uses the property rent-free in exchange for maintaining it. Under the agreement, they must vacate the property if it is sold.Since it opened in the spring of 2014, the garden has gotten the attention of residents, passers-by and the media. More than that, it has inspired and engaged residents.“We have the Access program from Tamaqua, we have probation kids come to mow the grass, we have community kids planting in the garden and harvesting. Even just neighbors sitting on benches. There’s been a lot of really positive things,” Mika said.Borough officials said they recognize the impact that the garden has had on the community, but they are looking at the auction as an opportunity to boost the tax rolls — something the borough sorely needs. Because of overall low value of property in the borough, Lansford barely balances its budget each year despite having the highest tax rate in Carbon County.“We are hoping, once it’s sold, to get the property back on the tax rolls,” Ditsky said. “It’s unfortunate that where it is, the garden did bring in a lot of positive comments.”Ditsky said there are people interested in the property. He said that under state law, the borough can’t sell it directly, and must put it up for auction. The bidding will start at $8,000. The borough also has a right to reject all bids.The borough tried to auction off the property before the garden opened. At that time the minimum bid was $20,000, and the property went unsold.Mika says that regardless of the outcome of the auction, she will continue to push the community garden forward. The garden recently received a $1,000 grant from the new Carbon County Community Foundation to help build compost beds.“They can’t just stop me,” she said. “People asked ‘what will you do if it’s vandalized?’ I said, ‘we’ll just rebuild it’ — and that’s what we’ll do here.”