The proposed Good for Youth Farm project will move from the lot near the Juvenile Justice Center on 93rd Avenue to the land behind the Lake County Parks and Recreation office near Deep River Waterpark. The farm project is a continuation of efforts by Lake County Juvenile Court Senior Judge Thomas Stefaniak Jr., who created a flower farm in a lot adjacent to the center. Stefaniak initiated the project during the COVID-19 pandemic to teach youth offenders skills like gardening, equipment operation and sales.
Robert Colangelo, founder of CEA Technology, Inc. who is designing the project, said the property already has a greenhouse, so the USDA grant will go toward establishing two gardens inside the greenhouse and equipment.
One half of the greenhouse will have a vertical farm and the other half will have a tomato garden, with a gutter system, Colangelo said. The funds will also go toward equipment needed to run the greenhouse and to install a solar field to provide a portion of the greenhouse's electric power, he said.
In the second phase of the project, the plan would be to build a building for an additional indoor vertical farm and new greenhouses, according to council documents.
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