It doesn’t appear there’s going to be anything graceful about the Greenbank Farm Management Group’s split with the Port of Coupeville.

Despite claims by the nonprofit group that it is doing everything in its power to not fan the flames of community discord, the group’s actions say otherwise.

Port Commissioner Marshall Bronson is right to question why the management group would start cutting staff hours and not host an event it has produced for the past 18 years — especially when the management group continues to collect through the end of the year more than $4,000 a month from the port as well as funds from tenant leases.

The same level of service should be expected from the management group until its contract is ended. Also, a farm director who gets paid about $60,000 a year should be able to figure out how to fulfill the management group’s obligations at the same time the nonprofit organizes its files.

It makes one wonder what state the farm’s paperwork is in.

The Holiday Market is an event that precedes even the port’s involvement with the farm. In the past, it has been a moneymaker for the management group.

Why wouldn’t the management group want to host an event that not only put thousands of dollars into the bank, but supported tenants by bringing customers to the farm?

It’s disappointing to see a tradition that spans at least 20 years drown in the bad blood that exists now between the management group and the Port of Coupeville.

Yes, there’s ongoing turmoil at the farm. Yes, the community has a lot of questions. Yes, there’s a lot of uncertainty.

It’s fair to say that port commissioners’ surprise decision to cut ties with the management group earlier this year wasn’t done in the most open and sensible way.

Nonetheless, the management group needs to take accountability for some of this community sentiment. Making the decision to scale back and not support an event it has done so every year reeks of the management group’s desire to create ways to further build animosity and turmoil at the farm.

Any sympathy for the management group’s dismissal has all but evaporated at this point.

While Santa won’t be visiting the Greenbank Farm this year, it seems the management group is leaving the tenants with a gift.

The tenants, however, probabrly don’t want that lump of coal.