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HomeMy WebLinkAboutAPB minutes 112019 Attachment 1 Orange County Agricultural Preservation Board Approved Meeting Summary: November 20th, 2019 Environmental &Agricultural Center—Food Lab 306 Revere Rd., Hillsborough, NC 6:30 p.m. Members Present: Anderson, Compton, Dawson, Finley, McAdams, McKnight, McPherson, Parker, Ranells, Saiers,Vanhook Members Absent: Redding, Shambley,Woods Guests: Ashley Heger, Food Council Coordinator; Mart Bumgarner,Ag Extension Agent Staff: Gail Hughes, Resource Conservation Coordinator-DEAPR-Soil and Water; Peter Sandbeck, Cultural Resources Coordinator; Mike Ortosky,Ag Economic Development. 1. Call to order: Vice-chair McKnight called the meeting to order at 6:30 p.m. 2. Chair Comments/Introductions: McKnight recognized the guests and asked them to introduce themselves. 3. Considerations of Additions to Agenda: Hughes noted that she needs to discuss the process for removal of farms from the VAD program. 4. Meeting Summary/Minutes: September 18, 2019:Anderson moved to accept the minutes/summary as corrected; seconded by Compton; motion carried. 5. Discussion Items: a) Annual Report and Work Plan: Staff provided an overview of the Annual Report and Work Plan process.This is the most effective way for the APB to communicate with the County Commissioners about agricultural issues. Members discussed the draft report. Staff read suggested issues from an email from Chair Redding who could not attend tonight, including: runoff/erosion from various ag operations and water quality; ways to build on Annie's agritourism presentation at the breakfast; exploring how to conduct a survey of all the farmers in the county to learn what their needs and issues are now, in 2019—there is a need to reach out. Discussion followed. Dawson asked about the "biennial/triennial meeting of all of the county's agricultural boards and groups to discuss Ag issues" as stated on page 2.This has not been done for years and should be pursued again,to include representatives from: Extension Service, DEAPR, Soil and Water,APB, Farm Bureau, Grange, Food Council, Farm Service Agency and even the FFA teachers. A night meeting will bring more attendees, especially if good food could be served. This could be held at Schley or Mapleview. Members addressed other topics: providing a mechanism to allow the APB to really advise the BOCC on issues relating to agriculture, in advance of taking actions on such issues; and better coordination with the planning review process including the new farm affidavit form that planning uses to address the issue of"bona fide farm."The board could invite Patrick Mallett in planning to talk to us about that process. Suggestions were also made about some minor language updates. Members agreed that the report should reference the APB's strong support for the concept of the PUV Trust Fund 2 proposal. Dawson provided a draft paragraph to be included. Members were also interested in learning more about the annual Farm to Table event held at Blackwood Farm by various farm agencies, attended by over 300 fourth graders. Staff will roll all this into a final version and submit by the deadline. Next step is to determine the most important ideas to convey to the BOCC at their spring work session. b) Feasibility study for the future of dairy farming: McKnight reviewed the current collapse of dairy farming in Orange County—down to 3 from as many as 117 in the 1950s. She referred members to the proposal from Ann Wilkinson of Origin Farms Consulting, handed out earlier. She would like to see the APB support the idea of having the county apply for grant funds to undertake such a study at a cost of about$30,000, and put a motion out to that effect. Discussion followed. One goal is to work toward having a processing facility here that could allow producers to create a diverse range of value-added dairy products.There are many scenarios as to who would run such a facility. Ortosky believes there is grant money out there for this sort of project; his office can help. Questions included who will apply for grants and who will receive the money?This will be more likely to get county support if part of the money comes from other sources. We should survey both current milk producers and those who stopped producing in the last 15 years. McKnight clarified her motion: ask DEAPR and the county commissioners to consider this proposal, explore options for how to seek funding for this, and move forward. Anderson seconded; motion passed. c) Review of APB Breakfast held on Nov. 14: Hughes provided a recap of the successful 2019 breakfast, attended by 85. Food cost was $5.00 per person. Former member Ashley Parker provided attractive flower arrangements for all the tables. One suggestion is to have a handout with the various agency updates to give to all the attendees.This could include dates of upcoming events. 6. Items for Decision: a) New VAD/EVAD Applications(Attachment 2): Hughes presented the current applications listed below.All of these farms meet the requirements/criteria for VAD/EVAD enrollment. • James and Elizabeth Hooten: 39.09 acres for VAD, Cane Creek-Buckhorn Ag District. Beef cattle, pasture and hayland. • Jason Shepherd:42.38 acres for VAD, Efland/High Rock Ag District. Livestock, pasture, hayland and soybeans. • Annette and Mark McClish: 14.1 acres for VAD, Cedar Grove Ag District. Farm produces goats, heritage turkeys and chickens, pasture and hay land. Dawson moved to approve all as a group, seconded by McAdams; motion carried. Hughes reported that these farms will bring us up to 15,434 acres in VAD and EVAD,with 121 farms in the program. Farms approved tonight will go to the BOCC on December 2. b) Approval of meeting calendar for 2020:Approved with corrections to November date, maintaining earlier meeting times for November and January. c) Removal of property from the VAD program: Hughes explained a new process and form for removing properties from the program.Two parcels owned by the Teer family need to be removed due to the sale of the parcels.The county attorney prepared a new form that we will use. Saiers moved to approve removal of these two parcels from the program, seconded by Vanhook; motion passed. 3 7. Informational Items/Future Agenda Items: a. Pesticide drop off day: Bumgarner announced that Extension has scheduled a special pesticide drop off to be held on Dec. 3 here at the EAC parking lot out front.This is aimed primarily at commercial operators but is open to homeowners and farmers as well. b. Update on recording VAD Agreements with the Register of Deeds: Hughes explained the ongoing issues and expenses involved in recording our VAD agreements with the Register of Deeds.They are once again requiring a fee of$25 per agreement.There is not a state requirement that we must record all VADs at the Register of Deeds, but just the EVADs. Most counties around us only record the EVAD agreements. The most effective way to show the VADs to the public is through a county GIS system as a new layer, automatically turned on by default when you open up the program and view parcel maps. Staff proposes following this trend and recommends that we record only the EVADs. Our VADs and EVADs will show up as a default layer in the GIS system. We can leave the ones that are recorded as they are,just not record new ones.This will require a technical correction to our ordinance that we can include with some other minor updates we need to make. Compton moved to change from the old system of recording each agreement to a new process that adds each farm into the GIS system as part of the default layer that will be seen when users first open up the program; the goal is to make sure these always show up on the GIS map system; seconded by Saiers. Motion passed. 8. Time for Information Sharing: Hughes reported that she will be retiring at the end of this year, after 37 years in her job. Members expressed their appreciation for all her efforts. 9. Adjournment: Compton moved to adjourn, seconded by Anderson; meeting adjourned at 8:30 pm.