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HomeMy WebLinkAbout2019-03-13Agricultural Advisory Committee March 13, 2019 Page 1 of 2 Agricultural Advisory Committee March 13, 2019 Members Present: Evan Carpenter (Chair), Kim LaMotte, Marie McRae, Brian Magee, Erin Bieber Absent: Steve Foote Liaisons: Craig Anderson, Planning Board Jason Leifer, Town Board Guests: None The meeting was called to order at 7:34 pm. Review and approval of minutes dated February 13, 2019 K. LaMotte made a motion to approve the minutes as written, seconded by E. Bieber, minutes unanimously approved. Old business Virtual Farmer’s Market/Website Discussion ensued regarding Virtual Farmer’s Market. Two options presented were localharvest.org and buylocalfoodny.org. We would be linking from the Dryden website to whichever site is decided on. • Local Harvest website was easy to use, one drawback was that there is a minimum $30/year charge to have an ad free listing (per farm). • The buylocalfoodny.org that Cornell Cooperative Extension of Tompkins County uses is free of charge and is managed by Cornell Cooperative Extension in each county. • Discussed what information could be put on the page for various farms. Each farm would be responsible to make sure their information is up to date. • C. Anderson suggested a member or two of the committee experiment by putting their farm on the websites to see how it works for the next 30 days. E. Bieber and K. LaMotte will each give the bylocalfoodny.org (Extension) site a try and report back at our next meeting. • If everything goes well, we will send a bulk email to farms with the link letting them know the Town website is linking to the Extension website, and if the farm wishes to be included, how to go about adding their farm. Comprehensive Plan Guidance Document Discussed buffers and placement of residential wells with respect to neighboring farms. Committee members have not finished reviewing for input, this will be tabled until the next meeting. E. Bieber – Has been debating since going to the meeting regarding proposed changes to the comprehensive plan. What potential issues there may be for farming? Has not been able to come up with any obvious negatives to the introduction of restricting or regulating the greenhouse gas emissions within the Town of Dryden and reducing the use of fossil fuels. The presentation did stress that it has nothing to do with agriculture and will not affect agriculture. Agricultural Advisory Committee March 13, 2019 Page 2 of 2 The changes that make it into the Comprehensive Plan tend to inform and direct the laws and regulations that eventually get on the books in Dryden. The comprehensive plan meeting was mainly focusing on new building and making sure they are more energy efficient. One of the recommendations that was highlighted as being important (in the chart that was worked on quite some time ago) was farm energy conservation and renewable energy development. Believe that was aimed at avoiding installation on prime soils. C. Anderson – The County says Dryden should have 1300 acres of solar panels to be self-sufficient. We currently have about 150 acres of solar panels. There being no further business, E. Bieber made a motion to adjourn, seconded by K. LaMotte and unanimously approved. The meeting was adjourned at 8:28 pm. Respectfully submitted, Chrystle Terwilliger Deputy Town Clerk