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HomeMy WebLinkAbout2017-01-11Dryden Ag Committee January 11, 2017 Page 1 of 3 Dryden Ag Advisory Committee January 11, 2017 Members Present: Evan Carpenter (Chair), Kim LaMotte, Brian Magee, and Jeremy Sherman Liaisons: John Kiefer (Planning Board), Craig Schutt (Conservation Board), Kathy Servoss and Jason Leifer (Town Board) Guests: Monika Roth and Debbie Teeter, Cooperative Extension Plan Timeline Revisited Jan – June 2017 January – CCE review current narrative, update/revise, complete draft for Feb meeting - The state will extend the contract for the completion of the plan. It is not unusual for the plans to take more time than expected. February – Committee members review draft; CCE follows up with revisions - Discussion of goals and strategies and another review of the draft. March – Committee receives document for another review, ready for a public meeting? Late March hold a public meeting, get feedback - The Neptune Hose Company will provide their meeting room for March 29th from 7 to 9 PM April – incorporate revisions, share with committee May – Final document, share with Town board, Planning board, AFPB, state, Town website? And the Conservation Board. June – Public hearing - make any final revisions based on hearing input July – Town board approval process Dec – state contract ends, but we plan to get everything done before - M. Roth and D. Teeter do not agree with the Ag Committee’s definition of “farm”. They feel the Ag and Markets definition (which the Ag Committee decided to use) will exclude many of the farmers on the list. - M. Knight suggested making a distinction between large farms (over $10,000) and small farms (under the $10,000 level). Agribusiness or Ag supporting businesses in the Town: - Empire Livestock - The NYS DEC Game Farm - Cortland Produce - That Indian Drink – the owner is looking for milk from grass fed cows - Hopshire Brewery - Bacchus Brewery - Lilley’s Tack and Feed - Dedricks - Back to Basics - Dryden Agway - The William George Agency for Children Dryden Ag Committee January 11, 2017 Page 2 of 3 - RMS Gravel - The Banks - Whitmore Fence The lands owned by Cornell need to be identified. Data review - M. Roth and D. Teeter will work on going to through the data and verifying it’s accuracy. There are a variety of sources out there and they need to determine which source is the best or most likely to be accurate. Maps needed – what do you want? - Land use/ land cover - The Ag districts - Cornell lands - Ag land that is owned versus rented - Soil types - Water resources - The open space inventory - The County Comp. plan includes scenic resources / natural areas and the Ag Focus Areas. Survey – how to get more feedback, suggestions? - Instead of doing another survey, they can look at Ag District Reviews in addition to the information they can gather through other sources. Vision for Ag in the Town – brainstorm, set goals - The Committee would like to see a review of the Ag history in Dryden with emphasis on the past 10 -20 years. D. Teeter shared the goals and strategies that have been compiled using the survey sent out last year and discussed at the public meetings. Debbie and Monika want to make sure that the goals and strategies are still desired goals and strategies – has anything changed? Are there goals that don’t apply or that the Committee no longer feels is necessary? Are all the pertinent topics addressed? Etc. What about the organization; are the subsections in the correct category? - she has asked the Committee to review the document and choose the top 10 goals/priorities. Is there a goal with a low number that might be easy to implement and thus it becomes a priority and there might be a goal with a high number that due to the difficulty of implementation, might be put off for another year. The State will want to see what the Plan’s top priorities are. M. Roth pointed out that goal 1a might be an easy goal in terms of putting the Right to Farm Law and the State Ag District Law on the website as well as farmer oriented information. Dryden Ag Committee January 11, 2017 Page 3 of 3 If each member chose 2 strategies per goal and then organized those strategies in terms of priority, the entire committee can come to an agreement next month. D. Teeter stated that she will try to have the updated draft to the Committee two weeks before the next meeting. M. Roth asked the members what their vision is of farming in the next 5-10 years. - to keep farming viable - to get more families involved so they have a better understanding of ag. J. Keifer asked E. Carpenter what direction the town is headed? Are there more people involved in Ag or less? E. Carpenter responded that the thought is that farming is declining in Dryden but there are a lot of small farms now starting up in different niches. The original ag/dairy census of 1912 and the census of 2012 shows that although there are far fewer farms (12 farms versus over 200) in the Town, there are about the same number of cows. Value Added Production – the raw material to the finished product in the same Town – “made in Dryden”. There being no further business, the meeting was adjourned at 9:15PM. Respectfully Submitted, Erin A. Bieber Deputy Town Clerk