by Elizabeth A. Tomlin
Fulton County Farm Bureau members and directors met for their annual meeting at the Perthshire Restaurant in Perth, NY on Oct. 25 to reaffirm past resolutions, discuss proposed resolutions and hold this year’s election of Directors.

In addition to other resolutions reaffirmed at the local level, funding for the regional agricultural teams was recommended, with support for Fulton County Supervisors to reinstate full funding at the 2010 level for their share of the Fulton-Montgomery Cornell Cooperative Extension budget.

Rezoning in Fulton County as a means of forcing animal agriculture to leave the county was strongly opposed.
It was also recommended that local governments not pass any open burning laws more stringent than state or federal laws.

Fulton County FB Vice President Lee Hollenbeck commented that soon all types of wood burning would be monitored by the EPA and a discussion ensued as to what the present mandates stated. Hollenbeck suggested proposing a resolution at the National level that opposes more stringent mandates.

Another proposed resolution at the State level concerned Farm Bureau’s opposition of the withholding of State Aid to public schools forcing the merging of school districts.

Farm Bureau members Clark and Gretchen Subik presented an additional proposed resolution from the floor. The Subiks are livestock farmers and landowners in the township of Mohawk, on the Fulton County border of Montgomery County. This is an area where farmers are concerned about losing their agricultural land to a proposed bypass from the NYS Thruway Exit 28 in Fultonville to Johnstown’s Industrial Park off of Rt. 30A.

NYS transportation officials have recently a

pproved a study for development of such a bypass and Fulton County has secured funding.

Fulton County is supplying $100,000 and state and federal governments are providing $400,000 to meet the $500,000 price tag for the study.

Reportedly, Fulton County officials have already sent out proposals to several engineering firms and are in the process of interviewing companies to complete the study.

After some discussion, NYFB Director Dean Casey composed a proposed resolution stating that Fulton County Farm Bureau opposes any development and construction in Montgomery County or Fulton County that would affect any agricultural land. This resolution is to be adopted at the local and state level.

For more information on agriculture issues in Fulton County, contact Fulton County FB President Stanley Korona at 518-842-7057 or District 8 Director Dean Casey at 802-345-4861.