Public Suggests How to Utilize Granby's Holcomb Farm

Just 12 members of the public showed up for a Board of Selectmen workshop on Monday to provide suggestions as to what can and should be done at now that the town has increased its involvement with the 367-acre tract located in West Granby.

By way of background, the Board of Selectmen in February entered into an interim memorandum of understanding with Holcomb Farm, Inc. that provides additional support from the town as a result of the loss in June 2011 of $200,000 in education grants that the farm received annually from the state.

The grant, known as Link and Learn, helped run the educational aspects of the farm as well as covered the expenses of other operations.

Most of the initial changes in the increased town involvement will be in consolidating back-office operations, such as using one payroll system for both entities, having the town put the farm on its insurance policy instead of having the farm obtain its own and having the town plow the farm’s property instead of the farm having an independent contract to have that work done.

Additionally, for the time being, the 22-acre vegetable farm that serves customers of the CSA, the Fresh Access program and a modest number of restaurants will remain under the management of HFI and is self-sustaining.

The purpose of the workshop, therefore, was to get public input as to how the town could further utilize the remaining 345 acres of land in furtherance of the mission of Holcomb Farm of education, agriculture, arts and passive recreation.

Sotoria Montanari suggested bringing in technology to stream classes to further expand the pool of students who can benefit from lessons taught at the farm.

Fred Jones had an idea to turn some of the land into a living history farm, focusing on Holcomb Farm’s tobacco farming roots. Jones suggested getting the Salmon Brook Historical Society involved in the project.

Another suggestion to offset expenses was to encourage people to buy/donate money toward a season pass to go hiking or cross country skiing. The fee would not be mandatory, but would encourage people in the community to take ownership of, and become more active with, the farm.

An idea from Peggy Lareau was to link up the farm with the Suffield school district’s vocational agriculture program.

One resident suggested leasing out space for the purpose of running a preschool out of one of the buildings at the farm.

Kate Bogli inquired why the town doesn’t lease out the remainder of the property, which can be utilized in other ways.

First Selectman John Adams said that while the idea was a good one, the changes in early childhood education made at the state level may hinder independent preschool enrollment.

While every suggestion was welcomed, it was unclear whether any of them were even feasible. What was clear was that everyone, including town officials, is still getting their arms around what this time of transition means for the farm.

The town’s Parks and Recreation Department and the Social Services Department, for example, is still looking into utilizing the farm for programming.

In addition, Town Manager William Smith said that he and his staff were still evaluating how much it will cost for the town to help operate the farm, with expenses including building maintenance and property upkeep.

“We don’t have a cost, yet,” Smith said.

The discussion concerning Holcomb Farm will continue, according to Adams.