Six farmers filled out applications by the Oct. 31 deadline telling the county they would like their property to be considered for inclusion under the county’s reconfigured farmland protection program.
Five of the six farmers already had their property on the list of 32 farms under consideration by the Partnership for Farmland Protection, the citizen group that ran the county’s farmland protection program until the Board of Commissioners appointed its own review committee on Aug. 6.
Earlier in the summer the Board of Commissioners turned down a near-certain $175,000 in federal funds available to it for farms on the Partnership list.
Had it nominated one of the five farms that applied for consideration under the new screening procedures, the county, in partnership with the Athens Land Trust and the federal government, already would be in the process of protecting the farm from future development.
Selection of one of the six farms that applied is several months away, given the current schedule, and there is no guarantee that the federal funds needed to make the program work will be available.
For the names of the farmers and further details of this unfolding story, go to Oconee County Observations.