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Commissioner Gordan asked that there be photocopies of the scrapbook. <br />Commissioner Brawn asked if this event is to be an annual event, the Agricultural Heritage Festival. <br />Chair Jacobs said that staff did the most of the work this time and at the Agricultural Summit in February, <br />they will raise this issue to see if there is support for this on an on-going basis. <br />~. RESOLUTIONS OR PROCLAMATIONS <br />a. Resolution of Approval and Acceptance of Grant - Acricultural Conservation Easement with <br />Everett and Lewis Cheek <br />The Board considered a resolution to approve the acceptance by Orange County of a farmland <br />preservation conservation easement from Everett and Lewis Cheek; authorizing the Chair and the Clerk to <br />sign, subject to final review by staff and county attorney, with a closing and recordation of the document <br />expected to occur by January 31, 2004; and acceptance of a grant of $235,255 from the federal Farm and <br />Ranch Land Protection Program for the Cheek easement; and approve the Conservation Easements <br />Capital Project Ordinance. <br />Environment and Resource Conservation Director Dave Stancil said that this is the second of three <br />agricultural conservation easements. It is 83 acres of land and it is being funded by the Lands Legacy <br />Program. Half of the funding is from the USDA Farm Protection Program. He turned the presentation over <br />to Rich Shaw. <br />Rich Shaw said that Lemola Ayshire Farm is a dairy owned and operated by the brothers, Everett <br />and Lewis Cheek, and also their families. The farm is located northwest of Carrbaro, and it is in bath <br />Chapel Hill and Bingham Townships. It's on Dairyland Road. He described the map of the property. The <br />total farm is about 200 acres, but the subject property is the northern portion. The land is in the University <br />Lake Watershed and is also east of Pickard Mountain, which is shown in the green area on the left side. <br />The Cheeks have been operating this dairy since 1925. The Cheeks want to protect this farmland <br />forever, and in doing so, they will join four of their neighbors who have also protected farmland in this <br />immediate area, also protecting some of the significant natural area associated with Pickard Mountain. <br />Those being the Nutters, the Tobens, the Burlingames, and the Keiths, all awning land adjacent to or very <br />close to this property. He explained some pictures of the property. Notable is that the Cheeks practice no- <br />till agriculture. They have never had cropland on this property. Neither the cows nor other livestock come <br />on this property. They do this according to a conservation plan that they have in partnership with the <br />County and the Natural Resources Conservation Service. The conservation easement will ensure <br />woodland buffers on both sides of Morgan Creek. <br />The Cheeks have agreed to sell the non-agricultural development rights at the appraised value of <br />$570,282, or approximately $7,300 an acre. The conservation easement will protect the conservation <br />values, primarily, the prime farmland on this property. <br />The Manager's recommendation is that the Board: 1}adopt the resolution approving the acceptance <br />by Orange County of the conservation easement, and authorizing the Chair and the Clerk to sign the <br />conservation easement agreement, subject to final review by staff and the County Attorney, with a closing <br />and recordation of a document expected to occur by January 31, 2004; 2} to authorize the County to accept <br />$235,255, a grant from the federal government for the Cheek easement; and 3} to approve the conservation <br />easement's capital project ordinance attached to the materials. The Cheeks were in attendance to answer <br />any questions. <br />The fallowing statement was transcribed verbatim. <br />Lewis Cheek: My name is Lewis Cheek. I'm the younger of the two of them. That doesn't mean all <br />that much because we're both already in our 70's. Is everybody here from Orange County? Have you ever <br />noticed how we in Orange County like to bad mouth our County and like to take Orange County's name in <br />vain because we think taxes are too high, we think regulations are too strict, and we think that Orange <br />County is oppressing us? But tonight I'd like to say a good word about Orange County. Orange County, in <br />collaboration with the U. S. government, has seen fit to recognize that there is a need for conservation of <br />farmland and open space, because open space and farmland has been disappearing at a rapid rate over <br />