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3 <br /> <br />e. Agricultural Development and Farmland Preservation Plan: This is a small <br />portion of the 2009 plan, just the executive summary and the implementation <br />schedule. Staff hoped members could look this over as time permits and allow <br />newer members to see it for the first time. Have we succeeded/accomplished <br />some of the goals? Is it time to review this and begin the process of <br />updating/revisiting it? Portions of this are now getting dated, with old statistics <br />dating back to 2002. It may require forming a committee to tackle. Ortosky noted <br />that he worked on several of these, notably for Wake County, and that now these <br />are focusing more on production and marketing, with the new interest in <br />aggregators and food hubs. The state Dept. of Agriculture does promote the <br />creation of these plans as part of each county’s program eligibility, so they are <br />required. Plans for other counties are available online on the Ag Dept’s web site. <br />For example, Caswell just did a new one recently. Having a current plan will <br />improve the County’s chance to get federal and state farmland preservation funds. <br />Members agreed that ag has changed a great deal since this was released, and <br />would like to review this and work toward an updated version, perhaps starting <br />this winter. It may be possible to get modest funding assistance for the update. <br /> <br />7. Informational Items / Future Agenda Items <br /> <br />a. Board of County Commissioners approve “present-use” change in APB <br />ordinance: The BOCC did approve the APB’s proposed ordinance language <br />change to eliminate the requirement that all farms must be in the “present use” <br />program in order to be eligible to participate in the VAD/EVAD program. The <br />new modified language is now in place on the County website as an addition, so <br />property owners will know that this is now the new rule. The new language will <br />get rolled into a new revised version of the APB ordinance this fall. <br /> <br />8. Time for Information Sharing: <br /> <br />Ag Extension position has been advertised and will be filled soon: Several members <br />commented that the new position was advertised and that interviews will be coming up <br />soon. This is a position of critical importance to agriculture here and will have an <br />influence/impact on our farmers for years or decades to come. Members would like to see <br />the Ag Board involved in some way in the interview process. This position will be a <br />livestock and crops agent, along with sustainable agriculture. Compton noted that he and <br />McAdams were allowed to sit in on the interviews when the present Extension Director <br />was hired, but were not able to have any input. Vanhook moved to have the Chair send a <br />letter to the appropriate person seeking APB participation in the interview process; <br />seconded by Ashley Parker; motion carried. The Chair asked staff to draft a letter. <br /> <br />9. Adjournment: Ranells moved to adjourn the meeting; seconded by McAdams; motion <br />carried. The meeting was adjourned at 8:59 pm <br />