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April 2004
<br />farmland preservation report
<br />FPR: What happened to the farm you grew
<br />up on?
<br />McGrath: It's still there, the road went
<br />through it, a guy lives there who's a hobby
<br />farmer.
<br />FPR: How did you get into government,
<br />Mike?
<br />McGrath: I was interested in things that
<br />were going on around us, active in the
<br />community in different ways. In 1969
<br />Delaware passed the farmland assessment act,
<br />the use value assessment, which provided a
<br />huge tax break for actively farmed land, but
<br />taxes were so low, hardly anybody used it, it
<br />just sat there on the books. But anyway, in
<br />1971 New Castle County reassessed, and
<br />agricultural property taxes went up anywhere
<br />from four to 10 times what they had been,
<br />overnight. Well, you can imagine the reaction.
<br />It was torch light parades and loose talk about
<br />hanging people (laughter).
<br />FPR: And were you leading the charge?
<br />McGrath: No, but around 1973, after people
<br />had paid one or two of these bills, the county
<br />council began holding meetings. People were
<br />hot. A councilman had promised they were
<br />going to install someone in the county
<br />executive's office that would be in charge of
<br />lower New Castle County affairs, a sort of
<br />liaison, and they were dragging their feet, so
<br />that was the subject of the meeting. -So the
<br />councilman got a shoebox and put it up on the
<br />table and said, `when the meeting is over, if
<br />there is someone you know in the community
<br />who could fill this job, put their name in
<br />here.' Well, I thought no more of it, I just
<br />went home. Well, the very next day, the
<br />phone rang and Joan came and got me. The
<br />guy on the other end said he was in the New
<br />Castle government, and said `your name was
<br />put in a shoebox last night and we'd like to
<br />talk to you about working with New Castle
<br />County government.' And I said, `no, I'm
<br />busy, I have a business to run...'
<br />FPR: So you didn't have time for a county
<br />job? (laughter)
<br />McGrath: No, no, we had a lot of irons in the
<br />fire. We were anticipating becoming larger, we
<br />were hiring people... so this was like, fooey,
<br />what is this guy talking about... so I got off
<br />the phone and had lunch and Joan said `what
<br />was that about?' and I told her and later that
<br />night she said, `you know, you've really got a
<br />lot more to offer than just figuring out how to
<br />grow chrysanthemums better, maybe you
<br />ought to think about this.' I said, well, OK. I
<br />started thinking about the victimization of
<br />farmers ... Back then, there really was a gap
<br />in how people's interests were being
<br />represented ... I thought if there's going to be a
<br />future for agriculture... and I wasn't looking
<br />Page 7
<br />at it then as a land thing
<br />... if we're going to be
<br />�,. better represented
<br />about the changes that
<br />are occurring, then
<br />�l somebody will have to
<br />step forward and get
<br />involved more.
<br />FPR: What were you
<br />doing when the idea
<br />of farmland
<br />preservation came
<br />along?
<br />McGrath: In the
<br />planning department we
<br />were opening a dialog
<br />Mike McGrath (photo by Mark Davis) with actually some
<br />planners on Long Island
<br />- that was the place where there was the nearest parallel and the Delaware
<br />Tomorrow Commission was trying to take a comprehensive look, for the
<br />.Bicentennial in '76, at the future of Delaware and we got deeply involved with
<br />that, and we got them to articulate the issue of farmland loss ... the next thing was a
<br />committee Gov. DuPont put together about the future of agriculture, and there was
<br />a statement they made about the loss of farmland, and in the early 80s there was an
<br />executive order about that. Then, some of the farmers that had been on the
<br />Commission pushed for a position in the Department of Agriculture to deal with
<br />farmland preservation and land use planning. They had extracted this promise from
<br />DuPont. But there was reluctance to go ahead with it. But DuPont said `if you can
<br />find someone to fill this position you can hire him.'
<br />FPR: So, your name was put into a shoebox?
<br />McGrath: Almost... I got a call from a friend of mine at the University of
<br />Delaware who said `Mike, I just found out about this job - something about
<br />farmland preservation and land use down at the Department of Agriculture and the
<br />closing date for the application is tomorrow ... well, I was the only person who
<br />applied.
<br />FPR: (Laughter) You're kidding...
<br />McGrath: Well, you see, they were just going to close the thing and say, `see, well,
<br />nobody wanted this...'
<br />FPR: Ah huh...
<br />McGrath: Right then I knew I had made a commitment to land preservation and
<br />was paddling up Niagara Falls, and I actually took a pay cut — we had two kids at
<br />this point —
<br />FPR: And you told your kids to start growing Indian corn...
<br />McGrath: Yeah, something like that... so that's really when I said, OK, if this is
<br />important enough — there were subdivision plans being filed and approved in
<br />southern New Castle County, it was clear something was happening and wasn't
<br />going to stop happening, you know, for the rest of my lifetime. That was 1984,
<br />and I was by myself. I didn't even have a secretary.
<br />FPR: Do you recall a defining moment when you became a land preservation
<br />advocate?
<br />McGrath: One thing that solidified my commitment to farmland preservation
<br />came the day my parents moved in with our family. We had added onto our house
<br />to accommodate my mother and father coming to live with us. We had cleaned the
<br />whole farm out and everything was done, it was literally the last suitcase, and Dad
<br />was going to get in the truck with me and come to our house... I couldn't find him.
<br />I went to look for him. He had walked out in the field of his little five -acre area that
<br />he plowed and he was down on the ground kind of looking at the soil as he often
<br />did, you know, looking at the moisture and whatever, and I noticed he was crying. I
<br />realized then that land and preserving land was really personal with people. This
<br />was not a commodity for him, not just an input to producing vegetables, this
<br />meant something to him emotionally. I've never forgotten that picture.
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