Ag News

Meeting Up-Dates

The next scheduled meeting will be Monday, May 5th at 7:00PM at the new Farm Bureau Office located on Sunset Strip next to the Super C store in Mountain Home. Come around to the rear of the building as the front offices will be closed at that hour.

At our annual meeting held in January it was voted on unanimously to keep all board members and executive positions the same for the coming year.
Our organization put up a display at the 101 Ranch of Jim and Marie Kast in King Hill in September during a tour stop of the National Angus Association. upwards of 400 people were in attendance and a good time was had by all. Many thanks to Stephanie Bergh and Linda Ramsey as well as Amalgamated Sugar for all of their help in putting this together.
The Elmore County P&Z Commission voted unanimously to take no action on the Complaint filed against the Lone Pine Dairy by Casia Brown.
Dave and Stephanie Bergh and Linda Ramsey attended the Idaho Ag Summit on the 13th and 14th of February. There were a lot of good presentations made by a number of different speakers. Some of the topics addressed were; Alternative Energy Provisions in the current Farm Bill, Trade issues concerning China, Megatrends in Agriculture, Property Tax concerns and others. We also attended the LIA (Leadership Idaho Agriculture) Banquet and Auction on February 16th. A lot of money was raised for a worthy cause and a good time was had by all. We also want to acknowledge Joe Harper and Jason Reynolds for their completion of the LIA program this winter. It requires a lot of time and dedication to finish this program and our hats go off to them. Good job gentleman.
Your Executive Committee Met with Tim McMurtrey (School Superintendent) on Friday Feb. 10 to go over the idea of an Ag in the Class room program and he was very receptive. He will assist us in getting the word out to teachers. If you know of any interested teachers please get in touch with us. The summer workshop is good for 1 credit toward CE credits. It is a two day workshop with one day in the field and one day in the classroom. We will have 14 slots that we need to fill in the Meridian workshop. The deadline for sign up is sometime in June (I think).
Following the completion of the CAFO Ordinance the commissioners intend to commence the review of the Wind Power Ordinance. If you have input you need to be thinking about getting it prepared by sometime in March
We want to thank all of the gals that helped out with the ECAC table decorations for the MH Chamber Banquet. It looked great and a good time was had by all. Thank You.

Our ECAC booth at the National Angus Tour stop at the '101 Ranch' in September.

Sid and Kim Wing and Sandy Ramsey enjoying the Camber Banquet at the ECAC table

January 9th Update: At our first meeting of the new year we held elections for board members and Officers. The members were elected to 1,2 and 3 year terms so as to stagger the terms for these positions. All 8 board members agreed to retain their positions. The only change will be the position of president. Dave Bergh was elected to serve as president for the coming year and Mike Grimmett will serve as Vice-President.

In other business the board discussed the plan for the coming years activities for the Coalition. The group wants to push ahead with the Ag in the Classroom program in our local schools as well as continue to attend the same community events as last year. We would also like to consider organizing a small Ag Expo at one of the Schools this coming fall. We will also continue to monitor County issues as they come up and provide appropriate input.

We also discussed preparations for the ECAC table at the Chamber Banquet coming up later this month.

November 21st update We had a productive meeting on the 21st of November in which we laid out a plan to begin implementing the Ag in the Classroom program. We especially appreciate the input of Dave Ascuena, Steve Percy and Rosemary Ash. They provided lots of input from the educational side on how to go about starting this program again in our school system. Please help us contact any one, particularly those involved with our education system, that you think might be interested in getting involved in this effort. Our meeting on the 9th of January will focus on getting this program in place for the coming year. Please come and bring any ideas you might have with you so we can make this a successful effort within our schools.

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Rhead CAFO

Update: The public hearing for the Rhead CAFO appeal was held on Tuesday, October 18th before the County Commissioners. The comment period will close as of November 1st with a decision to follow sometime after that. No time frame has been set at this time. Mr. Rhead was represented by Mr. Cheyne Westin at the hearing who did an excellent job of laying out the case for the Rhead dairy. There was also a lot of excellent testimony from a number of individuals from around the county in support of the dairy. Once again thank you to all of those that took the time to be present and educate our commissioners about these issues.

Update: November 8th. No time frame was given at the November 7th meeting as the commission is still waiting for the transcripts to be returned. Chairman Rose indicated it would probably be thirty days before they make a decision.

Update: November 28th. This item will be on the Commissioners agenda for a decision on Monday, December 12th between 9:00 and 12:00.

Update: December 12th. The Commissioners voted 2 to 1 to uphold the planning and zoning decision to grant the Rhead family their CAFO permit. The dissenting vote was from Commissioner Cruser. She had concerns over odor, the unknown effects of pathogens released and 3rd party contracts for waste nutrient application. There was a large turnout of people in support of the CAFO in attendance and no one in opposition in attendance.

Update: January 9th. The Commissioners approved the Conclusions Of Law Finding Of Fact for the Rhead Dairy Permit. Commissioner Cruser "Approved of the Findings of Facts in Context but stands by her original vote of NAY." Motion carried and so ordered.

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Idaho Wind Farms Up-Date

Update: Dec 8th: Idaho Wind Farms in conjunction with the Reynolds Brothers were granted a conditional use permit to erect 4 Meteorological towers on the Bennett Creek Farm last night at the Planning & Zoning Public Hearing. The vote was unanimous to approve the project . These towers will stay in place for one year to assess the quantity and velocity of the wind resource in that particular location. If the resource is deemed adequate then an actual wind farm will be considered at that point.

Update: Feb 2nd: The first of the towers is on site and waiting for drier conditions to be erected.

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CAFO Ordinance Up Dates

Update: The comment period for the CAFO Ordinance Public Hearing closed as of the 27th of October. No specific time frame has been set for the rest of the process. It is on the agenda for the October 31st meeting but office staff was not sure the commissioners would have time to address it. There will most likely be additional working sessions with a second public hearing to follow. We will keep you informed as the process moves forward.

Update: October 24th The CAFO Moratorium has expired as of this date.

Update: November 8th. Still no definite time frame on the next step in this process. Waiting for minutes to be prepared. More work sessions followed by a second public hearing when this issue moves forward.

Update: November 15. The next step will be a working session on the afternoon of November 28th at the commissioner room in the court house.

Update: November 28. The Commissioners worked on the Ordinance for one hour on Monday the 28th with no significant progress. They discussed the definition of 'CAFO' and 'CAFO Facility Area'. The next work session will be on Monday December 5th.

Update: December 5th. The Commissioners worked on the agenda for approx 2 hours and made significant progress. One more session should complete the review process. Remaining issues are Bonding for applicants and 3rd party waste nutrient contract issues. Upon completion of the review they will schedule the 2nd public hearing to complete the process. The next work session will be December the 19th at 2:00PM.
Update: December 19th. We worked on the Ordinance with the Commission for 2 hours today. The issue of third party recipients of waste nutrients seems to be particularly troubling to Commissioner Cruser. Most of the session was devoted to explanation and discussion of the different aspects of this issue. I believe that the feeling of the other Commissioners is that they will wrap up this review at the January 17th (at approx. 2:30 PM) session followed by the next public hearing.
Update: January 23rd. The Commissioners continue to debate the ordinance revisions. The main issues of contention are the requirement of a performance bond and water quality monitoring issues. Commissioner Cruser is intent on crafting this ordinance similar to the proposed Gooding County Draft ordinance which is extremely restrictive in many ways. Stay tuned. We have no idea when this process will be completed.
Update: February 6th. This process is basically complete. They will have one final session on Feb. 13th to wrap up any final issues and then interested parties will be mailed a copy of the proposed draft to review. The public notice will be made toward the end of the this month with the public hearing sometime in late March.
Update: February 27th. There was input from the Anti-Dairy folks at this meeting and several comments were made that would make it more difficult to locate in the county and conform to the county requirements. Among them were the increase in setback from residential areas from 1.5 miles to 2 miles and declaring all areas with homes on them to be declared 'residential'. They also want to require impermeable liners in all lagoons. The commissioners will take this input under advisement and hold another work session on the 6th of March prior to the public hearing.
Update: February 6th. The commissioners continued working on the ordinance today. The only issue remaining for the most part is the request to grant built up residential areas the same protections as subdivisions and municipalities. They are going to get an opinion from their legal counsel on this one. The next session will be March 13, at 3:00 PM.
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Planning and Zoning Up-Dates

Update: Mr. Boschma's public hearing was held on Wednesday, October 19th by the Elmore County P&Z Commission. We are very pleased to report that a well prepared attorney for Mr. Boschma and a good showing of ECAC members resulted in a unanimous vote not to revoke his CAFO permit. In addition MR. Miller stated that there would be no grounds for an appeal since there was no 3rd party appellant in this case. Thank You all for taking the time to support Steve at his hearing. It does make the difference.

Update: November 3rd. There has been an appeal filed by the anti-dairy people in spite of the ruling by Mr. Miller at the P&Z Hearing. This item is on the agenda for the November 7th Commissioners Meeting.

Update: November 8th. No decision was made at the November 7th meeting as the Commissioners had no legal counsel available during their regular meeting.

Update: November 15th. The appeal was withdrawn by the anti dairy group. No explanation was given for the withdrawal.

Update: March 6th: Casia Brown has resubmitted her appeal to the Lone Pine Dairy permit to the commissioners. They in turn remanded the decision back to the P & Z Commission for their consideration. The main crux of the appeal is that the CAFO Facility area is in a flood plain area which according to P & Z Office is not the case. The other points of the appeal were refuted by the Administrator quite well. It would appear that this appeal is without merit and hopefully will be dismissed by the P & Z Commission.

Update: April 5th: The P& Z Commission reviewed the complaint filed by Casia Brown at their regular meeting and voted unanimously to take no action on the complaint as it was felt that it was without merit. Hopefully this will be the last we see of this issue.

Update: November 27th. Ms. Brown continues to pursue the Boschma's regarding their CAFO permit. The latest event is a hearing before the County Commissioners on November 27th. Nothing was decided at this time and this item will be added to the commissioner's agenda again sometime in the near future.

Update: December 22. The commissioners deliberated on the third party complaint by Ms. Brown for approx. 90 minutes and went over each point and determined that the permit is still valid and denied the complaint filed by Mrs. Brown. In addition two members of the Brown party were removed from the meeting room during the process for being disruptive.

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Welcome to New Board Members

Welcome:

We have a new Treasurer for our organization as of February. She is Linda Ramsey. Linda has been with Northwest Farm Credit Services for many years and brings a wealth of experience with her. She has been very active in the community serving with 4H and Optimist programs in Elmore County as well as Chamber of Commerce and many other organizations throughout the years. We appreciate all of the time and dedication she shows in all of these positions and we are very happy she has agreed to be a part of our group. Linda lives in Mountain Home with her husband Randy and their daughter Sandy.

We have a new member on our Board of Directors. She is Sandy Helmick. We are delighted Sandy has agreed to be a part of our efforts. Sandy will be a great asset to our group as she has a wealth of experience serving on FSA and Soil Conservation boards in Elmore County for many years. Sandy and her husband Neil live in the Mayfield area on their ranch. They have two grown children, Darcy and Chad. Sandy has strong ties to the ranching industry in Elmore County as she is the daughter of Ron and Rosita Davison from Prairie.

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