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| US (CA): Potato farm plan dropped | | | | 2010-4-13 18:13:02 | | | Heartland Farms is ready to abandon plans to create a potato farm in Saratoga, but that didn't stop residents from expressing their displeasure with the concept Wednesday.
Saratoga Chairman Terry Rickaby said he received an e-mail from Heartland Farms asking to be removed from the agenda for Wednesday night's Town Board meeting. The business previously contacted town leaders, proposing the purchase of more than 6,000 acres of Plum Creek property to develop a potato farm. Upon learning residents were against the idea -- the Town Board previously voted against the plan -- company officials decided not pursue it.
Rickaby still wanted to give the more than 200 people in attendance Wednesday the opportunity to express their opinions.
Sarajane Snyder said she was on the town Planning Commission, and the No. 1 issue the commission had when creating the comprehensive plan was agribusiness. Snyder said her home is near Ten Mile Creek, and she has seen it change a lot in the 30 years she lived there.
"Thirty years ago, that creek ran clear and pure," Snyder said. "Now the creek is down to half of what it was, and you stand in muddy water."
Snyder blamed the cranberry farms, which she said quietly became part of the area. Allowing a large potato-growing business into the community would make things worse, she said.
With each anti-farm statement, the room erupted. People expressed concern and anger about what the large potato farm would do to the water levels in local wells and how pesticide use would contaminate the water and air.
Wood County Board Supervisor Ruth Moody of Saratoga cautioned the residents about preventing Heartland Farms from purchasing the land from Plum Creek, which currently owns it. Plum Creek plans to sell the property to someone, Moody said. If it's not turned into farmland, it could become something worse.
Although they had asked to be removed from the agenda, representatives from Heartland Farms were at the meeting to answer questions. If the town wasn't interested, the intention was to drop the idea of the purchase, said Jeremie Pavelski, company owner.
"We're not going to be your neighbors if you don't want us to be your neighbors," Pavelski said.
Pavelski did, however, tell the residents the pesticide and herbicides the potato growers use today are considerably better than the ones from 30 years ago. Most of the chemicals used now don't damage the environment, he said. Growers can't afford to overapply them.
"We need to make sure we use good practices so we don't get the leaching," Pavelski said. "I'm drinking this water, too, and so are my kids."
Pavelski said he respected the community's desire not to have a potato farm, which would be about 20 miles from the company's current operations.
According to information given to the Town Board during a meeting Feb. 17, the potato farm would have brought about 70 jobs to the area and more than $1 million to the town that the company would have to pay because it took the land out of its current managed forest status.
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