By Tim Luther
As we closed out the year, we at the Summit County Farm Bureau hope all of you had a great holiday season with your family and friends and welcomed the New Year with open arms.
The end of the season always gives us time to reflect on what we’ve done right, wrong, what we want to improve upon and where we want to go in our path of life. Mine has always seemed to be farming, never really cared to go to school, just always wanted to be on the farm with my dad and my uncle, who were my teachers and mentors of this way of life. Now the farmer’s path is never straight and narrow, it’s a cow path full of ups and downs, going every which way and having the occasional obstruction in the path. We always seem to find a way around it, over it, or through it so we can continue to farm.
I have read numerous top stories of the 2022 season in the Farm & Dairy (every farmer’s favorite source of farming up to dates); solar farms consuming valuable productive farmland, H2Ohio water quality program, Avian Influenza (bird flu) killing over 57 million birds and the Russia/Ukraine war that has caused inflation nationwide, just to name a few events that have transpired over the past year.
In Summit County, our big story was the establishment of a Stormwater District Taxation Fee Structure that Summit County Council is going to enforce on all Summit County residents, beginning 2025. A suggested per parcel fee schedule that was originally being considered was going to devastate many farmers. After numerous phone calls and meetings attended by a committee comprised of SCFB board members, OFBF State Trustee and SCFB members, SCFB and the Summit County Council committee were able to come to a fair and more realistic cost to land owners and farmers throughout Summit County.
Ohio Farm Bureau held its 104th Annual Meeting at the beginning of December. SCFB presented a policy for consideration, “We support agricultural properties with no impervious surface area be exempt from a storm water district fee assessment”, in hopes that with future suburban developments, all counties get a fair say and break on any fees they might incur. The policy was accepted, a small victory for our county. Great Job SCFB Board of Trustees!
Are you wondering about upcoming programs and events, please checkout our website www.summitcountyfarmbureau.org and remember to support your local farmers!!!
Thank you for your support,
Tim Luther
President, Summit County Farm Bureau
5th Generation Summit County Farmer