County approves $50 fee to join ag district

Craven County farmland owners may begin signing up Oct. 19 as part of a Voluntary Agricultural District for a $50 enrollment fee.

The Craven County Board of Commissioners unanimously approved the district advisory board’s enrollment fee request on Monday as part of final approval of the Craven County Voluntary Agricultural District policies and procedures. The fee covers signup at the Register of Deeds office.

Commissioners established the district in their first 2009 meeting as part of a state program designed to help identify and protect farmland, making Craven the 68^th county out of 100 in the state to do so.

The voluntary ag district helps disclose that an agricultural operation is or could be on the identified land, through the county GIS system and a sign posted on member farm property.

As the county considered it initially, local farmer Ted Haynes and his wife own a 500-acre farm he inherited from his father in 1963 that is now surrounded by housing developments.

Although he tries to be a good neighbor and let the residents walk and use open areas , he said, as he prepared to plant last year one of them “stood on my property giving me blazes for what I’ve been doing for 35 years. She said she moved from California to get away from pesticides.”

Ernul farmer Wyatt Whitford, chairman of Craven County Voluntary Agriculture District Board, said he is trying to preserve his family’s farm operation into the future. As people from out of the area buy up land in the region, they need to know they are going to be living near a farm.

The Voluntary Agriculture District requires one of two levels of commitment from farmers to get county fee savings considerations and water and sewer connection fee relief. The highest allows a 25 percent non-farm income from the land with a 10-year commitment to keep it in farming.

Sue Book can be reached at 252-635-5666 or sbook@freedomenc.com.