October 15, 2019, 4-5 pm
Via Zoom from the Lopez and Orcas Libraries and WSU SJC Ext in FH
Committee Members Present:
Caitlin Herlihy Lek, David Kane, Steve Berhnheim, Brook Brouwer, Sam Dillingham, Steph Coffey, Meike Meissner, Sara Benson, Mike Ramsey, and Winnie Adams
Faith Van De Putte- coordinator
Public Comment: Todd Goldsmith
4:00 Call to Order – Welcome, Check-in Steve
4:05 Agenda Review Steve
Adopt Minutes from September 17 Approved
4:10 ARC Business Faith
Executive Committee compiled draft work plan. Review work plan prior to retreat.
4:20 Outreach Caitlin
ARC retreat November 4th from 8:30 to 2:00 pm at Brickworks. Priority to address work plan
4:25 Policy David Kane
Land Use Memo submitted to County last week. Linda Kuller acknowledge receipt of ARC memo by Community Development.
Discussion of water rights and the importance of maintaining agricultural water rights in association with public conservation land.
4:30 Special Guest John Kulseth
John is the County Assessor and will be presenting on the recent changes to CUFA. See attached documents. Apologies for lack of communication.
Taxable value of farm land has been the same since 1993. This was identified in 2012 by audit.
Three numbers need to be known:
Working since 2015 to identify number.
- Option 1: Lease value - lack of objective way to determine reasonable
- Option 2: Productive Capacity
- Option 3: Assessor compute reasonable amount
Decided to determine productive capacity based on USDA hay prices, average for 5 years. Determined production value, price minus cost. Production based on soil type from 1962 soil Survey
4:55 Ag Program Updates & General Announcements
Noah Kay, Carbon Washington 2:00 pm tomorrow at SJICD
Food Hub meeting 2:30 to 4:30 at SVC Classroom
November 1st - Livestock Ruminant class through WSU ext