Agriculture topics dominate Porter board session

by Susan Mikula Campbell
Lewiston Porter Sentinel, September 16, 2006

The future of farmland and open spaces in Porter was on the minds of local residents attending a Town Board public hearing Monday in Town Hall.

Ten speakers from the audience either praised the board’s initiative on the matter or asked questions about details of the plan for agriculture land use, economic development and tax policies that was put together by the board’s planning consultant, George R. Frantz of George R. Frantz and Associates of Ithaca. The town’s Comprehensive Planning Implementation Committee has been working on the plan for over three years, interviewing both farmers and the general public as part of the process.

Cornell Cooperative Extension educator Paul Lehman said he admired the town for taking the time and effort to gather local comment.

Exercise in Democracy

“I feel I was an exercise of strong local democracy,” he said. Lehman added that although no document is perfect, the town now will have a plan as a starting point that can be enhanced, realizing that development can change the character of a community, not necessarily for the better.

Some people were fearful that if adopted by the board, the plan would become law, said Bill Choboy, former board member and chairman of the master plan committee when it first met in March 2002.

“It’s a very, very good plan, professionally done after many meetings with residents,” he said. “It’s suggestions. It’s a guideline for the town to use when they do rezoning according to the master plan. It doesn’t become law.”

Information on the plan is available online by going to www.porterplanning.com, he said.

Town farmer Tom Tower, a member of the committee also was on hand to praise the town for its initiative and foresight in planning for the future and realizing that farms and farmers are essential to the enhancement of community life.

Supervisor Merton Wiepert said once Frantz makes final revisions to the plan it will come back to the master plan committee for review, then come before the Town Board for final approval.

Other News

In other matters:

•Wiepert reminded residents that the town’s annual Cabbage Festival is scheduled for Oct. 1 in Ransomville.

•A moment of silence was held for victims of 9/11 and for State Trooper Joseph Longobardo, who recently died after being shot in the leg during the hunt for escaped convict Ralph “Bucky” Phillips.

•The board received its engineer’s report on needed repairs on the town’s two water storage tanks. Wiepert said the board will review the report to see how much needs to be done in coming years and how to include costs in upcoming budgets.