By NANCY VORIS
Indiana Correspondent

MARTINSVILLE, Ind. — Central Indiana farmers have attended their fair share of public meetings this year.

The gas pipeline, nearing a reality, and Gov. Mitch Daniel’s proposed Indiana Commerce Connector, now on the back burner, brought landowners in droves to public meeting sites to voice their opinions.

At some meetings, their concerns were heard and acted upon, while they viewed other meetings as simply an attempt to pacify citizens when decisions had already been made.

Last week, Morgan County residents left a meeting held by the Farm Service Agency (FSA) wondering if their comments would make a difference or if the meetings were simply a formality for a done deal.

For the second time in 15 years, FSA is restructuring its field service offices. Once farmers were served by offices in every county, but 12 counties lost their offices in 1992 and were consolidated with nearby counties.

In 2005, USDA started a review process in each state to determine where offices could again be consolidated. Farmers and administrators from affected counties met to discuss options.

FSA Indiana State Director Kenny Culp said public meetings are now being held to inform farmers of proposed changes and to get feedback, and that final decisions have not been made.

The proposal for Morgan County is to consolidate it with the Monroe/Owen/ Brown counties’ office in Bloomington. Currently, Morgan’s director also oversees Clay and Vigo counties, which would be moved into the Terre Haute office.

“We’re not here pushing anything off on anybody,” Culp told the Morgan County audience. “Your statements will be compiled for a state meeting. We’re here to listen to concerns. What flies and doesn’t fly will be sent on to Washington.”

Culp said efficiency is one of the main reasons for the consolidations. If an employee is ill or on vacation, one person is left to manage the office. “When only one person is in the office, we can’t function, and we’re not going to get more staff,” he said.
The estimated savings in combining the two offices is $101,666, said Steve Brown, Indiana FSA executive officer. “When we combine offices, we do gain efficiency,” he said.

The drive to Bloomington could mean a 30- to 40-mile trek, a hardship when counting gas and downtime for farmers. Farmer Clint Cragen crunched some numbers.

The Morgan County FSA office serves about 700 farmers, and figuring a producer’s time at a mere $15 an hour, he came up with a burden of $60,000 to the Morgan County farmers.

“You could combine two jobs at the USDA in Washington, to provide service to 700 farmers in Morgan County,” Cragen said. “USDA should absorb these costs to provide assistance to farmers.”
A convenience rule allows farmers who live too far away – generally more than 30 minutes’ drive time – to petition to work through a closer office in another county.

Don Baker, who lives in the northwestern corner of Morgan County, said, “I can’t get to Bloomington legally in 30 minutes. Why should we lose our office? Anytime I’ve called these (employees), they’ve helped me. I think it’s a crime you want to shut our office down.”
Joe Rode worried that the drive would be a hardship to older landowners who have to travel to Bloomington just to sign papers.
Others questioned the procedures for the meeting. Morgan County extension educator Chris Parker was concerned FSA officials did not provide enough information on the review process to the public before proceeding with questions.

“There was no five-minute presentation to explain what was happening,” he said.

“They were assuming people knew what was going on.”
Sam Lasiter felt the whole process was backwards, and that the public meetings should have been held early in the review process.
“You should have gotten the farmers’ input first, not last,” Lasiter said.

This farm news was published in the Aug. 1, 2007 issue of Farm World, serving Indiana, Ohio, Illinois, Kentucky, Michigan and Tennessee.