Local & State Headlines

Farm offices' consolidation continuing

• Baker County hangs on while Dougherty and 14 other Farm Service Agency office close.

Susan McCord

ALBANY — The consolidation of Farm Service Agency offices around the state that was hotly opposed by some Georgia farmers is coming to fruition.

Effective Monday, Dougherty FSA will close the doors of its Albany office in the downtown Riverfront Resource Center, to consolidate the office with Calhoun County FSA, according to a Nov. 30 announcement from Georgia FSA Executive Director Susan Holmes.

One of 16 county offices slated a year ago for consolidation, the Dougherty office administered nearly $4 million in payments to farmers during 2005, but far less than offices in nearby, heavily agricultural counties, according to FSA records.

Dougherty farmers and landowners, given a one-time choice of transferring their business to the Calhoun FSA office in Morgan or to some other county’s office, are opting for the office that is most convenient to them, said Jay Arnold, FSA County Executive Director who has managed both the Dougherty and Calhoun offices for a decade.

“Probably 60-70 percent will go to adjacent counties; the remainder will go over here,” said Arnold, who was in Morgan Monday.

Many of his approximately 150 Dougherty farm customers own land in multiple counties and are opting to transfer their accounts to FSA offices in Lee and Worth counties, Arnold said.

The Worth office in Sylvester administered $19 million in payments during 2005; the Lee FSA office in Leesburg handled nearly $9 million, according to FSA records.

Each county FSA’s membership elects county representatives to a board that governs disputes and sets certain payment guidelines. Dougherty customers who transfer to an office other than Calhoun’s will lose the opportunity this year to serve on the board, Arnold said.

While Worth’s FSA expects to gain 30-40 farms because of the consolidation, “it won’t overload us. It will be very small compared to our workload now,” said Worth FSA County Executive Director Keith Willis.

Among 83 offices around the state, FSA offices slated last year for consolidation with another county’s office included Baker, Brantley, Coweta, Dougherty, Evans, Gordon, Greene, Habersham, Henry, Houston, Johnson, Lanier, Seminole, Taylor, Ware and Wheeler, according to previous FSA reports.

Among the most vehemently opposed to the consolidation last year was Baker County, where more than 100 Baker residents appeared at a fiery FSA public hearing conducted by Holmes.

Baker farmer Jerry Heard, who serves as vice chairman of Baker’s FSA committee, assembled a 100-page defense against his county’s consolidation with Mitchell FSA, including calculation of administrative costs among FSA offices.

While Baker’s tiny office administers some $10.6 million in annual payments at a cost of one cent on the dollar, other offices not slated for closure expended as much as 40 cents to administer each dollar paid, Heard reported.

“I gave them numbers showing that our office did not deserve to be closed,” Heard said Tuesday. “Baker County should not have been included on that list,” he said.

Consolidation with Mitchell County will never be plausible because, though nearby, the two counties are separated by the Flint River, over which only one bridge passes, Heard said.

Heard said he believes FSA needs elected farmers on the state FSA board, whose members are presently appointed by elected officials.

Presenting extensive arguments, petitions and letters of support from Sen. Michael Meyer von Bremen and U.S. Rep. Sanford Bishop, Heard and Baker county farmers may have gained the office in the Baker County seat of Newton a little extra time.

It remained open, with a staff of two program technicians and no closure date in sight Tuesday.

Baker is “on the list,” with 16 others, for closure, Holmes said Tuesday during a break from her last city council meeting after 12 years as mayor of Monticello.

“I don’t know exactly the date that office is going to be combined,” she said.

Farmers, she emphasized, “can go any place they choose” if their FSA offices are consolidated.

Restructuring of the county committee system in 2009 will allow farmers to be elected to committees after the offices are consolidated, she said.

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