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05/08/2019 08:45 AMThere were no pitchforks involved, but there was a distinct undercurrent among the 30-plus farmers who met on May 1 at Larimar Show Stables in Deep River to talk about uniting, taxes, zoning, and state statutes that affect their businesses.
The group of farmers from Deep River as well as Killingworth, Westbrook, Old Saybrook, and Chester invited Connecticut Farm Bureau Director of Member Relations and Community Outreach Joan Nichol and attorney Doug Dubitsky to be part of the discussion.
“The purpose of this meeting is to get everyone together in the same room to network, learn from one other and get stronger,” said Larimar Show Stables partner Kevin Wakelee. “We need to have a farmers’ voice in town. And we need to have each other’s backs.”
The 2 ½-hour long meeting covered many issues of importance to farmers in Deep River and orbited around the possibility of creating a Deep River Farmers Association, among other things. Concerns about taxes, zoning, and manure removal were of the utmost important.
Tax issues are “the first and foremost on every one’s mind, so what can we do about them first?” Wakelee asked.
Dubitsky, who is currently representing Larimar Show Stables owner Jill Curtis and Wakelee in a court case that is in litigation against the Town of Deep River, helped to answer questions.
“Currently we are in litigation with the town about what I see are some extremely unfair, unethical, and unsound issues,” Curtis said. “We are trying to be friendly about the whole thing, but there is some animosity dealing with the assessment of our land and I feel there has been a lot of bait and switch with us.”
“I have a lot of clients who are farmers and there are good towns in Connecticut for agriculture and bad towns and there are assessors that either don’t understand agriculture or don’t wish to,” he continued.
Nichols explained that she has held several educational workshops for Middlesex County assessors to give them a better understanding of this issue, though she said the Deep River assessor did not attend those workshops.
John Hall, owner of Maple Breeze Farm in Westbrook and president of the Middlesex County Farm Bureau, suggested that the best way to get anything done or changed in your own town, is from the inside out. He suggested that the farmers in Deep River volunteer their time to be on the various boards and commissions.
“Get involved and stay involved,” said Hall, who also serves as a selectman in Westbrook.
Newly sworn-in Deep River Selectman Jim Olson, who attended the May 1 meeting, agreed with Hall.
“Until recently there were vacancies on the Deep River Planning & Zoning Commission. We need people on these boards and commissions in town,” said Olson, who added that he thought calling the meeting of farmers was a great idea and he encouraged them to come to all open town meetings.
The Deep River farmers, most who recently received a document from the Deep River assessors office requesting rental property and income and expense data, which is due back to the assessor by June 1, decided that the next course of action will be to unite once again at the next Board of Selectmen meeting on Tuesday, May 14 and bring their issues to that forum in an effort to get some positive results.
“There seems to be that there has been an undercurrent, from the get go, to get the farmers, especially horse people,” said Carol Libby, whose daughter has horses in Deep River. “There seems to be the thought that everyone who has horses has coin and that’s not true.”
Walt Adametz, a Killingworth resident and chairman of the Regional Agriculture Council, explained that in the Deep River’s Plan of Conservation and Development, which is supposed to act as road map of where the residents would like the see the town going, it is clear that agriculture is one of the most important things to the residents of Deep River.
“If you are asking for my suggestion, if you have a problem in town you may have a better opportunity of solving the problem in a municipal manner or a political manner,” said Dubitsky.
He added, “If this group showed up at a selectmen’s meeting, I bet they would listen.”
“I think that’s what we need to do,” Wakelee said. “There is something to be said for the positive and powerful effect of the mass.”
“This issue is exactly why farmers need to band together and have banded together to create the Connecticut Farm Bureau,” Hall added.
Editor's note: An earlier version of this story incorrectly attributed the following statement to Dubitsky: ""Currently we are in litigation with the town about what I see are some extremely unfair, unethical, and unsound issues...We are trying to be friendly about the whole thing, but there is some animosity dealing with the assessment of our land and I feel there has been a lot of bait and switch with us."