Agricultural Commission Minutes
Town of Bolton Agricultural Commission
Meeting Minutes
Date: December 18, 2007
AGRICULTURAL COMMISSION
http://www.townofbolton.com/Pages/BoltonMA_BComm/steering
663 Main Street
978 779-2297 or 779-3308
Martha Ashe 67 Green Road 779-5422 maashe@comcast.net Term Exp 6/30/2009
Rob Held 116 Bare Hill Road 779-2810 robheld@aol.com Term Exp 6/30/2009
Joe Kovacs 23 Harris Farm Road 779-6979 joseph.kovacs@comcast.net Term Exp 6/30/2010
Ken Nicewicz 116 Sawyer Road 779-6423 nicewicz@nre.umass.edu Term Exp 6/30/2010
Sue Storbeck 92 Sampson Road 779-6020 slstorbeck@comcast.net Term Exp 6/30/2008
A meeting of the Bolton Agricultural Commission was held on December 18th at Town Hall. The meeting was
called to order at 7:40pm. In attendance were: Martha Ashe, Joe Kovacs, and Sue Storbeck.
Meeting minutes from the last meeting were reviewed and accepted.
The Agricultural Commission training put on by the Mass Department of Ag Resources was attended by Martha,
Sue and Joe. It was unanimously agreed that the information obtained was invaluable and a lot of ideas were
generated for the Bolton Ag Commission to consider.
A draft mission statement was presented by Joe Kovacs for discussion:
Mission Statement
o Through education and promotion encourage the pursuit of agriculture, create awareness of Bolton’s
agriculture-based businesses, and protects farmlands within the Town of Bolton by allowing agricultural
uses and related activities to function with minimal conflict with abutters and Town agencies.
CY08 Goals
o Conduct inventory of parcels of land in agriculture and key attributes of such activity. Merge data with
town’s annual livestock inventory.
o Marketing campaign to promote agriculture businesses in town such as local farmers and farm stands
(i.e. brochures)
o Establish a program to educate both farmers and residents in Bolton on farming activities as it relates to
best practices and co-existence through such medium as brochures, lectures, BATCO, website, and
newsprint
o Work with the Board of Health to finalize stable regulations as town needs dictate
o Create procedure document for the protocol for working with town boards on conflict resolution
o Investigate opportunities for municipality related to agriculture such as grants, Mass Ag in the Classroom,
and Mass Farm to School Project
o Meet quarterly with abutting towns on agricultural issues jointly affecting the towns
The goal is to finalize this in January along with the work items that each of us is signing up for to champion.
Each of us should come prepared to the meeting in January to do so. Once completed and prioritized, it would be
presented to the Board of Selectmen. Then each member would adopt item(s), recruit others to help as needed,
and then report back to the AgComm on their progress.
The meeting concluded at approximately 8:50 pm.
Meeting Schedule:
Meet with Planning Board: Wednesday, January 9 at 7:45 pm at Town Hall.
Next AgComm meeting: Tuesday, January 15 at 7:30 pm at Town Hall.
Meet with Selectmen: to be scheduled (January at the earliest).