Griffin daily news. (Griffin, Ga.) 1924-current, May 12, 1977, Image 15

Griffin daily news., May 12, 1977, Page Page 15, Image 15

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Newspaper Page TextVermont The ‘Flatlanders’ are coining and land prices and taxes are soaring By MARGARET NELSON Associated Press Writer HARTLAND FOUR COR NERS, Vt. (AP)-The flatland ers are coming, and sooner or later they’ll want to buy Chester Eaton’s farm. Eaton says running a dairy farm on 260 acres of upland soil isn’t easy, but he’s not about to sell. Eaton says when he looks across his land at the Con necticut River, all the mornings that begin at 4 a.m. in the freezing cold are worth it. But it’s the peaceful quality of this Vermont village and the view of the river that are the very things that are bringing what Hartland residents call “flatlanders” in droves. Second home developments, aimed at city dwellers from New York and Connecticut, are driving land prices and taxes up. Eaton and small farmers like him across the country have chosen farming because it al lows them to be outdoors most of the time, because it’s “good, honest work,” because it’s far away from the complexity and hustle of cities. But as the land underneath their tractors increases in val ue, it is awfully tempting to sell the back pasture to a flatlander from “New Yawk Cit-ay” to meet the mortgage. Farming also means 14-hour workdays and the constant spectre of financial insecurity. Sometimes selling or renting the land can make them just as much money with none of the backbreaking work. “You struggle all year, there rWS I n'wbl I Earl Warren Warren had regrets One controversy involving the late Chief Justice Earl Warren occurred while he was attorney general of the state of California in the early 1940’5. After the attack on Pearl Harbor, many Americans feared that Japanese im migrants would aid the Japanese war effort. The hysteria was especially rife on the West Coast, where most Japanese-Americans lived. As state attorney general, Warren signed an order that gave the Japanese-Americans a choice: internment in a camp or relocation to a point at least 750 miles inland from the Pacific coast. Now, in his posthumous memoirs which will be published in June by Double day & Co., Inc., the former Chief Justice, who died in 1974 at the age of 83, discloses his feelings about the action. “I have since deeply regretted the order . . . because it was not in keeping with our American concept of freedom and the rights of citizens. “Whenever I thought of the innocent little children who were torn from home, school friends and congenial surroun dings, I was conscience stricken. I was wrong to react so impulsively ...” Chicken missing SEBRING, Fla. (AP) - Po lice in this Central Florida community are looking for a 200-pound, six-foot, yellow and white fiberglass chicken called Henrietta. The bird, originally a mascot for a fried chicken restaurant, was reported stolen Tuesday from the chicken farm of Ernest and Ann Kohler, Highlands County deputies said. Henrietta called the chicken farm home since the Kohlers got out of the restaurant busi ness seven years ago. “She seemed to have such a cute face and a personality,” said Mrs. Kohler. “I don’t know why anyone would steal our bird. I guess it was worth about SSOO, but it had a lot of senti mental value to me.” is never enough time in the day to do what you need to do. You have to love it, or you wouldn’t be able to stand it, ” Eaton says. Eaton shares the farm chores with his son, who also drives a bus for extra income. The fami ly also sells maple sugar they make from sap from the nu merous maple trees on their property. And just recently, they sold some hill land off in lots at the edge of the farm. The U.S. Department of Agri culture notes that there are now only 2.2 million farms in operation today as opposed to 4.1 million just 20 years ago. Some of the attrition represents consolidation of small farms GIGANTIC TRUCKLOAD HURRY FOR THESE M rg BUYS! SALE ENDS ■ L I I MONDAY, MAY 16th I EES ADD BEAUTY, SAFETY F BWwMWMBMB 5 AND VALUE TO YOUR : IB . r- Br HOME - INSIDE OR OUT 't, I 1\ Ty with Versa™ ’WOO I /I I 11 g WROUGHT ®. iW' |< J /BSSSS:h\ L f IRONy lV; L———— EWJd | , II J I' I JL »Ulujm OVER ibiil k%! 4Wf w-1 ass ° akwhiskey ngffF I Base IO RARDFK ItSSX ROOF - I POWER ATTIC OEBB DHItIILLd PANEL 9y4STUDS VENTILATOR OD I fc XHr W ■ WO > WDW 340 by Nautilus™ £ 26x72 In. I I 0R W WDW 345 42®" Reg. $14.95 whii«, grwn, I II Ix4Boards __ % WIND BRACED QO. or e1..,! a ..eh 8 FEET long r Q TURBINE Zl O< iT C ft A Regular $3.99, Hurry! 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SUN. 1-5 PM YOU BUY BETTER at the sign of the GREEN • HARRIS TREE into larger more mechanized operations, but much of the land is no longer being farmed. The flatlanders have got it. The department attributes the gradual demise of the small farm to the high cost of energy, rising taxes — as land becomes ever more valuable — the un certainty of agricultural mar kets and the high cost of mort gage money. In the White Mountain resort of Conway, N.H., Dave Nichols and his wife say that people are always approaching them and trying to buy their land, which commands a spectacular view of Mt. Washington. Land values in Conway have skyrocketed in the past 10 years. The high price of land, combined with the uncertainty of milk distribution outlets, mean there are only six farms left in the area. The town has no zoning ordi nance and no building codes, and Nichols says developers have come into town like car petbaggers and developments are cropping up “worse than weeds.” New Hampshire, in an effort to bolster the lot of independent ' farmers, has passed a “current use assessment law” which al lows the land to be assessed on its worth as farm land rather than its value on the open mar- ket. In total, 42 states in the coun try have passed such current use laws to preserve open land as a natural resource. Two oth er states, Wisconsin and Loui siana, have amended their con stitutions. In Michigan, where land val ues in rural areas are also es calating, farmers are counter manding their normally inde pendent image and banding to gether to fight against high property taxes. The current use law might mean a difference in assess ment of, say, S3OO an acre for farm land and SI,BOO an acre for land under development. Farmland is particularly at tractive to developers because it is clear, usually has good drainage and access to roads. It is easy to subdivide and is guaranteed not to have ledge rock five feet down to interfere with foundations. Vermont taxes its farmers on the land’s value on the real es tate market, but leaves assess ing up to the local listers. In Hartland, the local listers are themselves farmers, and Eaton says assessments remain rea sonable. But the tiny town sits between two major recreational developments — one in nearby Quechee and a second down Page 15 — Griffin Daily News Thursday, May 12,1977 Vermont 12 in Barnard, which has taken over almost one-tenth of the town. Real estate devel opers say that it is only a matter of time before the pressures are felt in Hartland. Hartlanders recently at tempted to plan for a future population influx by formulat ing the Hartland Open Space plan. The town planning com mission spent almost a year drawing up the plan which would have given a tax break to residents who kept their land open. The town eventually defeated the plan by a margin of 3 to 1. Opponents said they feared that their own property taxes would go up if the plan were enacted. In Vermont, the average farm was worth $62,348 in 1969; the figure is $120,200 now. The state had almost four million acres in farms in 1950, as opposed to less than two mil lion in 1977. In New Hampshire, the number of farms in the state has dwindled from 15,800 in 1950 to 2,600 today. The number of acres under cultivation has dropped from 1.8 million to 560,000. If the trend continues, it will change the character of pre dominately rural areas. And the people who travel there for the green landscapes are in for a big surprise.