Council Worksession on Farming

The Montgomery County Council will hold a work session at 1:30 p.m. on  March 11 to discuss issues that arise as formerly rural areas face encroaching suburban/urban sprawl.

This worksession follows a report that was released in fall 2013 following the “Farming at Metro’s Edge” conference that included stakeholders from Montgomery and Frederick counties.

That report compiled following the Farming at Metro’s Edge conference brought together a coalition of community, environmental, farming and governmental stakeholders from the two adjacent counties. Participants at the conference discussed three main topics: navigating the economic future of the region’s agriculture; keeping agriculture viable in a world of growing environmental concerns; and building support for agriculture and strong farm communities.

At Tuesday’s meeting, Tom Hartsock will present a brief overview of the report. Following the presentation, Montgomery County’s Department of Economic Development (DED) Director Steve Silverman and Agricultural Manager Jeremy Criss will present a summary of DED’s consideration and implementation of the report recommendations.

Also on the Council Agenda: 

At approximately 9:45 a.m., the Council will begin worksessions on projects County Executive Isiah Leggett has recommended in his Fiscal Years 2015-20 Capital Improvements Program (CIP).  The Council is scheduled to review the CIP requests of 12 programs. If they do not complete those reviews during the morning session, the Council will reconvene at 3 p.m. to continue the worksession.

Among the worksessions will be the CIP requests for the Washington Suburban Sanitary Commission, the Police Department, the Fire and Rescue Service, the Department of Correction and Rehabilitation and the Agricultural Land Preservation Program.

The Council’s regular weekly session will begin at 9:30 a.m. in the Third Floor Hearing Room of the Council Office Building at 100 Maryland Ave. in Rockville. The Council’s morning and afternoon sessions will be televised live by County Cable Montgomery (CCM—Cable Channel 6 on Comcast and RCN, Channel 30 on Verizon). The broadcasts also will be streamed at www.montgomerycountymd.gov/council/ondemand/index.html . The Council meeting will be rebroadcast on Friday, March 14, at 9 p.m. and will be available before that time on demand.

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