Robinson gets county support for agriculture center study
SPLOST dollars are going to be used to pay the University of Georgia for a study to help Polk County’s chances of getting federal money to build an Agriculture Education center.
The Polk County Board of Commissioners voted unanimously to approve funding of $9,995 to pay UGA for the study, that can then be incorporated into a grant application for the U.S. Department of Agriculture.
Dozens of local farmers packed into the Polk County Board of Commissioners meeting room for their monthly work session the previous night prior to the vote, and those who couldn’t make it sent along instead hundreds of signatures in support of a project that one man has been working in past months to get organized and completed.
Glenn Robinson brought petitions and people to May’s work session with one message for the county commission: the people want and need an agriculture education center for all ages in order to keep one of the local economy’s top industries thriving in the future.
He made a return trip to the podium to discuss the potential future for a agriculture education center, but also to ask for the commission’s help on one crucial aspect needed to move forward. Robinson sought $9,995.00 to get a feasibility study on the project completed by officials at the University of Georgia, which when combined with an application already being compiled by the Northwest Georgia Regional Commission, will allow Robinson and others working on the project to seek out funds from the U.S. Department of Agriculture via grants, and also apply for private dollars to help cover eventual construction, equipment and operations costs.
“The application for Community Facilities projects is a form of low interest loans and grants designed to help construct community facilities providing essential services in rural areas,” Robinson said in a prepared statement to the board on Monday. “Let me emphasize reduce the cost to the county nor can we start requesting grant money to help equip and maintain the facility during start-up,” Robinson said.
Financial help won’t be hard to find when the time comes. The center has a lot of support just in the idea stages.
“This proposed Ag center has been strongly endorsed by the Polk County Cattlemen’s Association Polk County Farm Bureau, Cedartown and Rockmart FFA, the Polk 4-H and school system. It has gained further support from local, state, and federal representatives including Senators Isakson, and David Perdue, Representative Tom Graves, Secretary of Agriculture Sonny Perdue, Georgia Department of Agriculture Gary Black, State Senator Bill Heath, Representative Trey Kelly, , and more importantly, the citizens of Polk County,” Robinson said.
Commissioner Scotty Tillery requested the board put the item up for a vote for the funding needed for completion of the study for tonight’s agenda, an item that will require amendment and approval before commissioners can discuss it further and decide to support the idea or not.
“I think it would be a good investment that we do it, and once everyone sees it happening, they’ll wonder why we haven’t done it a long time ago,” Robinson said.
Tillery added that during a recent trip to Gilmer County to study their Agriculture Education center, he and other organizers saw the potential for what Polk County can do with a future center of their own. He also said the venture was worthy of any support the county can give, and that funding could be used for the study from Special Purpose, Local Option Sales Tax money set aside for economic development purposes.
Robinson said before ending his presentation on Monday night that it was his hopes to emulate the success of Carroll County’s center.
“They’ve got something going on in their center every day,” Robinson said. “If (Young Farmers Coordinator) can do a good job, we’ll have that center filled up every day.” by filling out the form does not in any way obligate us to any financial obligation. We can walk away any time before breaking ground on the project. We need to complete the application process ASAP.”
He added that it would be a facility open to all ages, students in public education and homeschooled, and adults who are seeking to learn more about agriculture, continue their education or even get involved in the industry.
Polk County has good reason to invest now in an Agriculture Education center. He said beside being the top industry in Polk County, employing hundreds either on the farm, in pastures or related fields, it brings in a fortune into the area. Robinson said some 353 farms in Polk County alone contributed $276 million to the local economy, and employs 1,530 people.
Yet with the demand expected to continue to only go up in the decades to come as the worldwide population increases, and not enough people going into agriculture education and industries, Robinson said an agriculture education center promises to help recruit and train those youth who can be future leaders and help fill gaps left where programs already doing good, like 4-H and the Future Farmers of America haven’t yet reached.
“Nationwide the USDA shows tremendous demand for recent college graduates with a degree in agricultural programs with an estimated 57, 900 high-skill and high paying jobs opening annually in the food, agriculture, renewable natural resources and environmental fields; however, there is only an average of 35,400 new U.S. graduates with a bachelor’s degree in agriculture or higher in ag related fields, 22,500 short of the jobs available,” Robinson said. “Both our high schools offer the agriculture, food, and natural resources path; however, due the way the career paths are set up a large number of our students who would like to be in ag classes cannot participate. Additionally, there is no ag path in middle school or elementary schools as found in many other counties.”
Robinson’s hope is to build a center to also put a position being funded by the state in the 2019 Fiscal Year budget to work as well. The Young Farmers program is providing money for Polk School District to hire a new position that will be responsible for teaching students as well as workers valuable knowledge useful in fields and pastures locally.
He’s also proposing the building be used in a variety of ways, from hosting agriculture conventions and trade shows, to being rented out for public use for meetings as well.
Before the project can move forward however, he needs the commission to help pay for the study.
“Keep in mind that until the application is submitted we cannot set up a nonprofit foundation with a board of directors to start collecting private funding which will