Townships on Board with Farmland Preservation

The Centre County Board of Commissioners passed three contracts at their Jan. 29 meeting to generate funding and interest in the county’s Purchase of Agriculture Conservation Easement (PACE) program.

The board passed a memorandum of understanding with Potter and Ferguson townships for their participation in the Municipal Partnership Program for farmland preservation, and adopted a resolution acknowledging the contributions the two townships made to MPP.

The commissioners also certified $166,701 to leverage matching funds from the Pennsylvania Bureau of Farmland Preservation for the PACE program. The county will contribute $80,000, Potter Township $40,000 and Ferguson Township $35,000. Another $11,701 will come from the county’s Clean and Green rollback taxes interest.

“Leveraging is a big opportunity and I think it’s critical right now because we don’t have … access to federal dollars at this point,” said board chairman Norman Lathbury.

Board coordinator Sarah Walter said this year’s certification amount is the greatest since 2002.

According to a news release from the county’s Agriculture Land Preservation Board, the state distributes funding to participating counties annually. Each participating county receives a base allocation but those who certify dedicated farmland preservation funds will also receive matching funding.

“This is that first time that we’re able to basically take committed dollars from municipalities and certify them to the state to get match,” Walter said.

In 2014, they received $1.40 from the state for every dollar certified by the county, she said. To date, Centre County has received $13 million in PACE funding from the state and contributed $1.7 million to the program, with $260,000 coming from the municipalities.

“It will be exciting to certify farms this year with these funds,” said commissioner Michael Pipe.

For more information about the Centre County Agriculture Land Preservation Board and the Purchase of Agriculture Conservation Easement program, visit www.centrecountypa.gov/agland.