February 3, 2010 – Urban-Rural Night. Over 100 attendees packed Moselem Springs Inn for the annual event honoring local farmers. Officials from Mike O’Pake and Gary Day and Sheila Miller to Rotary District Gov. Mike McCarthy were on hand. We honored two FFA students this month, Katelyn Krumanocker of Kutztown High School, and Kate Updegrave from Oley Valley High School. Katelyn has held the offices of Parliamentarian, Historian, and Reporter for the FFA, is a member of the Rifle Team, the Horticulture Club and Student Council. She has planted trees to save riverbanks, volunteered at the Menges Mills Steam Show and the Kempton Community Recreation Center. Kate is the vice-president of the FFA and has attended both the state and national FFA conventions. After college, she plans to go into the dairy industry.

Speaker Dennis Wolff, recently the PA Secretary of Agriculture, said this is a great agricultural community because of its diversity and its size. Berks has the most acres of farmland preserved of any county in PA, and PA has the most in the nation. We have spent $1 billion preserving four thousand farms constituting 430 thousand acres. But in PA, our best farmland is located where the urban sprawl is eating up the most acreage, the pressure coming from NJ/NY and MD/DC.

On the other hand, this presents opportunities for profitable farming. We are producing food where the people live, so we are able to develop markets for our products and sell directly to restaurants and through farmers’ markets. We can produce perishable products—like dairy and eggs.

Growing Greener II was a state initiative funded with $85 million to play catch-up with farms on the waiting list for preservation. It also is being used to encourage people to stay in urban areas and to slow urban sprawl.

There is a challenge keeping the next generation in the business of farming, to make it profitable enough for them to see there future there. The Center for Farm Transition was created to help transition farm property from the parents to the child/children, dealing with the fact that the farm is the only asset to inherit, but there are a number of siblings.

Finally Dennis Wolff said ACRE was the achievement in which he took the most pride. The Right to Farm Law protects farmers from local nuisance ordinances. Section 1717 of the Nutrient Management Act preempts the right of local governments to pass ordinances in contravention of the NMA. But farmers had to hire their own lawyer and sue the townships for these state laws to be enforced. ACRE gives farmers the ability to challenge township ordinances via the attorney general’s offices, instead of through the Common Pleas Courts.

February 6— Rotary’s Casino Night at the Inn at Reading was well attended given the weather. Those that were there testify to a splendid outcome and send kudos to Larry and all the fine Rotarians who organized it. Final accounting to come.

February 10— Valentine’s Day dinner cancelled. Our red-letter day became a white labor day. Jadis, the Narnia Snow Queen, visited twice with a beautiful white blanket, 2-feet deep with down, that kept us all curled up inside.

February 17— Ash Wednesday, no meeting.

February 24—Keith introduced Wendy Kerschner, territory manager for Comfort Keepers, an in-home care agency for seniors. We need to have a conversation with our parents or with our kids about what our parents/or we would like to have done for us as we become feeble. There are three things that take us out of our homes: falling, medication noncompliance, and malnutrition. Indications that help is needed include mail piling up, an empty pantry, personality changes, withdrawing from social activities, not changing clothing. We should fill out a records and information form (she provided one) so in time of need we know all the pertinent ID numbers, contacts & healthcare providers, list of medications being taken, and where records are kept. A good resource is the Berks County Office of Aging. AAA will help with steering wheel and mirror adjustments to aid elderly driving. www.comfortkeepers.com.

Announcements

*Board meetings are the 3rd Wed. of the month.

Birthdays

• 3/8—K. Snyder
• 3/24—B. Bender

Anniversaries

• 3/25—Jacob Sashen

Programs

Mar. 3 – Students-of-the-month + Lukas & Hannah
Mar. 10 – Heather Piperato Classification Speech
Mar. 17 – Brett Mayer, Exec. Dir. Tri-Valley YMCA
Mar. 24 – Pat Kutz & David Owen Classification Speeches

Please notify Patt when you have lined up your speaker so she can add it to the bulletin.

Board Meetings are the Third Wednesday of the Month

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Kutztown Rotary Club Officers

Avenues of Service

Meetings: the Club Room at the Kutztown Tavern, 272 West Main Street, Kutztown