The Brattleboro Reformer from Brattleboro, Vermont • 3

VERMONT Monday, April 12, 1993 Brattleboro Reformer Moose bill resurrected Farmers lose clout at the Statehouse KA APAlden Pellett SING IT FROM THE MOUNT AINTOP JoAnn Clack, left, of Montpelier, and Niki Baccus of Cambridge, sing at the Easter sunrise service held atop Mount Mansfield in Stowe Sunday. Clack is wearing a bonnet made from a food colander with flowers attached. Lawmakers frustrated on ag panel Members unhappy with chairman, say theyre being punished By SUSAN ALLEN The Associated Press MONTPELIER, (AP) The recent furor over a moose hunt failed to quell moves to authorize the shooting of the animals. A House panel this week will resurrect a bill permitting farmers to kill moose who damage crops. That bill was approved by the House and Senate last year, but vetoed by Gov.

Howard Dean. But Rep. David Deen, D-Westminster, said he met with the governor recently to find a veto-proof bill that would allow farmers to protect their crops from moose. That proposal will come before the public at a hearing Tuesday. This is very restrictive, he said recently of the legislation.

Deen, chairman of the House Fish and Wildlife Committee, said the bill would only allow farmers or their full-time employees to shoot crop-damaging moose. In addition, the kill must be reported within 12 hours to game wardens, who are required to document the damage the animal caused as well as the kill. The measure would sunset in three years, giving lawmakers time to determine if the moosekilling authority was being abused, Deen said. He said farmers, particularly those in the Northeast Kingdom where the moose population is largest, have been clamoring for some relief from the damage the animals are causing to their crops. The House last week defeated a proposal to authorize a limited moose-hunting season in Essex County.

As soon as the moose bill went down in defeat, we started getting calls from farmers concerned about their crop damage, Deen said. So I went to the governor and said, What will you approve? He said he hoped the bill could move through both chambers this year and be signed into law by the governor. But Deen said last weeks contentious debate on a moose hunt might hurt the bills chances in the House. I think theres more sympathy for the plight of a landowner experiencing damage than for a hunt, he said. But following the debate on a hunting season, members might react state Agriculture Department reports the loss of about 1,000 farms over the past 12 years to roughly 2,250.

Rep. Robert Kinsey, R-Craftsbury, a retired dairy farmer who has served in the Legislature since 1971, is a case in point. We had sevn children and we worked like buggers, he said. But the children left the farm or were unable to earn a living there, and the dairy cows were sold. Our society is getting two and three generations away from the time when everyone had farmed or their parents had farmed, said Walter F.

Pyle, president of the Vermont Farm Bureau. There is a lack of understanding of what is involved in farming in the state. Westman agreed. Its a whole change in the state. Weve gone from a state that is rural in mentality to more or less a state that is suburban in mentality.

But others say farmers are simply feeling the same fiscal pinch that the recession has forced on other groups, also. Farmers have had a tough time. The Legislature had recognized that a couple of times, said House Democratic Leader Sean Campbell of Rockingham. The problem is a lot of people are struggling now and the farmer isnt sitting out there alone and hurting anymore. So far this year: The House Institutions Committee failed to convince members to earmark 60 percent of the Housing and Conservation Trust Fund dollars in the capital bill to working farm and forest development rights.

In a time when farmers really need help, the body wasnt even willing to do that, Westman said. Funding for the current use program a tax program designed to protect farm and timber land from development faces budget cuts. 4 The House Agriculture Committee, traditionally a panel comprised of farmers, this year has several new members who come from urban areas of the state. Committee Chairman Robert Starr, D-Troy, characterized members as good lawmakers who are working hard to learn the issues, but not farmers. By SUSAN ALLEN The Associated Press MONTPELIER Farmers owned the Statehouse in 1988.

That year, through political deal-making, advocates won an unprecedented state milk subsidy to help farmers weather hard times. Those hard times havent changed on the dairy farm, advocates say. But its a new era at the State-house. People dont understand farm issues, dont understand the rural land, said Rep. Richard West-man, a Cambridge dairy farmer who serves on the House Agriculture Committee.

They have this idealism. They have a place in their heart for the rural way of life, added West-man, the Republican leader in the House. But they dont understand it. Theyll do things when they can afford to, but there is no commitment that carries through on it. Since January, advocates have been fighting for the current use program for farm- and timberland owners, failed to win a guaranteed share of the Housing and Conservation Trust Fund, and watched as the House Agriculture Committee was loaded with urban members.

Farmers have lost some of their political clout, said Sen. Elizabeth Ready, D-Addison, a member of the Senate Agriculture Committee. Ready noted that about 5,000 jobs in her county are directly tied to farming jobs she predicted would be lost unless lawmakers begin focusing on the plight of the dairy industry. If we heard a plant with 5,000 jobs was closing, youd see people doing handstands in the lobby of the Statehouse trying to keep those jobs in the state, she said. Part of the problem, some say, is that the number of legislators who are farmers or foresters has declined in recent years.

Twenty years ago, about 50 of the 180 lawmakers listed their occupation as farming or forestry, or included farm bureau, 4 or other agricultural work on their resumes. That number has dropped to about 30 in the current session. And the number of farmers they represent also has dropped. The People didnt ask for it, Campbell said. If people dont want to be there, thats where you have room.

He said there werent a lot of pressing farm issues due before the committee. And, noting there are fewer farmers in the Legislature, he added, Maybe thats part of the dynamic thats changed in the Legislature. But it has led to a breakdown on the committee, several members said. Virtually no significant legislation has been approved by the panel and sent to the floor for consideration. The only major farm bill to come forward for discussion was a proposed ban on the sale and use of a dairy growth hormone in Vermont a plan put forth by individual members of the panel because the committee could not reach consensus on the issue.

Other significant farm bills, including legislation to cut the current use program that benefits farmers, were steered to other committees for consideration. Committee Chairman Robert Starr, D-Troy, said the members work hard to learn the issues. But he said their lack of understanding has reduced the committees effectiveness. The job of achieving a goal is next to impossible, Starr said. They are not really connected to the rural part of Vermont like the rest of my committee has been in the past.

But some committee members say Starr is the problem. They say he has an agenda citing his support for the proposed hormone ban as an example and is unwilling to listen to differing opinions. Our chairman is not working with our committee, Mendicino said. He belittles us. He makes remarks that we dont know anything.

By SUSAN ALLEN Hie Associated Press MONTPELIER Most of the members of the House Agriculture Committee have something in common. But it isnt knowledge of agriculture. Im being punished, said Rep. Terrill Bouricius, PC-Burlington, a new member on the panel. His sin: Bouricius said his work to get other Progressives elected to the Legislature prompted Democratic leaders to put him on the agriculture panel instead of a more coveted committee assignment.

Many of the other committee members also can cite the particular infraction that landed them on the farm panel. Oh, sure, were being punished, said Rep. Jane Mendicino, R-Essex, who unsuccessfully challenged House Speaker Ralph Wright this year for his leadership post. Mendicino was moved off the Fish and Wildlife Committee, which she chaired, and onto the farm panel. Everybody knows that, she said.

Its no big deal. Only a handful of the 11 members of the panel are active or retired farmers. And many dont come from farm areas; in fact, at least three dont have a farm in their districts. Everybody cares about farmers, Bouricius sjd. But I think theres a steep learning curve as we spend time catching up on ag issues.

House Democratic Leader Sean Campbell of Rockingham admits he and House Speaker Ralph Wright put a number of members on the panel who did not choose to be there. But he noted that few members had requested the assignment, a sign it is not a coveted committee to begin with. Specialists In Energy Conservation ORDER NOW FOR GUARANTEED MEMORIAL DAY DELIVERY QUALITY MONUMENTS AT REASONABLE PRICES Monuments, Markers, Cemetery Lettering Cleaning Free Custom Design INSULATION REPLACEMENT WINDOWS DOORS VINYL SIDING J. n. JUBB CO.

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He said another section that was added to the building in the 1840s was largely undamaged. ABBIATI MONUMENTS 2544855 South Main Brattleboro, Vt Michael Robin Walsh, we care. 24 OPEN TONITE i til 9 p.m. Sun. 10-6 THE OUTLET CENTER Exit One 191 Brattleboro.

Vt (802) 2544594 FARM MACHINERY AUCTION WEDNESDAY, APRIL 14, 1993 Vernon, Vermont 11A.M. Anthony Cersosimo has decided to offer his complete line of farm equipment for sale at public auction. Sale to be held at the Cersosimo Lumber garage, located on Rte. 142 north of Vernon, and south of Brattleboro, Vt. Top Line ol Machinery TRACTORS AND VEHICLES J.D.

440 tractor, 2 wd wair conditioned cab, 1 30 hp Int. 986 tractor, 2 wd war conditioned cab Ford 7710 tractor, 2 wd wrdl bar Int. 784 tractor, 2 wd w2250 bucket loader David Brown 990 A tractor Famiall Super tractor narrow front end Clark 743 Bobcat 1979 Chevrolet C-70 truck w18" dump body EQUIPMENT Gehl 7285 mixer feeder wagon wscales J.D. 3950 chopper w2 row corn N.H. 892 chopper w2 row com It grass heads Dual tip wagon Richadton 1016 10x16 balror box J.D.

338 baler wkicker It spray attachment J.D. 3507 ft. 3 pt. Ntch mower Kuhn FC 250 (fee mower Kuhn tedder N.H. 258 hay rake wdual front wheels 3- 16 wooden kicker wagons 1 IB' steel kicker wagon J.D.

620 disc harrows 10' transport Brillion Culti-mulcher 16' transport Brillion 8 seeder 3 pt. hitch Sanderium 4 bottom plow semi-mounted Kuhn 8 3 pt. hitch rototiller Avco New Idea 4 row com planter J.D. 709 brush hog 3 pt hitch post hole digger N.H. 519 mamre spreader Int 560 manire spreader Avco New Idea 353 manure spreader whyd.

gate M.F. 160 manure spreader Moritz 16' tandem teg-along cattle trailer Gehl FB 99 Blower Gehl FB 99 Blower for parts 3 Morafoun water fountains 27 free stall dividers 'Non: Whoever buys the mixer wagon reed to ter the farmer use it until then. must leave it on the farm until May as Mr Cersosimo had All other equipment can leave the dey of sale. LUNCH SERVED SALE POSITIVE TERMS: CASH OR GOOD CHECK OWNER: ANTHONY CERSOSIMO AUCTIONEER: GREG LUSSIER CERSOSIMO LUMBER COMPANY, INC (802) 47243' 05843 M801' RINQMAN: JON LUSSIER BRATTLEBORO, VT. 05301 HARDWICK, VT.

05343 (802) 472-5030 FOR MORE INFORMATION. CALL GARY CARRIER AT CER808IM0 LUMBER COMPANY. (S02) 254-480 AUCTIONIHtf COMMINTi real nice tin of machinery that hot not been afcueed and has bttn raally wall maintained." 91 sl ANNIVERSARY SPECIAL NOW 39.91 PERM SPECIAL Includes shampoo, haircut and style. Long hair and design wraps additional charge. Sale price effective through Saturday, April 17.

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