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Tuesday, December 21, 2004

Environment - Stories today

"Harrison farmland task force urges steps: Officials delay vote after getting report" is the headline to this story today in the Louisville Courier-Journal. Some quotes:

Representatives of an appointed task force asked the Harrison County commissioners last night to let them continue their work in evaluating ways the county could preserve fast-disappearing forests and farmland.

The group, formed last summer by the commissioners, submitted a report in which it recommended that county leaders eventually create a permanent board of directors with an operating budget to oversee land-conservation efforts.

The group also recommended that the commissioners develop procedures to require all deeds and surveys leading to the creation of new parcels first be approved and processed through the county Plan Commission office. * * *

The Farm, Forest and Open Space Task Force includes 17 residents and at least six other ex-officio members who were appointed last year to address concerns over the protection of farms and forests.

Those areas are increasingly under pressure from development spreading from metropolitan Louisville.

Other factors also contribute to fragmentation of open lands. These include farmers who sell out to help pay for their retirement or to pay large, unexpected bills; low commodity prices; soaring equipment costs; and rising land prices and property taxes, the report said.

Deaths, divorces and family settlements also cause land to be divided. When such "conversion" of property is uncontrolled and undirected, the group wrote, the scenic, rural environment suffers.

See also the 12/16/04 ILB entry titled "Property rights versus farmland protection at issue in Porter County rezoning."

"Smokestack may get historic status" is the headline to this story today in the Munster Times:

WHITING | For more than 80 years, a 100-foot-tall smokestack adjacent to Whiting High School has punctuated the skyline of the little city by the lake.

Whiting School Board members decided at Monday's meeting its about time the smokestack be declared a historical landmark, and they will now make the necessary application to the National Register of Historic Places.

The actual date the smokestack went into service isn't exactly known. Steve Taylor, the school district's director of maintenance, operations and transportation, said the construction was either completed or begun in 1922, according to research compiled at the Whiting Public Library.

Posted by Marcia Oddi on December 21, 2004 01:21 PM
Posted to Environment