Cape & Islands News

County seeks a farmer for its farm

Sheriff's department ran operation for six decades

Poinsettias grown at Barnstable County Farm nestle in greenhouse awaiting holiday shoppers. The county is seeking a leasor for the farm, which is off Route 6A in Barnstable.

Budget crunch forces county to issue request for proposals

By James Kinsella
With freezes and frosts already under the season's belt, early December is a quiet time for farming on Cape Cod.

On Monday, the Barnstable County Farm off Route 6A in Barnstable was no exception. Aside from a tractor rolling into the barn, and a sea of red and yellow poinsettias enjoying warm and humid air inside a greenhouse, agriculture pretty well had come to a standstill.

The question now is whether farming will return to the farm next year.

Last month, Sheriff James M. Cummings notified the county commissioners that the sheriff's department, which is coping with a $3.4 million funding shortfall, plans to save money by no longer operating the farm.

Barn at county farm.

The county, however, wants to keep the farm going as a viable agricultural enterprise. To that end, the county is soliciting requests for proposals to operate the farm.

The county is prepared to lease the 97-acre property, which has just under 30 workable acres, for three years, with possible extensions up to 10 years.

The county is contemplating eventually turning the farm into an agricultural center that could be used for education as well as growing food.

On Monday morning, about 20 people gathered at the Cape Cod Cooperative Extension office in a house at the farm to watch and listen to the county's presentation about the farm, and to ask questions.

In recent years, activities at the farm have included haying and growing flowers.

The extension service has been growing trees for Cape municipalities. The extension service would continue that operation, and also would keep using the house as an office. The sheriff, meanwhile, plans to remove two Quonset huts being used for greenhouses.

Farmers in attendance at Monday's meeting expressed concern about making improvements at the farm, only to see those efforts go for nought if the county declines to extend the lease.

They also raised questions about what uses would be available on the farm's extensive acreage to the south, which forms a wooded barrier between the Mid-Cape Highway and the rest of the farm.

Barnstable Conservation Administrator Rob Gatewood replied that the town granted and holds a conservation restriction on that acreage that forbids agricultural usage. That likely would extend to livestock and fowl grazing under the trees, uses suggested by several farmers at the meeting.

Proposals are due to the county by 4 p.m. Monday, Dec. 22. They will be evaluated from Jan. 2 through 30, with selection of the winning proposal to follow.

The decision of the sheriff's department to no longer operate the farm ends an era that spanned six decades. Sheriff Lauchlan Crocker, who served from 1933 to 1947, launched the operation. The sheriff lived at the farm and supervised what then was the county jail farther west in Barnstable Village.

Most recently, about four correctional officers and about as many inmates have been working at the farm.

Roy Lyons, a spokesman for the sheriff, said Cummings would have preferred to continue to operate the farm as part of the department, but his hand was forced by the funding shortfall.

"It's not a happy situation, but a necessary one," Lyons said.

Among those officials answering questions at Monday's meeting was Bill Clark, director of the extension service.

Afterward, Clark said he's like to see farming continue on the property.

"I think it's a valuable resource," he said. "There's a limited number of farms on the Cape. I'd love to see it remain a working farm."

Sign on Route 6A in Barnstable guides people to farm, which has been operated by sheriff's correction officers and inmates from county jail.