At its Tuesday, July 21 meeting, Sussex County Council voted 4-1 to contribute $300,000 in agriculture preservation funds not spent in the previous budget year to help with the purchase of development rights for five farms. Adding to the pool is $172,000 in private funds from the Sussex County Land Trust and a federal match of $650,000 for a grand total of $1.1 million.

The purchase will be administered under the state’s Delaware Agricultural Lands Preservation Foundation program.

In order to release the county funds, a four-fifths majority vote is required, and that is exactly what occurred. Councilman George Cole, R-Ocean View, voted against the measure.

“I have to vote no,” Cole said. “I don’t like the program.”

Cole said when open space is purchased with taxpayers’ money it should have public access.

All of the money is used to purchase easements on working farms. Under the program, farmers are paid per acre for development rights, and they agree to keep the acreage in farmland in perpetuity.

Council President Vance Phillips, R-Laurel, who is a farmer, stressed the importance of the program. He said the purchase of development rights is a small price to pay now to ensure Sussex County and agriculture remain together in the years to come.

“This illustrates the council’s continued commitment to the preservation of agriculture and open space for Sussex County, now and for future generations,” he said.

Based on the recommendation of the land trust, the five parcels selected are working farms in the Laurel, Bridgeville, Prime Hook, Great Cypress Swamp and Broadkill areas.

The farmland being preserved aids the land trust in its mission to create a Grand Preservation Loop with connecting natural and preserved areas around the county, said Wendy O. Baker, Sussex Land Trust president and chief executive officer.

The loop is a string of preserved farms, forests and other natural areas stretching from Slaughter Beach through Redden Forest, southwest to Trap Pond State Park, east through the Great Cypress Swamp, to the Inland Bays in the Cape Region and ending at Prime Hook National Wildlife Refuge.

Baker said the land trust’s request for county funds is lower than in years past. “Given the economic times, we understand the position everyone is in, so that’s why we’re only requesting $472,000 as the local share for this year,” she said.

The original local-share request, county and land trust combined, was for $1.2 million. “That level of spending does not seem prudent at this time,” she said. Over the past seven years, the county and the land trust have worked to preserve more than 3,400 acres. The county has contributed $7.2 million to the program.