If the newly formed Save Our Farms Coalition is successful in its mission, it won't be around long. The coalition, made up of preservation groups, formed to combat Gov. Tom Corbett's proposal to shift money generated by a cigarette tax from farmland preservation to the state general fund.......

Lancaster Farmland Trust is a private, independently funded organization dedicated to preserving farmland in Lancaster County. The county's Agricultural Preserve Board does the same work, but with public funds. To date, the Ag Preserve Board has preserved about 70,000 acres of Lan......

West Earl supervisors Monday looked at ways to more effectively deal with barking dogs and noisy trucks. As promised at a March 12 meeting, the supervisors explored revisions to the current pet noise ordinance. West Earl police Chief Brian Brandt recommended that the regulation be changed....

An Upper Leacock Township native and expert in geography was appointed to fill a vacant seat as supervisor, officials announced Feb. 16. J. Harold Leaman was selected by supervisors to the post vacated by Rick Heilig, who moved out of the township. Leaman has served on the townshi......

Lancaster County commissioners Chairman Scott Martin did something Wednesday he hadn't done since he took office in 2008. He voted against appropriating county money for farmland preservation. It's not that Martin is against farmland preservation, he said. Rather, he feels......

Lancaster County's financial commitment to farmland preservation is projected to drop for the fourth year in a row this year. At their weekly meeting Wednesday, the county commissioners are expected to approve a plan to spend $4.13 million on various programs aimed at forever protecting L......

Three generations of a Warwick Township farm family saluted public officials and business representatives for agricultural preservation efforts on Dec. 21. "Our family thanks you for helping us continue this legacy" of Christian Bomberger, who bought 564 acres in 1732 from the sons of Wil......

Lancaster Farmland Trust will turn 25 in 2013. And what better way for the private, nonprofit organization to celebrate its birthday than helping Lancaster County crack the next big farmland preservation goal — 100,000 acres under easement. "We know it's a lofty goal, but we......

Local farmers and agriculture professionals gathered Thursday night for the Lancaster Chamber of Commerce & Industry's 35th annual Agriculture Industry Banquet, where several key figures were honored. Three families — the Shank family of Martic Township, the Rineer family o......

Staff members at the SouthEast Lancaster Health Services' Arch Street clinic knew that many children in their waiting room needed dental care. But the clinic didn't provide dental care. The dental clinic was at SouthEast's South Duke Street clinic. And they knew many of those chil......

Lancaster County passed another milestone Wednesday on the path to becoming the first county in the nation to preserve 100,000 acres of farmland. At their weekly meeting, the county commissioners approved the preservation of three farms totaling 232 acres, which pushed the total acreage o......

Officials from Caernarvon and East Earl townships continued discussion regarding a regional transferable development rights program between the two townships. In a regional TDR program, participating townships can act alone or partner with Lancaster County to acquire and hold TDRs. In additi......

Lancaster County commissioners on Wednesday authorized the preservation of a 10.35-acre farm, one of the smallest farms to be preserved in more than 20 years. Development will never occur on the farm at 294 Ore Mine Road in East Donegal Township that's owned by Forrest and Ceil Sheffy of ......

Officials from Caernarvon and East Earl townships recently began a multi-phase discussion about a regional transferable development rights program between the two townships. In a regional TDR program, participating townships can act alone or partner with Lancaster County to acquire and ......

Leacock Township supervisors will allow Lester R. and Anna K. Lapp to place their farm in an agricultural security area. The board, at a May 3 meeting, discussed how it should proceed on the matter. The 25-acre farm, on Weavertown Road near Route 340, was recently preserved through the Lanca......

Lancaster County commissioners on Wednesday pledged just over $5 million to farmland preservation in 2011. That total includes $4.06 million for the county's Agricultural Preserve Board, a $750,000 challenge grant to Lancaster Farmland Trust and $250,000 in matching funds set aside for to......

Despite the tough economy, Lancaster Farmland Trust had a banner year in 2010. The private nonprofit organization preserved 23 farms covering 1,412 acres across the county last year. "That's right in line with the goals of our strategic plan," Karen Martynick, executive director o......

Three local agencies have reaped the rewards of Harrisburg's latest round of Growing Greener and federal EPA grants for environmental projects throughout Pennsylvania. Gov. Ed Rendell on Thursday announced 87 grant awards totaling $14.1 million to municipalities and organizations committe......

This time, county officials aren't complaining about a $102,000 cost overrun for the $12 million renovation of the Amtrak station in Lancaster. At their weekly meeting Wednesday, Lancaster County commissioners approved the additional money for "unforeseen circumstances" in work done in th......

In the words of one official, they're "another tool to help farmers stay in East Hempfield," Lancaster's second-biggest suburban township. Township officials have started working on that new tool, transferable development rights, otherwise known as TDRs. A third of East Hempfield'......

Sustainability.That's what the Lancaster County Community Foundation believes will happen for the 10 nonprofit organizations receiving $500,000 in matching grants from the foundation for their daily operations."Great work is being done in Lancaster County, but (the nonprofi......

Caroline Steinman Nunan, a newspaperman's daughter and heralded benefactor whose love of the arts and community guided her philanthropic efforts for more than half a century in Lancaster County, died Sunday evening.She had been stricken July 21 while visiting her daughter's home in......

This article is a follow-up to the recent "Inside Story" series on farmland preservation. Five years ago the county's Blue Ribbon Commission for Agriculture rated tax relief for farmers as one of its highest priorities. The commission's primary recommendation: freeze real es......

Lehigh, Northampton and Bucks — three neighbors in eastern Pennsylvania — are the only counties participating in the state's tax-freeze program for preserved farms. The three counties together have preserved 471 farms. Lancaster County has preserved nearly 1,100 farms. Lehig......

The last time Karen Martynick saw Amos Funk was at the end of 2009. And even then, at the age of 98, Funk, who is considered the father of farmland preservation in Lancaster County, wanted to know how the movement he helped start some five decades ago was progressing. "He was quizzin......

What have county taxpayers and Lancaster Farmland Trust donors received in return for the tens of millions of dollars they have pumped into farmland preservation in Lancaster County? Beyond saving tens of thousands of productive agricultural acres forever, it is clear that they have helpe......

Gary Van Dyke, a large animal veterinarian who lives in the village of Churchtown, began discussing land preservation with farmers in Caernarvon Township more than a decade ago. "We talked about how we could do something different here," he recalled. "We can't afford the infrastructure th......

Henry Beiler was one of the first Amish farmers in Lancaster County to preserve his land forever. In separate transactions in the 1980s, he preserved half of his Upper Leacock Township livestock, dairy, hog and crop farm with the county's Agricultural Preserve Board and the other half wit......

As financial resources dwindle, both the county's Agricultural Preserve Board and the private Lancaster Farmland Trust are spending more time and resources monitoring hundreds of existing easements. Acquiring easements is the part of the preservation process everyone hears about. But keep......

Thirty years ago this spring, Lancaster County began a program to preserve its prime farmland from development. That program has grown into the nation's model. The county has saved nearly 1,100 farms and about 85,300 acres — more than any other county in the country. But that's on......

Even as Lancaster County preserves farms, it loses other farms and farm acreage to development each year. Everyone knows that. Everyone except the federal government. The U.S. Department of Agriculture's 2007 Census of Agriculture, released last year, indicates that Lancaster Count......

When she preserved the first farm in Lancaster County, the late Frances Bear, a Martic Township environmentalist, said, "I wanted other people to get the idea." Since Bear donated the preservation easement on her 87-acre farm to the county commissioners in March 1980, hundreds of other Lanca......

Millersville resident Robert McLane is gearing for a fight.The Manor Avenue resident said he's not going to sit by idly and watch what he calls the "destruction of Amos Funk's legacy" through the development of the farmland surrounding Funk's Farm Market on South Duke......

Lancaster County once again has pulled in the lion's share of state money dedicated to farmland preservation."Even though we had to cut our commitment to the program this year, I am glad to see that we are still a leader in farmland preservation," Commissioner Dennis Stuckey ......

Amos H. Funk, a farm preservationist of national stature, died Sunday at Lancaster Regional Medical Center. A Lancaster resident, he formerly lived in Millersville. He was 98.Funk was a member of Gov. William Scranton's Committee on Agriculture and of Governor Raymond Shafer's Comm......

Another 77 acres of farmland will be preserved thanks to a $25,000 gift from Strasburg Rail Road to Lancaster Farmland Trust. The Amish dairy farm in Paradise Township is the second farm the railroad has helped preserve according to Karen Martynick, Farmland Trust executive director. The fir......

Lancaster County commissioners on Wednesday placed their 2010 bet in the annual gamble for state funding for farmland preservation.The commissioners pledged $4,107,350 toward the initiative, and they're betting that will be enough for Lancaster County to once again receive the most sta......

Pennsylvania faces tougher anti-pollution regulations as part of a new federal mandate to clean up the Chesapeake Bay.But local and state officials complain that not enough credit is being given to projects that already are making a difference.On Thursday, a few of those grass-roots......

Lancaster County commissioners on Wednesday unanimously approved the preservation of two farms in East Drumore Township.Both farms — one is 126 acres and the other 54 acres — are owned by Herbert S. Kreider, Darlene F. Kreider, Scott J. Kreider and Vickie L. Kreider.Matt......

For the second year in a row, Lancaster County commissioners plan to slash the amount of money set aside for farmland preservation.Commissioners chairman Dennis Stuckey said Tuesday that the nearly 50 percent cut is a sign of the troubled economy, not an indication the board doesn't su......

The highest honor in the Lancaster County agriculture industry was presented to Luke Brubaker at the Lancaster Chamber of Commerce & Industry's agriculture industry banquet at Shady Maple Banquet & Conference Center Thursday night.Brubaker is an owner of Brubaker Farms in East ......

Lancaster County commissioners on Tuesday voted 2-1 to join 14 Pennsylvania counties to buy health insurance for county employees for the next three years.The move will save taxpayers a projected $5 million without changing employees' medical coverage, because the county's current ......

Attendees of Lancaster Farmland Trust's annual fall dinner last month ponied up enough donations to preserve an 85-acre farm in Leacock Township.The Acres for Auction event at the Trust's Oct. 21 dinner at Eden Resort netted $54,750 in contributions. That sum will be matched, dolla......

Dan Sweigart is not opposed to growth in Lancaster County. He's just opposed to what he considers to be bad growth.A member of the Lancaster Farmland Trust, Sweigart, 54, believes the way to maintain Lancaster County's farming tradition is to channel growth where it belongs, and aw......

Lancaster County Commissioners on Wednesday voted to preserve four farms, totaling about 360 acres.The county's Agricultural Preserve Board had recommended the commissioners buy perpetual conservation easements on the farms.The preserved farms are:• ......

A $1.1 million program will try to get more Amish and Mennonite farmers in Lancaster and Chester counties involved in conservation measures to reduce pollution in local streams and the Chesapeake Bay. The National Fish and Wildlife Foundation has awarded a $500,000 grant to the Chesapeake Bay F......

In what lawyers say is a precedent-setting case, the Pennsylvania Commonwealth Court has ruled that 12 farmers in East Lampeter Township can include their farms in an agricultural-security area. But the more than decade-long fight between the farmers — most of whom are Old Order Amis......

Then there were three. In what's being called a win for farmers and preservationists, Upper Leacock Township Supervisors Thursday night created a 388-acre agricultural security area. That leaves just three townships in Lancaster County without the designation designed to protect farmin......

Lancaster County is getting less state money this year to help preserve local farms, so officials here are hoping to stretch those dollars further. For 2009, the county will receive $2.4 million from the state Bureau of Farmland Preservation, down from $3.1 million in 2008, Matt Knepper, direct......

Four townships in Lancaster County do not have an agricultural security area. Soon, it could be three, or even fewer. Leacock Township supervisors tonight will receive a petition from five farmers requesting that a 369-acre ag security area be formed in the largely rural township. Fra......

Lancaster County commissioners on Wednesday committed just more than $7 million to the county's farmland-preservation program for this year.That's down from the $8 million dedicated last year — the most by any county in Pennsylvania.Despite the $1 million reduction, of......

In 2003, the Lancaster Farmland Trust held easements on 160 farms and 10,000 acres and embarked on an ambitious five-year strategic plan that called for doubling its number of preserved acres in the county. "I think we all felt it was unrealistic at that point," Jeff Swinehart, of the trust, sa......

The Lancaster County Conservancy and the Lancaster Farmland Trust are seeking accreditation through a national credentialing organization. Both groups have submitted applications to the Land Trust Accreditation Commission, an independent program of the nonprofit Land Trust Alliance in Washingto......

The county's 2009 budget plan had its coming out party today. This morning, county administrator Charlie Douts formally proposed the budget plan or, using the county's budgetspeak, "put it on the table." But for many county departments, the spending plan for next year is no cause for celeb......

In the early 1980s, nine people sat around a table with no funding, plenty of criticism and a skeptical public — but also a common dream. The county-appointed Agricultural Preserve Board wanted to somehow ensure the rapid building of new homes and businesses didn't swallow up too m......

Twenty years ago, Ryan Meck's father gave his son a couple packs of vegetable seeds, a section of the family farm and the chance to get his hands dirty.Meck managed to coax a few radishes and zucchinis from the soil, but they weren't pretty."It didn't start out too ......

A historic milestone is fast approaching.When the Lancaster County commissioners meet this morning, they are expected to authorize the preservation of a 124-acre crop-and-dairy farm in Bart and Colerain townships owned by Bart Township supervisors chairman Calvin Keene and his wife, Valeri......

The court decision early this month favoring Amish farmers who want to establish an agricultural security area in East Lampeter Township will reverberate across the county and state, local preservation advocates said today. Two judges from the Lancaster County Court of Common Pleas on July 11 r......

An East Hempfield Township resident who opposed Independence, the high-density, 3,000-home development blocked by supervisors early this year, posed a question. "Where's the tradeoff?" she asked. "Where's the farmland being preserved?" Promoters of "smar......

Taxpayers for two decades have paid millions of dollars to preserve farms — nowhere more than in Lancaster County, the nation's leader in farmland saved from development. The rich farmland is preserved forever. In perpetuity. Or is it? Most don't know that farmers &mdash......

With the recent preservation of three farms in West Lampeter Township totaling 150 acres, Lancaster Farmland Trust has wrapped up the most successful of its 19 years. The trust closes out 2007 with 35 farms and 2,252 acres preserved, exceeding its 2007 goal by 252 acres. "This year th......

Conservationists are applauding a state Supreme Court ruling Thursday that said county officials have the right to a voice in the use of preserved farmland. In its opinion, the justices overturned an earlier, lower-court decision that gave the Ephrata School District permission to build a 50-fo......

Lancaster Farmland Trust announced Thursday that 2007 has been its most successful year to date, thanks to the recent preservation of three farms in West Lampeter Township.In total, the trust managed to preserve 35 farms and 2,252 acres in 2007 — exceeding its goal by 252 acres....

After approving the third tax hike in four years, the county commissioners voted to set aside $9.3 million for farmland preservation.•••Lancaster County commissioners Wednesday approved a 7.1 percent tax hike for 2008.That means ......

Just as they have for the past 25 years, people are flocking to Elizabeth Farms to cut their own Christmas trees. On Wednesday, the Lancaster County commissioners made sure a large part of this popular Elizabeth Township destination — which is one of the largest Christmas-tree farms in th......

Lancaster County is a national role model in farmland preservation and a leader in agriculture. That lofty praise was delivered to more than 150 county residents and civic leaders by Pennsylvania Department of Agriculture Secretary Dennis Wolff on Tuesday, during an address sponsored by Lancast......

Rob Bowman clicks a remote, and the flat-screen television hanging on the wall of the conference room flickers. "Three thousand homes can look like this," he says; the image depicts a small town called "Independence." Built upon a 309-acre tract bordered by Route 283, State ......

An imposing chandelier supplied the lights. Ron Harper Jr., of Stevens, brought the camera. And a number of fathers, angry at the county's judicial system, brought the action to the county's public presentation of the 2008 budget Tuesday night at the Duke Street courthouse. Th......

The forklift didn't impress them much, but the thought of having their own locker did. On Wednesday, a small group of fourth- and fifth-graders from the Ephrata School District toured the construction site of their new school. "I think that's going to be really cool," ......

When Caroline Novak started consulting for the Lancaster Farmland Trust in 2004, she made some bold statements. The nonprofit farmland preservation group and the county's Agricultural Preserve Board could double the number of acres they save from development each year, she predicted. M......

The veto of a proposal for a 788-acre agricultural security area in East Lampeter Township will be appealed in Commonwealth Court in the upcoming weeks, said an attorney for the Conestoga Valley Coalition preservation group. "There's a statutory provision in the ag security act that provides fo......

A rare coalition of Amish and English farmers has vowed to keep pursuing a proposal for an ag security area axed last week by East Lampeter Township. In a near-replay of a 2004 scenerio, the township supervisors turned down the farmers' petition to establish a 788-acre zone encompassing 13 ......

Amos Funk always planned to sell the family farm for development. "We never put a deed restriction on the farm because I didn't think it should be preserved," he says. Funk, now 96, pioneered the farmland preservation movement in Lancaster County. So some observers ar......

Great art is original. But art programs can sometimes be copied. Pennsylvania College of Art & Design hopes to duplicate its achievements with helping plan and create murals in the city of Lancaster by launching a similar program to facilitate other forms of public art.......

Here's a scoop: Ice cream is helping to save a 63-acre Amish farm in Fulton Township. Turkey Hill Dairy in 2005 began giving a portion of the proceeds from sales of its All Natural Recipe ice cream to the nonprofit farmland preserver, Lancaster Farmland Trust. Through the end of 2006, that......

Some farmers in East Lampeter are hoping the third time's the charm. Thirteen farmers recently petitioned the township to create its first-ever agricultural security area. Township supervisors will hold a hearing on the proposal Tuesday. It's the third time in 11 years a group......

She was a Main Street, Ephrata, kid with city stars in her eyes. "I had to move to Philly immediately after graduating from high school" in the late 1980s, recounts Carol Parrish McCoy. Next on her list was Washington, D.C. Today, she lives in a bustling city still: Lancaster....

Lancaster County now has preserved more acres of farmland than any other county in the nation. After years of finishing second behind Maryland's Montgomery County in acres permanently saved from development, Lancaster has vaulted to the No. 1 spot, according to a report published Friday in ......

Ads in Philadelphia newspapers boast about new Lancaster County homes "35 minutes from King of Prussia." Four of every 10 employees at the Great Valley Corporate Center in Malvern live in Lancaster County or Berks. One developer plans to build a 12,000-home town a mile from Lanca......

The county commissioners are considering enacting a state tax benefit for preserved farms, one that would permanently freeze the rate at which those properties are taxed. They would need the consent of municipalities and school districts in order to institute the program. But first, the......

Strasburg Borough Council president Joe Coleman, during a July 10 meeting, said a Sunday News editorial about the borough and the right-to-know act offended him.Coleman and fellow council members shared their feelings after resident Chad Harnish of 310 Miller St. expressed concern about th......

Lancaster County commissioners Wednesday approved the hiring of a new deputy administrator for human services.Frank W. Koerber, 45, of East Hempfield Township, will start work July 23 at an annual salary of $86,000.He fills a position that has been occupied by James Laughman on an i......

Fearing a tight-fisted future, farmland preservationists are preparing to tell county officials that a retreat on funding "would have devastating consequences to the future of Lancaster County." And they are putting their plea for county money in writing before the next budget is writ......

A plan to rezone 26 acres of farmland to pave the way for 156 new homes in West Earl Township is gaining momentum. Upper Leacock Township Supervisors on Thursday night voted 3-0 to recommend that West Earl leaders approve the proposal, which includes expanding the designated urban growth area t......

In Penn Township, three is a magic number.Two farms in the township were permanently preserved from development Friday, thanks to a partnership of three entities — Lancaster Farmland Trust, Lancaster County Agricultural Preserve Board and Penn Township.Each member of the partn......

Three Old Order Amish farmers in Paradise Township were hesitant. Last year, each individually expressed interest in selling their farms' permanent land development rights to the Lancaster Farmland Trust. But none liked the idea of being the first or only one among their immediate neighbor......