PVGA Board of Directors (front row left to right) Second Vice President Tina Forry, First Vice President Peter Flynn, President Rita Resick, Secretary-Treasurer Bill Reynolds, Past President Brian Campbell, Executive Director Bill Troxell, (second row) Art King, Amy Metrick, Rob Shenot, Jeff Stoltzfus, Joel Weaver, Boots Hetherington, (back row) Mark Troyer, Jon Strite, Alan Kemmerer, Mike Orzolek and Chris Harner. Not shown Chris Powell and John Shenk.
Rita Resick was elected PVGA President by the Board of Directors on February 2 following the Annual Meeting – the first woman to be elected to that position. Second Vice President Peter Flynn replaces Resick as First Vice President and Tina Forry was elected the new Second Vice President. Retiring President Brian Campbell assumed the office of Past President and as such will remain on the Executive Committee with the other officers and also chair the Leadership and Recognition Committee. Bill Reynolds was re-elected as Secretary-Treasurer. The officers are elected to one-year terms by the Board of Directors. The President and Vice Presidents traditionally are elected to their positions for two one-year terms before moving up to the next highest office so that the person elected as Second Vice President begins a eight-year cycle of serving in the four executive offices.
At the Annual Meeting, former Past President Jon Strite announced that he, Rob Shenot, Bill Reynolds Tina Forry and Alan Kemmerer had been re-elected to three-year terms on the Board of Directors by the members of the Association in the mail-in balloting. After the Annual Meeting, the Board elected Boots Hetherington to a three-year term on the Board. Strite also announced that the Leadership and Recognition Committee had selected Jennifer Glenister as the winner of the 2022 PVGA Young Grower Award. The Scholarship Committee had given scholarships to Clayton Harner, Wyatt Kosa and Reagan Kelley.
Members approved the following Policy Resolutions at the Annual Meeting putting the Association on record as:
Federal Policy Resolutions
- Opposing any further regulations of fertilizer for ag use.
- Supporting the appointment of Farm Service Agency State Committee members from nominations provided by state agricultural organizations with the terms staggered between presidential terms rather on a political patronage basis.
- Supporting federal legislation allowing vehicles with farm plate registrations to travel throughout the 48 contiguous states with no distance limitations.
- Supporting the exemption from regulation of privately owned bodies of water, used exclusively for farm use
State Policy Resolutions
- Opposing the expansion of the closed dates of the Agricultural Deer Control Program (Red Tag).
- Supporting a requirement for certified nutrient management planners to receive direct notification of changes to Nutrient Management Program regulatory standards before they legally go into effect.
- Supporting requirements for federal agencies to coordinate with state agencies in the administration of data collection and reporting activities to ensure agricultural conservation practices are duly captured and credited in the Chesapeake Bay Model.
- Opposing requirements for the certification of persons authorized to apply commercial manufactured fertilizers and agricultural minerals for agricultural purposes.
- Supporting allowing parcels of less than 10 acres that are adjacent to preserved farmland be eligible for farmland preservation.
- Supporting the reduction of the minimum subdivision size for preserved farmland to 25 acres.
- Supporting a requirement that all expenses and legal fees incurred by an agricultural entity who brings a successful suit against a government entity for failure to comply with Right to Farm Law be reimbursed to the agricultural entity.
- Supporting a requirement that purchasers of real estate located next to active farms and Agricultural Security Areas be notified by the seller of protections for such farms.
- Supporting provisions that farmers be permitted to tow registration-exempt implements, trailers, and semitrailers with a personal (non-farm) truck.
- Supporting the exemption of farmers from IFTA and UCR regulations if they travel interstate less than 5,000 miles per year from the Pennsylvania borders.
- Supporting regulations that require PennDOT to return retention ponds built to slow water runoff along state roads to their originally engineered depths by removing sediment buildup.
- Supporting the exemption from stormwater management fees for preserved farms and farms with implemented conservation plans.
Secretary-Treasurer Bill Reynolds reported that the General Fund income for 2021 was $166,578 while expenses were $227,330 for a deficit of $60,752 leaving a year-end balance value of $211,523. The 2022 budget adopted by the Directors anticipates income of $386,900 (of which $250,317 has already been received from Farm Show sales, membership dues and Convention registration) and expenses of $432,900 for a deficit of $46,000. The Farm Show food booth was quite successful despite the light attendance at the event with sales coming in at $172,700 or about 75% of the 2020 sales. Preliminary estimates of the profit are about $35,000. Reynolds reported the year-end balance value in the Keystone Fund was $230,271 although that value has dropped to $222,381 with recent stock market declines. The Board recently designated all the interest from Keystone Fund (about $4,000 annually) to be used for scholarships.
Members received reports from the various committees on the activities of the Association and plans for 2022. The Berry Committee announced that the Board had voted to fund two berry research projects: Identifying Sources and Virulence of Anthracnose Strains Found on Weeds in Strawberry Fields by Leah Fronk, Sara May, Kathleen Demchak, Richard Marini and Mengjun Hu for $4,739 and Comparing Media and Fertilizer Types for Strawberry Fruit and Plug Plant Production by Kathleen Demchak, Timothy Elkner and Krystal Snyder for $5.987.
The meeting ended with a moment of silence to remember those friends and members of the Association who had passed away since the last annual meeting: Peter Ferretti, Richard Johnson, Boyd Mertz, Mildred Schantz, Joseph Shea, Mary Lou Shenot, Jerry Shimmel, Jean Soergel, and David Sokoloski.