I attended the August 14 meeting in Verona, the purpose of which was  to gather comments from local farmers/citizens as to their reactions to the proposed Resource Management Plan regulations. I heard about the meeting a few days before but was surprised to learn at the meeting that it was not publicly advertised. The farmers who attended had not seen the proposed regs and had to endure a reading of same which was crammed into a 30 minute period after which they were invited to make comments. The questions they asked were met with" we are only here to take your comments" and basically went unanswered. The meeting did nothing but reinforce the skepticism and distrust that farmers feel toward government officials.

This meeting could have been a winner if it had been widely publicized well ahead of time along with the proposed regulations, and run by those who used a powerpoint presentation with the key points, and could/would answer questions of clarification.

As the head of a citizen watershed improvement organization, I recognize that we have the same goals as the DCR to encourage best management practices. Farmers are important and deserve our best efforts to help them be successful while they protect our rivers and streams.