A22—Lancaster Farming, Saturday, January 24,1981
Farm and Home Center
(Continued from Page Al)
He recalls, “There were
about a dozen people who
really thought it should go
through.”
The Board was organized
in 1960 and plans were made
to go ahead but the process
came to a grinding halt when
the Internal Revenue Ser
vice refused to grant a tax
exempt status to the
Foundation or to rule that
gifts were tax deductible It
was several years before the
ruling could be changed and
the project continued.
Willis was personally
involved with travel to
Washington, D.C. to work
with the IRS in establishing
the non-profit status for the
Foundation. He called the
process “sort of normal
“There are so many
people who want tax
exemptions,’ ’ he pomted out
Once the ruling was
favorable Esbenshade
recalls, “We got things
gomg And after we showed
them the building, that
really got them interested ”
In retrospect, Esbenshade
now says, “The Center is a
good thing, and the buildings
were well planned. It is now
well patronized.”
Larry Skroome, retired
vice president of engineering
at Sperry New Holland and
co-chairman of the initial
fund raising campaign,
remembers that acquiring
the money to get started was
not easy. “It was tough. At
one point we were short
$lOO,OOO but we went ahead
it was a new idea, a new
concept,” he states
He agrees with Esben
shade about the importance
of the favorable IRS ruling,
saying, “Getting the IRS
ruling was critical ”
Skromme gives a great
deal of credit to County
Extension Agent Max Smith,
Levi Brubaker, Elmer
Esbenshade and Conestoga
National Bank for keeping
the project alive and getting
it off the ground.
“We got generally good
support from industry and
from farmers, but it was
hard. We tackled a big job. It
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took a lot more effort than
we thought it would and it
took longer than we thought
it would.”
Melvin Stoltzfus, fourth
president of the Board and
currently a Board member,
agrees with Skromme about
the difficulty of getting
funds.
“It was hard to get,” he
states. He explained that
many people could not un
derstand moving from rent
free offices at the old Post
Office building in downtown
Lancaster to new buildings
which would cost nearly a
half million dollars
“But there was no division
on the Board,” Stoltzfus
recalls We were quite en
thused ”
Stoltzfus called Skromme
“a driving force,” and gave
his opinion that without the
support of Sperrj- New
Holland, the project might
never have come to com
pletion
There was a lot of support
for the office portion of the
building, but not for the
auditorium, which it was felt
would not have sufficient
revenue The decision to go
ahead with both parts of the
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building was a hard one, but
Stoltzfus says, "We had to
have faith that the money
would comem.”
B. Snavely Garber, the
Foundation’s second
president, also expressed
strong feelings about the
support of agri-businesses
“If it hadn’t been for the
support of Eshleman Feeds,
Sperry New Holland and the
Poultry Association we
might not have made it
They had more vision than
we did ”
Nevertheless, Garber felt
there was good support for
the idea. “A lot of people
thought it was time to get the
Extension office down on the
level rather than up those
steps at the Post Office
building. A lot of people also
thought that 4-H clubs were
worthy of good facilities. But
no ordinary farmer could
afford to give much ”
Getting money was dif
ficult, Garber said “With
their conservative
background, farmers
wouldn't put down what they
could give over three
years ” Garber credits the
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persistence of Levi
Brubaker and Max Smith
with keeping the interest in
the project, and says it was
Skromme’s engineering
background which con
vinced them to add the
basement.
“We’re fortunate we had
the foresight we did,”
Garber states.
Garber traveled to New
York State with John Herr,
lae thud president of the
Board, Willis Esbenshade
and Alex Gerhart to look at
centers established there
While they had not been
built with local funds as was
planned in Lancaster
County, they were serving
the function of providing
offices and meeting space to
the extension office and
other agricultural agencies.
Garber says, “We really got
our eyes opened and knew
that this could be ac
complished ”
Eventually interest grew
and the project got un
derway. Garber says, "More
and more people got in
terested. Farmers couldn’t
do it alone. We needed
others It was the small
donations that took us over
the top.”
Over $260,000 was realized
from the first campaign
which was organized in
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January, 1965 under the
guidance of Richard Pontz
and Associates But it was
necessary to have a
“completion fund cam
paign” m 1967 to raise ad
ditional money and that
campaign met with a cool
reception. One current board
member recalls that far
mers couldn’t understand
why they were being asked
again when they had given
the first time
Allen K Risser remem
bers the begmmng of the
concept, long before the
donation of land made it
practical to consider
building a Farm and Home
Center He says the rural
youth organization had
discussed the possibhty of
central facilities as early as
1941 "We thought it would
be nice to have one ”
He and his brother Bill
took action to gather about
seven agricultural leaders
and their wives to discuss
the idea of a central meeting
place, and over a corn roast
in Risser’s meadow in 1953
these leaders reviewed the
possibility.
Risser states, "It was not
something for immediate
action It was something to
keep in mind if the op
portunity presented itselr A
lot of people wondered how it
the Original
could be set up to be
financially feasible. Nothing
really happened We just
talked it around a little.”
Looking back he says, “I
hope that meeting had some
influence.”
After much delay,
groundbreaking for both the
office section and the
auditorium took place on
November 30, 1966. Com
pletion of the building came
in February, 1968.
Despite the turmoil and
the long years of doubtmg,
most of the early leaders
agree that the building they
built has served its purpose
well They also ac
complished their stated goal
of building the Center
without the help of state or
federal monies, and created
a Farm and Home Center
which was a first in the state.
Larry Skromme expresses
the opinion of nearly
everyone connected with the
project when he states with a
smile, “It’s a roaring suc-
cess ”
Current President Jay
Landis points out, however,
that the Board of Directors
will carry on the work of the
Foundation, developing
more educational programs
and providing scholarships
to young people
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255 PLANE TREE DRIVE
UNCASTER PA 17603
(717)393-5807
Route 30 West
at the Centerville Exit