018—Lancaster Farming, Saturday, May 28,1983
COLLEGE PARK, Md. - Two
Maryland employees of the Soil
Conservation Service were
honored May 18 at the U.S.
Department of Agriculture’s 37th
annual awards program in
Washington, D.C.
Edgar (Tinker) L. Todd, Jr.,
civil engineering technician at
Denton, and Owen C. Unangst,
district conservatinist at
Frederick, received the superior
service award, the department’s
second highest. They will be
among the 65 individuals and 19
groups to be honored.
“Nationwide, there are only nine
SCS employees among those
receiving individual awards so
we’re particularly proud to have
two from Maryland,” says Gerald
R. Calhoun, SCS state con
servationist. “Both Tinker and
Owen have made outstanding
contributions to the soil and water
conservation program in
Maryland. We’re happy that they
are being recognized in a national
awards program.”
Todd, 47, and a native of Caroline
County, is being honored for an
outstanding career, especially for
his leadership in organizing public
drainage associations (PDAs).
PDAs are legal units composed
of landowners who agree to tax
themselves to construct and
maintain drainage ditches.
Organizing a PDA is not easy, says
Jeff Loser, area conservationist.
“Tinker is an authority on the
state’s public drainage association
law. He’s extremely successful in
organizing PDAs because people
know and trust him. It can be a
delicate job because even though
the drainage is needed, you’re
asking people to tax themselves. ”
There are 70 PDAs in Caroline
County covering 320 miles of dit-
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USDA honors two Md. SCS employees
ches. In the past 3 years, Todd has
been directly responsible for
organizing 14 of those PDAs
covering 130 miles. He’s been
involved, however, with virtually
allof the PDAs, says Loser.
One advantage Todd has is that
he is well known in the county not
only for his SCS work but for his
community activities. He’s logged
in 26 years as a Little League
player agent, coach, and umpire.
He’s helped organize county
basketball, baseball, softball, and
volleyball leagues. He’s even
developed two ball parks for the
town of Federalsburg and designed
and built two dugouts and a
backstop at the Denton Lions Club
ball field.
When he’s not working with
public drainage associations, Todd
provides technical assistance to
farmers and landowners in seven
counties. He and his wife Jean live
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in Denton, Md. They have three
children.
Unangst, 29, was singled out for
recognition for making the most of
limited financial resources both
the fanner’s and the agency’s,
according to Calhoun.
When more farmers were
worried about losing their mor
tgage than about losing their soil,
Unangst started a campaign to
promote low-cost conservation
practices. He helped the con
servation districts hold a field day
demonstration of low-cost con
servation practices. For example,
they showed that diversions, which
cost about $2/ft. for a contractor to
install, cost only 25 cents/ft. for a
fanner to plow in with his own
equipment. The amount of
diversions alone built in Frederick
County increased from 1,800 feet in
1981 to 11,000 feet in 1982.
Unangst was also responsible for
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helping the Frederick and Catoctin
districts secure a computer ter
minal. Unangst enrolled in two
computer courses at the com
munity college at night. Since he
was the first district office in the
state to get a computer, he has
done much of the pioneer work in
writing computer programs for
routine design calculations and
administrative functions.
Calculations that could take an
hour to do manually can be done in
5 minutes on the computer. This
NFO wins court suit
CORNING, la. - “This
represents a final and total victory
for the Natinal Farmers
Organization,” commented NFO
President DeVon Woodland,
following announcement that the
United States Supreme Court
refused to reverse the decision by
the Eighth Circuit Court of Ap
peals.
All that is left now is for the
Federal District Court in Kansas
City to determine the amount of
damages to be recovered by NFO.
The claim which started the
multi-million dollar lawsuit
brought by Mid-America
Dairymen, Inc. against NFO, as
well as the suit later brought by
Associated Milk Producers, Inc.
(AMPI) against NFO were
dismissed by the Eighth Circuit
Court of Appeals. The court at the
same time upheld NFO’s coun
tersuit against those cooperatives.
The appeals court ruled that
NFO did not violate the antitrust
laws, but said the three dairy
has freed up staff to do more one
on-one work with landowners.
Unangst grew up on a daily farm
in Abington. He was graduated
with a B.S. degree in forest science
from Penn State in 1976. He started
his career with SCS as a student
trainee in 1975 and served at a
number of locations in Maryland
before being appointed to his
present position in 1980.
He and his wife, Margaret, live
in Mt. Aiiy, Md.
organizations did violate those
laws and conspired to monopolize
milk sales during the late 1960 s and
early 19705. The three are Mid-
American Dairymen, Inc.,
Associated Milk Producers, Inc.,
(AMPI) and Central Milk
Producers Co-op.
The Eighth Circuit Court of
Appeals awarded $164,000 to NFO
to cover its costs in appealing the
decision of the federal district
court in Kansas City.
Woodland noted that the decade
long suit has been a substantial
financial burden for the
organization over the years and
NFO had made numerous at
tempts to settle the suit before and
during trial.
Woodland stated, “Our members
have donated time and time again
simply because we knew we were
right and that justice would prevail
even in the face of disappointments
along the way. We are delighted
with the decision of the U.S.
Supreme Court.”