A32-Lancaster Fanning, Saturday, April 10, 1993 Allied Milk Producers Gather For Banquet Dorothy Naugle, left, dairy marketing specialist for the Allied Milk Producers’ Cooperative Inc., a sponsor of Penn* sylvanla Special Olympics, is receiving her Olympic medal from Chris R. Shovlln, the western development director for the Pennsylvania Olympics. The ceremony was held during annual dinner meeting of the Allied Milk Producers’ Cooperative in Johnstown. GAY N. BROWNLEE Somerset Co. Correspondent JOHNSTOWN (Cambria Co.) In spite of the miserable spring rains, about 250 attended the recent annual dinner meeting of the nine-county Allied Milk Pro ducers’ Cooperative, Inc. held here at the Masonic Temple. At least five of the nine member counties were repre sented, said Dorothy Naugle, Hooversville, who is the coopera tive’s dairy marketing specialist. Eugene Schurman, Indiana Company extension agent, was master of ceremonies. Joel Rose, New Florence, gave the presi dent’s report for the board of directors. Naugle’s activity report for the past year detailed how dairy promotion reached the non farming public through radio, tele vision, give-away promotional materials, bill-board advertising, mall promotions, the local dairy promotion committees, activities of the local dairy princesses, and even the farmers themselves. She used color slides as visual aids with her report. Naugle told the group how milk punch was served to about 300 last New Year’s Eve at the top of Johnstown’s Inclined Plane. The dry ice used to keep the half gal lons of ice cream frozen until mix ing time worked beyond their expectations. But rescue from the dilemma came when the micro wave oven in the nearby snack bar quickly softened the bricks of dairy dessert. Milk was named the official drink for the Pennsylvania Special Olympics for the first time this year when they were held last February in Somerset Co. The Allied Milk Producers’ Coopera tive is very involved with the Pennsylvania Special Olympics. Besides promotion through a cou pon booklet, Naugle and some dairy princess helpers serve unique dairy treats to Special Olympic participants and visitors. So because of the large contri bution the Allied Milk Producers’ Cooperative makes to Pennsylva nia Special Olympics, it was hon ored at the dinner by Chris Shov lin, the western development director of the Olympics. He presented a plaque and two Olympic medals, which he placed around the necks of Naugle and president Rose. Three dairy princesses who had met 75 percent of their require ments each received a check for $2OO. These incentive awards, tot aling $5OO from the cooperative, help to cover expenses incurred while promoting the local dairy industry. The girls were Melissa Spory, Somerset County; Tammy Far mery, Indiana County, and Jennif er Frederick, Blair County (who, because of a sudden illness, was unable to personally accept her check or to attend the dinner). Dairy princess awards also went to Leslie Fetter, Bedford Dairy Princesses Tammy Farmery, left, Indiana County and Melissa Spory, Somerset County, each received $2OO at the recent annual banquet of the Allied Milk Producers’ Cooperative held In Johnstown’s Masonic Temple. Jennif er Frederick also received the Incentive award but was unable to attend the banquet. County; Shannon Curry, Clear field County, and Johnny Shaffer, Jefferson County. Jan Harding, program director for Pennsylvania Dairy Princess and Promotion Services, shared some remarks with guests. Reports from two area teachers who participated in the Ag in the Classroom workshop, held for the first time last year at Penn State, generated lots of interest. Allied Milk Producers’ Cooperative, Inc. paid $250, or half, the tuition for Diane Empfield and Tom St. Clair, elementary teachers, to attend the workshop. It will do so again this year for other teachers, according to Naugle. St. Clair from the North Star School District in Somerset Coun ty told how he incorporates agri cultural facts and fun into practi cally all the subjects he teaches including music or “Moosic,” and vocabulary building. A bulletin board in the class room is where ag newspaper clip pings are tacked up by ag-alert kids. St. Clair also recorded his pupils’ classroom ag-fun and played it during his report. Empfleld teaches in the Marion Center School District, Indiana County. She said she was so excited about agriculture in Penn sylvania that she immediately began a project of hydroponic gar dening with her young pupils, envisioning beautiful future flow ers as a result of their efforts. “I have a brown thumb,” said Empfleld, then brought a round of chuckles by adding, “My dad’s a farmer—just enough to keep him in debt and out of trouble.” She said that several failed attempts with the flower seeds were educational. Each time they discussed possible causes, then tried again. They also studied apple varieties and made apple sauce. “The kids didn’t know they were reading,” said Empfield about their ag-education, “they thought it was a day off.” Members of the Allied Milk Producers’ Cooperative Inc. are assessed 10 cents per hundred weight to provide all the promo tion, services, and equipment it uses. Some members contribute an additional cent, or 11 cents. A financial report indicated that radio advertising gets the lion’s share. Cited as the most com These elementary teachers attended a workshop for Ag in the Classroom at Penn State. Half of their tuition was paid by the Allied Milk Producers’ Cooperative Inc. Left Is Diane Empfleld from Marion Center School District and Tom St. Clair from the North Star School District. prehensive tool used by Allied, the 30-second ads are aired over 12 local stations and are broadcast somewhere every day of the year. Billboard advertising is a far off second in the promotion budget, which also allocates money for education and research and for one-time events such as Day At The Farm. Comprising the organization’s central board of directors, includ- Farmland Benefits Local Economies UNIVERSITY PARK (Centre Co.) Local governments should approach residential deve lopment with care, suggests research from Penn State’s Col lege of Agricultural Sciences. “Different land uses affect both the services residents demand from local governments and the tax base that pays for those ser vices,” said Dr. Timothy Kelsey, Penn State assistant professor of agricultural economics. “Residential development can end up costing a community more in services than it contributes in revenues,” Kelsey said. “Other land uses can bring economic ben efits by providing more in revenue than they require in services.” Kelsey recently studied the rela tionship between land use, com munity services and spending and revenues in Adams, Lebanon and Perry counties. He compared 1991 tonwship and school district budgets with the types of land providing the revenue or using the services. “I found that residential land provides less revenue than it requires in services,” he said. ‘The financial shortfall is made up by commerical, industrial, and farm and open land.” Residential land in Bethel Tonwship in Lebanon County required $l.OB in services for each dollar it provided in all taxes and other revenues, while commercial, industrial and farm and open land provided more in revenue than they took in services. “Other land uses help subsidize the needs of residential land,” Kel sey said. “For each dollar farm and open land contributes to Bethel Township, it takes only six cents to provide services to that land. Homeowners benefit because they pay less for services than they ing Rose, are Robert Beatty, Indiana, Indiana County; Lowell Friedline, Boswell, Somerset County; Janice Lidwell, Ashville, Cambria County: Dave Myers, Summerhill, Cambria County; Fred Shankle, Schellsburg, Bed ford County and Marvin Thomas, Hollsopple, Somerset County. Other member counties are Armstrong, Blair, Clearfield, Jef ferson, and Westmoreland. would without these other tax revenues.” The ratios are less extreme, but still skewed, if township and school district finances are separated. “For township government alone, residential land still contri butes less than it takes, while com mercial, industrial and farm and open land give more than they take.” School-related expenditures far outweigh most township expendi tures, so schools have a much grea ter impact on local taxpayers. “All land uses contribute revenue to the schools, even though all school expenses are directly related to families living on residential land,” Kelsey said. “For example, in 1991, farm and open land in Bethel Township pro vided nearly $150,000 for local school district expenses.” This is above and beyond the property taxes, farmers paid for buildings and homes, Kelsey said, noting that homes on farms were treated as residential properties to make the study consistent with ear lier American Farmland Trust studies. “Only farmland without build ings was categorized as farm and open land.” The results indicate that local leaders must carefully examine the ramifications of developing farm and open land. “If farm and open land must be lost, commercial or industrial development can benefit the tax base, if it doesn’t dramatically raise demand for services,” Kelsey said. “Residential development seems to be another story.” Kelsey’s results were consistent across the three counties he studied as well as with studies done m Connecticut, Massachusetts and New York.
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