Mr. George Lechlider

Among those joining in the ceremony were, left to right: Vince Berg of the County's Agricultural Preservation Board; Jeremy Criss of the Agricultural Services Division; Greg Stone of the Agricultural Advisory Committee; Liza Durant of the Equestrian Partners in Conservation; David Shneyer of the Direct Structuring Retreat Center; Martin Svrcek, executive director of the Montgomery County Fairgrounds; George Lechlider, president of the Montgomery County Farm Bureau; Kristin Fisher of the Agricultural Services Division; Gene Walker, president of the Montgomery County Agricultural Center; Council President Knapp; Tim McGrath of the Agricultural Advisory Board; Gary Valen, president of the Sugar Loaf Citizens Association; Councilmember Leventhal; and Mike Rubin, owner of 4,200 acres of farmland.

The result, said Montgomery County Farm Bureau President George Lechlider, is that the energy tax is taking food off every farmer's dinner table.

"It'll put some of them under," said Lechlider, 82, who has spent a lifetime growing sod and hay on 257 acres in Laytonsville.

"We're trying to get the young people to stay on the farm, and they're not going to stay if they can't build a house on it," said president George Lechlider, who owns 246 acres near Laytonsville.

Farm Bureau President George Lechlider said his board represents more than 2,400 members.Board members do not want to see the former board chairman appointed because they disagree with some of his public policy decisions written in a memo dated Feb. 6.

Mr. Lechlider said Mr. Hanson, who advised the County Council in the matter of the Clarksburg zoning failure, wants to do away with child lots and sand mounds.
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Mr. Lechlider said the planning board members do not understand farming.

"They have no background in agriculture," Mr. Lechlider said."They just don't grasp it, and they don't care to know anything about agriculture."

He said Ms. Rosenfeld "hasn't done anything in particular for or against us.She was following what was written in the law, and she quit because of the way they were doing things and the board didn't take her advice."

Montgomery County has more than 93,000 acres devoted to agriculture and an active farm community that is important to the economy of Montgomery County, Mr. Lechlider said.

"We are at a critical point in determining the future economics of agriculture in Montgomery County," he said.

Mr. Lechlider said the new chair should be a non-political, impartial and fair-minded person.

"They're getting old enough now, they're not even going to be able to get insurance," said George Lechlider, president of the Montgomery County Farm Bureau and a sod farmer who also raises purebred hogs.