NEW SCOTLAND — At a public hearing today, the future of a federal office to help farmers will be discussed.

The Albany County Farm Service Agency, located at the William Rice Extension in New Scotland may close, sending local farmers to the Schenectady-Schoharie County FSA in Cobleskill. The New Scotland site is one of eight offices slated to close in the state.

The FSA, which has offices throughout the United States, administers and manages farm commodity, credit, conservation, and disaster and loan programs as laid out by Congress through a network of federal, state, and county offices.

According to the agency’s website, there are 2,346 FSA county offices in the continental United States as well as offices in Hawaii and a few American territories.

Forty-three offices are currently open in New York State. Another county office near Albany County slated for closure is the FSA’s Troy location in Rensselaer County.

The change in the FSA’s structure dates back to January of 2006, when Teresa Lasseter, the FSA’s national administrator, met with executive directors of states to determine local needs and concerns of individual states rather than Washington D.C. dictating what each state must do, said Kent Politsch with the FSA.

Brymer Humphreys, the state executive director of New York State, will attend today’s public hearing at the William Rice Extension Center.

Many factors were considered in deciding which offices may close, he said. Humphreys and his committee looked at the number of farms in each county, the number of programs at the sites, the location of the offices in relation to other FSA sites, and the size of the offices, as well as the number of staff members.

Six of the eight counties considered for closure have an executive director who manages two county offices, he said.

The goal is to adequately staff the FSA’s offices for the complexity of its programs. A staff of four to five employees, including an executive director, is ideal, he said.
"A larger staff creates a better work environment," Humphreys said, adding that it is hard to train a new person.
Asked if rental prices determined which offices were chosen to close, Humphreys responded, "very little."
"We’re governed more by the number of people we’re allowed to hire," he said. "Overhead is not something we seriously looked at."

Humphreys attends the public hearings of affected communities, and, if a community makes a strong enough case, he may revise his plan, said Politsch.
"That kind of change can occur," said Politsch, adding that it is rare. "The hope is jobs will not be lost," he said.
"The full-time positions are not being lost," said Humphreys.

He said his goal is to have a plan finalized at the end of September. If he decides to close the facility, the office would not close for 120 days — mid-February at the very earliest, Humphreys said.
"There’s a continuous appraisal of the structure," said Politsch. The basic structure of the FSA, he said, has been in place since the 1930’s, with grass-roots control.
"That’s still our goal," said Politsch.

The Albany County office employs an executive director and two program technicians. If the offices merge, one of the programtechnician positions will be eliminated, said Thomas Della Rocco, the executive director of the FSA’s Albany County office. Della Rocco also manages the Schoharie-Schenectady office.
"I’m not in favor of this," said Della Rocco. "The biggest impact is going to be in services to agriculture," he said. "It’s important that the USDA have a presence in Albany County," Della Rocco said. "It is the capital."

According to results from 2002 from the National Agricultural Statistics Service, there are 484 farms in Albany County.

In 2006, the Albany County FSA office paid 153 individual farmers, according to Humphreys.
"That’s a pretty low number," he said. "The county average is about 300."
Mark Quandt, executive director of the Regional Food Bank of Northeastern New York, has worked with the FSA. He called the Albany County FSA "invaluable," "a wonderful resource," and a consultant that has aided the food bank in how to use the land most effectively.

The food bank farms a large plot of land in the Hilltowns, at the home of Pauline Williman in Knox. The farm recently expanded the operation with the help of the FSA, and hired a manager to run the farm.
The FSA, he said, has helped the food bank form relationships with farmers, who have provided "thousands and thousands" of pounds of food for the food bank. Should the office close or merge with the Schoharie-Schenectady office, it would be "a grave loss," and relationships the FSA has helped build between the food bank and local farmers would suffer, he said. Quandt said Tuesday he will attend the public hearing.

Humphreys said FSA is not alone; other federal agencies run by the United States Department of Agriculture are consolidating and closing offices, too. Rural Development Agency and the Natural Resources Conservation Service are also working on similar plans to provide services more efficiently, he said.

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A public hearing on the proposed closure of the Albany County Farm Service Agency is today (Thursday) at 2 p.m. at the William Rice Extension Center at 24 Martin Road in Voorheesville.