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RFH 2010, Cover Stories, Town of Hamilton

Farmers, Others Protest Reval @ Farmers' Market Opening

Sat, May 07, 2011

Farmers, Others Protest Reval @ Farmers' Market Opening

It's one thing to see a tractor drive through village streets on a Saturday morning.

It's another thing entirely to see five of them creep nose to tail back and forth along Broad Street decked in signs decrying the controversial property revaluation competed by the Town of Hamilton.

Check back for updates to this article.

That was part of the scene that unfolded this morning as the Farmers' Market opened on the village green for the 36th year. The other part was group of sign-carrying protesters -- mostly farmers and other rural landowners -- who stood watch as a number of local and state government officials talked about the importance of agriculture and local markets like Hamilton's. Then, after the remarks were made, the protesters delivered a series of resounding messages of their own aimed primarily at state Sen. Dave Valesky and Assemblyman Bill Magee.

"No farmers = No market," was the most pointed of the messages, and those who carried the signs said that the recent revaluation will increase the tax burden on farmers so much that they will not be able to stay in business. Signs -- and people -- also complained about the firm that completed the revaluation, the methods it used and the way Town Supervisor Bob Kuiper and Assessor Dave Roach have responded to their concerns.

Vaesky and Magee were joined at the Farmers' Market by Diane Eggert, executive director of the Farmers Market Federation of New York, Ag and Markets Deputy Matt Morgan, Mayor Sue McVaugh and village trustees Russ Lura, Jim Bona, Margaret Miller and Suzanne Collins.

Today's protest comes just two days before a meeting Monday at 7 p.m. at the Hamilton Bible Fellowship Church on Hamilton Road. A representative of the Maxwell Appraisal Service, which performed the reval, is supposed to be present. And, the protest comes in the wake of a contentious meeting late last month at which frustrated landowners called on Kuiper to resign. 

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