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County hasn't declared state of emergency

By: Louisa Barber, The Sidney Herald

10-20-2009

Richland County commissioners say they have yet to declare a state of emergency for farmers who may be losing sugar beet crops due to the cold weather. The commissioners say they’ll wait until they hear from Farm Service Agency.

Cause for concern comes after U.S. Rep. Denny Rehberg urged Gov. Brian Schweitzer to declare an emergency in 19 counties and four Indian Reservations last week because of freezing temperatures in most of eastern Montana. However, declaring a state of emergency must come from the request of county commissioners.

Commissioner Don Steppler said full harvest is still going on within the county and has only heard of a couple complaints from farmers. He said they had not had any contact with Farm Service Agency on the issue. The last time the county declared an emergency was during the aftermath of the June 30 storm.

The process in declaring a state of emergency must first come from the farmers who report it the agency who then works with the county commissioners complete details and draft a letter to the governor’s office requesting a declaration of disaster. The governor then sends the letter to the Secretary of Agriculture to receive federal dollars.

“If the federal government agrees to that, then the policies come back to the counties that were affected,” Steppler said. If a state of emergency was declared, area farmers could receive assistance on low interest loans and various programs made available to local growers through the federal government.

Commissioner Loren Young said he hadn’t yet heard of any counties declaring emergency.