Farmington Council Approves Fisher Farm Lease

The Farmington Town Council unanimously approved the proposed Fisher Farm lease for the prospective tenants after reviewing the draft in detail at its Tuesday meeting.

Town Manager Kathy Eagen now has authorization from the council to "sign the lease documents with the Philips family," she wrote in an email to Patch Wednesday. 

If all goes as planned, Roger and Isabelle Phillips will sign a lease requiring an annual rent payment of $1 on or before Oct. 1.

"The tenants will pay by way of the annual harvest equivalent to Ten Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) Shares, a monetary value of approximately $5,000," Eagen said. 

Farmington owns the land where the farmhouse and farm building sit and the Avon portion includes the cornfields.

The town did not renew the lease of its previous tenant, Ron Simmons. His lease on the Avon side has a couple months left and his contractor is expected to harvest the remaining corn for animal feed by the end of the month or early November. 

The town of Farmington needs to renovate the house before the tenants can move in to bring it up to code. The council also voted to award the restoration contract to Summit Restoration for $123,000. 

Money in the town's Farm Account will fund the renovation. The account does not contain taxpayer dollars, Eagen said. 
 
"The Farm Account is funded by cell tower rentals, garden plot rentals, and rent paid by farmers who lease other tracts of land from the Town," Eagen said. 

While there is no grant currently available for the project, Eagen said that the town is "seeking a Farm Viability Grant through the Connecticut Department of Agriculture to build a new agricultural well."

Avon has not formally negotiated its lease with the Phillips family yet, but expects them to sign by Dec. 31 when the current tenant's lease expires.