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Feliciana Explorer • Tuesday, January 14, 2014 • Vol. 4, No. 2 • Published Weekly • Circulation 17,000 • felicianaexplorer.com • © 2014

EXPLOREREXPLORERFeliciana

Proud to be the Felicianas' only locally owned, managed, and staffed newspaper.

Aucoin Out as East Feliciana Parish Police Jury President

See POLICE JURY on page 2

See BRAC on page 7

By James Ronald skains

Adam Knapp, President and CEO of the Baton Rouge Area Chamber of Commerce (BRAC), told the Felici-ana EXPLORER on January 6: “2014 should be a very good year for the northern parts of East Baton Rouge Parish, the Feliciana’s and even St. Helena Parish.”

“The driving force will be the ex-panding Tuscaloosa Shale develop-ment,” Knapp said. “We are already seeing substantial infrastructure de-velopments taking place, such as the Genesis Company Storage and Pipe-line Project at Port Hudson.

“We think the Tuscaloosa Shale development will move forward at a steady pace with more oil and gas support companies moving into the area as the expected exploration in-tensifies. The project in Port Hudson positions Genesis to be a major player in the transportation of crude oil by

BRAC Oultines Bright Future for Felicianas

Baton Rouge area Chamber President Adam Knapp addresses the Baton Rouge Press Club Monday about economic Developments in the greater Zachary Area.

truck, pipeline, train and barge.”When the Genesis project was

first announced in February 2013, it was projected to be a $125 mil-lion investment creating 50 new direct jobs with an annual salary of $80,000 plus benefits. In other ben-efits, 45 construction jobs were an-ticipated being created and 220 new indirect jobs. Unconfirmed reports indicate that those numbers may grow slightly by the time the opera-tion is online.

The original plans for the Gen-esis project called for the construc-tion of an 18 mile 20 inch diameter pipeline from the Port Hudson op-erations to connect to ExxonMobil’s Baton Rouge Refinery. The plans call for modernizing and expanding the Genesis terminal in Port Hudson and building a new crude oil unit

Louis Kent selected to guide the Police Jury for the next year in 5 to 3 voteBy James Ronald skains

Dennis Aucoin, Clinton based log-ging contractor, has spent 6 years on the hot seat on the East Feliciana Par-ish Police Jury; first, as Chairman of the Finance Committee for 3 years and then the past 3 years as President of the Police Jury.

In a lunch meeting with Aucoin on Friday, January 3, Aucoin told the Feliciana EXPLORER: “I think that some of the Police Jury members would like to see someone else rather than me as President of the Jury. If that is the way things play out at our Janu-ary 6th meeting, that is okay with me.”

“The last six years have been tough for me. The first Jury meeting I attend-ed, I was appointed Finance Chair-man. They handed me all the bills that needed to be paid for the month. There was a lot more bills than money. After Dennis Aucion

working for 3 years to get our finances in shape, the other jurors selected me as the Jury President.”

“After serving 3 years as Jury pres-ident, I know that we have made tre-mendous progress in getting our parish in much better financial shape, and on the road to real progress” Aucoin said.

“It has been tough for me trying to oversee what is going on and needs to be done. There have been many days when I’ve had to leave my log-ging jobs two or three times to go to the Jury office and take care of some problem.”

Joining us for lunch on the 3rd was Larry Beauchamp, longtime East Feli-ciana Police Juryman and head of the Finance Committee for the last 3 years. Beauchamp had served on the jury for 12 years in the late 1980’s and ‘90’s, then was off the Jury for 12 years be-

2 Tuesday, January 14, 2014

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Phone (225) 654-0122Fax (225) 208-1165

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Publisher & EditorDaniel Duggan

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POLICE JURY continued from page 1

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fore being re-elected in 2008.“Before Dennis got on the Jury, the

Jury was always running in the red be-fore the end of the year,” Beauchamp stated. “Several years, the jury would run out of money and have to borrow against the next year’s tax revenue which only created a bigger problem.”

”Once we were able to get a handle on how much the Jury owed and how much was coming in as tax revenue, we were able to set up some financial parameters,” Beauchamp emphasized. “We were able to put into place some cost saving measures and with good basic management practices; we have turned our parish from red ink into having a substantial surplus. Our roads were so bad in the parish, that Dennis

decided it was time to stop waiting on state or grant money to come in to fix our roads, but start saving enough money to overlay some of the road with surplus money. That we have started doing.”

East Feliciana has the lowest ad valorem tax of all the parishes in the state. A few railroads and barge com-panies are domiciled in East Feliciana because of the low tax rate. However, East Feliciana is heavily dependent upon the forest and cattle industry as its main economic generators. In addi-tion, a number of jobs in the parish are related to Dixon Correctional Center, The State War Veterans Home and the East Feliciana State Hospital.

“We made progress little by little at first,” Aucoin acknowledged. “One of the first challenges was the Sheriff’s Department. The electrical bill each month was about $12,000 a month.

We eventually got it down to around $5,000.”

“The Sheriff was housing a num-ber of state prisoners so we eventually went to a percentage cost sharing on the operation of the jail. There were a lot of other departments that we were able to trim spending. However, the biggest problem was the waste management contract. It was a train wreck.”

“Waste management for the parish at the time was costing us $123,000 a month and we were bringing in $80,000 in taxes to pay for it. So we were going in the red $43,000 every month,” Aucoin recalled. “I told the company that we had a problem in that revenues were $43,000 less than cost. Their representative told me that we had a problem, but they didn’t have a problem.”

“The waste management company also had a consumer price index that gave them substantial raises on the handling of the garbage. Fortunately their contract expired and we were able to get a much better contract for less money for the parish.”

“We have been able to save up nearly $1.4 million dollars to do over-lay of several of the worst roads in the parish,” Aucoin added. “Some of those roads haven’t been touched in 30 years. We know we need a lot more money to fix our roads, but this overlay is at least a start in the right direction; and the money being spent has become avail-able because of the best management practices that we implemented in the parish.”

“I will be happy to just be a member of the East Feliciana Police Jury if we can continue using best management

See POLICE JURY on page 8

Tuesday, January 14, 2014 3

East Feliciana Parish Schools Superintendent Henderson Lewis, Jr. received a vote of confidence from the School board at the last meeting with a 2-year extension of his contract.During the meeting Lewis was praised for his leadership and vision. The extension begins July 1, 2015 and ends June 30, 2017.

Lewis Will Continue to Lead East Feliciana Schools Busy Time for West Feliciana FirefightersThe firefighters in West Feli-

ciana have been busy responding to emergencies in the past few weeks. Fire Protection District No. 1 responded to a structure fire on Christmas Eve that destroyed a shed and all its contents and caused significant damage to the home which was a p p r o x i -mately 45 feet away. The con-tents of the shed were valued in excess of $10.000.

On De-cember 26th West Feliciana 911 received a call from someone in-dicating that their friend was in trouble in the woods and could not speak to tell them where he was located. Responders from West Feliciana EMS, Fire District and Sheriff’s office along with friends of the patient searched for and lo-cated the individual. West Felici-ana EMS transported the patient to the hospital.

On December 29th firefight-ers and emergency responders re-sponded to a medical call where the responding West Feliciana EMS unit and WFFD Rescue truck became stuck on a private drive approximately 1/4 mile from the public road. This required fire-fighters and EMS workers carry the two patients that needed to be transported several hundred yards to the awaiting ambulance.

On January 7th firefighters re-sponded to a vehicle fire at a resi-dence on Plettenburg Road. The vehicle was a total loss.

On the same day a grass fire was reported on Rosedown Planta-tion’s property. High winds made suppression efforts difficult but

firefighters brought the fire under control in a p p r o x i -mately 45 minutes af-ter burning a p p r o x i -mately 4 acres. The

cause of the fire has been listed as undetermined.

On January 8th firefighters re-sponded to an early morning struc-ture fire in Sinclair’s trailer park. Firefighters battled 18 degree tem-perature and ice while extinguish-ing the fire. No one was home at the time of the fire and the home and all of its contents was a total loss valued at more than $25,000 dollars. The fire was caused by a space heater being placed to close to combustibles. The home which was approximately 18.5 feet from the next home cause significant heat damage and a subsequent fire in adjacent home. The residents of that home escaped the fire thanks to a working smoke detector. No residents or firefighters were in-jured and damage to the second home is approximately $4,000 dollars.

4 Tuesday, January 14, 2014

First South Farm Credit Opens New Office on Old Scenic Highway

Seven of the First South Farm Credit employees pose in front of their new building on Old Scenic Hwy. Left to right are: Russell Kent, Kathy Summers, Cynthia Miller, Christi Dellouci, Tim Losavio, David Wilson, and Ben Sanders.

By James Ronald skains

First South Farm Credit is now open for business in their new office building at 19550 Old Scenic Highway near the Copper Mill School in Zach-ary.

“We plan on having a grand open-ing on February 27th from 2-4 PM,” Russell Kent, Assistant Vice President of Lending, told the Zachary POST. “This building is a huge improvement over the office building where we were located previously on Hwy 19. It’s much easier for people to find us, plus we have enough room to host small groups and events.”

Kent, an LSU Agribusiness gradu-ate, is a Clinton native who still lives in the hills of Feliciana. He and his wife, Amelia, have a cattle operation spread across a few pastures in the Feliciana’s.

On the other hand, Kent’s loan of-ficer, Tim Losavio is a city boy having graduated from Catholic High School in Baton Rouge before attending LSU.

“I didn’t grow up on a farm or have a direct connection to agriculture; however, I gravitated to agriculture enterprises during my teenage years,” Losavio told the POST. “My mentor was Buddy Miller who owns Planta-tion Pecan Company in Waterproof.”

“Mr. Buddy is regular at the Red Stick Farmer’s Market in downtown Baton Rouge. I began helping him at his booth at the Market on Saturday’s, and then had the opportunity to work for him a couple of summers on his farm in Waterproof. When I started to LSU, I was pursuing other academic courses but the more I worked with Mr. Buddy, the more I came to realize how

much I liked agriculture business. In fact, Mr. Buddy was the one who told me of the job opening with First South Farm Credit.”

First South Farm Credit is the Farm Credit System’s largest lend-ing institution in Alabama, Louisiana, and Mississippi, and the only institu-tion offering uninterrupted loans and financial services since it was char-tered in 1933. The corporate office is located in Jackson, Mississippi and has 48 offices system wide throughout

the 3 states with 205 employees. The loan volume is $1.4 billion with 5,000 members.

“I think we are one of the best kept secret in Louisiana,” Kent acknowl-edged. “Most people, even in agricul-ture and forestry, aren’t aware of all the types of financing we have available.”

“We have financing available for purchasing land as well as re-financing land you have already purchased. We also finance land for recreational and hunting purposes. Also we finance

timber tracts of land and land improve-ments such as ponds, lakes and barns. In additional to our mainstay of financ-ing crop production, cattle, and poultry production, we offer loans for agribusi-ness such as equipment financing and all aspects of agriculture and forestry with long term amortizations.”

“We also have specialized lending programs for the young farmer provid-ed they are age 35 or younger or they

See FIRST SOUTH page 8

Tuesday, January 14, 2014 5

By andRé BRock

associate county agent and 4-H agent West Feliciana PaRisH

The FREE Feliciana Spring Sem-inar Series will be held February 4th and 6th at Folkes Campus in Jack-son from 6-9 pm. A variety of top-ics will be covered, including home orchards.

National Arbor Day is at the end of April, but different states celebrate the holiday on differ-ent dates. The third Friday in January is Louisiana’s state arbor day, so ob-viously now is a good time to plant trees. The same is true for shrubs and many other perenni-als. This may bring lovely flowering trees to mind, but I tend to plant ac-cording to my stom-ach’s wishes.

Louisiana has a long growing sea-son that can accommodate a large variety of fruit-producing plants. Many of these can be incorporated into an existing ornamental land-scape to beautify while providing something else more tangible. Good local nurseries know that savvy gar-deners plant now, so they keep lots of fruit-bearing plants in stock.

When planting a home orchard, many considerations must be taken. Any planting will do best in well-drained soil in a sunny location. We want at least 6-8 hours sunlight for plants to produce fruit. (It’s much easier to get most plants to produce leaves or flowers, but fruit requires

Ready, Set, Grow with 4-H Agent Brockmore of the plant’s energy.)

Also consider how much work you want to put into your orchard. Peaches are notoriously high-main-tenance trees, while figs and citrus require hardly any attention. Blue-berries can be very easy IF you have the right soil…

So get your soil tested before you plant. If the pH is wrong for what you want to plant, you can make

amendments be-fore you plant. It’s not advisable to till right over an exist-ing tree, even with good soil-improve-ment intentions. It’s also NOT advisable to add fertilizer to a new planting. (See last month’s article on tree planting.) A soil test sample takes about a week to analyze and costs $15 through the LSU Ag Center. (Other private labs may vary.)

Pruning will be another important first step. For most

trees, it’s best to cut the sapling to about three feet at planting. It looks scary, but it will encourage lateral growth, which is what you want. Especially for pears, peaches, and plums, your goal is to get as much sunlight as possible to as many leaves as possible. Too much in the center will shade other branches.

Try to make your tree look like an upside-down umbrella, keeping an open center. The open center figure can obviously be accomplished by clearing out most internal growth. But pears are especially notorious for reaching skyward. You may need to tie branches down to stakes in the

ground, or se-cure some kind of weights to their ends. If so, keep them in this position for one year. After that, they should be expected to stay put.

Consider pol-linators as well. Pears, apples, and blueberries need another va-riety nearby to be fertilized and make fruit. Citrus do not, and will produce fewer seeds if not fertilized. Do a little research (or ask me) be-fore you plant.

Most fruit tree problems can be traced back to a lack of water and fertilizer. Water fruit trees weekly and deeply in summer, and fertil-ize them once or twice a year. Much more specific fruit culture informa-

tion can be found in a number of free LSU Ag Center (or other A&M universi-ty) publications. The LSU Ag Center also has a new for-sale publication on home orchards, spiral-bound and quite detailed on lots of different fruits.

If you want to know more

about gardening, landscaping, or anything else horticultural, contact the West Feliciana Associate County Agent (me) at [email protected], or stop by or call the LSU Ag Center Extension office at 635-3614. Also, the LSU Ag Center’s website can be accessed at www.lsuagcenter.com with lots of user-friendly infor-mation, including this article.

Andre Brock

6 Tuesday, January 14, 2014

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Milestones Births • Engagements • Weddings • Awards Obituaries • Anniversaries • Reunions

Gonsoulin, Eudolie Brooks A resident of Clinton, she died

Monday, Dec 2, 2013 at 12:08pm at Our Lady of the Lake. She was 75 years old and was retired from the East Feliciana Parish Assessor’s Of-fice.

Visiting will be at Our Lady of Assumption Catholic Church, Clin-ton, on Wednesday, Dec. 4, 2013 from 9am until Mass of Christian Burial at 11am conducted by Fr. Joe Carlo. Altar servers will be Theresa, Gabriel, and Francis Doan. Burial will be in Grace Episcopal Church Cemetery, St. Francisville.

She is survived by her sisters, Sr. Carol Gonsoulin, CSJ; and Cecile G. Bunch and husband, Dorman.

Cousins, Benjamin Forrester and Dorothy “Tiny” Forrester.

Nieces and nephews, Mary Bunch Dunaway and husband, Kenneth; Amy Bunch Sanders; Julie Bunch

D’Aquilla; Margaret Eleanor Gonsoulin; Martin Ray Bunch and wife, Cheryl; and Dorman Brooks “Chip” Bunch and wife, Brandi.

Great nieces and nephews; Rachel, Holly and husband Austin, Ryan, Liz, Carley, Gabrielle, Chris, Alex, Sara, Maria and Jackson Brooks.

Longtime friend, Bobbie Jean Ross.She is preceded in death by her parents, Otis F. and Eleanor F. Gon-

soulin, brother, Otis Howard Gonsoulin; cousins, Helen B. Martin and Henry H. “Mickey” Forrester, III.

Pallbearers will be Marty Bunch, Chip Bunch, Hank Forrester, Paul Martin, Kenny Dunaway and Jeff Gardner.

Honorary pallbearers will be Benny Forrester, Ryan Sanchez, Chris Sanders, Alex Bunch, Jackson Bunch, and H.T. “Bubby” Jackson, Jr., and Austin Hand.

She was a lifelong member of Our Lady of Assumption Catholic Church where she was a member of the choir.

Extra special thanks to her caregivers, Utica McGee and Tiffany Smith for all the loving and care given to Ms. Brooks.

Share sympathies, condolences and memories at www.CharletFuner-alHome.com.

Briggs Thomas Sale

“From the fullness of grace we have received one blessing after another.” John 1:16

Rob and Amanda Sale, along with big brother Tripp, are proud to announce the birth of Briggs Thomas Sale. Briggs was born on November 25, 2013 at 8:17 am at Lake Charles Memorial Hospital in Lake Charles, LA. He weighed 7 pounds, 8 ounces, and was 20 ¾ inches long. Proud grandparents include Greg and Kim Denson of Zachary, Rocky and Cynthia Batley, and Bob and Sandy Sale both of Monroe, LA. Great grand-parents are Claude and Mary Adams, Neva Durbin, and Louise Sale.

Tuesday, January 14, 2014 7

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BRAC continued from page 1

train facility.An overlay map of the Genesis

Port Hudson Facilities shows 3 dis-tinct areas of operation: Port Hudson Truck Facilities, Port Hudson Tank Facility, and the Port Hudson Dock Facility. Genesis is scheduled to add 200,000 barrels of crude oil storage capability to its existing 216,000 barrels of storage capacity.

At the time of announcement of its plans for Port Hudson, Genesis En-ergy Chief Executive Officer Grant Sims said in a prepared statement: “This project positions Genesis as an

efficient conduit for crude oil supply and logistics in the region.”

The Genesis project at Port Hud-son provides Zachary and the Felici-ana’s with a huge potential economic upside as the Tuscaloosa Shale de-velopment comes on line. Expansion of the facilities could happen in the very near future for the storage tank, blending and logistics operation.

Genesis has made a huge long term commitment to the Zachary/Port Hudson area. The new Genesis pipeline will connect the Port Hud-son facility to ExxonMobil proper-ties that include the Maryland Ter-minal, the Anchorage Tank Farm in West Baton Rouge and the Exx-onMobil refinery in Baton Rouge.

Genesis also secured preferential rights for throughput at the facilities noted above. The pipeline will have an ultimate capacity of 350,000 bar-rels per day.

“With the expansion of our op-erations in Louisiana, Genesis looks forward to a strong future in the state and an increase in our contribution to the local economy,” Steve Na-thanson, President of Genesis, said at the time of the announcement of plans for Port Hudson. “This project positions Genesis as an efficient mid-stream provider for crude oil supply and logistics in the region. Genesis is committed to being a good neighbor. We intend to hire locally where pos-sible, during the construction phase and long-term operations of the fa-cilities.”

Knapp, the President of BRAC, also pointed out that the future of the KPAQ Paper Mill looked bright, especially with the re-opening of the railroad from KPAQ to Baton Rouge. According to the BRAC information, the operation of the GP mill at Port Hudson was very positive.

Knapp in his presentation to the Baton Rouge Press Club noted, “The economic boom that we are experi-encing is truly amazing. Some areas in BRAC’s nine parish area may be getting a little more economic de-velopment at the moment than other areas, but all of the parishes in the

Baton Rouge Metro Area are seeing positive economic development. We must look at economic development as a regional event. After seeing how well BRAC’s plans have worked in the nine parish region, we are think-ing of super-regional economic de-velopment plans that would include New Orleans and Lafayette.”

Governor Bobby Jindal addressed the Baton Rouge Press Club at a spe-cial Wednesday luncheon. Governor Jindal noted the economic boom in the Baton Rouge Metro area: “Never in my lifetime have I seen so much great economic development in the Baton Rouge area. I never thought that I would see a time when we had more good jobs to fill and not enough qualified workers to imme-diately fill the jobs. During the 2014 Legislative session, our top priority will be Work Force Development.”

Governor Jindal also announced that he and a small team including LED Director Steve Moret will be leaving on the January 11 for a weeklong trip to three Asian coun-tries promoting Louisiana as the best place for investments and plant lo-cations. Jindal and his small team of economic development experts will visit South Korea, Japan, and Tai-wan. During the trip, Jindal and his group will meet with CEO’s of 10 companies headquartered in those countries.

Pt. Hudson, Louisiana Pipeline System, purchased from BP Pipeline in 2007, consists of approximately 3.25 miles of pipeline delivering both trucked and field produced crude oil to a barge dock on the Mississippi River near Baton Rouge. This system has approximately 216,000 barrels of above ground storage.

8 Tuesday, January 14, 2014

FIRST SOUTH continued from page 4

POLICE JURY continued from page 2

20th Judicial District Attorney to Sponsor Upcoming Boating Safety Course

The 20th Judicial District At-torney’s Office is sponsoring a Boating Safety Course on Satur-day, February 15, 2014 from 8:00 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. at the Jackson Civic Center, 2084 Hwy. 10, Jack-son, Louisiana. The course will be taught by Agents from The Loui-siana Department of Wildlife & Fisheries. The course includes information on choosing a boat, classification, hulls, motors, le-gal requirements and equipment requirements, many navigations rules, navigation charts, trailering, sailboats and related subjects that include canoeing, personal water-craft and more. Completion of the

course will result in the student being issued a vessel operators certification card.

All persons born after January 1, 1984, must complete a boat-ing safety course and carry proof of completion to operate a motor-boat in excess of 10 horsepower. The person may operate the boat if accompanied by someone over 18 years of age who if required has completed the course. It is il-legal for anyone under the age of 16 to operate a personal watercraft (PWC).

Please contact Crystal at 225-683-8563 to register, seating is limited.

practices in controlling our finances and not start spending money reck-lessly on pet projects,” Aucoin told the EXPLORER at the conclusion of the January 6th Police Jury meeting where Louis Kent was selected for a one year term as Police Jury President.

“I look forward to working with Mr. Kent. As he said in the meeting tonight, he is no amateur in being Par-ish Police Jury President as he has previously served 5 years as Police Jury President. The finances of the parish are in very good shape as Mr. Kent takes over as President. That is the way I want to see things continue under Mr. Kent.”

“Also, not being President of the Jury gives me the opportunity to vote on each issue that comes before the Jury. The only way I got to vote dur-ing my 3 years as President of the Jury was in the event of a tie,” Aucoin con-cluded.

Writer’s note: Aucoin is a very tal-ented man, as evidenced by his work in the forest industry, as Chairman of a Bank Loan Committee, as an elected public servant and also in his charity work. Aucoin’s annual fishing tourna-ment has raised more than $1,000,000 for the Children’s Miracle Network at the Lady of the Lake Hospital in the last ten years. It will be interesting to see if Aucoin, with his considerable talent will pursue a higher elected of-fice.

are a beginning farmer who is classified as having less than ten years’ experi-ence in farming, ranching or aquatics,” Kent explained. We also have special lending programs for the small farmer who has an annual gross income of less than $250,000 in agriculture, cattle or aquatics.”

Once a qualified borrower secures a loan from First South Credit, they be-come a stockholder in the agricultural cooperative. The borrower receives the right to share in the profits of First South Credit, which are referred to as patronage refunds.

“Within the last 20 years, First South Credit has returned $209 mil-lion in patronage refunds,” Kent em-phasized. “In 2011, First South Farm Credit returned $9 million in patronage refunds. In 2012, the refund was $12 million.”

After each year, the Board of Direc-tors of First South Farm Credit may choose to retain net income to strength-en its capital position or distribute some or all of the net income to members by declaring a patronage refund. Each of the three states that make up the First South Farm Credit cooperative have seven members each on the Board of Directors with two Directors from out-side the cooperative.

Each shareholder in the cooperative has one vote for a Director. The Board of Director members from Louisiana are Daniel Mattingly, James M. Nor-sworthy, Amy C. Ellender, Thomas Parker, Ted S. Passmore, Gaston L. Lanaux III, Dale Thibodeaux, and Daniel Viator. Roger Chappell is the President/CEO of the Jackson based agriculture cooperative.

“We have 12 offices in Louisiana,” Kent noted. “The Zachary office is a branch office as well as the division of-fice for Louisiana. David Wilson is our Division Manager.”

“Our loan to value ratio is 80% of either the appraised value or the pur-chase price, whichever is the lower amount. We have in-house processors so the turnaround for a borrower with a verified salary is 48 hours or less. When we get into other entities it takes longer to get all the financial informa-tion together, but we still have a quick turnaround when compared to the mar-ket place.”

“My job, as well as Tim’s job, is to get out and meet as many potential loan customers as we can in the area and let them know how we can help their agricultural or forestry operations,” Kent explained. “We can even finance sawmills and logging equipment. Tim and I are working on trying to get First South Farm Credit to not continue to be the best kept secret in Zachary and the Feliciana’s. We are active with the 4-H, Farm Bureau groups, cattle and forestry groups in the area.”

“We want to be very market ori-ented,” Kent concluded. “That is why First South Farm Credit has added rec-reational land to its portfolio. We also realized that to be market oriented, we needed to develop specific programs for young farmers, first time farmers, and small time farmers.”

Writer’s note: First South Farm Cred-it has a low turnover in employees. Some employees have been employed with First South for dozens of years which allows long time relations to be built with their customers. When there are job openings, First South seems to look toward filling specific positions with young people who possess either a background in agricul-ture or agribusiness degrees.