Randomly Tonia

Once a man could travel hundreds, even thousands of miles, find a piece of land suitable (or not) to his needs, lay claim and call it his.

Those days are long gone.

But in the more recent past, a person (because by this time a woman could own land) could do what they deemed appropriate with their private property.

Those days too, are long gone.

There are few areas that go unregulated by various agencies in all levels of government, and that list grows smaller each day.

Now, we have committees regulating how we use our personal property. In order to sell the ground from our land, we must have permission beforehand. Why? Perhaps it is to ensure the safety of our neighbors and maybe it will mitigate the damage to our roads.

To some it seems to be a measure that will slow progress for business and potential competitors and, even more so, it seems to be a grievous government overreach.

Either way, it will mean that our area producers cannot easily use their otherwise unusable land to bolster them financially in tough economic years.

Though I was raised here in Kimball, my family did not farm or ranch. I tell you this so that you are all aware that I am treading in unfamiliar territory with this opinion piece – as I ‘don’t have a dog in this fight’.

I think that the concerns I am broaching today affect all of us, because agriculture is the backbone of our community, and more so because our area producers are family and friends.

The Kimball County Planning and Zoning committee will meet this coming month, tentatively on April 17, to further discuss this concern, which could come to a conclusion as early as April 18, at the Kimball County Commissioner meeting.

This is an issue that will affect many area landowners and business people. Perhaps these are the people who should become involved in this discussion before a decision is made.