MOUNT VERNON — The Knox County Board of Commissioners had several meetings Monday, including being present for the signing of a proclamation designating April as Child Abuse Prevention Month in the county. In the afternoon, the commissioners had two agriculture-related meetings.

The commissioners met with representatives of The Station Break, Director Kelly Lybarger-DeWitt and Assistant Director Bob McIlvain. One item discussed was that some clients of The Station Break’s meal delivery service are receiving two meals, sometimes from two different sources. Acknowleding it was a difficult issue, Commissioner Allen Stockberger said it was not difficult to see how allegations of fraud could arise. “Is it legitimate for a recipient to receive two meals?” asked Stockberger. Lybarger-DeWitt responded “if somebody needs that second meal, we do it ... does Station Break [and] Sanctuary need to be there? No, not in my opinion.” McIlvain further explained that The Station Break will deliver double portions if necessary.

Commissioner Bob Wise also mentioned the possibility of moving the driveway of The Station Break on South Main Street in conjunction with the development of the property across the street. In the future, he said, moving the driveway would allow for a crosswalk to be built across South Main Street.

At 11 a.m., the commissioners stepped outside to the Memorial Building to read a resolution designating April as Child Abuse Prevention Month in the county. The group gathered around a Pinwheels for Prevention display. Commissioner Bob Wise read the proclamation, which stated, in part, “This visual reminder will serve as a call to action to Knox County residents to take action to prevent child abuse and neglect.” Each pinwheel on the display represents a report of child abuse or neglect in the county. Pinwheels for prevention is a statewide program for the month of April.

The display will remain in front of the Memorial Building until April 4. It will then be placed at Wiford Rental, Sales and Service on Columbus Road from April 7 to April 11. From April 14 to April 18, the display will be at WMVO Radio Station, and from April 21 to April 25 it will be on the square in the village of Fredericktown.

Also in the morning, the commissioners met with Roger Shooter, director of the Jobs & Family Services Department, who presented the February unemployment statistics for Knox County. According to Shooter, Knox County had an unemployment rate of 5.8 percent in February, which was a decrease from the January rate of 6.5 percent. The rate in Knox County was marginally higher than the national average of 5.2 percent, but under the state average of 6 percent.

The meetings in the afternoon concerned agriculture in the county. Stockberger was unable to be present for the afternoon sessions.

Doug Givens of the Philander Chase Corp. met with the commissioners to discuss the Ohio Agricultural Easement Purchase Program. The first item Givens had was a resolution of support for the program.

“I do need you to pass the resolution, which ... says ‘we support the applications [to the program],’” said Givens. “This is just a resolution that the state requires of all counties and townships where the properties are located that participate in this program.”

The commissioners passed the resolution.

Givens presented a draft proposal for the program and said it was now moving out of its pilot stage. “The name ... is ‘From Pilot to Further Progress,’” said Givens.

One of the changes proposed is moving the administration of the program to a more local level. Givens said that he and others involved in the project want to “take it out of the state’s control,” and “push that out to the counties.”

This means that if the changes are approved, local entities would decide what they would protect, rather than those issues being ruled on at the state level. Givens also said some counties may have less agricultural infrastructure than others, and there is talk of organizing into regional areas composed of several counties.

The deadline for submitting applications to the program is May 23, and Givens and the commissioners agreed to have matching funds figures ready by the deadline. However, one figure not available to the commissioners is the amount of funds they would have available to contribute to the program, because tax revenues for the county are still not final.

The final meeting of the day concerned the proposed barns for raising chickens on the McDonald farm north of Mount Vernon, near Ohio 3. Jim McDonald and his wife, Martha, were present, along with Charlie Bratton of Danville. Bratton is also planning on opening a slightly different type of chicken operation on Ohio 205. The meeting was also attended by Rob Clendening of the Knox Soil & Water Conservation District.

One of the main motivations for wanting to build this new facility, according to Jim McDonald, is that current fertilizer prices are so high.

“We decided to put in one of these facilities to get the manure,” he said. “With current fertilizer prices the way they are ... with the acres that we’re farming, we do need the extra manure.”

McDonald said he thought the undertaking would not be a problem, because it is by no means a megafarm, as the number of chickens at the facility would never exceed 75,000.

“How do we distinguish that it’s still a family farm?” asked Wise, noting that others have been saying that the new facility would, in fact, be a megafarm. Clendening responded to the question by saying that a big part of the definition was in people’s perception of what a family farm is.

“A lot of times people have ... a quaint idea of what the family farm is,” said Clendening, adding that a lot of times the definition comes down to ownership of the farm. Martha McDonald said the new facility could be managed by the labor of one person, and that it would produce less manure than a 50-cow dairy farm.

Jim McDonald said his family’s farm is defined as a small to moderate farm, and also said that any odors that might emanate from the facility are part of living in the country.