The Guthrie County Board of Supervisors met with the fourth party interested in purchasing the former Country View Estates location.

Connor Delaney represented a group from Cherry Glen Learning Farm in Polk City, which teaches sustainability and agriculture practices to community members. Delaney says the group is interested in turning the Guthrie County property into a similar farm that aims to teach veterans agricultural skills. “There’s a number of things about this site that are very comparable to the Cherry Glen Learning Farm. One of those things if you have tiled water running into the pond on the west side of it. We’re utilizing water from tile at the Cherry Glen Learning Farm. We’re thinking that if we can get veterans here to utilize this farm, we can set up a drip irrigation system similar to the one at the Cherry Glen Learning Farm, and really maximize profits on cultivating table foods, we’re talking $40,000/acre cultivating carrots and $50,000/acre cultivating chestnuts.”

Delaney says he’s already working with veteran organizations to drum up individuals interested in learning the agricultural trade. “I would like to use these veteran organizations I’m working with, to funnel veterans through this program that over a year or two empowers them to not only be farmers and qualify for major farmer subsidies, but also learning how to cultivate $30,000-$40,000/acre cultivating table foods.”
Delaney and other representatives from the Cherry Glen Learning Farm plan to meet with the Board again at a future meeting.