In 2011 we located a small piece of property with excellent soil in a meth ridden community called Falls City, Oregon. We cleaned up the property, secured the fencelines, got a house together, painted it and of all things began growing vegetables. That is when the trouble began.
The first problem showed up when we fenced our back line. The house back there behind us, was owned by a Laura Britton and Lori Sickles. When they discovered we were cutting the brush and they could no longer party on OUR property or dump tires the trouble began. Lori Sickles was on city council, so she immediately began bashing our vegetables in the city council meeting and said that the city should not give a permit for selling vegetables. Vegetable sales dropped from $100 a day to nothing. In a town that is a food desert. We kept cutting brush and started selling in vegetable markets. By May 2014 the little Akha woman Michu, who runs the farm, who plants the vegetables, who nurses them out of the greenhouse, was selling in three county markets and offering CSA boxes for $22 a week, no prepay, no obligation. A hit in Polk County. Falls City Council was not amused and began fining us at the rate of $500 a hit. So far $2,000 in "code violation fines. (see google maps for 137 Sheldon Ave Falls City Oregon and you will see a farm, a farm that looks like a park, two small greenhouses, rows upon rows of vegetables. Then look around town on google maps and see what else you see.) So now we have spent more than $5,000 on attorney fees for the rights to grow vegetables. Residential neighborhood. No vegetable production for sale. That is their claim. But what harm is it doing? This is what is wrong with America. http://www.Akhafarm.com
When the property was growing pot last year and all trashy, there were no citations. We clean it up and there are citations.
We fight back. City Manager Amber Mathiesen is a vile toxic person.
Falls City, Oregon is a town of 900 people located in Polk County, Oregon (home to the DRAGONS - from KKK days)