WAWARSING – The New York State Office of General Services (OGS) hopes to lease out the farmland previously used by the Department of Correctional Services (DOCS) as soon as possible — but they're running into a bit of a snag in the process.

The farmland was previously part of the DOCS's prison rehabilitation program, but when the state needed to trim expenses out of their budget last November, they decided to discontinue the farm programs at prisons all across rural areas of New York. This April, the state made the land available to private agricultural enterprises that wish to lease it for their own use.

Trying to take advantage of the newly available land, Anthony Sicari, Sr., who seeks for his Gardiner-based company Souture Holdings, LLC, to become the state's largest solar energy farm, won the high bid on Colony Farm on Route 209 in Wawarsing.

The issue, of course, is that 'solar farming' isn't actually farming in the state's book.

"[Farming is] the planting of crops — cash crops," said Thomas Pohl, an attorney with OGS, the state agency in charge of vetting the enterprises looking to lease the land. After winning the bid, Sicari was told that using the land for solar farming would not be permissible, since it's being leased out so that the land doesn't become fallow, and therefore, unusable.

"Mr. Sicari knew what he was bidding on, there's no question about that, because he had ample time to investigate and ask questions."

As of Monday, Sicari had not responded to OGS's land-use denial, and Pohl said that he had until the end of the week to respond with an appropriate land-use proposal before the office would move onto the next-highest bidder. In addition, many of the bid-winners who were sent leases have yet to respond with signed leases and rent payments. And time, said Pohl, is running out.

"We thought their own deadlines would push it, because the growing season's starting right now," he said. "We thought that they would be getting back to us. A couple of them have, and we expect that…those that are not in by the end of the week are probably not going to proceed. We'll be looking for them every day this week."

Pohl said that James Czub of West Wind Farms out of Schaghticoke, NY, had signed a lease for 315 acres of farmland from Eastern Correctional Facility. Other than that, the only other high-bidder to have responded as of Monday was for land in western New York.

The different plots of farmland available for lease are designated for a variety of crops, such as corn, alfalfa, and pasture and grassland.

Calls placed to Sicari were not returned as of press time. In March, it was reported that Sicari and his son, Anthony Jr., were exploring possible locations for their solar farm operations at a 20 acre plot at the Honey Farm in Gardiner, and a 25 acre plot roughly a mile south of the intersection of Routes 208 and 300 in Wallkill.

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