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By DAPHNE HUTCHINSON
Rappahannock New* Staff Writer
Calling fruit production “the only viable agricultural industry for Rappahannock County right now” and insisting that local farm labor is “really a myth,” Newbill Miller led his fellow planning commissioners to a compromise recommendation on a migrant labor camp after a protracted debate at last Wednesday's public hearing.
At issue is a special exception application from orchardist Alex Sharp to expand his existing camp in Harris Hollow to house 16 migrants and allow the facility to be used year round. (Mr. Sharp’s 1984 permit, clarified last year by the Board of Zoning Appeals, limits the camp to 10 migrants and specifies that they may be housed there only during the apple harvest season.)
Until last year’s BZA ruling, Mr. Sharp conceded, the camp was used beyond the seasonal time limit and by more than 10 migrant laborers. “That clarification left us a little short of what we need to effectively operate,” said the orchardist, who farms about 400 acres of apples, primarily on leased property, and owns and runs the Sperryville apple packing and cold storage plant.
The apple business is labor intensive, he told the planning commissioners. “We have to be able to get and keep good labor throughout the season. Housing is the key.”
And the labor demand is not limited to the harvest months, he continued. Pruning begins in November and continues through April; then the blossoms on the trees are hand thinned. “We don’t need as many workers for that as we do for the harvest, but we do need some to get the job done,” he said, noting that his pruning crew now numbers about a dozen, half migrants and half local help. “They’ve been at it consistently since November and they’re not finished yet.”
With a special exception permit, the workers - now staying in a rented house near Sperryville — could use the migrant facility, which includes a dormitory, bathhouse, kitchen and dining hall, Mr. Sharp said. “As a site, it’s pretty well screened,” he said, noting that the camp is 600 to 700 feet from the property line of neigh
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