Outstanding Hamilton County Farm Family honored

Rick Patrick

Riverbend News

During the regular meeting of the Hamilton County Board of County Commissioners on Tuesday, Sept. 1, the Ben Godwin family was honored as the 2026 Outstanding Farm Family.

Since 1977, the University of Florida/Hamilton County Extension Agriculture Advisory Committee has selected one family each year to receive the award. The Godwin family farm produces peanuts, peas, rye and field corn on approximately 700 acres located throughout Hamilton County. Ben and his wife, Hannah, have two daughters: Lylah (age 4) and Ellie (age 1), with another daughter expected in October.

The commissioners then adopted an ordinance granting an economic development tax exemption to ESA Steele. The manufacturing company has already hired over 100 workers and is growing.

After adopting the ordinance, commissioners heard a presentation from the HamCo Water Smart Initiative about its 2026 swim lessons program. This year, 36 kids participated in the program, which taught basic water safety over a two-week period. Jennifer Gisonni with Florida Youth Charitable, Inc. spoke to the commissioners and requested consideration of shared funding for the summer of 2027. The program's total cost this year was $13,000.

In the final order of business, commissioners decided to allow the county’s road department to take up work to address erosion repairs at the Alapaha Commerce Center. Curt Construction had offered to complete the work for $127,000. The commissioners felt Curt Construction failed to finish the work properly, which led to the erosion problems. Curt Construction was the company originally hired to do the work. The commissioners had considered legal action against Curt Construction.

“You could spend a dollar to save 50 cents,” said County Attorney Andrew Decker in his suggestion to the Commissioners to “let the road department do the work and close the books and move on.” It was stated that renting equipment and sodding would be the largest part of the expenditure.

The next meeting of the Hamilton County Board of County Commissioners will be a special meeting scheduled for Thursday, Sept. 10, at 5:05 p.m. This meeting will be to pass a tentative budget for the 2026-27 fiscal year.