Alumnus works to preserve county’s agricultural heritage
Value-added agriculture is a family affair for Franky, Sarah and Connor Howard, here visiting a field of blooms that Sarah will sell as cut flowers at a farmers’ market.
Photo by Marc Hall
Unlike many young people these days, Franky Howard left for college determined to return to his rural home to start his career and family. Today the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences alumnus is trying to help lay a foundation that will allow coming generations to follow a similar path, creating fulfilling lives in the county he grew up in.
Howard is county manager of Jones County. Located in southeastern North Carolina, it’s a place where farm fields and forests line the roads, where there isn’t any traffic congestion – and where there isn’t much traffic in the first place.
Progressive Farmer recently rated Jones – population 10,207 — as the best rural county in North Carolina to live in. And Howard agrees.
Though he was born in Haiti, he calls the county home and says his first memories are of growing up on his family’s farm in Jones County.
After graduating high school and earning 15 college credits through Lenoir Community College, he went on to receive his N.C. State University bachelor’s degree in agricultural business management in just three years. He also earned a minor in horticultural science.
When he graduated on May 15, 2004, he had a job lined up back home, doing horticultural work for an area golf and country club. And on May 22, he married his high-school sweetheart, Sarah.
Within nine months, he got a job with Murphy Brown and then went to work as an agricultural agent with North Carolina Cooperative Extension’s Jones County Center. After two years there, Howard applied for the county manager’s seat when it became vacant.
Appointed as county manager when he was just 24, Howard is undoubtedly one of the youngest county managers in the state. The job calls for him to work with the county commissioners while overseeing a $10 million annual county budget and 110 employees.
“You have to wear many hats. I am the budget officer and the personnel officer and the planning department,” he says.
To get off to a good start, Howard got coaching from his predecessor, Larry Meadows, who’d served in the position for 32 years. He also signed up for the statewide city and county managers’ association, quickly learning that other counties face the same challenges as Jones.
“Being able to see what goes on in other counties is very helpful,” Howard said. “I’m not afraid to call neighboring counties because I think there’s no such thing as a stupid question.”
Today, Howard sees his biggest challenge as preserving the county’s agricultural heritage as the farming population ages and as development pressures rise.
While he was an Extension agent, he helped organize a Farm Bureau Young Farmers and Ranchers group in the county to encourage young people to find ways to stay – and succeed – on the farm.
Howard sees a future for value-added agricultural enterprises such as selling produce to farmers’ markets. His wife has started such an operation on her mother’s property. She grows cut flowers and sells them at a nearby farmers’ market. Deep Gulley Gardens, as the business is called, grew out of a plan that Howard had to write for one of his N.C. State classes.
Service industries also will grow, Howard predicts. That’s because the county’s population is expected to increase as people choose to live there and commute to nearby places such as New Bern, Jacksonville and Havelock.
Howard also sees the county as a potential home for retirees who are drawn to nearby New Bern’s amenities but who want to have a hobby farm.
Tourism, too, holds potential.
“It’s one of the biggest things we could capture. We have open lands, a mill pond and the Trent River,” which could be promoted to canoers and kayakers.
“There’s an opportunity for anyone who’s creative to stay here,” he says.
As for him, while “the average tenure for a county manager is five to seven years,” he says, “I have no plans for leaving. This is where I want to be.”
— Dee Shore
Howard is county manager of Jones County. Located in southeastern North Carolina, it’s a place where farm fields and forests line the roads, where there isn’t any traffic congestion – and where there isn’t much traffic in the first place.
Progressive Farmer recently rated Jones – population 10,207 — as the best rural county in North Carolina to live in. And Howard agrees.
Though he was born in Haiti, he calls the county home and says his first memories are of growing up on his family’s farm in Jones County.
After graduating high school and earning 15 college credits through Lenoir Community College, he went on to receive his N.C. State University bachelor’s degree in agricultural business management in just three years. He also earned a minor in horticultural science.
When he graduated on May 15, 2004, he had a job lined up back home, doing horticultural work for an area golf and country club. And on May 22, he married his high-school sweetheart, Sarah.
Within nine months, he got a job with Murphy Brown and then went to work as an agricultural agent with North Carolina Cooperative Extension’s Jones County Center. After two years there, Howard applied for the county manager’s seat when it became vacant.
Appointed as county manager when he was just 24, Howard is undoubtedly one of the youngest county managers in the state. The job calls for him to work with the county commissioners while overseeing a $10 million annual county budget and 110 employees.
“You have to wear many hats. I am the budget officer and the personnel officer and the planning department,” he says.
To get off to a good start, Howard got coaching from his predecessor, Larry Meadows, who’d served in the position for 32 years. He also signed up for the statewide city and county managers’ association, quickly learning that other counties face the same challenges as Jones.
“Being able to see what goes on in other counties is very helpful,” Howard said. “I’m not afraid to call neighboring counties because I think there’s no such thing as a stupid question.”
Today, Howard sees his biggest challenge as preserving the county’s agricultural heritage as the farming population ages and as development pressures rise.
While he was an Extension agent, he helped organize a Farm Bureau Young Farmers and Ranchers group in the county to encourage young people to find ways to stay – and succeed – on the farm.
Howard sees a future for value-added agricultural enterprises such as selling produce to farmers’ markets. His wife has started such an operation on her mother’s property. She grows cut flowers and sells them at a nearby farmers’ market. Deep Gulley Gardens, as the business is called, grew out of a plan that Howard had to write for one of his N.C. State classes.
Service industries also will grow, Howard predicts. That’s because the county’s population is expected to increase as people choose to live there and commute to nearby places such as New Bern, Jacksonville and Havelock.
Howard also sees the county as a potential home for retirees who are drawn to nearby New Bern’s amenities but who want to have a hobby farm.
Tourism, too, holds potential.
“It’s one of the biggest things we could capture. We have open lands, a mill pond and the Trent River,” which could be promoted to canoers and kayakers.
“There’s an opportunity for anyone who’s creative to stay here,” he says.
As for him, while “the average tenure for a county manager is five to seven years,” he says, “I have no plans for leaving. This is where I want to be.”
— Dee Shore