9/22/2009
Neighbors love Jester County Park and Hy-Point Dairy Farm Cows - Community News

In 2002 Councilman Bob Weiner spearheaded a community initiative to preserve Jester County Park along Grubb Road as a passive park for all to enjoy. Today residents enjoy this bucolic and scenic open space with cows, compliments of Hy-Point Dairy Farm. 

Brandywine Hundred as Cowtown?
Neighbors love their suburban farm

By Jesse Chadderdon
Community News
Posted Sep 22, 2009 @ 07:10 AM
Last update Sep 22, 2009 @ 09:43 PM

Brandywine Hundred, Del. —
"Bovinity Divinity."

In Brandywine Hundred, it's more than just a Ben & Jerry's Ice Cream Flavor -- it's a way of life.

Just off of Grubb Road, tucked between Chalfonte and Shipley Woods sits New Castle County's Jester Park. But you won't find soccer fields or playground equipment there, just a dozen of so Black Angus cows and their calves.

And that's just the way the neighbors like it.

Since the 1970s, even before the former owner moved and turned the land over the county, Jay Meany and the other owners of Hy-Point Dairy Farms have leased the land to graze cows.

But Meany's quick to point out that the cows now at Jester aren't dairy cows at all, but are bred to produce livestock the owners  sell.

"It's really not part of the dairy business at all," Meany says. "It's more or less just a hobby we have, not a dairy or beef operation."

In fact, Meany says the company doesn't really even need the space for the cows, but have kept them there because it's tradition -- and because the company's heard time and again from neighbors how much they enjoy the aesthetics of a working farm in their backyard.

Back in 2002, the county had considered developing the 30-acre parcel into a more active recreation site, but neighbors vehemently opposed those efforts. Now, with finance tight in the government, plans to develop the park are off the table, according to Tracy Surles, senior manager for the Department of Special Services.

Pete Steiner, president of the Chalfonte Civic Association, is glad to hear it.

"We love it as a passive recreational site," he says. "We love having that little bit of rural space in the middle of our community."
 

More on Jester Park
Hy-Point has been granted access to the park by New Castle County through a special lease, or "caretaker agreement," which grants Hy-Point use of the farmstead in exchange for upkeep of the property.

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