Farmers were front and center at Thursday’s Lawrence County Commission meeting as the Farm Bureau asked the commissioners to be their allies in the future.

“We need a voice in America more than before,” George Fuller, an Aid farmer and member of the Farm Bureau, said. “We have lost leadership in our country that knows what is going on in rural America.”

Members of the county Farm Bureau along with two students from the Future Farmers of America organization presented the commissioners with baskets of homemade items in preparation for National AgDay on March 19.

“We are blessed to have commissioners who come from a rural background,” Fuller said. “We might partner up with you to give us that voice. You are close to some of the Senators, some of the Congressmen. Your voice might be a little louder than ours.”

All three commissioners spoke in support of the area’s farming community before declaring March 17 through March 24 as Agriculture Week.

“Farming is the occupation most trusted in the United States,” Commission President Bill Pratt said. “We need to encourage our young people to continue on that path.”

In other action the commission

• Approved a contract between the county Department of Job and Family Services and the common pleas court;

• Appointed Larry Wilson and Stuart Baldwin to the Local Emergency Planning Committee;

• Awarded 2013 material bids to BWC Trucking for aggregate picked up and delivered, to Marathon Petroleum for liquid asphalt picked up and delivered, to Shelly Materials for hot mix asphalt picked up.

• Received the weekly dog warden report where five dogs were euthanized, 12 were adopted or sent to rescue and one was redeemed by its owner. There were 71 animals remaining at the dog shelter.