The Cherokee County Nickels for Know-How Referendum will be held on Thursday, November 17, 2022.

Douglas Clement,  County Referendum Chairman and County Extension Director,  saidthe established polling place will be the N.C. Cooperative Extension – Cherokee County Center located at 40 Peachtree Street, Suite 208 in Murphy NC from 8 AM to 4PM. 

The referendum is being held to let users and producers of feed or fertilizer decide if they wish to continue the self-assessment program. This program has been in place since 1948, and the law requires that a new referendum be held every six years.

 A 2/3 favorable vote will mean that growers are willing to continue to assess themselves to support agricultural research and education. The assessment is fifteen cents per hundred pounds on feed and fertilizer produced in North Carolina.

The funds, about $1.4 million annually, are collected by the North Carolina Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services and then allocated by the NC Carolina Agricultural Foundation, Inc.'s 148 volunteer Board of Directors to support agricultural research and extension projects at North Carolina State University benefitting agriculture in North Carolina.