Abutter Compensation

[Amber Gold]

I'm looking at another sugar bush to expand into next year...~12.5 acres worth of reds. The property owner has a rectangular shaped property (short side to the road, long side into the woods) and the reds are in a band across the middle of his property. The mainline would be set up across his property becuase it is the direction of the topography. To make this work well, everything would flow into a tank on his abutter's property where there is conveniently a driveway, electricity, and possibly a water source. Because the abutter is key to making this work well (it saves me from installing a 2200' vac. line and then a 2200' pump line to get the sap out), I want to get the abutter under agreement as well. What is the proper compensation for the abutter? Obviously paying for the electric usage, but what about property access and land rental for the tank which would be there all year?

[tuckermtn]

Josh- I have a similar set up with the tank on an abutters property. its all going to depend on the owner. We plug the vac pump in at his garage and he plows out the area. he even checks on the pump and releaser when he gets home. He likes having us there. I give him $30 for the power (more than I use) and then he gets a gallon of syrup...

how many taps in the new area?

[Amber Gold]

12.5 acres so I'm guessing about 1000 taps assuming 80 taps per acre. I'm not sure what the typical tap count density is of swamp maples. This section of the woods is primarily red maples.

Do you have an agreement with them? I'm not sure if I'd want to move forward with this without getting an agreement from both property owners.

[tuckermtn]

no formal agreement...

for a thousand taps I would do just about whatever it takes...