Members of the Jones family live in houses set back along the two-lane blacktop road that splits their sprawling fields. For them, life is a 24/7 computer-controlled operation that employs 12 to 15 workers who help care for - and milk - up to 2,400 black-and-white Holsteins.
Sean Jones and his younger brother, Andy, 39, also graduates of Virginia Tech, handle the dairy operation. Their brother David, 45, is the mechanic for the family's fleet of farm machinery. Their father, Lester Jones, 65, works selling farm equipment.
Four grandchildren are in the family, none old enough to have made any decisions about the work they'll pursue.
Councilman Fithian acknowledges that in pushing to preserve its agricultural heritage, Kent County has acquired a reputation for being less than friendly to business and development.
"When you have zoning as tight as we do, you get a bit of that reputation that's going to lose us some projects," says Fithian, a former waterman who is town manager of Rock Hall. "If there is a downside, it's that too many of our young people have to leave for jobs."
He adds: "In balance, though, it's a nice place to live, and most people feel the same way. ...
"We long ago determined that we didn't want smokestacks. We want marinas, sailing centers, tourism and agriculture."
chris.guy@baltsun.com
Kent County
Population: 19,983
Kent is Maryland's smallest county, 179,840 acres
About 85 percent of land -- 152,096 acres -- zoned for agriculture.
