He’s turning away big money

NAMPA, Idaho – Ray Odermott thought the 40-acre family farm he grew up on was safe from development.

That was before the Idaho Transportation Department in 2001 decided to build a freeway interchange nearby for this southwestern Idaho city, and land prices jumped from $2,000 to $45,000 an acre. Then retail centers and businesses moved in, pushing land values to $300,000 an acre all around him.

Odermott, 76, did sell about 35 acres of the family farm over the years, but is refusing offers of hundreds of thousands of dollars for the last five acres, some of which still gets farmed.

“I’m small potatoes, but I still have the right to decide whether I want to sell,” Odermott told the Idaho Statesman. “The older I get, the more determined I get.

“I’m not going to join the trend of all this old farmland turning into homes and stores,” he said. “I’m too old to move. It’s the old family place.”

Odermott’s parents came from Switzerland. In 1939, when Ray Odermott was in third grade, they bought the 40 acres that was then north of Nampa. They grew hay and grain and raised dairy cows on the farm that was the size of most other farms in the area, where work was done by hand and with horses.

“Forty to 50 acres was a nice, big farm,” said Leona Grasteit, Odermott’s older sister, who lives in Owyhee County.

But the size of farms began to grow after World War II when machinery began working the fields. And then the area began to diversify with companies that build computers, mobile homes and other items.

Odermott remains unswayed, though he gets regular visits from Russ Keithly, the developer of Treasure Valley Marketplace and Treasure Valley Crossing. He chats with Odermott about how Odermott is doing with the construction and new businesses going up around him.

“I always stop and see Ray,” Keithly said. “It’s been a surprisingly good relationship.”

“He’s taken good care of me,” Odermott said.

Keithly said he would like to buy Odermott’s land for future development, but so far Odermott hasn’t been interested.

“I stand up and applaud his decision,” said Sid Freeman, a longtime Canyon County farmer. “He’s honoring his father in a great way. There’s a huge lesson to be learned by the stance he’s taken.”

Odermott said four generations have lived in his home, which began as a barn built in the 1920s.

“This is where he wants to stay until he’s gone,” Grasteit said. “It’s his life. It’s like a little oasis.”