By Sara Strong
The University of Minnesota Extension Service is among the state-funded agencies anticipating cuts. But the Rock County Board of Commissioners Tuesday said that Extension, with a little restructuring, could stay active and probably not cost the county more.
Local Director Holli Arp and District Director Dave Warner talked about hiring a replacement for the post recently vacated by Educator Fraser Norton.
Now in the office, Arp splits her director duties between Rock County and Pipestone County. Nancy Sandager isn’t an Extension Educator, but works 60 percent time to manage the 4-H program.
Rock County doesn’t have an Extension Educator stationed out of its office, but Arp hopes people remember that the staff that’s there is doing the same amount of work as before, just with different titles and structure.
The local Extension Committee is meeting to discuss the position vacated by Norton and wanted an opinion from the County Board. The Board said it favored holding back on hiring to see how the state budget falls into place.
Warner said he’d prefer to fill Norton’s position, if only temporarily.
Considering that 22 educators are shared among the 14 counties in the Extension region, Commissioner Jane Wildung said an educator should be in Rock County.
Regional educators have areas of specialty and Rock County residents currently have access to all of the educators. But Wildung said, "We need a face in that office."
The University of Minnesota could get $185 million in cuts, so Extension is waiting to see what its share of that could be.
Warner said, "We’re trying to decide what the budget shortfall will mean."
Depending on theories of how the formula will shape up, Extension could lose between $2 million and $5 million.
Warner hopes that when cuts are being made, that they are mostly at the administration and campus levels, rather than county educators.
"You’re going to have to make reductions and Extension could be one of them," Warner told commissioners.
Counties are stepping up payments of their Educator salaries. By 2006, counties will pay 40 percent of the average county agent’s salary. In 2001, the county’s salary payment percentage was 25 percent.
Warner said that Extension will take direction from the state and from counties when deciding how to structure funding and resources.
"If you decide you have to go deeper, that means we have to come up with a different structure and that could be a regional office or cutting services," Warner said.
Extension and its counties are going through the process of signing a memorandum of agreement, which includes the percentage payment of Extension services.
The new agreement also has a provision to cover mileage, meals and lodging, because the regional Extension model causes more travel time.
