Marshall and Hutchinson Regional Office Blog

Good Afternoon: I hope you have had a good week. A few things to share with you this week.

Meeting room availability: You have or will soon receive a request to provide information to update the data base for meeting rooms in your county that have internet and phone availability. Please respond to this request to Janel in the Hutchinson Regional Office for Kandiyohi and Renville and Mary Jo in the Marshall Regional Office for Lincoln, Lyon, Redwood, Yellow Medicine, Lac qui Parle and Chippewa counties.

Extension Committee meetings: All of our counties in the region have Extension Committee meetings in July. At these meetings the agenda will include program reports, report from the summer 4H Intern and the 2010 budget proposal. Please be sure the program reports and budget updates are provided to Mary Jo prior to the meeting for inclusion in the agenda packet. Also, please let me know what program staff will be attending the July Extension Committee meeting in your county.

2010 Budget Proposals. I have prepared the 2010 budget proposal to fit within the direction given by county administration. Based on that direction the budget proposals for our counties reflect a range from an increase of 1.5% to a decrease of 4.5 per cent. Budget proposals also include any existing salary agreement that is in place in the county for 2010.

July 3: The Regional Offices will be closed next Friday, July 3 for the Independence Day Holiday.

Enjoy your weekend.

Bob

Posted by byrne007 at 9:13 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Good Morning: I hope you have all had a good week. The budget situation for local governments became a bit clearer this week as the Governor announce to unallottment of program aid to counties. While the unallottment amounts are less than they could have been, the reductions are still substantial and will cause counties to make tough decisions was they deal with the current 2009 and 2010 budgets. The following are the unallottment amounts for your counties.

County 2009 CPA reduction 2010 CPA reduction

Chippewa $93,804 $190,451
Kandiyohi 329,020 668,011
Lac qui Parle 50,981 103,507
Lincoln 57,823 117,398
Lyon 161,085 327,051
Redwood 135,405 274,914
Renville 144,277 292,927
Yellow Medicine 97,679 198,317

July Extension Committee Meetings: The following is the schedule for the July Extension Committee meetings. Please have your current budget report and program reports for your PC, Summer Intern, NEA or Educator to the Marshall Regional office a week prior to the meeting so the material can be included in the agenda packet.

County meeting time meeting date

Redwood 4:00 p.m. July 9
Lyon 7:00 p.m. July 9
Kandiyohi 12:00 noon July 13
Chippewa 5:00 p.m. July 13
Lincoln 7:30 p.m. July 13
Renville 7:30 p.m. July 15
Yellow Medicine 7:00 p.m. July 16
Lac qui Parle 4:30 p.m. July 21

Master Gardeners: The Master Gardeners in your counties (with the exception of Kandiyohi county) will be invited to a meeting at the Marshall Regional Office on July 22. The purpose of this meeting is to thank the Master Gardeners for their volunteer service, provide some continuing education, and determine future activity of Master Gardeners and expectations for support for the Master Gardeners locally and regionally. Dave Moen, State Master Gardener Coordinator and I will host the meeting.

Have a great weekend.

Bob

Posted by byrne007 at 5:22 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Good Afternoon: I hope each of you have had a good week. I would like to call your attention to a couple of upcoming trainings:

NEP: As many of you know, the Nutrition Education Program, (NEP) will launch a new data and reporting system at the beginning of the next program year which will begin on October 1. A webinar / UM Connect meeting has been scheduled for July 8 to discuss the transition to the new system, roles and responsibilities of everyone involved in the program delivery, data management and reporting, and training plan. Additional “hands on” training will be held for County staff in mid October.

EAB: Many of you participated in the Emerald Ash Borer, (EAB) UM Connect meeting on June 10. A second session is scheduled for Tuesday, June 16 from 1:30 to 2:30 p.m. The content of each session is the same. Please consult last week’s blog or the June 4 Extension Weekly for the UM Connect phone and log in details.

Welcome Amy Woeste: Amy joined the Marshall Regional Office as Intern this week. Amy will be working with the Farm Family Recognition Program; writing scripts for the program and website, working with medial releases and promoting the releases to the local media. Amy served as summer 4H Intern last summer in Lincoln County.

Finally, as you know I have been preparing the 2010 preliminary budget proposals. Many of our counties are requesting a zero percent adjustment or a reduction for 2010. In nearly all cases we should be able to accomplish this without major impact on local programming due largely to good budget accountability we have practiced for the past number of years.

Enjoy the weekend.

Bob

Posted by byrne007 at 9:11 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Good Afternoon; I hope you have all had a good week. The following article was in this week’s Extension Weekly. I would encourage you to participate in this opportunity.

Please let me know if you have any questions.

Emerald Ash Borer-UMConnect Meetings
The recent discovery of an emerald ash borer (EAB) infestation in St. Paul has caused concern as there are an estimated 900 million ash trees in Minnesota. The MN EDEN team is hosting two UMConnect meetings to provide information about EAB. The presenter is Dr. Jeffrey Hahn, Extension entomologist, who will also cover Extension resources available to assist in responding to inquiries.
The intended audience is county and regional Extension staff who may be receiving calls and questions from consumers. Anyone interested in learning more about EAB and Extension resources is invited to join the meeting. Dial 616-712-8000; access code 766941.
Dates are Wednesday, June 10, and Tuesday, June 16. Both meetings will be held from 1:30 to 2:30 p.m. (content is the same).

Posted by byrne007 at 7:40 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)