Marshall and Hutchinson Regional Office Blog

Good Morning: I hope you have had a good week. I think we can all agree that it can stop raining anytime. This morning I was visiting with Extension Climatologist Mark Seeley. Mark indicates that the month of October will go into the records for many communities in our region, including Marshall, Redwood Falls, Montevideo and Willmar where six or seven or more inches of rain fell in the month. Mark indicates that historical records show that you would need to go back to 1915 or 1919 to find a similar year. On a more positive note, Mark is predicting a string of dry and warm days beginning on Tuesday of next week.

A few other things to share this week:

Budgets: All of our counties have now acted on their preliminary 2010 budgets. These budgets will now go through the public hearing process before final adoption in December. It is possible that the budgets could change prior to the final budget adoption. As we all know this is a difficult budget year for counties as they deal with the unallottment, recalculation of County Program aid and try to limit property tax increases. The 2009 budgets for the eight counties in our region totaled 922,037 dollars. The 2010 preliminary budgets for the eight counties totals $915,630 which represents a seven tenths of one percent reduction. Where reductions were made, the reductions were consistent with the discussion and direction given at the County Extension Committee meetings. If you have individual county budget questions, please give me a call.

My Schedule: My schedule has changed a bit in the last week as my son had a setback, which required me to use another day of family medical leave. I would expect that I may have more changes in the next few weeks. My Outlook calendar is current, so feel free to view and schedule as needed.

Happy Halloween.

Bob

Posted by byrne007 at 4:23 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Good Afternoon: I hope you have all had a good week. This week I am getting this blog message back on schedule. As you know, this blog message goes to the County and Regional Support staff. Feel free to share this message with others in your office. And as always, feel free to add your comments or input to this blog.

Extension Committee meetings: In my last message I listed the upcoming Extension Committee meeting dates. Because of changes in my personal schedule I needed to change a couple of dates. This change affects Lyon and Redwood Counties. The current Extension Committee meeting schedule in November is November 5: Redwood; November 9: Kandiyohi, Chippewa and Lincoln; November 12, Yellow Medicine; November 17, Lac qui Parle; November 30, Renville; December 3, Lyon. Please send out the meeting notices from your office a week or so prior to your county's meeting.

Extension Committee agenda topics: On the agenda will be committee performance input for the PC"s, NEA's, Local EE's and RD. Performance input forms have been sent to the Committee Chair.

Extension Committee agendas: Please be sure that the program reports for m your local staff and the budget reports are sent to Mary Jo at the Marshall Regional Office prior to the meeting for inclusion in the agenda packet.

On a Personal note, here is an update on our family situation. Our son Brian was released from Hennepin County Medical Center yesterday afternoon. He will be home with us in Marshall for continued rehabilitation and therapy. He is expected to fully recover from his brain injury, but just as with injury, the recovery takes time. My Mother-in-law has moved in with us to help with the supervision.
We are very fortunate that Brian's accident occurred just blocks away from one of the best trauma hospitals in the state. We appreciate all the prayers and words of support over the past three weeks.

Posted by byrne007 at 7:42 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Good Afternoon: This week's message is a few days late or a few days early depending on what week you are on. My weeks have been a bit jumbled lately. I'll try to give a brief update in this message.

My Schedule: I returned to work today and am in the Marshall Office. Tomorrow, (Wednesday) I will be in the Redwood, Renville, Kandiyohi and Hutchinson offices. Thursday I will be at a Regional Director meeting in Mankato. On Friday, and perhaps some or much of next week I will be off attending to my son's medical condition.

Brian's hospitalization: My family appreciates the prayers and words of support for our son Brian. Brian remains hospitalized at Hennepin County Medical Center. Late this week we hope to learn how much longer his hospitalization will continue as well as what level of treatment and support he will need when he returns home. I won't go into any more details in this message as those details can be found on his caring bridge website

Extension Committee meetings: All of our counties in the region have Extension Committee meetings in November. Mary Jo will be assembling the agenda packets. Please send her the current budget updates, program reports from the 4H PC, NEA's and Local EE's for inclusion in the packet. Also, please send the meeting notices from your office a week or two prior to the meeting. The meeting schedules are as follows: November 9: Kandiyohi, Chippewa and Lincoln; November 12: Yellow Medicine; November 17: Lac qui Parle; November 19: Redwood and Lyon; November 30: Renville.

My schedule continued: I keep my calendar current, so feel free to view, schedule meetings etc as needed.

University gifts: Each of you have a gift from the University. Over the next week or so I will try to have the gifts delivered to your offices.

Bob

Posted by byrne007 at 8:37 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

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

Redwood Move: As I said in my last blog, the Redwood Extension Office will relocate next Friday, October 9 to the new Redwood County Government Center. The physical address is 403 Mill Street in Redwood Falls. The postal mailing address of Box 130 remains unchanged.

Ag Resources: A revised Farm Resource Card has been produced. The card is a quick reference for you and others on those frequently asked questions like how do I contact the Farm Information Line? What are the current Custom Rates for harvesting or fall tillage? Where can I access the latest Farm Management information and who are the Extension resources in this region to contact? I encourage you to print cards for your and the public use. Please discard previous versions of the card.

Your feedback please: One of the features of a blog is the comments option. I encourage you to use this function on the blog if you have comments questions, or information to share with this blog subscriber list.

Fall Program Conference: Next week, October 5 - 7, I along with the Regional Educators will be attending the Extension Fall Program Conference in Saint Paul.

Have a good weekend.

Bob

Posted by byrne007 at 3:12 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)