County board funds extension service work
by Peter Bodley
Managing Editor
The Anoka County Board will spend $331,535 in 2012 on extension services operated by the University of Minnesota.
The county board unanimously approved a resolution allocating the dollars from its proposed 2012 budget as well as an agreement with the University of Minnesota for providing extension programs in the county and employing the staff to run them.
According to Pat Morreim, regional director based at the county’s Bunker Hills Activities Center, the agreement with the university remains basically the same as it was in 2011.
No increase has been added to the cost of the positions for the fourth straight year, Morreim said.
But there is a reduction in the part-time 4-H position that works with special programs and is funded almost exclusively with grant dollars and fees, she said.
Because of a drop in dollars from grants, the position has been reduced from a .6 FTE to a .35 FTE.
Under the agreement, there are two full-time extension staff people working in Anoka County on extension programs paid for by the board, plus two part-time, one .6 FTE and the other .35 FTE.
One of the full-time people handles 4-H youth development club programs and the other the 4-H youth teaching youth programs, while the .6 FTE coordinates the Anoka County Master Gardener program and the .35 FTE works on 4-H youth development.
“4-H youth development and master gardener programs are growing in the number of youth and volunteers involved, as well as in the programming offered to Anoka County residents,” Morreim said.
“This is a result of the strong support of the Anoka County Board.”
Both Morreim and Carol Skelly, the youth teaching youth program director, are retiring at the end of the year.
Morreim has been working on county extension programs since 1979, while Skelly has served 25 years, including starting the youth teaching youth program in schools 24 years ago.
Peter Bodley is at peter.bodley@ecm-inc.com
