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HomeMy WebLinkAboutAg & Extension 11-02-04 ST. CROIX COUNTY NOTICE OF COMMITTEE MEETING TO: Clarence Malick, Chairman St. Croix County Board FROM: Ronald Raymond, Chairman COMMITTEE TITLE: Agriculture & Extension Committee DATE: November 2, 2004 TIME: 9:00 a.m. LOCATION: Agricultural Services & Education Center CALL TO ORDER ROLL CALL ADOPTION OF AGENDA DATE OF NEXT MEETING ACTION ON PREVIOUS MINUTES ACTION ON VOUCHERS UNFINISHED BUSINESS: ADMINISTRATIVE REPORT • Federal Budget Report • State Budget Report • County Budget Report • Personnel • WACEC AG AGENT'S REPORT • Winter Meeting Update HORTICULTURE AGENT'S REPORT • Community Gardens 2004 Wrap -up • Urban Initiative Horticultural Requests • Spring 2005 Farmer's Market Workshop • Spring 2005 Direct Farm Market Workshop • Winter 2004/2005 Class Schedules for Horticulture RESOURCE AGENT'S REPORT • Small Business Management Advising • County Economic Analysis Project • Drinking Water Testing and Education Programs • Comprehensive Planning Education Activities • New Richmond Business Market Analysis • Legislative Call Trip Findings FAMILY LIVING AGENT'S REPORT • Reading Festival • Evaluation Training for County and Non - profits • Urban Initiative Money • Family Resource Center Point of Entry Meeting • HCE NEW BUSINESS: ANNOUNCEMENTS & CORRESPONDENCE POSSIBLE AGENDA ITEMS FOR NEXT MEETING: ADJOURNMENT (Agenda not necessarily presented in this order.) SUBMITTED BY: Kim Reaman DATE: October 20, 2004 COPIES TO: County Board Office County Clerk News Media/Notice Board Committee Members Unofficial until approved Agriculture & Extension Committee November 2, 2004 Agricultural Service & Education Center Convened: 9:00 a.m. Baldwin Adjourned: 10:50 a.m. Present: Ronald Raymond, Lois Burri, Bill Peavey, Gene Ruetz, Lee Milligan, James Janke, Mary Lestrud. Chairman Raymond called the meeting to order. Date of next meeting was set for December 7, 2004. Ruetz moved that the agenda be adopted as presented. Burri seconded the motion. Motion carried. Ruetz moved that the previous meeting's minutes be approved. Burri seconded the motion. Motion carried. Administrative Report Raymond discussed the County budget process. There was discussion on how to review long -term staffing needs in the UW- Extension Office. Agricultural Agent's Report Milligan reported the Western District ag agents are hosting the Midwest Dairy Herd Health Conference November 10 -11 in Eau Claire. John Vrieze, local dairy producer, will be on a producer panel. Farm financial and strategic planning programs will be held in December. Horticulture Educator's Report Over 4200 pounds of produce was harvested from the St. Croix Valley Community Gardens in 2004. All of this produce was distributed to food pantries and undersefved residents within St. Croix and Pierce counties. Behling will be working with Diana Alfuth to explore the possibility of establishing an additional permanent garden site on the UW -River Falls farms. We will be contacting Brian Smith and Terry Ferris, members of the horticulture staff at UWRF, to determine the possibility and the time frame involved in establishing this additional site. In addition, it is our hope that we may be able to add some landscaping, perennial plant and fruit crops to the garden sites for use as demonstration and educational opportunities for the general public. In 2005, the New Richmond site will set tour dates for the general public and commercial /farm market folks. This is to both bolster the awareness of the gardens to the general population and to help promote new ideas of season extension, pest management, drip irrigation and mulching techniques to the commercial farm arket/produce vendor folks. We will be writing a joint proposal and submitting it to the Western District Urban Initiative review panel for UW- Extension. This initiative is being made available through Dean Leholm's office. It is a two -year competitive initiative, supplying $50,000 a year over the 2 years. The money Unofficial until approved will be split among a few selected projects in the district. In our proposal we will also be including money for salary for a part time individual to help establish the gardens and maintain them throughout the growing season. In the winter of 2004 -2005, Pierce and St. Croix horticulture educators will be offering combined classes for the two - county area. We hope that this will reduce any duplication of work and broaden our audience base. Classes for the upcoming winter will be comprised of basic vegetable gardening, pest management techniques, woody ornamental shrub and tree identification, basics of seed saving and plant breeding and landscape planning and design. Two workshops will be offered in the winter -spring of 2005. The first workshop is for vendors and managers of farmer's markets and will be held on March 5 2005 in Eau Claire. The second workshop will be in Hudson and will be a marketing workshop for direct farm marketers. The list of speakers will mainly be producers with additional talks by UWRF professors Dave Trechter of applied economics and PC Va Savada of the Food Science Department. This workshop will be held Saturday, April 2, 2005 at the Hudson House in Hudson from 9 am until 5 pm. Producers will be surveyed at that time to determine the interest in pursuing a group marketing effort among regional producers. The emerging Agricultural Marketing Team UW- Extension granted a total of $1,000 to us. Family Living Agent's Report Lestrud discussed the Family Living interests for the UW- Extension Urban Initiative money. Ideas include hiring a part-time fund development person to work with the Family Resource Center donor development program, allowing us to raise money to expand services to Pierce and Polk County, hiring a Latino person to work with Extension and the Family Resource Center and the Methodist Church in River Falls to develop a Welcome Center and other services for new immigrants, and to hire a part -time person to explore the feasibility of implementing the community land trust model in the development of affordable housing in St. Croix County. Resource Agent's Report Participation in small business management counseling was down for the month of October. The next counseling session is scheduled in Hudson for November 11. The study group for the County Economic Analysis Project is reviewing the data supplied to them and has been asked to consider goals and actions that they would like to pursue. The next meeting is scheduled for November 4. Janke discussed Drinking Water Program results for Hammond, Pleasant Valley, and Rush River. Forty -five households participated. Eight samples exceeded the drinking water standard for nitrate. Janke displayed a map that indicated some clustering but cautioned about making generalizations from the data because the sample locations were spread unevenly across the towns. Workshops on Comprehensive Planning were held on October 13 and October 27. Over 40 people attended on October 13. The 4opic was transfer of development rights. The second workshop attracted over 30 participants and featured local officials describing their experiences with their comprehensive planning projects. Unofficial until approved Janke presented results of his research on "Legislative Call Trips." Several groups of counties or individual counties organize annual trips to visit with legislators and agency personnel about local issues of concern. Leadership is usually provided by Chambers of Commerce or economic development organizations. Trips often draw large numbers of participants, ranging from 80 to 300. The trips are a major organizational effort requiring substantial local staff time. Preparation usually starts in September, with the trips taking place in January or February. Participants pay for their share of bus transportation, lodging, and meals. Local organizers usually offer training on how to effectively communicate concerns to the legislators and also provide participants with extensive background information about the priority issues in order to increase the effectiveness of the discussions. Peavey moved to adjourn. Burri seconded. Respectively submitted, r r Gene Ruetz Secretary mh