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HomeMy WebLinkAboutAg & Extension 11-05-02ST. CROIX COUNTY NOTICE OF COMMITTEE MEETING TO: Clarence Malick, Chairman St. Croix County Board FROM: Chris Bethke, Chairman COMMITTEE TITLE: Extension Ag Committee/Resource & Education Committee DATE: November 5, 2002 TIME: 12:30 p.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 Update • State Budget Update • 2003 County Budget • WACEC Report • Personnel PLANNING DEPARTMENT'S REPORT • Efficiency Grants Update • Appliance Collections RFP • America Recycles Day • Waste Composition Study 4 -H YOUTH AGENT'S REPORT • Plat Book Progress • 4 -11 Promotion/Recruitment — reaching new audiences • 4 -H Club Officer Training • Program Changes for Lead on the Edge 4 -H Camp and Interstate Exchange 1 AG AGENT'S REPORT • Farm Bill Meetings • Yield Contest Plots • Pasture Walk • Farm Safety Program • Dairy Herd Health Conference • Winter Meeting Planning RESOURCE AGENT'S REPORT • Comprehensive Planning Surveys • Comprehensive Planning Workshops • Small Business Management Program • Town of Hammond Park Design Assistance • Northern EDGE Update FAMILY LIVING AGENT'S REPORT • Family Camp • Budget Counseling • HCE Activities • Breaking Barriers With Books • Family Resource Center • Grace Place NEW BUSINESS: ANNOUNCEMENTS & CORRESPONDENCE POSSIBLE AGENDA ITEMS FOR NEXT MEETING: ADJOURNMENT (Agenda not necessarily presented in this order.) SUBMITTED BY: Kim Reaman DATE: October 23, 2002 COPIES TO: County Board Office County Clerk News Media/Notice Board Committee Members Pj- In Ag Extension Committee Minutes November 5, 2002 Agricultural Service & Education Center Convened: 12:30 Baldwin Adjourned: 2:15 Present: Leon Berenschot, Ronald Raymond, Art Jensen, Lois Bum, Dave Fodroczi, Lee Milligan, Kimberly Reaman, and Mary Lestrud The meeting was called to order by Chairman Chris Bethke. Date of next meeting was set for December 3, 2002 Jensen moved that the agenda be adopted as presented. Raymond seconded the motion. Motion carried. Berenschot moved that the previous meeting's minutes be approved. Raymond seconded the motion. Motion carried. Raymond moved that the vouchers be approved. Jensen seconded the motion. Administrative Report The Horticulture Agent position will be posted November 8. The WACEC District 5 meeting will be held on Dec. 12 at the Park Inn and Suites in Eau Claire. Registration information will come to individual homes of committee members. Members are encouraged to register through the Extension Office. Lois Burri and'Leon Berenschot, District 5 President, have expressed an interest in attending the program. Federal Budget Update —No report. State Budget Update —No report. County Budget —No report. Family Living Agent's Report Mary reported on the evaluation results from Family Camp and shared pictures and moving letters from the participants thanking sponsors for the opportunity to learn new parenting skills and to bond as family members. The camp had 32 participants with a wide variety of racial diversity. Mary reported on traveling to Oshkosh to learn more about the Breaking Barriers with Books program for jail inmates. She met with Dr. Margaret Genesio, the author of the program and also saw the program in action at the state prison. Mary will coordinate with the St. Croix County jail to start the program here after the first of the year. The program will benefit inmate children and families as well as the inmates themselves. Mary reported on new research, which shows that inmates are much less likely to re- offend in the 9 years following their release if they attend educational classes in jail (19% compared to 44 %). The New Richmond Community Foundation has given Mary a grant to purchase books and equipment for the program. The Reading Festival reached 150 youth and about the same number of parents. The great majority of parents reported that their children have become more interested in reading as a result of attending the festival, that their family became inspired to read aloud, and that the festival helps them focus on the importance of reading. Mary is currently working on organizing two'fundraising events for the Family Resource Center. One is the Children's Holiday Shopping Spree, which has involved many volunteers including 4H clubs and HCE clubs making items for children to buy for holiday gifts. The other fundraiser is a highly structured public campaign called 500 Hands for Children, which will take place in February with a goal of raising $20,000 in operating money for the center. 4 -H Youth Development Agent's Report Plat Book Progress —The books have not arrived yet. 4 -H Promotion /Recruitment — Reaman shared a new promotional tool, which has been developed to reach people moving into St. Croix County. It's an informational flyer with the basics about joining 4 -H and tear off pieces at the bottom that includes the UWEX Office phone number and the St. Croix County 4 -H Web Site address. Each club has received several copies of the flyer and has been asked to put them up in businesses around their communities. 4 -H Club Officer Training --60 new 4 -H club officers learned about the roles and responsibilities of being an officer, how to run a meeting and large group games to use in their clubs. 10 4 -H Jr. Leaders taught individual sessions so the new officers could learn the specific duties for their office. During the training Reaman lead the older teens in an activity to encourage the older officers to "step out of the box" with their club and how to think about doing things differently to get different results. Lead on the Edge 4 -H Camp —Due to scheduling conflicts with Lead on the Edge 4 -H Camp resulting in low enrollment last summer, Reaman has forged a partnership with a couple of agents in the Northern District to provide a camping /leadership experience for members in the 8 grade and up. Tentatively, it will be an outpost camp experience – tenting and canoeing – in northern Wisconsin. The dates and specific logistics are yet to be worked out. Interstate Exchange — Currently, the 4 -H Interstate Exchange Program includes four counties and members have the opportunity to travel every summer and host the following summer. It has become increasingly difficult to locate a state to exchange with due to the large number of delegates (22 -25) in the exchange. Beginning this summer, the four county partnership has been divided in two. St. Croix County will participate with Dunn County. Due to the split, the 4 -H Interstate Exchange will complete the entire program, which means the group will travel in 2003 and host in 2004 before they have the opportunity to travel again. To accommodate the increase in numbers, which may happen as a result of traveling every other year as opposed to every year, the quota has been increased from 6 to 9 delegates. 2. Agricultural Agent Report , Milligan coordinated a two meeting program on the cropping and conservation provisions of the 2002 Farm Bill. Over 160 producers participated. They learned the provisions of the Farm Bill and how to make decisions for their benefit. Milligan attended World Dairy Expo, and a farm management curriculum development meeting and a dairy- programming meeting. He also attended a planning meeting for the National Ag Agents Conference to be held in Green Bay in 2003. Milligan coordinated and taught a Pasture Walk at the Jim Lund farm. The focus of the presentation was on fall management of pastures and using canola as a forage. Milligan was a yield checker for Jerry and Kurt Afdahl entries in the National Com Growers contest. The best yield was 212 bushels per acre. Farm visits and phone calls include dairy nutrition, steer nutrition and management, corn silage management, crop drying, freestall design, Farm Bill questions, calf housing and various horticulture questions. In November, Milligan will be scheduling winter educational activities. An AIMS workshop has been scheduled for December 5. Other areas of interest include dairy, beef, horse, crop and farm management issues. Milligan is responsible for the development of a PowerPoint presentation and one page fact sheet on capital management in difficult financial times and another on dairy cost control management. This is part of a nine part pocket response to the financial stress producers are experiencing. Milligan will also be teaching five, twenty- minute breakout sessions on farm safety at an Extension sponsored Youth Safety Day in New Richmond. Resource Agent Report Results from the public opinion surveys in Erin Prairie, Stanton, Cylon, and Hudson are being tabulated and analyzed before being presented to the respective towns. Over 30 town board supervisors and plan commissioners from the Heartland town planning group participated in an October 30th workshop on conservation subdivision design. The next Tri- County comprehensive planning workshop is scheduled in Baldwin on the evening of November 12. The topic will focus on the agriculture and natural resources element of comprehensive plans. Small business management counseling was held on October 23 in Hudson with 5 clients. The next counseling date will be in December. The UWEX Small Business Development Center now has a statewide toll -free telephone line that is staffed full time to answer basic questions. Janke distributed copies of an article from the New Richmond News. It describes the business market analysis project. The Town of Hammond contacted Janke regarding potential assistance for designing the recreational facilities on the town's land at the new town hall. Janke made arrangements with a r UWRF professor for two students to use this site as their class project. 3 Planning Department Report DNR Efficiency Grants Update: Fodroczi reported that the Assembly Rules Committee questioned the draft administrative rules for Recycling Efficiency Grants. The rules are to be revised by the DNR to meet concerns. If the revisions are not developed and approved promptly, the funding from this grant could be eliminated for 2003. Appliance Collections RFP: Fodroczi indicated that a Request for Proposals for appliance collection services has been distributed to applicable contractors. He said proposals are due by December 1 st. Staff will present the results and a recommended contractor for 2003 collections at the December Committee meeting. America Recycles Day: The County will participate in America Recycles Day on November 15 The mercury disposal booth from Midwest Recycling Association will be on display that week in the Government Center. Barney will accompany representatives of the American Plastics Council to identify successful plastics recyclers in the Hudson area and distribute cash awards of $100 as part of a national "Get Caught Recycling" promotion on November 15 America Recycles Day. Waste Composition Study: Staff is working on a presentation of a waste composition study of landfills statewide. It will be ready for the December meeting. Jensen moved to adjourn. Raymond seconded the motion. Motion carried. Meeting adjourned. Respectively submitted, Art Jensen Secretary mh ZAMI