A22-Lancas*«r Farming, Saturday, Dacembar 13,1986
BYEDSHAMY
Special to Lancaster Farming
Experimentation has long been
part of the cooperative extension
service in Pennsylvania. But it has
come traditionally in the
laboratories and test plots of Penn
State University.
Now, spending cutbacks in the
federal budget are requiring the
extension service to do some ex
perimentation on its own
operations in Lehigh and Nor
thampton counties.
-The neighboring counties, hit
with the attrition loss of county
agents since the late 19705, are
beginning to cooperate and are
taking steps toward merging their
operations.
Penn State officials admit they
are watching the Lehigh and
Northampton activities with a
careful eye, trying to determine if
they can offset financial funding
setbacks in other parts of the
commonwealth with similar
mergers.
Since July, Lehigh and Nor
thampton have shared a common
extension director. They are
poised to hire a horticulturist to
serve both counties and this week
(EDITORS: WEEK OF DEC. 8)
began screening applicants for a
food and nutrition post.
It may be just a matter of time
before the two operations share an
office.
“As the federal dollars are
decreased, we’re going to have to
look more and more to the state
and counties for help,” said Dr.
Wayne Hinish, an associate
director of Pennsylvania’s ex
tension service at Penn State.
So far, the counties have been
shouldering the responsibility.
Lehigh County commissioners
and Northampton County council
Examine the Patz features
that provide dependability.
Lehigh-Northampton Extension To Merge
members have agreed to include
$13,500 in their respective 1987
fiscal year budgets to pay for a
horticulturist.
When the position is filled, in the
first months of next year, it will
pay about $lB,OOO annually. The
rest of the money will go toward
employee benefits and the coun
ties’ share of unemployment in
surance.
Extension service executive
committee members in the two
counties support the joint em
ployee proposal.
Robert Leiby, who directs the
extension service offices in Lehigh
and Northampton counties, said
many of the officials were con
vinced of the need for a hor
ticulturist earlier this year, when
two sets of statistics were
assembled to support the need.
The Pennsylvania Nurserymen’s
Association estimated that the sale
of horticultural, nursery and sod
products in the two counties
generated $36.2 million in sales
annually, said Leiby.
And calls to the two offices in
which horticultural information
was requested were monitored for
three weeks in April and May.
During the period, 844 calls came
into the two offices some from
the 670 commercial growers and
others from amateurs and more
than 100 of the calls never received
a response because of the heavy
workload of the county agents.
Leiby is an agronomist,
specializing in potato crops. His
colleague in Lehigh County, Dave
Dunbar, specializes in dairy
sciences. Cynthia Walls, also an
agent in the Lehigh office,
specializes in family topics such as
financial management and
sociology.
Lehigh County has been without
CAN YOU GO THRU ANOTHER SEASON
WITH YOUR PRESENT GUTTER CLEANER?
a horticultural agent since the late
19705.
Northampton County has done
without an agent assigned
specifically to horticulture since
1984. There were four agents in the
county office when Joel Simmons
resigned his horticulturist job to
accept a post elsewhere.
In March, extension home
economist Mary Ellen Newman
left the Northampton County office
to accept an extension job in
Maryland. She was not replaced.
In June, Northampton County
Extension Director Charles
Fomey retired, taking with him his
knowledge of horticulture. He was
not replaced.
The attrition left dairy specialist
Greg Solt and 4-H agent Beth
Teaford to hold down the fort.
Leiby joined them in July, and
has had to learn the mechanics of
working in another country.
Lehigh and Northampton
counties have different forms of
government and the bookkeeping
tasks for which he is responsible
are different in the two counties.
He said he spends about a day a
week in Northampton County,
contributing where he can his
agronomy skills.
This week, Leiby, Walls and
Penn State representatives began
sifting through the applications for
the new home economist position
they will fill in Northampton
County. The position will be funded
by Penn State with a blend of state
and federal funds, said Leiby.
That has been the traditional
form of placing agents in Penn
sylvania’s counties, with the
university supplying the
specialists and paying their
salaries and the counties providing
office space, clerical workers and
vehicles.
Leiby said the Northampton
home economist would be hired for
food and nutrition skills, to com
plement Walls’ family
management skills in Lehigh
County. The pair could then assist
in one another’s counties, he said.
The home economists’ job, which
will also pay about $lB,OOO a year to
start, should be filled by Feb. 1, he
said.
After the extension agents are all
in place, attention may have to
turn to office space, according to
Leiby.
For years, rumors have cir
culated that the Lehigh County
extension service would be
removed from the county cour
thouse in Allentown.
With space in the courthouse at a
premium, county commissioners
could at any time decide to make
the building available only to
Dairymen Inc. Returns $16.4 Million
LOUISVILLE, Ky. - Members
of Dairymen Inc. who market milk
through their 16-state regional
milk marketing cooperative are
now receiving equity checks and
equity reinvestment confirmation
notices totaling $16.4 million.
This payment to approximately
8,000 equity holders throughout the
middle Atlantic and southeastern
states represents the retirement of
$13.8 million of per unit capital
retains and patronage dividends
allocated to members’ accounts
for the fiscal year which ended
Aug. 31, 1981, together with the
retirement of approximately $2.6
million of Member Equity Rein
vestment Program Series 1983
investments eligible for redemp
tion.
Dairymen’s Corporate Board of
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solution:
Proven Dependable
Glitter Cleaning
Patz gives you strength
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court-related offices and require
the extension service to move.
“Potentially, we would look at
making one central office” with
Northampton County, he said.
Northampton County now has its
extension offices in the Gracedale
complex in Upper Nazareth
Township, just west of Nazareth.
Hinish of Penn State said of
ficials at the university would
watch the Lehigh and Nor
thampton activity with interest as
a possible solution to cutting costs.
“It will be decided entirely by
the two counties,” said Hinish.
“We would look favorably upon
it.”
He said he expected to discuss
with Leiby next summer how
practical the task of managing
both county offices was for one
director.
Directors authorized the
retirement of this member equity
at its September 1988 board
meeting. Each year the board
must take the necessary action to
authorize the retirement of
member equity under the
cooperative’s revolving program.
This year equity was again retired
on a five-year revolving cycle
one of the shortest retirement
cycles in existence among dairy
cooperatives.
Dairymen members have in
vested in their cooperative $BB
million at the close of the fiscal
year on Aug. 31, 1988. This strong
member equity position is im
portant for Dairymen in carrying
out its marketing programs and in
continuing to retire member equity
on such a short revolving cycle.
Patz