Released: January 25, 2006

New Extension District Approved For Nemaha, Jackson and Jefferson Counties

MANHATTAN, Kan. – A trend toward the formation of Extension districts in Kansas has taken another step forward, with the recent approval of the Meadowlark Extension District in Nemaha, Jackson and Jefferson counties.

The Meadowlark District was approved in late December, 2005 by the Kansas Attorney General’s office and will become active July 1, 2006. It will be the seventh Extension district formed in Kansas.

“This allows Extension agents to be more specialized in particular subject areas, rather than having to be generalists,” said Dale Fjell, northeast area director with K-State Research and Extension. “For example, rather than having a county agriculture and natural resources agent who would have be responsible for programs on livestock and agronomy, under the district model, there might be one agent responsible only for agronomy and another who can focus on livestock.” In the Meadowlark District, each county will still have an Extension office. Two agents will be based in each office, for a total of six agents in the district, Fjell said.

The agents’ job is to offer an array of unbiased, practical, research-based information and educational programs – whatever the district’s program development committees think is needed.

When forming a district, the counties involved agree to give up their local authority over programming and budgeting. Their replacement is a district Extension Board – elected much as school boards are – with four representatives from each county. The board establishes the needed mill levy for Extension programs.

The district board, in turn, appoints program development committees, each with at least six members per county, plus a board member. Typically, those committees divide by program area to plan Extension efforts in 1) agriculture, horticulture, market gardening, value-added products and forestry; 2) family and consumer sciences; 3) 4-H and other youth development; and 4) leadership, economic or other community development.

Other Extension districts and the counties in them (in parentheses) in Kansas include: River Valley District (Clay, Cloud, Republic and Washington counties); Phillips-Rooks (Phillips and Rooks); Sunflower (Sherman and Wallace); Post Rock (Jewell, Osborn, Mitchell and Lincoln); Walnut Creek (Lane, Ness and Rush); and Central Kansas (Saline and Ottawa).

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K-State Research and Extension is a short name for the Kansas State University Agricultural Experiment Station and Cooperative Extension Service, a program designed to generate and distribute useful knowledge for the well-being of Kansans. Supported by county, state, federal and private funds, the program has county Extension offices, experiment fields, area Extension offices and regional research centers statewide. Its headquarters is on the K-State campus, Manhattan.

Story by:
Mary Lou Peter-Blecha
mlpeter@oznet.ksu.edu
K-State Research& Extension News