Extension Office post is halved

Two Lincoln County Commissioners on Wednesday, citing the need for tighter fiscal responsibility, voted to cut the Extension Service position from full-time to half-time despite the wishes of about 30 people who crowded the meeting room in opposition.

Commissioner Ron Downey of Troy made the motion and Libby Commissioner Tony Berget seconded.

Presiding Commissioner Marianne Roose voted against the decision, delivering impassioned pleas seeking to sway her fellow  Commissioners to vote against the decision.

“I’m against this,” Roose said. “I just think this is something worth keeping.”

However, Downey and Berget saw it as an opportunity to make some tough decisions.

“Everyone can see we need to start cutting, but when it comes down to it, no one wants their programs cut,” said Downey, who made the motion.

“We’re looking at a million-and-a-half (dollar) deficit next year. We need to start cutting somewhere,” Downey said after the meeting.

Those in attendance see the loss of the half-position as an attack to the programs led by Raelyn Hays, the Montana State University-sponsored Extension Officer who tendered her resignation recently for personal reasons.

“I just need time to be a mom for awhile, ride my horses,” a tearful Hays said after the meeting.

Hays had been the officer for 12 years, starting while the position was just a half-time post.

Hays’ daughter attended the meeting with her wearing a black 4-H hat, and both appeared to be moved by the decision to trim the job.

It is the anticipated effect the position cut will have on the 4-H program that concerned most of those who sought to influence the Commissioners’ decision.

J.J. Stark, a young beneficiary of 4-H, spoke about the benefits of the program.

“We learn real, life skills,” Stark said. “It’s the goal of the Team Council to enhance the program throughout the county. For all young people.”

Steven D. Siegelin, the MSU Extension Representative who is the local office’s manager, made a presentation, specifically addressing difficulties in managing an office with a half-time officer.

“We’re trying to get away from half-time positions,” Siegelin. “They’re hard to fill and, generally, people in those positions don’t stay long.”

Siegelin pulled no punches in his assessment of what he thought of cutting the position in half.

“To say you want to cut the position because you might have a deficit next year is like saying you want to begin chemotherapy this year because you might get cancer next year,” he said to a smattering of laughter from those who opposed the move.

Roose, the Presiding Commissioner, pleaded with Berget and Downey not to make the cuts now, as the position is already funded in the current budget year. She offered, instead, to allow Siegelin to pursue a full-time replacement for Hays and then to revisit the position during the next budget session.

Berget offered it would not be fair to bring someone in now and then, possibly, next year have to cut their hours in half or eliminate it altogether.

The position is funded by MSU. The county pays for the office space, supplies and secretarial help. The anticipated savings to the county would be about $13,500 by cutting the position to half.

It was that $13,500 figure that opponents of the reduction opposed as being ever so slight as compared to the benefits.

“Our figures show that for every $1 spent on an extension office, that it brings back $2.80 to the community,” Siegelin said. “These are 2012 figures. In 2010, that figure was about $2.50. These are up-to-date figures.”

Berget, who seconded the motion, said the position started out as a half-time position, and if the economy improves, he could see it being a full-time position once again.

“It was a half-time position 12 years ago, when Raelyn started,” Berget said. “We need to think about the whole. We’ve got streets to plow and police protection to think about.”

Julie Rathbun spoke several times in opposition to the cuts.

“It seems to me the county is getting a real benefit (with the position,” Rathbun said. “If the budget is that tight, why did you vote yourselves a 3 percent raise?” she said of the cost-of-living adjustment Commissioners and most county employees received in the latest annual budget.

“This just doesn’t make sense,” she said.