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HomeMy WebLinkAboutU.W. Extension Committee - Minutes - 5/10/2023Bayfield County Ag & Extension Committee Meeting 5/10/23 Page 1 of 4 BAYFIELD COUNTY Agriculture and Extension Education Committee Meeting Wednesday, May 10, 2023 – 4:00 PM In-Person at the County Board Room in the Courthouse And Remotely via Microsoft Teams meeting Minutes 1. Call to Order Chair, Jeff Silbert, called the meeting to order at 4:05 pm Committee members present: Jeff Silbert, Steve Sandstrom, Fred Strand, and Larry Fickbohm, And via Teams: Madeline Rekemeyer Others Present: Mary Pardee, Stephanie Bakker, Theresa Lachappelle, Ian Meeker, Kellie Peterson, Heidi Ungrodt, Kelly Westlund and Mark Abeles-Allison and via Teams Jason Fischbach and Tracy Henegar. 2. Approval of Minutes of March 08, 2023 Meeting (action item) (Strand, Fickbohm) Motion to approve the minutes of March 08, 2023. Motion Carried. 3. Public Comment Mark Abeles-Allison expressed his appreciation and recognized the professionalism that Kellie Pederson and Kelly Westlund each brought to the meetings with the WHEDA leadership. 4. 2023 UW-Extension Budget Update Report 2023 UW-Extension Budget was discussed. 5. Out-Of-State Travel Requests (action item) An Out-of-State Travel request for Kelly Westlund to attend the Iowa Extension Rural Housing Readiness Conference held on April 10, 2023 in Ames, Iowa was presented. Westlund noted that she found the conference to be immensely helpful, she made many contacts and learned a great deal. (Sandstrom, Strand, Fickbohm) Motion to approve the Out-Of-State Travel Request submitted by Kelly Westlund. Motion Carried. 6. Area Extension Director Update a. State and Area Updates – i. The Area 1 meeting was held a few weeks ago. Many of the staff from the four counties attended the meeting. County Board members from both Ashland & Bayfield Counties also attended. Strand, Silbert and Abeles-Allison attended from Bayfield County. Staff and Committee members had positive experiences with the meeting. Pardee will continue to hold these meetings. ii. An AED Conference will be held in Marshfield during the week of May 15th which Pardee will attend. iii. An Ag Institute meeting will be held later this month. Pardee will be attending this meeting. iv. 175th UW-Madison Anniversary Celebrations – As part of the 175th UW-Madison Anniversary celebrations during 2023 & 2024, Karl Martin is planning to hold a Conference in the North in May of 2024. State and local educators, specialists, municipal partners are to be invited. Pardee is on the planning committee. v. Northern Great Lakes Visitor Center (NGLVC) Use–UW-Madison Extension is a partner at the NGLVC, but it has been difficult to obtain use of the meeting rooms, etc. Bayfield County Ag & Extension Committee Meeting 5/10/23 Page 2 of 4 NGLVC is going through a strategic planning process to write new policies for use of the center by partners including UW-Madison Extension, government entities, non-profits, and the community - no birthday parties. More information will be forthcoming. b. Staffing Updates Ian Meeker will give an update on the Superior Adventures staffing during his staff report. 7. 2022 Annual Report LaChappelle completed the 2022 UW-Madison Extension Bayfield County Office Annual Report. A digital copy was included in the meeting packet and hard copies were available for those who wished to have one. LaChappelle pointed out the monetary contributions by various entities that assisted with funding the important work that all of the staff highlighted in this year’s report. 8. Staff Reports a. HDR - Tracy Henegar – School Interactions - Henagar has reached out to two of the Bayfield County area schools. She is currently in the second semester of Youth Mental Health First Aid program at Bayfield High School (which is going extremely well). She also recently attended a Parents’ Night at the Drummond School. Although this event was not well attended by parents, she contacted the Drummond principal, and was able to discuss getting the Youth Mental Health First Aid program, and other resources into the school. Question. Persuade. Refer. (QPR) Suicide Prevention – Henegar continues to be involved with the QPR Suicide Prevention program. This has been given as a virtual meeting, tonight will be one of her first blended (virtual and in-person) meetings. b. HDR – Heidi Ungrodt Trauma Informed Care – Ungrodt & Henegar just finished teaching an 8-week Trauma Informed care class. There were sixteen participants, five from Bayfield County, six from Ashland County, three from Douglas County, the others were from various other counties. The participants consistently showed up and the program was well received. There are five people on the waiting list for the next session. The educators are considering offering a class in the summer. Triple P Parenting classes- In 2022 there were fifty-seven classes offered virtually by the educators from six counties collaborating. There have been twenty classes already given this year, and they will continue to be offered virtually. Ungrodt shared some positive comments from parents that have taken the classes. As an added feature to the classes, one-on-one check-in meetings between the educators and the parents are being considered. c. Housing Outreach – Kelly Westlund Workforce Housing funding- Westlund has applied for a congressionally directed spending request workforce housing monies. Waiting for Congress to approve the FY24 budget. Rural Housing Conference – Using ideas from the conference to work with local communities to assist them in figuring out what they want in their communities through a "Rural Housing Readiness" program. Has spoken at Iron River, Bell, Cable & Mason township meetings, as well as having discussions with the City of Bayfield and Town of Oulu. WHEDA – Three proposals are currently being discussed with WHEDA 1) Zoning, 2) Small- scale Developers, 3) Community Land Trusts. The Washburn development did not get the WHEDA tax credits that were applied for. The project was 6 points short of the criteria cut-off. Five of the points deducted were for not having a labeled BART bus stop at the site. If other funding is not found, they will reapply for tax credits next year. Westlund will also be checking out some of the other proposals that were submitted, to see what can be gleaned from those proposals. Bayfield County Ag & Extension Committee Meeting 5/10/23 Page 3 of 4 State Representatives – Westlund met with State Senator Quinn & Assembly Rep. Green. Senator Quinn is the Chair of the State Senate Committee on Housing, Rural Issues and Forestry. Several housing-related bills are currently under consideration. d. Youth Development & 4-H-Ian Meeker – Superior Adventures –Meeker noted that finding applicants for the Superior Adventures Coordinator position has been extremely difficult. Alternative solutions are being looked at, such as having Kaylie Lukas work some additional hours and hiring a few part-time people for specific events. School Programming – Outdoor education programming with the Bayfield, Drummond, South Shore, and Washburn schools will begin this week. A few of the spring planned activities had had to be rescheduled for the next few weeks. 4-H Cultural Arts Festival – This year’s 4-H Cultural Arts Festival was not as well attended as it has been in the past. Unfortunately, the Gitche Gumee 4-H Club was involved with the Oulu Community Theater production on the same day. 4-H CANSKI – 150 sets of skis, boots and poles all came back. The VFW building works great as a pickup, drop off, and storage area for CANSKI gear. Summer Camp – Meeker noted that research is proving that overnight camps (even if it is only for a few nights) seem to provide a positive experience for youth. Another positive for this year’s camp is that most of the counselors for this year’s summer camp are former campers themselves. Exhibiting at the Fair – Being a Fair exhibitor this year is free. Meeker is looking at getting the CANSKI youth and parents involved in showing at this year’s Fair. e. Emerging Crops-Jason Fischbach – Grant writing proposals – Fischbach has been busy writing grant proposals. Three out of the ten proposals submitted have already been funded. He is still waiting to hear about the seven others. One of the projects that has been funded is the Honeyberry project. Honeyberries, native to Canada and Japan, are also known as Haskaps, are stately medium-sized shrubs with blue berries that are sweeter than blueberries, can handle different soils, and are early fruiting –they fruit even before strawberries. County Carbon Credit – Fischbach is interested in a Farmland Carbon Credit Pilot that has the proceeds earned by carbon credits to be put into adding trees (hazelnut & poplar) on farmland. He will find out more in a few months. Seedless Table Grapes–The late spring season has the grape planting season just starting up. Go-First Farm- The Go First Farm is continuing to go strong. f. Office Manager-Theresa LaChappelle Website update - LaChappelle reported that she has been updating the UW-Madison Extension Bayfield County website with the new theme that is being required for all Extension websites to use. This is time consuming but is happening one page at a time. 2022 Annual Report- see above. g. Community Development -Kelly Pederson Housing - Working with Kellie Westlund on various housing issues. Pederson is still keeping her ongoing relationships with the Washburn Housing project, Ashland County Criminal Justice Committee Planning – Pederson facilitated the first meeting with this committee. After the meeting, the members expressed their excitement about the process. Bayfield County Ag & Extension Committee Meeting 5/10/23 Page 4 of 4 Red Cliff Business Development Corporation – Pederson is still working with the Red Cliff Business Development Corporation. It was noted that the Bayfield County Economic Development Committee has an open seat for a Red Cliff member. Pederson will bring it to the attention of the members of the RCBDC. h. FoodWIse-Stephanie Bakker /Marisa Perlberg Moving Through The Seasons - A health and wellness effort at the Red Cliff Boys & Girls Club, Moving through the Seasons, has rescheduled their Color Run for May 27th. Drummond School District Parent Night –Bakker also attended the Drummond School District Parents’ Night. Even thought there was a small turnout, Bakker felt it was worthwhile to make contacts at the school. Bayfield School Science Fair – Bayfield School had their Science Fair on Thursday, May 4th. FoodWIse had fun with the students and the Harvest Of the Month, which included painting with Asparagus. Bayfield School Garden - Hurley School District staff are planning to come to the Bayfield School garden to check out a site with positive health/gardening programming. Fiscal 2024 grant – Bakker has submitted the Federal Fiscal 2024 grant request. Summer Planning – Bakker and her team will be focusing on youth gardening, and senior site programming throughout the summer. 9. Newborn Savings Account - Larry Fickbohm brought up for discussion the idea of a county sponsored savings accounts for Bayfield County newborns. Heidi stated that she has been looking into a youth savings account program through the UW-Madison Extension called “Youth Forward Wisconsin.” She will report back at the next Extension Meeting. 10. Next Meeting Date -July 12, 2023 in the EOC at 4 pm. 11. Adjourn – Meeting was adjourned at 5:16 pm.