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HomeMy WebLinkAboutU.W. Extension Committee - Minutes - 1/11/2023January 11, 2023 minutes Page 1 of 4 BAYFIELD COUNTY Agriculture and Extension Education Committee Meeting Wednesday, January 11, 2023 – 4:00 PM In-Person at the EOC Room in the Courthouse Annex And Remotely via Microsoft Teams meeting Minutes 1. Call to Order Vice-Chair Steve Sandstrom called the meeting to order at 4:03 pm Steve Sandstrom, Fred Strand via Teams, Madeline Rekemeyer and Larry Fickbohm. Jeff Silbert arrived at 4:48. Others Present: Mary Pardee, Tracey Henegar, Kaylie Lukas, Ian Meeker Kellie Peterson, Heidi Ungrodt, and via team: Jason Fischbach and Theresa LaChappelle. 2. Approval of Minutes of October 12, 2022 Meeting (action item) (Rekemeyer, Strand) Motion to approve the minutes of October 12, 2022. Motion Carried. 3. Public Comment 4. 2022 UW-Extension Budget Update Report a. All expenses have not yet been turned in for the 2022 Budget year. 5. 2022 UW-Extension Budget Amendment (action item) The 292 2022-Budget Amendment was shared with the committee. Motion (Rekemeyer, Fickbohm) to approve the 292 2022 Budget Amendment to be forwarded to the County Board for approval. 6. Area Extension Director Update a. State and Area Updates i. Extension In-Person Colleague Conference - This was the first conference held in three years. About 700 people attended with a lot of new staff members from through the State as first time attendees, Tracy Henegar. There was good information and workshops shared during the conference. b. Staffing Updates i. Housing Educator Position-This position listing is open until Jan 12th. The position listing may be kept open for another week. This is a 2-year pilot position for Bayfield County which may change into a regional position at the end of the 2-year period/ ii. HDR-Heidi Ungrodt-Ungrodt is the half time Ashland and Bayfield County HDR Educator. She is having Bayfield County as her main office, while still maintaining an office in Ashland County. She is currently settling into the Bayfield County Office now. iii. HDR-Tracy Henegar- Henegar is the half time Bayfield and Douglas County HDR Educator. She is having Douglas County as her main office, while still maintaining a presence in Bayfield County. iv. FoodWIse-Stephanie Bakker – Bakker is transitioning to having her main office in Bayfield County while still maintaining an office in Ashland County. January 11, 2023 minutes Page 2 of 4 v. Office Manager-Theresa LaChappelle- While LaChappelle is working from home, Kim Mattson and Gail Reha, County Clerk’s office, will be using her office while their offices are being remodeled. 7. Furthering Healthy and Diverse Agriculture to Sequester Carbon Credits Discussion a. Bayfield County Forestry has become one of the first counties in Wisconsin that has a carbon sequestering program. The County is interested in mitigating climate change and looking at different ways to show their concern. Fischbach noted that he has spoken to the Administrator regarding agricultural carbon credits. Fischbach indicated that he is willing to assist in any way that he can. Discussion. 8. Staff Reports a. Jason Fischbach – Emerging Crops Specialist- i. Ashland Go First Farm- just over 5 acres in use. Bayfield County is the largest Hazelnut Grower in the state with this farm. ii. Northland Hazelnut Processing-Northland College is still the facility where the processing machinery and actual processing takes place. iii. Seedless Table Grapes -There are currently six trials underway. iv. Kernza-This perennial grain crop can be used as grain or a cover crop. There are trials in Bayfield and Ashland counties. b. Stephanie Bakker-FoodWIse Coordinator/Marisa Perlberg FoodWIse Educator i. Strong Bodies virtual class started January 10, 2023. c. Tracy Henegar-HDR Educator i. Bayfield HS Youth Mental Health program – Half of the 11th grade class is taking this class this semester and the other half will take this class next semester. ii. Washburn High School- 10th & 11th graders will all be participating in the program. iii. QPR(Question, Persuade, Refer) Gatekeeper Suicide Prevention Workshops – Henegar will be hosting this in person class on February 16h at the Superior Public Library. She is receiving enquiries to host the program in Ashland & Bayfield Counties and will look into doing so in the future. iv. AMP (Aging Mastery Program) –This will be starting soon as a blended format with the State programming online and Henegar and Ungrodt hosting the in- person session at the Northern Great Lakes Visitor Center. d. Heidi Ungrodt, HDR Educator i. Literacy Link (LL) & Jail Education – Ungrodt is providing monthly reading opportunities with in-person sessions for the meetings and recordings. 1. Parenting Inside Out – Ungrodt is working with other Literacy Link Colleagues on adapting this 90-hour curriculum to fit into a 16-hour curriculum with a literacy component. 2. Jail Sessions – Ungrodt will be in-person in Bayfield (2 sessions a week for 5 weeks), and virtually in Ashland County during the month of March. The January 11, 2023 minutes Page 3 of 4 Bayfield County Jail staff has been very supportive of the programs the Extension office is providing. 3. Criminal Justice Committee Meeting – Ungrodt gave a report at the CJ meeting in December. ii. Families and Screens Workshops -This 2-part series on Families and Screens for parents of youth ages 5 to 10 will be held virtually in February with Henegar and Ungrodt hosting. iii. Financial Education-Ungrodt will be holding a financial education workshop with Red Cliff Housing and Early Childhood Center on February 15th. iv. Other - Fickbohm asked Ungrodt to give an update on the Literacy Link and other jail programs to the Sheriff’s Department at their next meeting. e. Ian Meeker- 4-H and Youth Development Educator i. 4-H CANSKI- Approximately, 130 youth members not including the High School participants. Current statistics: 92-Elementary students, 36-middle school students, 27-Volunteers with 60-families checking out gear, and 18 kids on the racing team . ii. 4-H Leaders Meeting –This meeting is scheduled for next week iii. Ricing with Bayfield School – Participated with the Bayfield school and Red Cliff Elders with ricing and also the reseeding of wild rice. iv. Vaping Grant – The Bayfield County application made it to the finals, but did not receive the grant for the anti-vaping grant. v. 4-H Thriving Survey Results – Meeker shared the results of this survey wit the committee. f. Kaylie Lucas-4-H Assistant i. 4-H Enrollment – Including the 4-H CANSKI members, there are 221 youth enrolled in 4-H, with some 4-H CANSKI members still needing to enroll. Last year the enrollment was at 248. Certified4-H Leaders – There are currently only 18 certified 4-H Leaders. There are 50 Leaders that are pending due to the need for them to take additional trainings. It has become more difficult to become a 4-H Leader due to the additional trainings that Madison is requiring. Two additional leader trainings have been added to help with this. ii. State-wide Discovery Boxes –This is a new state-wide project for Cloverbud – 5th grade 4-Her’s with a local hands-on and also a state-wide virtual component. Nine local 4-Her’s have signed up to participate. iii. Sewing Camp – Sewing Camp is scheduled to be held in February. Looking at renting/borrowing sewing machines for making zipper bags iv. Food Revue & Demonstration Contest – These pre-fair events are scheduled to be held in March. January 11, 2023 minutes Page 4 of 4 v. Cultural Arts Festival – This event is being scheduled for April at the Drummond School. vi. National Service-Learning Conference –This conference is being held in Nashville this year. Checking into logistics for potentially of six youth participating. vii. Leaders Association – Leaders Association meeting is being held next week. viii. Other - Rekemeyer queried as to whether there is a Cable/Drummond area 4-H collaboration with the CANSKI program. Meeker noted that Drummond has had a Ski in the Schools program in the past. g. Kellie Pederson-Community Development Educator i. Housing – Pederson has been working for three- years with WHEDA on a 10 million dollar proposal to be spent on housing concerns in three counties (approximately 3.5 million dollars per county. There are currently three areas that Bayfield County is looking at for these monies: a. Financial considerations for Zoning coding adjustments b. Incentives for Housing Development – WHEDA to finance small developments. c. Non-Profit Land Trust Asking bankers and lawyers to come on board with new ways to come up with the housing funding. The implementations of these will be part of the housing educator’s position. Implementation for these three projects will take 16 to 18 months once the monies have been dedicated for each program. ii. Washburn Housing Development – Pederson is working with the Administrator on keeping the Washburn Housing Development going forward. iii. Strategic Planning – Pederson is working with a few organizations. iv. Lake Superior Research Science Center - Discussions with various organizations on moving forward with this project. The first step is getting a working charter on the books. h. Theresa LaChappelle-Office Manager i. Bookkeeping – LaChappelle is completing end-of-the-year and beginning-of-the- year bookkeeping duties. 9. Next Meeting Date a. The next meeting is scheduled for March 8th at 4 pm in-person in the EOC and remotely online with Teams. 10. Adjourn a. The meeting was adjourned at 5:23 pm.