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HomeMy WebLinkAboutU.W. Extension Committee - Minutes - 3/8/2023Bayfield County Ag & Extension Committee Meeting 3/08/23 Page 1 of 4 BAYFIELD COUNTY Agriculture and Extension Education Committee Meeting Wednesday, March 08, 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 Chair, Jeff Silbert, called the meeting to order at 4:00 pm Committee members present: Jeff Silbert, Steve Sandstrom, Fred Strand, Madeline Rekemeyer and Larry Fickbohm. Others Present: Mary Pardee, Stephanie Bakker, Ian Meeker, Kellie Peterson (4:05), Heidi Ungrodt, Kelly Westlund and via Teams Theresa LaChappelle. 2. Approval of Minutes of January 11, 2023 Meeting (action item) (Sandstrom, Strand) Motion to approve the minutes of January 11, 2023. Motion Carried. 3. Public Comment No public comments 4. Introduction of new employee: Kelly Westlund, Housing Educator Introductions were made between committee members and Kelly Westlund. Westlund gave a short update on her credentials. 5. 2022 UW-Extension Budget Update Report 2022 UW-Extension Budget was discussed. 6. 2023 UW-Extension Budget Update Report The 2023 UW-Extension Budget was discussed. 7. Area Extension Director Update a. State and Area Updates i. UW-Madison Division of Extension Strategic Planning – Pardee is a participant in the State Extension Strategic Planning workgroup. ii. Superior Days Youth Contingency – Area 1 had youth from Bayfield, Douglas and Iron Counties attend Superior Days in Madison. iii. Area 1 meeting – Pardee is in the planning stages of holding an Area 1 staff meeting. This will take place sometime in April and will be held at the Northern Great Lakes Visitor Center. b. Staffing Updates i. Housing Outreach Specialist - Kelly Westlund has been hired as the new Housing Outreach Specialist. This is a 2-year pilot position through the UW-Madison Division of Extension housed in Bayfield County. She is currently involved in the onboarding process the Division of Extension requires. Westlund is looking at attending a professional development housing workshop in Iowa in the future. This trip will be co-funded between State and County Extension CRD funds. ii. Other positions - Not currently recruiting for any new State UW-Madison Extension Bayfield County positions. However, the Bayfield County funded Superior Adventures Program Coordinator is being sought at this time. Bayfield County Ag & Extension Committee Meeting 3/08/23 Page 2 of 4 8. Staff Reports a. Community Development-Kellie Pederson – i. Housing - Since Kelly Westlund has joined the team, Kelly Peterson has been working through the process of what housing topics can be given to Westlund and which housing topics that Peterson will keep for herself and which topics they will work on together. ii. WHEDA Process – Indications are that WHEDA may be contacting Peterson on Monday for further discussions. iii. Strategic Planning - The requests for organizational support keep coming in. Peterson will be offering organizational support for the Criminal Justice Planning Committee in Ashland County. Lissa Radke and Kelly Peterson assist each other with programming in each other’s counties when their specific skill sets are needed. iv. Elder Care Cooperative – This program is starting to get up and running, with assistance from CORE and other entities. b. FoodWIse-Stephanie Bakker – i. 2022 End-of-the-Year Reporting – Bakker is getting caught up with work including 2022 end of the year report. ii. Strong Bodies – The next Strong Bodies class will be starting on March 28th via Zoom. This class is supported by FoodWIse educators in Ashland, Bayfield, Iron, Douglas, Burnett, Sawyer & Washburn counties. iii. Bayfield School - Marisa has started a series with the Bayfield School Pre-K classes. Photos in the packet show her working with the kids using beet juice as “ink”. She is also involved in a Spring wellness event, scheduled for Earth Day, April 22nd which will involve a color run at the Red Cliff Boys & Girls Club. iv. FoodWIse Nutrition March Newsletter – The Newsletter is also in the packets. Harvest of the Month (HOM) food is cabbage. Bakker noted that it was gratifying to see that the Bayfield School is jumping in to the HOM on their own, with the cafeteria offering taste testing of locally grown cabbage, etc. v. FoodShare – Food Share pandemic funds are ending. With that thought in mind, Bakker has worked on a handout with State and local resources available to the public in the Ashland, Bayfield & Iron County areas. vi. Other –The Iron & Gogebic Counties’ Action Track Chair for use to ensure outdoor accessibility was a highlight in the March Issue of the FoodWIse Nutrition March Newsletter. Discussion regarding the funding, storage, usage, reservations, etc. of the Track Chair. c. HDR-Heidi Ungrodt – Involved in three program areas: Family Engagement, Financial Capabilities and Life Span (Aging), i. Red Cliff Financial Education Workshop -Heidi Ungrodt went to Red Cliff in February to work with the Red Cliff Housing Authority, the WI Dept of Workforce Development, and the Red Cliff Early Childhood Center to put on a financial education workshop for families. Along with the educational component; a meal, childcare and prizes were provided. Approximately fifteen people attended this successful workshop. Ungrodt wanted to give a shout out to our former Interim Financial Educator, Mary Johnson for the work that she put in to make connections within the community. Johnson created some great working relationships with various entities while she was here. ii. Senior Meal Sites – Ungrodt will be working with Carrie Linder, ADRC of the North Bayfield County in April by offering financial education components at the Bayfield County Senior meal sites. iii. Aging Mastery Program (AMP) – Tracy Henegar and Heidi Ungrodt just finished up their ninth week of hosting the 12-week AMP blended program. This blended program is a combination of Bayfield County Ag & Extension Committee Meeting 3/08/23 Page 3 of 4 a state-wide online program and an in-person discussion sessions at the Northern Great Lakes Visitor Center held on Wednesday mornings. Nine people showed up in-person for today’s program. iv. Literacy Link – Also starting a virtual series for supporting incarcerated parents. v. Positive Parenting Program (Triple P) – New Triple P classes will be run in April. These online classes are run by the Extension educators from Ashland, Bayfield, Douglas, Crawford, and Winnebago counties. In 2022, there were 55 classes with150 individual families participating across the counties. Again, this is one of the times where the total number of participants is high enough to hold the class because of having multiple counties involved. Whereas, if just one of the counties was holding the class, there may not be enough participants to hold the class. vi. Co-Parenting for Divorcing Parents - Co-Parenting classes are mandated by the State for divorcing parents. This year there is a mix of on-line and in-person classes being offered by Ungrodt and Henegar. These 3-hour classes don’t allow enough time to cover many topics. vii. Resilient Co-Parenting Classes for Divorcing Parents - These additional online classes are being offered the 1st Thursdays of each month. This month 68 people registered from across the state with 26 people attending. The number attending is approximately one-third of the people who signed up. This the average attendance vs registration numbers seen throughout the state. There are local participants for these classes, again, if held in one county, there would not be enough participants to hold the class. d. HDR-Tracy Henegar – Although Henegar could not attend this meeting, Silbert wanted to mention that he has heard positive comments regarding her work in bringing the Mental Health First Aid classes to the local communities. e. Office Manager-Theresa LaChappelle – LaChappelle will be back in the Courthouse office starting next Monday. i. Living Well in Our Best Years Newsletter - LaChappelle has gotten “The Living Well in Our Best Years” Newsletter created and she should be able to print it next week. Human Services will have the newsletter mailed out shortly after that. f. 4-H Programming - Kaylie Lukas – Lukas is on vacation for the next few weeks. i. Sewing Camps- Lukas held two sewing camps last month at the Iron River Community Center. She had over 24 youth participate in total. g. 4-H & Youth Development - Ian Meeker i. 4-H CANSKI – CANSKI just finished last weekend. Now comes coordinating the return of skis, boots and poles to the old VFW building where they are stored. ii. 2023 Superior Days – Meeker took five Washburn High School youth down to Madison for Superior Days. They did get their picture taken with the Governor. The Bayfield County Administrator, Mark Abeles-Allison, and County Board Supervisors, Fred Strand & Jeremy Oswald, also attended Superior Days. There were 14 students in total from Bayfield, Douglas, and Iron counties. Meeker noted that the youth components of this event were not very well organized. He ended up setting up a few UW-Madison campus tours for the students. The Area 1 youth contingency left early because of the big snowstorm, so they didn’t get to join in any lobbying efforts. Discussion on lobbying issues. Discussion on the inclusion of students from South Shore and Drummond schools. Meeker has just met with representatives from UW-Superior; they would like to be a part of Superior Days. To have a “yellow-jacket day” in the fall and coordinate Bayfield County Ag & Extension Committee Meeting 3/08/23 Page 4 of 4 leadership, and government components, as well as having the students visit the Superior campus. iii. Superior Adventures – The Superior Adventures coordinator position is currently being advertised. iv. School Programming – Meeker will be providing outdoor programming in May to the South Shore, Bayfield, Drummond, and Washburn school districts. v. Advanced Space Camp – Three 4-H youth went to Advanced Space Camp in Huntsville Alabama. The 4-H Leaders Association is helping cover the costs of the 4-H’ers attending. vi. 4-H Leader Training – Meeker held a state mandated 4-H Leader’s training. This allowed many leaders to be processed through the system and to be counted as certified 4-H Leaders. vii. 4-H Summer Camp Counselors – Meeker has been in contact with last year’s counselors. Some of those counselors will be returning. 9. Next Meeting Date May 10, 2023 @ 4pm in the EOC. 10. Adjourn The meeting was adjourned at @ 5:07 pm.