In its heyday, Cornell Cooperative Extension of Monroe County offered information on everything from the latest agricultural techniques to controlling garden pests to managing home finance.
But things have changed. A steady stream of funding cuts by the county - the extension's allocation has been reduced by 60 percent since 1991 -- has forced the agency to pare down. With each cut, the extension lost state funding, too - the aid is based on the local contribution.
The extension has had to cut staff, which means programming has suffered. The agency's board of directors has targeted the 4-H and commercial horticulture programs for possible cuts later this year.
It can be tough to determine what the public and elected officials want - that problem seems to plague the agency - but it's a safe bet that the extension will look much different in the future than it does today. That's if it exists at all. The chief criticism - coming largely from politicians and the County Farm Bureau -- is that the extension has strayed too far from its traditional core of agriculture, horticulture, and youth.
In response to the criticism, the extension's board of directors has created a 16-member task force to help determine the agency's future focus. Four county legislators - two Republicans and two Democrats - serve on the task force, as do farmers and other extension constituents. By mid-June, the task force will make recommendations to the board.
"I tend to be optimistic," says J.C. Shaver, the extension's interim director. "We do have significant support in the community. As we work through this process and do some refocusing, I think we'll see that support strengthen."
Republican County Legislator Robert Colby uses the nutrition programs as an example of the extension losing its focus. Social programs like that may be important in rural areas where there aren't many nonprofit agencies to provide them, he says, but in Monroe there are other groups offering those services.
The most heavily used extension services are those with some sort of agricultural or horticultural emphasis. Its master gardener programs are popular with the general public, while the commercial horticulture program is heavily used by landscapers and nurseries. The 4-H youth programs have always been popular. But the one service that farmers say is indispensable is the regional teams - experts shared among several counties who are well-versed in fruit and vegetable growing as well as livestock. Farmers praise the program because it gives them a direct link to university research and unbiased agricultural information.
"We use the information we gather from extension almost every day," said Jim Burch, a fruit farmer, during a task force meeting last week.
The money the county gives to the extension is meant for agriculture and 4-H, says Colby, while the Agriculture and Life Sciences Institute at Monroe Community College focuses on educating students about agriculture and training people to work in those fields. In 2006, Colby introduced legislation to cut the extension's funding. The money was instead used to found the institute.
Colby, a seventh-generation farmer, is the Legislature's liaison to the extension. He and members of his family have served on the agency's board, and he's a former president of the County Farm Bureau.
Democratic Legislator Harry Bronson, who serves on the extension's new task force, sees the same basic vision as Colby - extension for support, the Agriculture and Life Sciences Institute for education. Democrats protested the funding shift during budget talks in 2006, but mainly because it was sprung on them at the last minute, Bronson says.
Speakers at last week's task force meeting were largely in favor of the extension's programs, past and present.
Nancy Johns-Price of the city's Bureau of Recreation lamented the cuts to the extension's environmental education and nutrition programs. The city had previously entered into a $10,000 annual contract with the agency to conduct those programs at recreation sites. Their services reached 1,000 kids, she said. But now, the city does youth environmental education using in-house staff, which takes workers away from other duties, and the city pays considerably more for nutrition services.
Many suggestions at the meeting involved the regional teams. That's an area that could stand to grow, Colby said. He suggested adding a commercial horticulture expert to the teams, perhaps with the vegetable team. Another speaker suggested that the extension start providing information on natural resources protection - including shoreline management - and other topics like alternative energy and weatherizing homes.
Republicans and Democrats say that the extension has a future. The agency will, however, have to convince legislators that it deserves county funding, they say.
"I think they're being realists here and, in so doing, they're understanding that there is a need for the organization to have some improvement and a need for it to maybe change the way it's perceived," Bronson says.
Some extension users, however, are skeptical of the task force. Extension officials have engaged the public about funding and focus many times before, they say, but nothing has come of it.
"It seems like the knowledge that they gain sits usually on a shelf," Colby says. "Much doesn't happen with that."
This time may be different. Shaver acknowledges that if the agency doesn't give extension users and fundraisers the agency they want and if there are more funding cuts, the extension may have to shut its doors.
"I think that's a distinct possibility," he says.
On the Agriculture and Life Sciences Institute
There's little, if any, overlap between Cornell Cooperative Extension and the Agriculture and Life Sciences Institute at Monroe Community College. The two bodies work together to make sure the programming at each is distinct.
The institute is led by Bob King, a former agriculture specialist at the extension. He deals with policy and regulations regarding farmers' rights, land use, drainage, and food safety. He helps communities with master plans and is currently helping Parma and Henrietta develop open space preservation plans centered on the purchase of development rights. And he helps the county figure out ways to capitalize on alternative energy.
King also helps students learn about careers in agriculture. The agricultural field includes farming, food sciences, soil sciences, toxicology, and pharmacology.
The institute has a promotional function, too. King helped produce interactive kiosks on county agriculture - one such kiosk will be at the county airport. The institute is also developing a locally-grown goods campaign, for which it received a $25,000 grant from the County Industrial Development Agency.