New Year Brings Change To Extension Office

Human beings are creatures of habit.  Most of us get up at the same time each day.  We drive the same route to work.  We eat our favorite foods over and over.  Very few of us can afford to not have a certain routine we follow in our daily lives.
    For many, many years, Lee Countians have enjoyed a fully staffed Extension Office.  Quite simply put, this time last year we had four more agents to serve the 118,000 plus population of Lee County.  Retirements of agents Anne Carpenter, Smokey Spears, Mattie Fort, and Jeff Clary have made a major impact on the way Lee County Extension will do business in the upcoming year.
    The Lee County Extension Office has experienced a change.  I once heard someone say that "the only person who likes a change is a baby in a wet diaper."  The personnel has changed at the County Extension Office, but our commitment to serve the citizens of Lee County has not.  Be assured that the staff of the Lee County Extension Office is committed to do the best job we know how, to provide accurate, research based information from the land grant Universities in Alabama, as well as from other states.
    We now live in an information age.  Computers afford us a finger click away from an almost indigestible amount of information available through the internet.  Some of it good......some of it not so good.  I invite you to visit our website at www.aces.edu.    This is our state Extension website.  You can link to all the county offices, our publications online, current information trends, 4-H activities, Master Gardeners, and other related links as well.  Or, you can always contact us at the office at 749-3353.
    In short, the way your Lee County Extension office operates will be different.  Not better.  Not worse.  It will be different.
    In December, Alabama lost approximately 70 Extension employees statewide.  Lee County is still more fortunate than most other counties in Alabama.  We have excellent local funding support.
    And although there is a current reduction in total Extension employees statewide, Lee County will still be able to fill the citizens needs through Agent Assistants, Master Gardeners, Area Agents, and contract employees.
    Many people have told me they have enjoyed this column that Jeff Clary has written for the past 27 plus years.  I intend to continue this column as a means by which to provide current Extension information to the public.  As a horticulturist, it will  primarily be oriented that way.  However, I will include other subject matter from time to time.
    Extension work involves agents dividing their time from office duties, field visits, demonstrations, home visits, civic club programs, 4-H activities and much more.  I've been told, "You're never in the office."  I've also been told, "You haven't been by to see me lately.....you are always in the office."  I encourage you to email me if you would like at cbrowne@aces.edu.   More and more of you are already doing that.  We have weekly morning radio programs on Wednesday at WKKR, WMXA, WZMG, and on Friday at WANI.
    As the pace of life seems to be ever increasing, we are finding out that we must adjust our delivery methods here at the Lee County Extension Office.  I welcome the challenge and look forward to continue serving the citizens of Lee County the best way that I know how.
 

Chuck Browne is an agent with the Alabama Cooperative Extension System in Lee County and writes a weekly column for the Opelika-Auburn News.  Contact him at 749-3353.