WACEC Orientation and Report – Lestrud discussed the Wisconsin Associated County Extension Committees Organization (WACEC) annual meeting to be held in Eau Claire on June 6-8. Lestrud, Burri, and Leon Bernschot will attend and Zoerb will possibly go for one day. Web site information for WACEC was distributed.

Federal Budget  - No report

State Budget – No report

County Budget – Reaman reported that the preliminary timeline was distributed at the April Department Head Meeting.

Memorandum of Understanding Pierce/Polk/St. Croix County Horticulture Programming  - Behling reviewed the MOU outlining the financial arrangements established for the Horticulture Programming.  Motion by Raymond, seconded by Burri to adopt the Memorandum of Understanding.

Approval of Department Head Appointment – Reaman reviewed the shared leadership arrangement and associated administrative responsibilities assumed by each of the agents.  The responsibilities are equally distributed by work load and the stipend is equally distributed between the four agents:  Lestrud, Milligan, Janke and Reaman.  Motion by Raymond, second by Burri to approve the Department Head Appointment utilizing shared leadership.

4-H Youth Development Agent’s Report

Summer Assistant Update– Reaman reported that the individual whom was offered and accepted the Summer Assistant position early in March called last week to withdraw from the position.  Reaman proceeded to contact the alternates and has offered the position to Danielle Bleck, a freshman at UW-Stout.  Danielle brings 10 years of 4-H experience in Fond du Lac County.

Update on Summer Programs – The 4-H Jr. Leaders held a 4-H May Day Barn Dance for their spring social event.  Reaman shared pictures of the dance and talked about the value of social activities for teens.  The dance, held at the Silver Bison Ranch Barn, was attended by 77 youth.  While the teens attending the dance had a great time, the real benefit and educational experience occurred through the planning process as the Jr. Leaders planned and organized the dance, made the appropriate contacts, and promoted the event. 

New Leader Orientations – Annually Reaman conducts three new leader orientations for adults who work with youth in the 4-H program.  The WI 4-H Youth Protection Policy requires a criminal background check for each adult, signing a behavior agreement form and attendance at a New Leader Orientation.  The orientation provides information on how to conduct educational programs for youth that are age appropriate and effective for the members.  The second part of the program highlights risk management strategies when working with children and tips to keep in mind so that volunteers don’t find themselves in questionable situations.  Twenty nine new adults completed the orientation to become certified 4-H leaders in the St. Croix County 4-H program.

Youth Activities Fair – Reaman is working with a small planning committee to conduct a Youth Activities Fair in the Hudson area. The goal is to create an awareness of all the assets in the community that support positive youth development. Currently involved on the committee are Rob Schultz at Camp St. Croix and a staff member at Trinity Lutheran Church.  The vision is to provide a Saturday morning event where a wide variety of organizations with youth programs would come together and share what they have to offer the community.  A couple of ideas include having a “sports corner” where the sports associations (hockey, soccer, baseball, basketball, etc) would hold pick up games or short practice sessions; a “center stage” area where the drama groups like SOS players, Phipps programs, Boys Choir, etc could perform.  In addition to these specialty areas, youth groups like 4-H, Scouts, YMCA, Big Brothers/Big Sisters would have booths where they would provide an activity for youth and talk with the families about their programs.

Family Living Agent’s Report

The two medical colleges in Wisconsin will be offering significant grant funds to counties to pursue preventative health education and care. Lestrud is working with the Baldwin-Woodville school district and community and the St. Croix Family Resource Center to apply for $450,000 for a health/nutrition and obesity prevention program for youth and families. She has met with all the school principals, and superintendent, and will attend a training program in Rice Lake on the specifics of the grant.

Lestrud serves as advisor to the Association for Home and Community Education (HCE), formerly called Extension Homemakers. This past month they had their annual Spring Council meeting with about 70 members and recognized 25- and 50-year members.

United Way of St. Croix County continues to promote Family Living Programming. Lestrud receives two grants each year, one to distribute the Parenting the First, Second, and Third Year newsletters to all parents giving birth in St. Croix County, and the other to run a family camping program for low-income families each fall.  Lestrud expressed gratitude for the strong United Way program in St. Croix County, much in contrast to neighboring counties. Lestrud attended their recognition program in April.

St. Croix County professionals are organizing two new groups centered around Early Childhood issues. Success by Six is a United Way initiated group which will coordinate early childhood grant giving efforts and look at availability and gaps in early childhood services and education in St. Croix County.  The other group, the Early Childhood Council will coordinate programs and initiate countywide programs to help kids and parents of young children. Lestrud has been invited to participate in both groups.

Lestrud attended a one-day inservice program at UW Stout, which focused on using music in Early Childhood Education Efforts. She will be providing inservice to day care providers and sharing her curriculum materials with the Family Resource Center to use with their playgroups. Music helps children’s brain development by learning sequencing, coordination, math, language, etc.

Lestrud is finalizing agency agreements for the federal nutrition program that she coordinates for the county. Committee members will meet nutrition educator, Martha Mabis, at the June meeting.

Lestrud will be providing training for Public Health staff, and at-risk teen youth and their mentors in Hudson during May. She will discuss the new research on the teenage brain, and how that affects the decisions that teenagers make on a daily basis.

Ag Agent’s Report

Seventeen dairy producers participated in the “Building a Vision” farm financial analysis and strategic planning program.  This is a pilot project developed by Milligan and several other area agriculture agents.  It is being evaluated and revisions will be made by Milligan.

Milligan taught and coordinated an alfalfa management seminar on diseases and alternative forages.  The diseased aphanomyces race 2 and brown root rot have been identified in St. Croix County.  Milligan has taken samples from about 15-18 alfalfa fields to be tested for brown root rot.  The intent is to see how prevalent it is in the state.

Pesticide Applicator Training sessions have been completed for 2004.  About 75 people participated in the Pierce/St. Croix sessions.  Another 15 to 20 have taken it as self-study.

Milligan also participated in the Heart of the Farm Conference, is on the 2004 Dairy Herd Health Conference planning committee, is involved in the planning of the 2004 ag clean sweeps, and grain marketing program development.

Individual contacts included; farm transfer, pasture management, farm financial analysis, dairy nutrition, alfalfa stand management, land rent, and other ag issues.

In May, Milligan will continue with the farm financial analysis project, develop the alfalfa quality cutting management program, prepare for an UW-Extension ag engineer’s farm visits in early June, set up bunker cover project, and a mastitis antibiotic resistant project with Dr. Pam Ruegg.

Horticulturist Report

The community gardens in New Richmond is scheduled to be continued for 2004. The fencing around the pheasant pens will be removed and used around the gardens to keep the deer at a minimum.  This fencing is scheduled to be taken down from the pheasant pens in late May.  We will hopefully be able to use the county work crew to help instill the fencing.

A service learning project will be undertaken by the students of New Richmond High School on May 20th.  Students will help UWEX's development of the St. Croix County Community Gardens in New Richmond.  This garden supplies hundreds of pounds of vegetables to the low income, WIC and Seniors in the local area each year.

A 3-year grant was submitted to USDA in April.  This grant was submitted as a Food Security Grant and was sponsored by UWEX St. Croix County and WESTCAP Community Action Agency.  The grant will allow us to organize a regional network to expand production and marketing of local foods in an 8 county area of west central Wisconsin.   The project will provide technical assistance to market gardeners, small farmers, and local food processing enterprises, and will bring together a diverse community partnership to implement long-term strategic planning, investment, and development of public policies that support the local food systems. The granting agency will notify recipients in early July.

Two Farm Market meetings have been held recently that will help develop the link among St. Croix and other regional markets.  The most recent market meeting emphasized a "how to" approach to writing strong market rules and regulations for establishment and maintenance of healthy markets in our region.  A day long workshop is scheduled for later this year.

The ten session course on "How to Establish a Successful Horticulture Operation" came to a close the first week of April.  This course was a success and we hope to offer it again during the winter of 2004/2005.

Twenty seven individuals were in attendance.

Peavey moved to adjourn.  Ruetz seconded.

Respectively submitted,

Gene Ruetz

Secretary

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