Serving Gogebic, Iron and Ontonagon Counties
Serving Gogebic, Iron and Ontonagon Counties
By ZACHARY MARANO
Bessemer — Erin Ross, a 4-H supervisor from Michigan State University Extension-Gogebic County, attended the Gogebic County Finance Committee meeting on Wednesday to request $76,000 of the 2021-2022 budget allocation for their programs, which led to criticism from some committee members about the office’s services.
Chair Jim Lorenson said the board said $68,000 would be enough. He said that he was not opposed to allocating this amount, but he wants the Gogebic County office to show them the programs that are being offered, how they can be expanded and better ways of reporting them to the community.
Lorenson said that he has contacted department director Paul Putman and other staff from the office about these issues and was disappointed that they did not seem to address them.
“I’ve been willing to increase the funding to give folks benefit of the doubt. I would probably still make that motion to do it. Here’s where I’m disappointed: When we sent the original budget, I thought this board was very clear that we wanted to see a greater range of programs and a different reporting, so we know what’s going on. It’s been four months since that point,” Lorenson said.
“I would have thought that someone would take some initiative,” he said.
Lorenson said that the Iron County, Wisconsin, 4-H program puts out a newsletter once a year and meets with the Iron County Board of Supervisors four times a year to report their programs. He said he liked this format and suggested that the Gogebic County extension office could get the same format by contacting the Wisconsin 4-H program.
Committee member Dan Siirila said he’s been forwarded emails on 4-H programs from County Administrator Juliane Giackino, but other than that he has not seen anything on the 4-H programs in the newspaper or on the radio. He asked how people learn about the programs if they’re not already involved.
Ross said it depends on the program and the audience that it’s being marketed towards. For children’s programs, she said they send fliers home with the students from school.
Ross continued that the recent MSU Extension 4-H programs included Santa’s Headquarters, which benefited 345 children from 150 families in Gogebic County; the Eat Smart Knapsack program, which assists low-income students in the county with healthy food; and the Michigan skillathon, where the Gogebic County office had the most participants from any one county, according to Ross.
Committee member Joe Bonovetz noted the MSU Extension was not solely responsible for Santa Headquarters and that Michigan Department of Health and Human Services and St. Vincent de Paul were also involved. Siirla also criticized the Eat Smart Knapsack program, saying these are the only healthy foods that low-income students will eat.
“Their parents would never buy this kind of food,” Siirla said. “You can teach the children how to eat smart, but you have to teach parents how to buy smart and they don’t.”
Bonovetz also said that he didn’t understand why Gogebic County should pay more for their MSU Extension 4-H programs than Delta County, which is allocating $40,000 of their budget to the programs. Ross said Delta County only has a half-time 4-H program. Bonovetz said that Gogebic County could manage with its own half-time program.
Ultimately, Lorenson said he was not ready to make a decision on the MSU Extension budget allocation until he received information about the 4-H programs in other counties in the Upper Peninsula, including the amount paid by the counties and the services offered by the MSU Extension offices. The item was tabled pending receipt of additional information.
