Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: FRIDAY, January 10, 1992 TAG: 9201100368
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: B1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: MADELYN ROSENBERG HIGHER EDUCATION WRITER
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
EXTENSION CUTBACK PLAN WILTS AGENTS
First thing Thursday, John Arbogast received something akin to a sympathy call.An old co-worker had phoned the Roanoke County extension agent to see if he was OK after hearing the governor's budget proposal.
Arbogast said he was.
But with at least 80 positions in Virginia Tech's extension service in danger of being cut, he also was worried.
"It's very unsettling," he said. "We don't know what's going to happen."
In the governor's budget proposal, released Wednesday afternoon, extension services such as home-horticulture programming would be cut. Programs in family life, child development and health education would be reduced to low funding the first year of the 1992-94 budget and eliminated the second year. This would include work with parenting education and child day-care providers.
Agriculture, 4-H and many home-economics programs would remain intact.
All told, the cuts add up to $4.7 million the first year and $7.5 million the next. The division works on an operating budget of about $35 million per year.
"Our first priority is to get this turned around," James Johnson, director of extension, said from his office at Tech. "I'm not gloom and doom yet. The fight has only begun."
People at the Western Virginia extension offices were not fearing for their jobs on Thursday. At least, not yet.
"We need to find out the details first," said Lelia Mayton, director of the Montgomery County office.
Arbogast, too, was waiting for more information. He wanted to check the computer for a memo, he said, but connecting to the service's uplink costs money. "Budget, budget, you know."
Johnson said he did not know how many jobs would be lost under the governor's proposal. "It would be at least 80 positions with the magnitude we're talking," he said.
Nor did he know how the layoffs would occur. First, he said, he would try to stop it. He would worry about layoffs later. Johnson did say he will point out some suggested cuts that conflict with state mandates or philosophies.
For example: Gypsy-moth programming would be reduced to low funding and eliminated the second year of the biennium. But the budget also requires the department to increase knowledge about the moths.
Montgomery County agent Joe Hunnings was out of the office Thursday, helping assess the damage from recent heavy rains in Elliston. The program that allows him to do that also would lose some funding next year and receive no money the following year.
But that program was started because of an executive order, in cooperation with the state Department of Emergency Services, Johnson said. "You can bet I'll highlight that."
Edith Paine, head of Roanoke's master gardener association, is ready for that fight.
The horticulture programming would eliminate the master gardeners program, which provides volunteers to help with everything from diagnosing plant illnesses to working with the landscape at the Mill Mountain Zoo.
More than 1,500 master gardeners volunteered service last year, putting in 73,500 hours of service, according to Diane Relf, an associate professor of horticulture.
Along with horticulture agents, they helped 11,000 schoolchildren learn about plants, served 234,000 clients and had an economic impact of $3 million by answering questions and giving advice. That figure does not include property values boosted by landscaping, she said.
Master gardeners also help train homeowners in the use of pesticides and fertilizers, Paine said.
"We were going to help people learn to compost more," she said, sadly.
As for other lost programs: "If people have questions, where will they get answers?" Arbogast asked. "We do more than just getting rid of crabgrass. People rely on us."
Memo: CORRECTION