The University of Illinois Extension will maintain its local roots in a restructuring plan announced Friday to help the service survive state budget cuts.
Interim Extension director Bob Hoeft released a plan revealing Extension will close all regional education centers, reduce staff, and develop multi-county partnerships -- but keep an office in every county.
"In our public meetings, we heard loud and clear from our clientele how much they value Extension programming and our local presence," Hoeft said in a prepared statement. The plan maintains the local Extension presence in each county, he noted.
Extension is being forced to make changes because of state budget problems. Gov. Pat Quinn proposed cutting Extension funding by $5.56 million in his proposed FY 2011 budget. Extension's current budget is about $65 million.
Under the reorganization plan, Illinois will have 30 multi-county Extension groups, each comprised of three to five counties. Extension in Cook County will continue as a single-county program.
Thirty county directors will administer programs and services for the multi-county groups. This means the 76 current county director positions will be reduced by 46. However, many county director positions are vacant, which will mean fewer actual personnel reductions, Gary Beaumont, U of I Extension spokesman, told FarmWeek.
By May 10, individual counties must submit proposed multi-county partnerships to Extension administrators, who are to respond by May 19. The multi-county proposals either will be accepted or adjusted, according to Beaumont.
The staff for each multi-county group will include at least a county director, a unit secretary, three educators, and a staff person to manage volunteers.
About June 30, Extension will close the regional education centers in Carbondale, Effingham, Macomb, Matteson, and Mt. Vernon. Educators based in those centers will move to county Extension offices.
The remaining centers will close as soon as possible, depending on the building leases. Those centers are located in Champaign, Countryside, East Moline, East Peoria, Edwardsville, Rockford, and Springfield.
"I think the general pieces (of the reorganization plan) we have known about," said Matt Montgomery, Mason County Extension director. Extension employees received details of the plan early Friday when it was released statewide, he said.
U of I Extension employs about 800 people whose positions range from the director to secretarial staff in local offices and includes full- and part-time staff. Extension's budget is 18 percent federal funding, 46 percent state funding, 21 percent from local counties, and 15 percent from grants and revenue-generating activities.