OSU Extension services are on the mend! But funding was not approved. The levy must be reinstated to continue providing programs. OSU Extension is rebuilding the local 4-H Youth Development Program with help from volunteers, families, & youth, as well as JoCo Master Gardeners!

ALL FEES TO JOIN 4-H are being waived this year!! Several New 4-H Volunteer Trainings have occurred and more are scheduled. Local club interests include: archery/firearms; arts -ceramics, painting, wood-carving, fiber arts, creative writing, photography, leather craft, photography; small engines/ welding & fabrication, wood science; horse & pony, livestock, small animals, beef; STEM - electronics, engineering, rocketry, food & nutrition.

Master Gardeners’ plant clinics are open again to assist diagnosing plants’ health problems & prescribe ways to bring those precious plants back to health at the extension office, 574 SE E St. on Wednesdays from 1-3pm and Fridays from 10-noon. The Master Gardener speaker series has begun again, too.

Frank Boothby, the Community Relations and Program Manager, emphasizes the devastation that occurred when county commissioners decided to halt funding for the programs that we citizens voted to fund with our taxes. They decimated ALL Extension Service activities, including small farms, forest management, 4-H, family and community health programs. They evicted the programs from their buildings and left our county (the only one in the state) without the services we had had for over a century. Now those programs are slowly returning, but that takes time - and more funding. Contact Frank at (458) 291-7301 email:[email protected]/4H/josephine. The new office is at 574 SE E St.

The 2026-2027 county budget talks begin next spring. Extension Service folks will be asking for the levy to be reinstated. Boothby states that city and county residents are CLAMORING for OSU extension services to return in FULL.

We all need to stay aware and make our voices heard.