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Show USU Lists Concern Areas From Citizen More than 60 people met February 24 at Bryce Valley High School to pinpoint their areas of concern in five specific areas in which Utah State University Cooperative Extension Service could better serve Garfield County residents. The main thrust of the meeting according to Verl Matthews, Garfield County Extension Agent, was to make the Cooperative Extension Service more accountable to the people. More particularly, USU is holding such programs to try to make the university more accountable to the people In every county in the state. Similar programs are being held nationwide with other land-grant universities. Results obtained from the meeting will be used in the extension program in Garfield County over the next four years. Representing USU Cooperative Extension Service were Don Thomas, veterinarian; Gerald Olsen, slate supervisor for 4-H programs in Utah; Glen Jensen, family life graduate student; Don Miller, family life specialist; and Verl Matthews and Debbie Proctor from Garfield County. Vernon Spencer, Escalante, president of the Garfield County Farm Bureau accepted chairmanship for the group gathered to discuss problems and needs in agriculture in the county. Spencer and the twelve adults in his group first identified about 35 specific concerns, narrowing them down to the five most common and important concerns In the county. Range management, including water development, reseeding, grazing control and four-wheel drive control, were mentioned as foremost among everyone's concerns. Marketing know-how was listed second; noxious weed control, third; coyote problems, fourth; and veterinary services, fifth. Jon Torgerson, Panguitch mayor, who chaired the group on community development identified five community development programs as successful in the past: survey, the senior citizens nutrition program, community-school councils, county fair, and estate planning seminars as he reported back on the findings of those assigned to his group. The group also identified about 25 concerns, narrowing the field to the five major problems as they viewed the county's community development: zoning-planning surveys; economic develpment programs including industrial parks and small business development; community beautification, landscaping and cleanup; video programs for local work force, i.e. how to be a waitress, maid, tourist facilities available in the area and planning for boom town growth. LDS Bishop John Yardley headed the group gathered to discuss the 4-H program and Youth in Garfield County. The group, made up almost entirely of leaders of youth, placed emphasis on drug-alcohol problems, peer pressure, more parent involvement, lack of discipline, and non-application of the mastery of basic skills. Marie Liston acted as chairman of the Family Life group who identified more than 25 successful programs already at work in Garfield County. The group placed emphasis for the future on family relationships both before and after marriage; financial planning, including wills and insurance; food preparation (microwave, meat cure, cake decorating, and basic cooking) ; and alcohol and drug education. New to many Garfield County residents was the Life Span Learning Category and although the group, chaired by Joe Rickards, was smaller than the other four, it identified about 25 programs which group members felt had been successful programs in the county and actually came under the category. The five areas which the group identified as being their areas of concern were programs to help parents and teachers teach young people moral and ethical values, the dangers of drug and alcohol abuse, responsible parenthood, career education, etc.; lack of information about services and resources available to county residents; scheduling of workshops at convenient times; advanced placement for high school students; and youth programs, including 4-H. Matthews indicated that he felt they had achieved a broad spectrum and adiverse group in selecting the people chosen to participate. He emphasized that although the program was open to the public, invitations had been sent out to a wide variety of people simply to guarantee a diversified group for looking at county needs which can be served by Extension Service. He said the USU observers at the meeting were eager to discover the results of the efforts of the five groups. "USU is seeking to achieve a more effective use of its resources," he said, "we are always asking ourselves, "Do we have the right mixture of specialists?" Representatives were selected from each smaller group to attend a regional meeting in Cedar City on March 12. From that meeting several will be selected to attend a state meeting April 12-13 on the USU campus where they will once again go through the same problems-needs identification process with representatives from all over the state. aH " 'HaH Stephanie Olsen |
