Cornell Cooperative Extensions, a  boon to farmers, horticulturists, weekend gardeners, 4-H Clubs and other a host of educational programs, are dealing with budget cuts the best way they can.
Katherine Scholl, Cornell University”™s state extension specialist in Ithaca, said state and county budgets are shrinking contributions to the program; as a result, CCEs must also adjust to the rocky economic terrain.
“We want to provide programming in all counties ”“ we currently have offices in nearly 60 counties, but many are struggling in these challenging financial times,” Scholl said. What Cornell is proposing is that the extensions have shared program networks in the counties. “We are hoping to reduce some administrative overhead by regionalizing business centers. Historically, we have had regional agricultural teams, but as county funding gets more challenging, the idea that a CCE in each county can be all things to all people may not be realistic.”
Cornell is not seeking to close any offices, just to  combine services wherever possible.
“Depending on how much money the county gives the program, the state will match some of the dollars, but not all,” Scholl said. “The county is the lynchpin. If we don”™t have enough county support, we”™ll still provide program coverage, but we”™ll consolidate some of the services of our programs and create a type of ”˜travel team”™ that will respond where needed.”
Paul Trader, executive director for the CCE in Rockland and executive director of the Center for Non-Profits, his Stony Point-based extension has launched a capital campaign to build a new home on the grounds of Rockland Community College. It hopes to achieve its financial goal of $4 million and move to the campus by 2014.
“We are also working to create a consolidated CCE program between Rockland, Westchester and Orange counties; it might  possibly include Long Island,” Trader said. “Dutchess Sullivan, Ulster, Putnam, Greene and Columbia counties would be in the mid-Hudson CCE consolidated program headed by Linda Keech. We are all dealing with the process of reorganizing,” said Trader. Keech could not be reached for comment at press time.
Barbara Sacks, executive director of Westchester”™s CCE in Valhalla, said Cornell”™s extension program is more than just a resource for weekend gardeners ”“ it is also an integral part of the county”™s business community, particularly landscape designers and horticulturalists.
“We have a master gardener who donates over 9,000 hours to us,” Sacks said. “We”™ve also trained 191 teachers from several districts around the county to create gardens at their schools and paired them with a master gardener mentor. That program alone impacted more than 12,000 students last year.”
Westchester”™s CCE offers a nutrition program to low-income residents, which Sacks says has been successful in helping those on fixed incomes in all age groups to plan better meals, eat healthier and help control diabetes, obesity and other health-related issues. “We had 608 adults, representing 2,000 family members, in our 2010 program, and 491 of them completed our entire series and ”˜graduated”™ from the nutrition program,” Sacks said. “This is a positive for Westchester by helping reduce costs to the Medicaid program, because people are learning to change their lifestyle and eating habits and reduce health-related expenses as a result.”
Westchester, like its mid-Hudson counterparts, has seen its budget shrink and its staff  grow smaller. “We are down to 18 people from 30,” she said. “We understand we are in a financial crisis … at the same time, we”™re doing what we can to continue to provide needed services to the thousands of people who participate in the CCE programs.”
Trader said a recent grant from KeyBank for $5,000 will be spent for training classes for boards of directors for nonprofits. The first class begins Tuesday, March 15. To register, contact Trader at rocklandcce.org and click on “nonprofit sustainability.” For more information, contact Paul Trader at pwt2@cornell.edu, or 845-429-7085 ext. 107.
“We serve 11,000 people in Rockland each year,” Trader said. “We know that times are extremely tough for our counties, and all of us are trying to provide and continue our programming without anyone being affected,” Trader told the Rockland Business Association in 2010. “If consolidation and combining shared services is the way we can continue, we”™ll do whatever we have to do to keep providing the vital services and programs to the communities we serve.”