There are no immediate plans to fill the Family and Consumer Sciences Extension position, members of the Adair County Extension district board learned last week.
Anna Porter, district director through the University of Kentucky College of Agriculture, Food and Environment, attended the meeting to discuss the opening of the position left vacant after Kelli Bonifer resigned.

Porter said there is no definitive timeline for when the position would be filled and she is hopeful there would be more answers around the beginning of the year.
Porter did say that another county in her district has had an FCS position open for more than two years.
She explained that there was a previous stopgap program that the extension services used years ago in the case of a waitlist for filling positions where a county would pay a sum of money to be submitted to the University of Kentucky to start the hiring process and pay the individual until the university could begin paying them.

This program no longer exists, however, and the counties who have been waiting longer to fill positions will have those filled before Adair County.
One of the other issues with getting the FCS position filled is the lack of qualified applicants, says Porter.

Porter explained that they look for applicants with degrees such as dietetics, merchandising, design or childcare and evaluate the educational program that the applicant went through to see if the curriculum taught is fitting with FCS requirements.

DISTRICT SETS TAX RATE
The Adair County Extension district board set taxes at the compensating rate for the current fiscal year.

The real property tax is 6.043 cents per $100 of assessed value, up from 5.65 cents. Personal property is at 10.1313 cents and motor vehicle and watercraft is set at 2.9 cents, equaling in a net income estimated at $438,627.89.

AGENTS DISCUSS STORAGE BUILDING
Agents Tony Rose and Nick Roy proposed the idea of building a new storage building next to the extension office, which would replace the two storage units currently in use.
The proposed building would have four garage doors and would ideally be used to house large items such as a corn planter, 4-H trailer, vans, etc.
Roy said it would be smarter to spend money on a new and better building rather than eventually updating the current storage buildings that aren’t as functional.
The board agreed to hold off on any more decisions regarding the building until the beginning of the year after they speak with Porter about the hiring of an FCS agent.
Ben Loy is chairman of the district board. Other board members in attendance were Terry Partin, Amy Thompson-Wells, Joe Rogers, Jane Reed and County Judge Executive Gale Cowan. In addition to Rose, Roy and Porter, staff member Teresa Bright attended the meeting.

By Anna Buckman
anna@adairvoice.com