State budget cuts are hitting home. The Anchorage and Sitka offices of the University of Alaska Cooperative Extension Service are slated for closure by the end of October. UAF spokesperson Marmion Grimes said the closures reflect severe reductions in state funding.
“The cooperative extension service statewide, needs to cut about a million dollars from its budget next year,” Grimes said. You know, like other units throughout the university, they are looking a a pretty steep reduction in state funding.”
Grimes said about twelve people in the Anchorage office and one person in Sitka will either be laid off or may be able to be transferred to other vacant positions in the state.
“We’re still working out the details of how, where they are going to be located and how that is going to work,” Grimes said.
She said the popular 4H program in Anchorage will most likely continue, since the 4H agents in the Anchorage area can be supported by the Palmer and Soldotna offices.
Grimes said that of the twelve Cooperative Extension offices in the state, only two will be shuttered. She said the Extension offers most of its information on line now, and many of its courses are offered via web conference.
APTI Reporter-Producer Ellen Lockyer started her radio career in the late 1980s, after a stint at bush Alaska weekly newspapers, the Copper Valley Views and the Cordova Times. When the Exxon Valdez ran aground in Prince William Sound, Valdez Public Radio station KCHU needed a reporter, and Ellen picked up the microphone.
Since then, she has literally traveled the length of the state, from Attu to Eagle and from Barrow to Juneau, covering Alaska stories on the ground for the AK show, Alaska News Nightly, the Alaska Morning News and for Anchorage public radio station, KSKA
elockyer (at) alaskapublic (dot) org | 907.550.8446 | About Ellen
