Four officers were elected during the Montgomery County Extension Council organizational meeting held Jan. 18th. The nine-member council annually elects officers to comply with Iowa law. Joe Jardon, of Red Oak, is the re-elected chairperson. Jardon will preside at all meetings of the extension council, have authority to call special meetings and perform duties performed and exercised by a chairperson of a board of directors of a corporation. Mike Olson, of Red Oak, was elected vice chairperson.

Darcy Dalton, of Villisca, was elected secretary; and has the responsibility of keeping the minutes of all extension council meetings and signing required papers for the council. The council elected Bill Drey, of Red Oak, to the treasurer position. The treasurer receives, deposits, has charge of all of the funds of the extension council, and pays and disburses funds. The treasurer insures an accurate record of receipts and disbursements and submits reports to the extension council.

The council is the county governing body of Iowa State University Extension and Outreach. They hire county staff, manages the county extension budget of approximately $366,000, and helps determine programming. In partnership with Iowa State University Extension and Outreach, the council provides educational opportunities that bring university resources to the needs of the county and region. Local extension programs include 4-H, after school programs, Master Gardeners, and Powerful Tools for Caregivers

The Montgomery County Extension office is located in Red Oak.

Poultry producers in Iowa are on high alert as an outbreak of avian influenza is being dealt with in Indiana. At least ten turkey farms in a single Indiana county are reported infected. T-J Myers, an administrator at the U-S-D-A’s Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service, says the outbreaks appears to be contained. “There’s been a lot of good work to increase our preparatory efforts at the federal side, the state side and the industry side,” Myers says. “Industry and poultry producers have been doing a lot to strengthen their biosecurity so we are hopeful that as we respond very quickly to this virus that we can get it contained.”

The Indiana situation is being closely monitored and Myers says the agency is not calling for vaccinations. “Our vaccination policy is to only use it if we feel that it would be an important adjunct to our stamping out policy,” he says. “At this point, we are not looking to do any sort of vaccination.” While the bird flu outbreak appears to have spread to multiple farms in Indiana, they are all in close proximity within one county and officials believe the spread has been halted.

Given that, vaccinations shouldn’t be needed. “That’s something that we would only use if we felt that it was necessary to assist us in containing a spreading virus,” Myers says, “which we are not looking at right now.” A total of 77 poultry operations in Iowa had bird flu outbreaks last spring and more than 31-million chickens and turkeys were wiped out in Iowa, which was by far the worst-hit state.

Losses in Iowa alone from the outbreak may total one-billion dollars. No new cases of bird flu have been reported in Iowa since last June and the final quarantine was lifted on December 1st.

(Radio Iowa)