The Times - Serving Waitsburg, Dayton and the Touchet Valley

DAYTON—In late March, the Columbia County Commissioners met with WSU Extension Agent Paul Carter, who presented 2017 annual report. “It’s a bleak picture,” Carter said about cuts to WSU’s budgets, and possible regionalization of extension agents.

Columbia County could lose its local extension agent if regionalization of services is put in place by WSU, said Carter. In that case one agent could be serving several counties remotely, Carter said.

He said that despite the uncertain future, “It has been a pretty good year. We focus on the needs of the community, Ag, 4-H, food preserv...