WestNileVirus-L: Merrill's Monday Morning Memo

From: Deena Haines <deh8_at_cornell.edu>
Date: July 31 2000

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Merrillâs Monday Morning Memo 
July 31, 2000 
 
Dear Colleagues, 
 
     Have you ever talked on the radio (been
interviewed or had a program) and then wondered if anybody was out there
listening?  In view of the time of year that weâre in, Iâm having
that feeling this morning.  With this being prime vacation time and
all, I rather imagine that many of you wonât see this for a couple of
weeks.  Thatâs terrific!  Hope that you find your time away to
be refreshing and invigorating.  For those of us who are at our
desks this morning, Lets take a look at the week: 
 
1.  Welcome Cathann!  - Tomorrow morning, Cathann Kress
begins her new role as Assistant Director for 4-H Youth
Development.  I am delighted!  When I sat down to write this
MMMM, I clicked on what I thought was the file with my notes for this
edition. Instead, I brought up my MMMM from one year ago.  The lead
story?  The search for a new 4-H Youth Development Director. 
Iâm so glad to be on this side of that process!  
 
     Cathann holds a doctorate in Counseling
Education-College Student Development from The University of Iowa. 
She previously served as a youth and family violence prevention
specialist, an assistant professor, a staff counselor at a student
center, and as the director of a counseling laboratory for career
development. She has done academic counseling for women's college
athletes, alcohol and drug education programming, completed a chaplain
residency in clinical pastoral education, and directed a girl's
leadership camp, among many other jobs.  She has obviously done them
well--having won an Iowa State University Extension Achievement Award in
1996 and an Iowa State University New Professional Award in 1997. 
 
     I want to thank the search committee, co-chaired
by Angela Warner (4-H program leader for Schenectady County) and Terry
Gifford (CER for the Capital district), for a job well done!  Please
join me in welcoming Cathann to CCE! 
 
2.  Frank Flavin: CER for the North Country - We are pleased
to announce that Frank Flavin has accepted the role of Cornell Extension
Representative for northern New York  (affectionately referred to as
The North Country).   He will begin this new assignment
October 1st.  For the last several years, Frank has served as
Executive Director for Cornell Cooperative Extension of St. Lawrence
County.  In this role Frank organized the move of CCE of the St.
Lawrence County association to the former SUNY farm at Canton.  He
was a member of a team that received an Epsilon Sigma Phi award for
leadership during the North Country ice storm disaster.  
 
      His academic background includes a B.S. in
wildlife management from the University of Alaska-Fairbanks and a JD from
the University of Colorado School of Law.  He previously served as
Executive Director for the Alaska Commission on Judicial Conduct; he
subsequently became Alaska's first State Ombudsman.  As CER, he will
serve as the Director of Extension's representative to CCE boards in St.
Lawrence, Franklin, Clinton, Essex, Washington, Warren, and Hamilton
counties.  This means that in conjunction with the respective chairs
of the association boards, he will co-supervise the CCE Executive
Directors in this region.  He will be based in Saranac Lake, the
geographical center of this group of counties.  Frank, we look
forward to working with you in this new capacity! 
 
3.  Introducing Marilyn Smith - Coming all the way
from Utah, Marilyn Smith has accepted the position of Executive Director
in the Fulton-Montgomery Association.  She begins her new assignment
on August 25.  Marilyn will lead an Association that has been
experiencing change. 
 
    The Association wants to re-energize its programming
and related funding, consolidate its two offices into one, and build new
relationships with county government, with Cornell, and with community
organizations.  They searched for a Director with a democratic
style, strong people skills, and solid financial management
abilities.  Marilyn fit the bill.  She has successfully handled
high level management assignments with two county governments and a
county library system.  She earned a Master of Public Administration
degree from the University of Utah and has been teaching a local
government course at Weber State University.  Her Bachelor's degree
from Weber State focused on political science and urban/regional
planning.  The Board was impressed with her solid leadership
philosophy and her skill in connecting with others.  Marilyn,
welcome to Cornell Cooperative Extension and to New York State! 
 
4.  Federal appropriations - The House and Senate both began
their August recess today.   This leaves Agriculture
Appropriations Bill resolution until at least mid-September.  The
Senate selected the members of the Agricultural Appropriates Subcommittee
as its conferees; the House (which has not yet done so) is expected to do
the same. The House language eliminates funding for the Initiative for
Future Agriculture and Food Systems and the Fund for Rural America. 
Meanwhile, Senate and House conferees agreed to provide a $2.7-billion
increase (this is not a misprint) for the National Institutes of
Health.  Go figure. 
 
5.  EPA audit  - Allison Truelsen (CCE Compliance Review
Manager, Financial & Human Resources) will send some very important
from EPA information, as well as a self-audit checklist to each
association later this week.  The documents will help inform you as
to the issues that the EPA will examine during a compliance review. 
We expect that Cornell University will be audited this year; several CCE
associations are likely to be included as well.  Compliance with
both state and federal regulations is extremely important so I urge you
to read these materials carefully and work through the checklist. 
(Failure to do so could be very expensive!  As some universities
have painfully learned, EPA is not messing around so we take this very
seriously.) 
 
6.  Extension/State Parks as partners -  Had an
interesting conversation with Kermit Graf (Executive Director,
Suffolk) last week in which we talked about state parks.  Did you
know that New York has the largest state parks system in the
country?  Can you believe that we have nearly 300 of them?! 
Over 30 are historic sites as well as parkland.  Like CCE, parks are
found in every county.  Like CCE, state parks have limited resources
but serve a large, broad-based constituency.  Both CCE and the NY
State Department of Parks and Recreation and Historic Preservation and
Cornell Cooperative Extension care deeply about horticulture, families,
and community-based programs. Therein lies a vast opportunity for
Extension Educators. 
 
     On Long Island, Cornell Cooperative Extension
and the state parks have teamed up in a number of productive ways. The
Bayard Cutting State Park provides free space for CCEâs West End
Horticulture Diagnostic lab and an IPM educator. This includes phone
service and all local support. It also provides space for regional
Extension in-service programs, horticulture programs, Master Gardener
graduations, and the like. In return CCE provides training for park staff
and has created specialty educational gardens such as our new weed garden
for visitors to the park. 
 
     At Caumsett State Park, Master gardeners assist
with the restoration of the walled gardens; our 4-H Youth Development
Program is discussing the possibility of providing animal science, and
other science-based programs for the Huntington Schools through a
cooperative effort with the Caumsett Foundation Inc. This collaborative
effort would help re-establish an agricultural presence at what had been
the Marshall Field Estate and home of one of the East Coastâs premier
Guernsey herds. Both the Nassau & Suffolk Associations have a long
history of cooperative programs with Planting Fields Arboretum and the
friends group there. We have participated in the various flower
shows and Master Gardeners have had a significant presence there 
 
   I was interested to see how these collaborative efforts have
expanded the visibility and resources of Cornell Cooperative Extension
and helped us serve new audiences we might not otherwise reach. 
With the potential of significant new resources coming to New York State
parks there is a great opportunity to share in mutually beneficial
ways.   
 
 7.  The buzz - NYS IPM has already distributed
about 30,000 copies of the What's all the buzz about mosquitoes? 
brochure. The balance is going so fast that Mike Hoffman (IPM
Director) indicated to me that we will have to do a third printing
soon.  To those of you who created this brochure, good work! 
Itâs excellent! 
 
8.  West Nile Virus - Speaking of the buzz, all sorts
of things are happening on the "West Nile Virus front:ä 
 
     (a)   WNV-positive birds and
mosquitoes have been found in all areas where WNV was present last year,
as well as in previously unaffected areas of NY-- and as far away as
Boston. 
 
     (b) New mosquitos - WNV has been detected in a
new species of mosquito (Aedes japonicus), a recent immigrant to
the US.  These mosquitoes breed in artificial containers (old tires,
birdbaths, etc.) and possibly in natural habitats.  They glue their
eggs to the sides of containers so emptying containers is not enough
since the eggs will hang tight until water collects again. (Diabolical
little creatures, arenât they?!)  Birdbaths and other containers
must therefore be periodically scrubbed, and puddling places kept dry.
 
 
     (c) Spraying - As WNV continues to spread, we
are likely to see increased use of pesticides and probably public
outrage, as people recognize another source of potential risk. While
decisions about the use of pesticides for vector control in NYS are made
on the county level, they are influenced by recommendations from state
and federal agencies.  (For example, despite new CDC recommendations
to use mosquito adulticides within a 2-mile radius of places where
WNV-positive birds or mosquitoes are found, Nassau County, NY, and Bergen
County, NJ, have maintained their stance not to do so unless WNV-positive
mosquitoes are detected in these counties.)  Controversy around
use/non-use of mosquito adulticides is creating quite a stir in the
NYC-area! 
 
      What to do?  Educators
and officials in "previously unaffected" areas, Lois Levitan
suggests, should perhaps become more proactively engaged in prevention
and education to eliminate mosquito-breeding sites and to reduce public
risk from mosquito bites and possible pesticide exposure.  Also
strengthen networks of communication and collaboration among local
agencies and organizations (e.g., engage bird clubs in bird
surveillance, alert tire dealers and construction companies to the
potential hazards of their debris, etc.).  People with political
muscle might significantly reduce risk in their localities by organizing
tire collection and shredding campaigns.  Columbia County, for
example, eliminated the nominal $3 tire collection fee and as a result,
coupled with a public health outreach campaign, received thousands of
tires that were then shredded.  (Note that simply collecting tires
and moving them to another place without shredding could aid in spreading
West Nile Virus-infected mosquitoes!)  
 
     To receive current updates and more complete
information, join the WESTNILEVIRUS-L listserv or regularly check the
listserv archives on the ERAP West Nile Virus webpage
(http://www.cfe.cornell.edu/risk).
Educational materials, resources and action points are also at this
site. 
 
9.  CCE/Cornell on PBS  - If you reside in the WCNY-TV
(PBS) broadcast area be sure to tune in on Friday, August 4 between 9
a.m. and 10:00 a.m. to catch the "Unique New York" segment of a
program called "Upstate Morning. "  They will air a short
feature about Cornell Cooperative Extension and Cornell University. 
Producers at WCNY utilize many of our educators as subject matter experts
for their productions so were intrigued by the historical significance of
CCE and its connection to Cornell University.  
 
     Some of the people consulted as part of this
production include: Elaine Engst (Director of University Archives), Angi
Faiks (Mann Library, Eileen Keating (Records Management, Kroch Library),
Scott Peters (Department of Education), and Gould Coleman (Former
Director of the Archives).  The filming included places like the
A.D. White Library, Rare Manuscript Collection (Kroch Library), the A.D.
White House, Minns Garden, and other campus locations.  Other
various shots of the campus were also taken.  Liberty Hyde Bailey,
Anna Comstock, Ezra Cornell, Martha Van Rennselaer, Ruby Green Smith, and
Andrew D. White figure in the story. 
 
     I hope that those of you in WNCYâs viewing area
will watch the telecast! 
 
10.  Corporate Time - Those of us working in Extension
Administration in Roberts Hall just went onto a new calendaring program
called Corporate Time. Our colleagues in MVR have been on it for quite
some time.  A very powerful tool that weâre learning how to use,
Corporate Time has become the Cornell standard calendaring program so
will also be available for association staff as well. (It is available to
all CU faculty and staff.) The client software can be downloaded from
Bear Access if the user has the Admin Preview section installed. Due to
its size (approx 3 MB) it will probably be disseminated to associations
through the use of CDs (as we do with other software updates). The
accounts will reside on the CIT server here on campus so using Corporate
Time would require real time connectivity (to allow staff outside the
association to view and develop schedules with other staff). 
 
     The downside, Craig Trowbridge (ETG) suggests,
is that to use it, association staff will need to connect on-line to
update schedules or cross schedule, similar concept to sending /
receiving email. The software is easy to install.  Though it can
work in a dial-up mode, it may not be that useful if it is not convenient
at the association level but we want to alert you that it is
available.   We can offer the service with some caveats as a
test/demo/trial program.  Craig will put out some additional
information about this to associations during the next couple of
weeks. 
 
11.  Fur and Feathers - Thatâs the name of a 50-60
member 4-H Club in Tompkins County.  I stopped by the Tompkins
County 4-H fair a couple of times over the weekend--including to eat a
breakfast of blueberry pancakes on Saturday morning.  Had a
delightful conversation with Dianne Walter, a volunteer leader for 22
years with the Fur and Feathers 4-H Club.  Sue Fisher
had told me about the vision, commitment, and passion that Dianne brings
to this club.  I saw it for myself on Saturday.  I find myself
energized by meetings with CCE volunteers; talking with people like
Dianne reminds me of what we are all about.  (By the way, Dianneâs
daughter, Heather, served as a 4-H youth development educator in Oswego
before going on maternity leave.  Some of you will also know her
husband, Mike, who is the chair of ABEN at Cornell.) 
 
12. This week - Looks like a pretty normal week coming up, with
the usual number of meetings and the like. Hope to take in a fair or two
but will see what the week brings. Today is actually the day that many
people in our system (particularly some of the women, if I interpret my
e-mail correctly) have been dreading; itâs the first NFL football game of
the season.  Iâm going to try and avoid saying much about football
this year (unless, of course, the Vikings unexpectedly have a winning
season).  Having the football gene is such a burden·. 
 
Enjoy the week! 
 
Merrill 
 
 
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Received on Mon Jul 31 09:52:07 2000