PUTNAM

IRON MOUNTAIN — Dickinson County Board may schedule a meeting soon to hear a pitch from a Michigan State University Extension official on how to keep its Iron Mountain office open, although Chairman Dan Harrington says he won’t participate.

“My plan is to let it die,” Harrington said at a county board meeting Monday.

The relationship between the county and MSU Extension has been unresolved since the board’s vote in January to remove $81,000 in Extension funding from the 2025 county budget.

In March, over Harrington’s objections, the board agreed to have a meeting with Extension District Director Paul Putnam to discuss the 4-H youth program and other Extension services. The parties so far been unable to set a date.

Putnam informed commissioners Monday that a decision is needed by the end of July on whether the county will give support to Extension services. Otherwise, he said, MSU will no longer be able to provide a full-time 4-H coordinator with an office at Bay College’s Iron Mountain campus.

The county since 2023 has provided enough funding to allow Jessica Ice to fill the 4-H position full-time. The Extension has also expanded offerings from regional educators in other areas, such as agriculture, health and nutrition, natural resources, community and family.

Putnam said the 4-H position might be salvaged as part-time, but he’s hopeful that with at least 50% support from the county the Extension office can be fully retained. Other community partners would be asked to help make that possible, he said.

“In the absence of county funding, we’ll have to shut down the office,” he said.

Commissioner Joe Stevens pressed Monday to schedule a discussion, but the board was unable to come up with a date without conflicts. Harrington was dismissive, saying, “I’m not going to waste my time. You can waste yours.”

Stevens is the only returning board member from 2024, when a county budget that included Extension funding was approved. The other four commissioners were newly elected in November and seated Jan. 1.

It was Harrington who immediately proposed the funding elimination, citing voter rejection of MSU millage referendums in May 2015 and August 2016. In response to the board’s move, a number of citizens have since voiced support for the Extension and 4-H, while others have backed the funding cut.

Challenged during a February meeting about the funding decision, Harrington described 4-H as “a woke, crazy organization” and the Extension services agreement as “the rich stealing from the poor taxpayers of the county.”

The county ended Extension funding after the millage defeats but resumed it in 2022 and provided $75,000 in both 2023 and 2024. The money is drawn from the county’s share of adult-use marijuana state tax distributions, which totaled $177,259 in 2024 and rose to $232,915 this year. State and federal funding is the Extension’s main support, but counties help pay for programming to fit specific needs.

Extension community educator Libby Hansen began working from the Iron Mountain office in May 2024 on nutrition initiatives in Dickinson and Iron counties. That position may now be in jeopardy as a result of funding cuts in the One Big Beautiful Bill Act signed into law earlier this month by President Trump.

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Jim Anderson can be reached at 906-774-2772, ext. 85226, or janderson@ironmountaindailynews.com.