Illinois Extension trims budget, reorganizes - Alma Gaul, QC Times

The University of Illinois Extension service — the folks behind 4-H, Master Gardeners, family nutrition programs and a host of other initiatives — is being reorganized in an effort to trim $4 million to $7 million from its statewide budget. An immediate cost savings will be in the consolidation of county offices, reducing the number from the current 76 — because services in some of Illinois’ 102 counties already are merged — to no more than 30. That would eliminate 46 director and secretarial positions and possibly others, as well as the cost of running the offices.