HONESDALE, PA — Operating locally in 67 counties and reaching out from Penn State University, “I’ll bet the [Penn State] Extension [Office] touches more lives in Pennsylvania than any other agency,” Wayne County Commissioner Wendell Kay suggested last week.

Kay spoke as the commissioners’ panel issued a certificate of recognition in celebration of the extension’s 100th anniversary of Wayne County operations. The extension’s first effort was the Wayne County Farm Bureau, which held its first meeting on April 12, 1919.

Today, the extension offers programs and expertise that touch on the management of almost every aspect of agricultural interests, from the business end of farm management to the home interest with Master Gardeners’ program, water quality and food safety, commercial livestock and crop interests, land and soil management. The breadth of extension interests has been highlighted in Wayne annually at Ag and Dairy Day since 1941.

Wayne County’s youth outreach through 4-H is one of the largest in the state, said spokesman Stephen Alessi,area client relations manager. Jessica Scull, 4-H educator, said Wayne 4-H includes 300 members, with 70 leaders.

Youth participants have logged over 7,000 hours of community service and the 4-H livestock sale is one of the largest in the Commonwealth, according to the certificate of recognition. Further, “…increasing resources and expertise provided in conjunction with PSU for educational programs, technology support and program management have made Penn State Extension in Wayne County an invaluable resource and partner in the continued development of agriculture as a viable industry….”

For more about the extension’s wide array of services visit the website, www.bit.ly/wayneextension, or call 570/253-5970, ext. 4110.

In other business, the commissioners re-appointed former Commissioner Anthony Herzog to a new three-year term as the Wayne business sector representative to the Pocono Counties Workforce Development Board, approved a personal location monitoring (SCRAM) agreement with Vigilnet to provide units for the Wayne County Correctional Facility for $9.85/per unit, and approved letters of support for PA Department of Community Economic Development (DCED) grants to Damascus Township for recreation park development and Lacawac Sanctuary for environmental education center development.