SWCD director appeals to officials for funding
YOUNGSTOWN — The director of the Mahoning Soil and Water Conservation District asked the Mahoning County commissioners not to forget her agency in their ongoing deliberations concerning the county budget.
Kathi Vrable-Bryan, executive director of the soil-and-water agency, made her plea Thursday as the commissioners allocated $42,883 to SWCD in Youngstown and $113,516 to the Ohio State University Extension Office in Canfield from the last remaining monies in the county’s community-development fund.
Vrable-Bryan thanked the commissioners for the money they gave her agency but said that sum is insufficient to keep her office functioning.
“I know that judges and courts and jails are important, but so is the quality of life,” she said, urging support for her agency, which promotes soil and water conservation and the prevention of soil erosion and water pollution. “We do this on a shoestring budget,” she added.
“We’re in the same dilemma that we were last year. Unfortunately, the jail tends to drive the rest of the general-fund budget,” said George J. Tablack, county administrator. About 68 percent of the county’s general fund goes to judicial and law enforcement functions.
SWCD, whose office is at 850 Industrial Road, has only about $32,000 in reserve monies, Vrable-Bryan said.
If the commissioners allocate no county general-fund money to her agency this year, she said she may have to lay off the agency’s three other employees and become its sole staff member.
“I’m going to have to desperately look around for some grants or some other source of funding in order to keep my doors open. At this point, I don’t know if anything is available,” she said.
County general-fund allocations to SWCD were $153,377 in 2008 and $85,000 in 2009, for a 45 percent reduction.
SWCD is funded by a combination of county, state and federal monies. It’s total operating expenses were $262,000 in 2009.
The county is operating under a temporary general fund budget while the commissioners and their staff work on a permanent budget for this year. The general fund is the county’s main operating fund.