Mahoning Farm Bureau to close Canfield office

Staff report

CANFIELD

The Mahoning County Farm Bureau’s central office in Canfield will close at the end of this week, and services will be shifted to a centralized office in Orwell, about 50 miles north, beginning today.

The move is part of a broader effort by the Ohio Farm Bureau to regionalize offices and cut costs, a process that began about four years ago.

The Mahoning County office will be rolled into the Ohio Farm Bureau Federation, where its members will receive services and funding on a state-level basis.

Farm-bureau offices provide a host of localized services, including lending advice, resource management and other agricultural assistance to more than 225,000 members statewide.

Further necessitating the move was the retirement of Pearl Burlingame, longtime director of the Mahoning County Farm Bureau, and the retirement of her administrative assistant, Sally Anderson.

No plans were made to fill the positions, and with the county’s fiscal year concluding this week, farm-bureau officials saw an appropriate window to move the office, Anderson said.

Services for Mahoning’s 998 active members now will be handled by the Orwell office, which also serves Lake, Geauga, Ashtabula and Trumbull counties, said Ty Kellogg, who will serve all five counties as organization director.

“County farm-bureau offices were seeing little to no foot traffic; most service was being provided by telephone, email or on the Internet — technology changed things,” said Brian Peach, senior director of field operations for the Ohio Farm Bureau.

Peach said services will not be cut for Mahoning County as a result of the office’s relocating, and its local board will remain.

Now that Mahoning will be under the management of a regional director, it will be required to pay only a small portion of salary costs, leaving more money for programs that help farmers, Peach said.

The Orwell office will serve between 16,000 and 17,000 members, with only three full-time employees.

This is cause for concern among those who worked closely with the Mahoning office.

“I feel it’s a huge loss to the local agricultural community,” said Richard S. Scarsella, chairman of the board of supervisors for the Mahoning County Soil and Water Conservation Department. “There’s always been a farm-bureau office here — it’s a huge paradigm shift — and I’m concerned the level of services will diminish,” he added.

Scarsella said the move is especially disconcerting when one considers this summer’s drought and the undue pressure it’s putting on Ohio farmers.

When asked how the new Orwell office will deal with the spike in membership, Kellogg said his office had anticipated the addition and is prepared.

“The level of expertise working in this office is just tremendous,” he said. “From a director’s standpoint, the bureau has been executing better planning and greater efficiencies in its regional efforts.”