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USDA Announces Closure Of Molino Office As Part Of National Cutbacks
January 10, 2012
The U.S. Department of Agriculture will close its Escambia County office along with 258 other offices, facilities and labs across the country, U.S. Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack said Monday.
The Farm Service Agency Office in Molino is the only North Escambia area office on the closure list. The Santa Rosa County office in Milton and the Escambia County (Ala.) Office in Brewton will remain open.
“The USDA, like families and businesses across the country, cannot continue to operate like we did 50 years ago,” said Vilsack. “We must innovate, modernize, and be better stewards of the taxpayers’ dollars. We must build on the record accomplishments of farm communities in 2011 with a stronger, more effective USDA in 2012 and beyond.”
Many of the offices slated for closure, Vilsack said, have a very small staff and are located within 20 miles of other USDA offices. In other cases, he said, technology improvements, advanced service centers, and broadband service have reduced some need for brick and mortar facilities.
“The Department is finding significant savings by consolidating more than 200 offices across the country while ensuring that the vital services they provide are not cut,” Vice President Joe Biden said in a prepared statement.
Across the country there will be 131 Farm Service Agency county offices in 32 states consolidated, leaving more than 2,100 open in the United States.
The USDA’s complete plan announced Monday is estimated to save the department about $150 million annually.
Comments
9 Responses to “USDA Announces Closure Of Molino Office As Part Of National Cutbacks”
Amazing, when I read so much here about one billion here, one hundred thousand THERE BEING SPENT with all the things they ARE PURCHASING, BUILDING, DRAFTING AND RE-PAVING.
SO MANY PEOPLE BEING PUT OUT OF WORK, WHILE SO MANY UPGRADES
BEING BOUGHT AND DONE…..LIKE THEY THINK WE ARE WEALTHY.
@Wondering….
you hit the nail on the head, but I don’t think ANY ONE will stop TAKING
from the funds, or spending of the funds until this country has been
sucked dry, AND THAT GOES DOUBLE FOR ESCAMBIA COUNTY
WITH THEIR LETS GET OURS ATTITUDE.
IF THIS COUNTRY GAVE ONE WHIP FOR THEIR CHILDREN THEY WOULD
NOT BE SO EAGER TO PUT THEM IN THIS KIND OF DEBT.
Responding to Farmers Feed Alabama, what you stated in your comments is not correct. The two criteria they used for closing the offices is 1.) is it within twenty miles of another office. YES it is. 2.) how many employees did it have. Molino has two employees presently doing the work of four people. Mrs. Serviss retired in September, and we have been asking for a replacement for her along with another staff person (whom we have been asking for, for years.) to get the staffing back up to adequate. If the Gov. had not had a hiring freeze for the past many milineums, we would have had the staffing and Escambia Co’s Office would not have even been on the list. The northwest Florida offices do much more workload than South Florida because of row cropping which is the major time consumer of the staff. Those programs take a lot of work, especially with all the government red tape.
No one is against the government trying to save money and consolidating, but the Escambia office is not the place to start with. There will be a public meeting at a later date to be announced to air any concerns/comments on this issue. And there will be a lot of opposition from the local ag community in closing this office. They are a valuable service to the local farmers.
It is a shame we don’t have money for the USDA but we have billions for Pakistan Afghanistan and other countries just to give away.
Only problem is, they will find a way to waste it some where else. We really need to stop spending and really save some. More hope and change.
When USDA looks at office closures, the first thing they look at is workload for that county and is there another county office within a 20 mile radius. The farmers will get the option to transfer their farms to the closest office located to them. We hate to see any FSA Offices go; however with the budget cutbacks many smaller offices had to close.
“We must build on the record accomplishments of farm communities in 2011 with a stronger, more effective USDA in 2012 and beyond.”
So Molino is not producing enough through its farming community and we lose the Molino USDA office?
This is a good thing. I am we are slowly closing and consolidating offices. I do hope unnecessary post offices will be next. Several come to mind in Escambia county Florida alone.
Good. Much more cutting needs to be done.
As usual, Molino suffers along with the rest of Escambia County. This County is getting more and more depressed.