Oversight of FSA efforts change in Butler, Wayne counties

Efforts are being made to consolidate the elective areas in Butler and Wayne counties that are under county committees for the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Farm Service Agency.

These areas oversee the FSA programs for the counties. This includes programs such as COVID-19 relief assistance that went to farmers and ranchers due to market interruptions in recent months, as well as farm subsidy programs and disaster assistance programs for those impacted by severe weather events such as drought.

There are currently three of these local administrative areas in Wayne County and the plan would be to go to two, said Aaron Sandlin, executive director for Butler County and Wayne Farm Service Agencies.

The proposed new boundary would be a line running north and south along Highway 67, Sandlin said. This would in turn split the county and have a person on the west half of the county and another on the east half of the county.

Sandlin explained, “they serve on our county committee, and the county committee administers USDA programs to the farmers and ranchers. So any time we have a new program that comes out, we get applications in, they’re responsible for reviewing them, approving them or allowing me to approve them as the office manager. So technically, they oversee all of the programs that we administer here at FSA.”

This change would allow for fair representation for agricultural producers on the committee from all types of agriculture in the county, Sandlin said.

Each person is elected to three-year terms and one of the three in Wayne County “will be up for election this year,” Sandlin said. “So part one of the new areas will have an election this year. The other one, the way I understand it, will hold a transitional election. So essentially, even though you have a member there, they’ll essentially rerun for their spot in what they called transitional elections.”

Information is being submitted to the state committee, who will put the matter out for public comment before a plan is approved, he said.“Our normal election schedule is we take nominations, mostly through the summer months, but it usually ends Aug. 1,” he said.

The ballots are usually mailed the first of November, then the election is held usually the first week of December.

“I always encourage everybody that if they’re willing and interested, we’ve got certain criteria for being on the committee. I always invite everybody to contact me and I’m more than willing to talk about the committee or talk about them serving on the committee if they’re eligible for it.,” Sandlin said.

Submit comments by calling Sandlin at 573-785-8416, extension 2, or by emailing aaron.sandlin@usda.gov.