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by Joe Cornely

Farm Service Agency (FSA) offices in Erie, Lorain, Pike and Warren counties are being merged into neighboring counties. The consolidations are necessary to improve Ohio’s overall efficiency in delivering FSA services to farmers, according to state executive director Larry Adams.

"We’d rather we didn’t have to do this, but today you can’t pick up a newspaper without reading how township, county, state and federal governments are all trying to manage their budgets," he said. "Our goal is to give our producers the best service we can with the money we have available," he said.

Under the consolidation plan, Erie county farmers will be served by the Huron County office; Lorain countians will work through the Medina/Cuyahoga office located in Medina County; Pike’s operations move to Scioto County, and the Warren office will merge with the Butler/Hamilton service center in Butler County. All county consolidations will take place within the next 12 months.

In each case, the affected office had undergone a reduction in its workload, according to Adams. Pike County will be impacted by the tobacco buyout; urbanization has reduced farm program participation in the other counties.

The consolidation plan went through a three-step approval process. Endorsing the plan were the state FSA committee, Ohio’s Food and Agricultural Council (executives from FSA, Natural Resource Conservation Service, Ag Statistics Service, Rural Development and Office of Inspector General) and the National Food and Agricultural Council in Washington, D.C. which approved the plan on Dec. 23, 2004.

Ohio Farm Bureau Executive Vice President Jack Fisher acknowledged the difficult decisions that had to be made. "I’m sure no one wanted to see offices closed, but FSA is being told to cut expenses. That’s tough to do and still maintain service. I think Director Adams and the state committee did their job as well as they could."

When the current mergers are completed, Ohio will have 69 offices serving the state’s 88 counties.