Lane County Extension Service has limped along since 2008 on funding reserves and donations.

Those funds now have run out, said Steve Dodrill, staff chair for the service.

Unless Lane County voters approve a local taxing district measure in the May 18 election, the county extension service will close this summer, he said.

Ballot Measure 20-158 would provide the service with $1.2 million a year for the next five years. It would cost property taxpayers 5 cents per $1,000 assessed value, or $5 a year for a home valued at $100,000.

If approved, the service will be able to continue and some programs that have been cut in recent years will be revived, Dodrill said.

Without it, Lane County extension agents will be re-assigned and support staff will lose their jobs, said John Crosiar, chair of Save Lane Extension. Also, Crosiar said, Lane County 4-H would cease to exist and 650 trained volunteers would disband.

The Lane County Extension Service, like those in Polk and other Oregon counties, has struggled to survive under reduced local financial support in recent years.

Many Oregon counties have cut general fund support for extension in response to reduced timber revenues. County timber revenues have dropped sharply the last two decades due to a reduction in harvest on federal lands triggered in part by efforts to protect northern spotted owl habitat.

Lane County commissioners in recent years have provided the extension service free rent and building services valued at about $76,000 a year. Support staff has been paid out of carryover funds and donations, Dodrill said.

-- Mitch Lies