Program Impacts
Economic Development
Lincoln County Extension greatly assisted in the economic development of a wide variety of new county agricultural-related enterprises, which included a 1,500-acre vineyard & future winery in Hiko. Lincoln County Extension helped build a mentorship between the budding vineyard and the Sanders Family Winery in Pahrump. This resulted in a successful harvest, de-stemming & grape crushing operation, and experimental wine-making venture. Our office also assisted in helping the vineyard receive approximately $15,000 in grant monies through the USDA. Providing research on the budding wine industry - concerning our neighbors to the east in Utah—to the Lincoln County Commissioners, Lincoln County Extension helped to demonstrate to county officials the significant impact that wineries can have on tourism, which helped pave the way for their approval of the first ever winemaker’s license in Lincoln County.
Lincoln County Extension also assisted in the development of a CBD hemp growing operation in Pahranagat Valley, providing soil quality and weed control advice, and helped to build a partnership between that operation and experts in cannabis growing technology from the UNR Horticulture Group.
Likewise, Lincoln County Extension tirelessly assisted with the development of a (future USDA-inspected) meat harvesting and processing plant in Alamo. Traveling to Reno, Lincoln County Extension helped build partnerships for their operation with Wolf Pack Meats. Later, Lincoln County Extension worked with the Lincoln County Regional Development Authority to seek grants to cover the costs of supplying an adequate electrical and water line to where the meat harvesting & processing plant will break ground as the first commercial operation on the long-awaited Alamo Industrial Site.
Similarly, Lincoln County Extension is working to create a co-op between various cannabis growers in the county, as well as between the Hiko vineyard owner and a new table grapes farm that is being established.
Lincoln County Extension also paved the way for a horticultural retail plant resale operation to start operations by researching the state laws involving interstate and intrastate movement of ornamental plants and crop starters. That operation now successfully sells plants at the Caliente Farmer’s Market, and throughout various other portions of Lincoln County.
Working in conjunction with the Lincoln County Authority on Tourism, Lincoln County Extension initiated a “Welcome Wagon” program to welcome new businesses that establish themselves in Lincoln County. The LCAT Welcome Wagon conducts grand opening ribbon-cutting ceremonies for such enterprises, supplies them with a wealth of helpful county information, and sends photos and a press release to the Lincoln County Record newspaper to help promote their budding business.
As of 2020, in collaboration with Lincoln County Extension efforts, Lincoln County now offers over 40 miles of mountain bike trails. Caliente offers a Mountain Biking Skills Park that provides two miles of training for all skill levels. Just four miles outside of Caliente, one arrives at Barnes Canyon with its already completed 13.1-mile section of mountain bike trails, and where at least another 11 miles of trails are under construction to connect the canyon with downtown Spring Street. Also currently under development, the BLM is building a 24-mile trail off the summit of Ella Mountain to Spring Street to eventually connect with the trails coming from Kershaw-Ryan State Park. Still in the planning stages is a 40-mile trail system on Highland Peak, close to Panaca and Pioche; and possibly a future trail system connecting Crystal Springs to Alamo. When these ambitious projects are completed, Lincoln County may well take the title of the Mountain Biking Capital of Nevada. The grand opening of “Tacos Sonora” during the highly successful 2020 Lincoln County Fair & Rodeo in August.
4-H
Lincoln County has 14 prospering 4-H clubs with 18 volunteers for a total of 91 active 4-H members, ages 5 to 17, within those clubs. Completed 4-H projects that were entered into the 2020 Lincoln County Fair amounted to 58 entries. Overall, our Lincoln County 4-H program worked with fully 11.4% of the total population of youth in Lincoln County, ages 5 to 17, throughout 2020. The popular SNAP-ED program, “Produce Pick of the Month” class reached 52 students in the 2nd and 3rd grades from Caliente Elementary and Panaca Elementary schools.
Lincoln County Extension’s avid promotion of Radon safety education, held during the Radon awareness months of January & February in 2020, resulted in approximately 100 households participating in home Radon testing. This amount of community involvement represented a ten-fold increase in the participation rate compared to previous years. Articles were written and published by Lincoln County Extension on Radon awareness and Radon mitigation procedures, and the topic was lectured on by Lincoln County Extension at many city council and county commissioner’s meetings.
Public safety awareness, by Lincoln County Extension, also included articles and presentations of numerous talks during public meetings concerning the identification of dangerous poison hemlock and water hemlock infestations in mid-Spring and early Summer months.
Radon Education
Lincoln County Extension’s avid promotion of Radon safety education, held during the Radon awareness months of January & February in 2020, resulted in approximately 100 households participating in home Radon testing. This amount of community involvement represented a ten-fold increase in the participation rate compared to previous years. Articles were written and published by Lincoln County Extension on Radon awareness and Radon mitigation procedures, and the topic was lectured on by Lincoln County Extension at many city council and county commissioner’s meetings.
Health & Community Development
Originally, in the summer of 2019, we were solely doing “Little Books, Little Cooks (LBLC),”in Caliente and Alamo, with an average of 4 children in Alamo and 6 in Caliente, along with their parents. With the establishment of a year-round Community Based Instructor position, we began going into the schools to also incorporate the “Healthy Kids Early Start (HKES)” program grew to two classes per day in Alamo with 10 students in the morning and 12 students in the afternoon completed 7 weeks of programming there before the COVID-19 restrictions took effect.
According to pre- and post-assessments, all the school children enjoyed the classes and showed improved motor skills. HKES programming was started but had to be abandoned after week 3, due to the Governor’s necessary stay-at-home mandate.
Our Extension collaboration with Lincoln County Regional Development Authority (LCRDA), Lincoln County Authority on Tourism (LCAT), Caliente Mountain Biking Association (CAMBA), Bureau of Land Management, and Nevada State Parks builds the basis for outdoor recreation development, and has contributed to the building of over 40 miles of mountain bike trails at present… and is continually growing.
Fiscal Year 2019 - 2020
Summary
$164,853 - Total Revenue
$104,796 - Total Expenses
$15,932 - Total Balance
