August 19, 2017 - The Texas A&M Shelby County Extension Office is celebrating a fresh beginning with their new and spacious facility now located at 266 Nacogdoches Street in Center.
Agency staff are very excited about the prospect of being able to host so many events at the location which once would have been held at a variety of other venues. This was due to lack of available space at their former office location where they were for around 14 years.
Just recently the broiler show workshop was held there and the 4-H Kickoff is soon to be there as well.
Extension agents Jheri-Lynn McSwain and Lane Dunn agree the facility is very user friendly and are looking forward to holding 4-H meetings there, which will be held on the first Monday of every month with the exception of holidays. The building was once the old Center Elementary School library and plans for the Extension Office using the building have been in the works for several years.
"We're very, very blessed that the judge and commissioners saw fit to help us in Extension and 4-H," said Dunn.
Dunn and McSwain are very thankful to the Shelby County Commissioners and Judge in providing them the opportunity to use the new location and feel the commissioners see value in what they offer the youth.
"I think this shows how important youth are to them and how important they think that the programs that are going on and that these kids get to do are successful," said Dunn.
"They went above and beyond, this is phenomenal," said McSwain. "We've had some agents come through from neighboring counties and the same comment, 'y'all have got the best setup of anybody in the district,' we just keep hearing that over and have received."
The kitchen and main meeting/project room have already been put to good use as classes for canning, cooking and sewing have been hosted in that part of the building. Dunn added Dance Furniture helped the Extension Service to get two ovens, a dishwasher and refrigerator.
For larger programs they look forward to holding events in the gymnasium. The gym will be used during the poultry festival for the creative arts show which has traditionally been held in the historic courthouse; however, the gym will afford a great deal more room for the show. McSwain said entries were limited in 2016 because there just wasn't enough room to house all entries.
Dunn attributes the majority of the decorating of the premises to McSwain's talented handiwork.
"Jheri-Lynn has done all of the decorating, she's got the masters touch at all of that," said Dunn.
What formerly were library shelves McSwain turned into project display areas that illustrate the different skills offered through 4-H.
"One of our visions for this was to be able to give someone a visual tour of 4-H," said McSwain.
She described during the summer a man brought his children to the cooking camp and were very interested in what projects are offered by 4-H and now the agents have that additional illustrative tool in their reach providing visual examples of these exciting, fun and useful skills.
Shelby County's civic organizations are welcome to contact the Agrilife Extension office should they desire to use space at the gym for meetings as the agents know what it can be like at times having to seek out a place to meet.
The facility has new table and chairs where they are able currently to seat around 50 people very comfortably.
"For civic organizations, if they're interested and they need a meeting room then they're more than welcome to call us about the gym," said Dunn.
The remainder of the old Center Elementary School campus is utilized by Tri-County Community Action and Head Start in furtherance of that original purpose of education. The Agrilife Extension is also a part of the grounds expanding the use of the old school as an education center.
Texas A&M Shelby County Extension Office is located just west of the Center square on Nacogdoches Street where the old Center Elementary School was once located.
For more information contact the Extension office at 936-598-7744.
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